Racial Legacies and Learning: An American Dialogue
A Selected Reading List

This reading list provides an array of popular and scholarly sources that can help you better understand America's racial legacies and future opportunities for reconciliation. Here are some ways you might take advantage of this list:

• Invite your colleagues to participate in a "brown bag lunch" series of discussions in your workplace.
• Convene a multiracial group comprising members of your faith commu-nity and others in your community.
• Initiate a book group or incorporate one or more of these books into your ongoing book group.
• Write an op-ed or letter-to-the-editor encouraging others to do these things as well.

In prose and poetry, Anzaldþa examines the experience of being caught between two cultures and feeling alien in both. She looks at the history of the Southwest and the contemporary condition of illegal and legal immigration in a style that forces the reader to recognize the multicultural and multilingual realities of contemporary society.

Banks, Russell. Cloudsplitter. New York: HarperCollins, 1998.

This ambitious novel is narrated by Owen Brown, son of John Brown-leader of the raid on Harper's Ferry and author of the most radical plan to free the slaves. In Cloudsplitter, Banks recreates the political and social landscape of the years preceding the Civil War and in the process raises important questions about the enduring cost of race and slavery in America.

Bell, Derrick, Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism. New York: Basic Books, 1992.

In this collection of reflective pieces, dialogic narratives, and historical fables, Bell explores the persistence of racism in determining the social and economic condition of African Americans. He argues that racism is so ingrained in American culture and history that no matter what African Americans might do to better themselves, racism will not abate in America until whites begin to see their own well-being linked to the elimination of racism from the culture.

Bragg, Rick. All Over But the Shoutin'. New York: Pantheon Books, 1997.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Rick Bragg delivers a moving memoir about growing up poor and white in the South. It is the story of a violent, war-haunted, alcoholic father and a strong-willed, loving mother who struggles to protect her three sons from the effects of poverty and ignorance. Bragg testifies with great compassion, dignity, and humility to the power of poverty to deform lives.

Dyson, Michael Eric. Race Rules: Navigating the Color Line. New York: Vintage Books, 1997.

In turns humorous and controversial, Dyson attempts to illuminate the invisible rules governing relations between and within races. Written by an academic with an interest in the street, these essays cover rap music, African American sexuality, and the persistence of race in public life.

Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine. New and expanded edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1993.

In her best-known novel, Erdrich tells the story of two Native American families. Mostly through the eyes of the women of the families, the author recounts the difficult decisions faced by several generations of family members as they choose to stay or leave the reservation.

Golden, Marita and Susan Shreve, eds. Skin Deep: Black Women & White Women Write About Race. New York: Anchor, 1996.

Skin Deep brings together twenty essays and stories by prominent writers focusing on racial issues between African American and white women-issues such as self-identity, child-rearing, friendship, and the struggle for equality. The editors hope these pieces will help the reader "both see and see beyond race," so that the issue of race in "our children's generation will be, in fact, skin deep."

Ignatiev, Noel. How the Irish Became White. New York: Routledge, 1996.

Ignatiev explores the history of Irish immigrants, their precarious social status, and the vehicles by which they secured a place in a racist America: unions, the Catholic Church, and the Democratic Party. He also examines the role of Irish Americans in the wave of anti-Negro violence in the 1830s and 1840s.

Isaacs, Harold. Idols of the Tribe: Group Identity and Political Change. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989.

Originally published in 1975, Idols of the Tribe has become a classic text on global pluralism and ethnicity. Isaacs studies the relationship between group identity and political change and explores the implications of what he sees as "a convulsive ingathering of people in their numberless groupings of kinds-tribal, racial, linguistic, religious, national." The task facing Americans today, he suggests, is to imagine a new pluralism "in which human beings may be able to live with one another in some more satisfying and mutually satisfactory way."

Kotlowitz, Alex. The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death, and America's Dilemma. Garden City: Doubleday, 1998.

