Books like Learning to Be White by Thandeka

Between the World and Me is a memoir‑essay in letter form, where Ta‑Nehisi Coates addresses his teenage son about the history, violence, and ongoing reality of being Black in America.

Ibram X. Kendi’s *How to Be an Antiracist* explains racism as a powerful system that creates false hierarchies and offers a guide—drawing on ethics, history, law, and science—to help readers confront and dismantle racial injustice in society and themselves.

Ijeoma Oluo’s guide gives Americans—and people of color—clear, practical tools to discuss race, privilege, police brutality, and micro‑aggressions, making the complex racial landscape accessible and actionable for all readers.

bell hooks’ essays in Black Looks critique traditional narratives, interrogating how blackness, race, and gender are represented in media and culture, urging readers to rethink spectatorship and the politics of representation.

Robert Jensen challenges white Americans to confront their own role in racial injustice, blending personal insight with research to expose how white privilege sustains inequality.

Iron Cages examines 19th‑century white American attitudes toward Asians, Blacks, Mexicans, and Native Americans, analyzing the foundations of race, culture, and social conditions in the United States.

Explores how the United States has defined and redefined race, showing how immigrant groups have been reshaped into the nation’s racial categories over time.

Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum warns of America’s underreported resegregation and argues that schools can bridge racial divides, offering insights into curriculum representation, unconscious biases, and cross‑racial friendships to improve educational equity.

A historian examines the racial classifications of white people in the United States during the 18th century, revealing the tenuous nature of racial identity.

How real is race? What is biological fact, what is fiction, and where does culture enter? What do we mean by a “colorblind” or “postracial” society, or when we say that race is a “social construction”? If race is an invention, can we eliminate it? This book, now in its second edition, employs an activity-oriented approach to address these questions and engage readers in unraveling—and rethinking—the contradictory messages we so often hear about race. The authors systematically cover the myth of race as biology and the reality of race as a cultural invention, drawing on biocultural and cross-cultural perspectives. They then extend the discussion to hot-button issues that arise in tandem with the concept of race, such as educational inequalities; slurs and racialized labels; and interracial relationships. In so doing, they shed light on the intricate, dynamic interplay among race, culture, and biology.

A personal study of how racial privilege shapes the everyday lives of white Americans.

Explores the overlooked plight of poor whites in the United States, examining how race, class, and policy shape their experiences and the pejorative label of "white trash."

In the 1850s, as Minnesota Territory was reaching toward statehood, settlers from the eastern United States moved in, carrying rigid perceptions of race and culture into a community built by people of many backgrounds who relied on each other for survival. History professor William Green unearths the untold stories of African Americans and contrasts their experiences with those of Indians, mixed bloods, and Irish Catholics. He demonstrates how a government built on the ideals of liberty and equality denied the rights to vote, run for office, and serve on a jury to free men fully engaged in the lives of their respective communities. -- publisher description.