To successfully teach about Black history, race and racism, and Black experiences, it is critical to first educate yourself.
Here are 5 of our top recommendations for books to start your learning journey.
If you are interested in purchasing these books, we encourage you to follow the link for each book to A Different Booklist, a Black-owned independent Toronto bookstore.
The Booklist
1. The Skin We’re In by Desmond Cole
Toronto-based activist and journalist Desmond Cole documents the struggle against racism in Canada during a single year, 2017. He outlines the impact of systemic racism on the Black community and on himself.
The experience of Parents of Black Children founding member and board member Charline Grant is used as a illustrative example of the way anti-Black racism operates in schools.
2. How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
In this New York Times bestselling book, Kendi details how it is not enough to merely be “not racist”, but that we all have a duty to work to become “anti-racist.”
Through the lens of both personal experiences and historical events, Kendi outlines how racism truly operate, how it impacts all of us, and how we can begin to change our actions and mindsets in order to build an anti-racist world.
3. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Each chapter in “So You Want to Talk About Race” takes common questions in discussions about racism and race relations (including affirmative action, cultural appropriateion, police brutality, and more) and provides personal perspective, historical context, and advice for how to address these issues in a meaningful way.
4. Policing Black Lives by Robyn Maynard
From a Canadian context, Maynard explores the role of state violence from past to present, illustrating the violence of anti-Blackness that plagues Canada to this day.
5. Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada edited by Rodney Diverlus, Sandy Hudson, and Syrus Marcus Ware
A collection of writers from some of Canada’s most prominent activists, journalists, and thinkers, Until We Are Free explores the most critical issues facing the Black Community in Canada.