Kotlowitz investigates the mysterious death of an African American teenager in Southern Michigan and produces a study of a racially polarized nation in microcosm. The author vividly captures the voices of those who live in two towns, St. Joseph and Benton Harbor-towns separated by race, a river, and mutual suspicion.

Lee, Chang-rae. Native Speaker. New York: Riverhead Books, 1995.

Native Speaker is both a tense political thriller and a deeply moving examination of the complexity of Korean American immigrant life. Henry Park, a spy sent to infiltrate the organization of a successful Korean American politician, wrestles with his sense of identity, culture, family, and language as he searches for genuine connection in his life.

Lerner, Michael, and Cornel West. Jews and Blacks: A Dialogue on Race, Religion, and Culture in America. Plume, 1996.

Though the alliance between African Americans and Jews was once the cornerstone of liberal politics, today there are those in each community who see their former ally as a serious opponent. In Jews and Blacks, West and Lerner explore some of the most pressing problems in contemporary America through the prism of the relationship between their two communities.

Liu, Eric. The Accidental Asian: Notes from a Native Speaker. New York: Random House, 1998.

In this powerful memoir, Liu offers a provocative vision of American identity. Liu doesn't know whether to embrace, resist, or redefine assimilation-and ends up doing all three at once. He speaks candidly about his journey from a fierce pursuit of racelessness to a slow rapprochement with race. Liu is an "accidental Asian"-someone who has stumbled upon a sense of race, who is not always sure what to do with it.

Marks, Paula Mitchell. In a Barren Land: American Indian Dispossession and Survival. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1998.

In this panoramic history of the interactions between American Indians and white settlers/invaders, Marks brings together the most recent scholarship of the West to retell a grim tale of dispossession, betrayal, and survival. In her clear narrative, she manages to both convey a massive amount of information and capture the voices of her subjects.

McBride, James. The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother. New York: Riverhead Books, 1997.

The author's mother, Ruth McBride Jordan, was the daughter of a Polish rabbi. She immigrated to the United States, was raised in Virginia, fled her family and faith, and moved to New York City where she met and married an African American man. Battling racism and poverty, Jordan raised twelve highly-educated and successful children. In telling her remarkable story-and his own-McBride addresses racial identity with compassion and insight.

Minatoya, Lydia. Talking to High Monks in the Snow: An Asian American Odyssey. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.

Born, raised, and educated in the United States, Minatoya found her life to be one of ethnic isolation. In her autobiography, she tells the story of her search for greater self-knowledge by exploring her family history while working and traveling in Japan.

Morrison, Toni. Beloved: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 1987.

In this profoundly moving novel set in the aftermath of the Civil War, Morrison's hero struggles to cope with the horrible legacy of her past as a slave. This intensely personal drama speaks to the larger issue of a nation struggling to come to terms with its history.

Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 1994.

In this ambitious book of sociological theory, the authors explore how concepts of race are created and change. Rather than being fixed, they argue, race is "an unstable . . . complex of social meanings constantly being transformed by political struggle." Today's racial situation is "messy," they assert, because "it is the product of a vast historical legacy of structural inequality and invidious racial representation."

Rayborn, Patricia. My First White Friend: Confessions on Race, Love, and Forgiveness. New York: Penguin Books, 1996.

Part diary, part memoir, part social commentary, My First White Friend records the author's race-driven impulses and her journey toward self-discovery. In a remarkably candid voice, Rayborn draws the reader into her story. "I stopped hating white people on purpose about a year ago. I didn't tell anybody. I couldn't. If I did, I would have to explain how I started hating in the first place. And I really didn't know then myself."

Rodriguez, Richard. Hunger of Memory. New York: Bantam Books, 1983.

In a memoir that eloquently speaks to the importance of language in the creation of identity, Rodriguez describes the advantages of his education and subsequent assimilation. His assimilation, however, came at a high personal cost-profound loneliness, alienation from his parents, his Mexican American heritage, and his cultural identity.

Sanchez, George. Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity, Culture and Identity in Chicano L.A. 1900-1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Sanchez examines the evolving relationship between ethnicity and identity among Mexican Americans in Los Angeles. He focuses on immigration to the city from 1900 to 1945, exploring the process by which immigrants shifted their status to permanent resident thus laying the foundation for a new Mexican American culture.

Shipler, David K. A Country of Strangers: Blacks and Whites in America. New York: Knopf, 1997.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Shipler returned from overseas and embarked on a five-year "journey along the color line," in an effort to trace the "landscape where blacks and whites find mutual encounters." Focusing on "ordinary" Americans, Shipler depicts the perseverance of racism, but also chronicles the actions of many people- black and white-who continually try to bring racial justice to their lives.

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit: Essays on Native American Life Today. New York: Touchstone Books, 1997.

In this collection of essays, novelist Silko explores the role of language and storytelling in Native American culture, the links between the people of the Southwest and the land, and the United States government's racist treatment of Native Americans. Passionate and defiant, Silko's work is a mix of pride in her heritage and anger over racial injustice.

Suskind, Ron. A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League. New York: Broadway Books, 1998.

Cedric Jennings, a talented African American teenager from the toughest high school in Washington, DC, struggles to succeed at Brown University. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind eloquently describes the challenges Cedric faces in his quest for academic achievement and follows Cedric as he adapts to his new surroundings by mediating between the inherited and the chosen, yet "unseen," parts of his life.

Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1993.

Takaki's pathbreaking survey of American history seeks to correct past scholarship in which America has been defined too narrowly. Takaki synthesizes recent literature on the histories of groups previously ignored in American history such as Chicanos, Asian Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, Jewish immigrants, and Irish Americans, thereby creating a more complex portrait of the United States. The product of this synthesis is a history of the United States where race, class, and gender are shown to have been central in shaping people's access to and attitudes toward American citizenship and inclusion.

Takaki, Ronald. Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans. New York: Penguin, 1990.

Blending personal recollection with traditional narrative history and oral history, Takaki produces a sweeping survey of the diverse history of Asian American immigration into America. Strangers from a Different Shore also details the patterns of discrimination, prejudice, and economic exploitation that each wave of immigrants met-a pattern established when the first Chinese immigrants were constructed as a racially subordinated group and played against other racial groups.

Tatum, Beverly Daniel. 'Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?': And Other Conversations About Race. New York: Basic Books, 1997.

The author, a clinical psychologist, argues that everyone has a racial identity and must strive to affirm it. For people of color this affirmation requires construction of an identity free from the negative stereotypes of a racist society. For whites, it requires an awareness of racial privilege and a commitment to justice. If we want to communicate across racial and ethnic lines, Tatum suggests, we need to talk about our racial identities-whatever they may be. Tatum's work also provides a well-researched list of readings appropriate for young readers.

Taylor, Charles. Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition. Edited and introduced by Amy Gutmann. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.

In the principal essay in this volume, Taylor identifies the intellectual roots of a politics of recognition which has become central to a sense of dignity as well as to meaningful participation in political, social, and cultural dialogue. Respect for diverse perspectives, according to Taylor, requires a presumption that other cultures possess some things worthy of admiration, even if accompanied by things we might reject. The collection also includes commentaries by K. Anthony Appiah, J»rgen Habermas, Steven C. Rockefeller, Michael Walzer, and Susan Wolf.

West, Cornel. Race Matters. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993.

In this collection of essays, West examines the effects of racial hierarchy in America and seeks to move America toward a more genuine multicultural democracy. He addresses such controversial topics as the new African American conservatism, African American-Jewish relations, and myths about African American sexuality. He attempts to "establish a new framework [that] . . . acknowledges the basic humanness and Americanness of each of us." He warns of the effects of a pervasive lack of honesty especially about economic strife in America and suggests that "If we go down, we go down together."