 Hello friends. So in this video I'm going to be recommending to you non-fiction books about race that I've read and I'm also going to be giving shoutouts to some of my favourite black booktubers to try and introduce you to them. There's a few things I want to say before we get into the video. I saw a tweet and I believe it was from the author of So You Want to Talk About Race and they said something along the lines of I'm really happy to see a lot of people reading my book. However, if you read my book and think you understand racism, you are not understanding what is happening. This is not a one-and-done situation. You are not going to read one of these books that I'm recommending and understand race. This is a pursuit of trying to educate yourself and trying to be the best ally that you can. I'm only going to really address what I'm saying to allies because I can't speak for black people. I am obviously white and so I'm trying to address this to allies who want to educate themselves and you are never going to be fully educated. As a white person you do not have the lived experience of a black person and so you can read so many books and try to educate yourself as much as you can but you're never going to be fully educated on the situation and that's just something you have to accept that you can read around the situation very broadly and try to do your best. Secondly, do not just go and subscribe to these booktubers I recommend to make yourself feel better. Do not just go and subscribe and say well that's enough activism for me today. It doesn't work like that. You need to make a concerted effort to make sure you have black booktubers in your auto watch, the people that you watch straight away, the people's videos you love. You need to go to these black booktubers and watch their content and comment and like. I've seen a lot of black booktubers saying recently how their subscriber number has gone up dramatically, but their views haven't. They have barely gained any views in relation to the amount of subscribers they're gaining. Do not treat these people as a checkbox exercise. Do not say well now I have subscribed to some more black booktubers, so that's better. No, go on their videos, watch them straight away or add them to your watch later or make a playlist and watch their content. Do not just go and click subscribe. Otherwise, you're really not doing this right. Also, before we get into it, please, please, please go and click on all the links down below that I'm going to be linking. There is the Black Lives Matter card, which I've been promoting a lot because I think it has a lot of great resources in one place. It has places for you to donate. It has lots and lots of petitions for you to sign. There are so many petitions that aren't on there, so make sure you're looking out on Twitter when people post a petition. I know Esme has a thread that she's made of petitions, which I will also link. Take 20 minutes out of your day and sign all those petitions on that card, the very least. That is the very least you can do. I'm not going to speak on it too much, but there was the whole blackout Tuesday trend yesterday for me two days ago for you. And to see that have more posts than George Floyd's petition, has signatures, is shocking. Don't engage with performative self-gratifying action. Engage in action that's going to bring about change. Please donate if you can. You've probably heard the Minnesota Freedom Fund is the one that a lot of people have mentioned when donating, but they are now pretty much overwhelmed with donations in a really positive way. And they are asking that you donate to other places so you can donate to George Floyd's family directly. You can donate to organizations such as the Black Vision Collective. If you can't donate, and I know not everyone is in the economic position to donate, then there are YouTube videos and I will link some down below where all the ad sense is going to black organizations that, for example, are funding protesters bail, are supporting families with funeral costs, are supporting the protesters with supplies, etc. So I'll link that if you're not able to donate directly. Now I've said all that, I think let's get into the books. So the first book I want to recommend is one that hasn't been actually spoken about loads and that is Natives by Akala. So this is very focused on the UK and Europe, obviously I live in the UK. And you see a lot of people say, well, racism isn't as bad in the UK as the US. And I agree that there are certain forces in the US and certain political movements that have targeted and discriminated against black people in a way that we haven't necessarily had a mirror of that in the UK. I would really recommend going and watching the documentary 13th on Netflix. I watched it last night and it is shocking, it is anger inducing and it basically shows how in the US they moved from slavery to mass incarceration and it is just a way to imprison black people, to take away rights from black people. And politician after politician has supported this and upheld this institutional racism and this, or something that is worse than institutional racism, it's like, it's slavery in the modern form. I would really recommend going and watching it, but at the same time there is a massive history of terrible, terrible targeting against black people in the UK and of colonialism, where Britain is the worst for invading other people's countries and claiming them as their own and stuff like that. So I think natives is an incredibly important, important book. So it basically follows the effects of the history of colonialism in the UK and Europe and how that has entrenched racism in our societies today. It's also partly autobiographical, if you are not looking to read at the one which I don't know why you wouldn't, but Akala is a brilliant public speaker and I would recommend you go and watch some of his speeches at the very least. But in this he talks about moments, for example, where he realised for the first time that his mum was white and what that difference was between them and how they were treated differently because of that and how limited the resources for young black boys are in the UK. He talks about when he grew up surrounded by inequality and learning what inequality means. He also looks at kind of celebrities and public black figures in order to be successful, having to fit into a white mold. So he looks at how a lot of the black celebrities that we see in the UK that people love are often because they don't speak out about racism. It's often because they adopt the white acceptability of the society around them. So much of this was so eye-opening and I loved it. And when you read it you realise the UK and the US are not that different. They're not different and anyone who tells you that they are is in denial. So if you're from the UK or Europe or if you're from anywhere, if you're from anywhere and you want to learn about just how deeply rooted the racism is in connection with colonialism, it can all be tied in together and how these young black boys have been forced into poverty, have been forced into the lower social classes and have no options available to them. This book is brilliant and I think it's a great starting point. It's very accessible. He writes in a super accessible way. So the first black booktuber I want to recommend that you have to go subscribe and watch is Simone from Chasing Pages. Simone was one of the first people to talk to me back in the day. She's one of my auto watch booktubers. Simone and I just have to watch every single video of hers. I recently hosted a readathon with her for the Girl of Fire and Thorn series and it was just so much fun to hear her opinions on everything. I love her reading vlogs, just some really really great reading vlogs. I also love her book calls and Simone just has such a calming energy. You know, I think that's the great thing about booktube is that you have all of these booktubers with different energies. Like you have someone that are chaotic, you have some that are serious, you have some that are funny and then you have some that are just so calming to watch and so relaxing and Simone is definitely one of them. I love her content. I love her. She is one of the sweetest people I've met on booktube. So the next book I want to recommend is Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Renny Edo Lodge. This is a book I've seen a lot of people recommend and I think for good reason because it is a great introduction into non-fiction about race if you haven't read around that before. I want to talk quickly about a criticism I see of this book and some people say oh it's too angry. Oh it's a too angrier book. I saw that a lot on Goodreads when I looked at some of the reviews and it should be angry and I think at this moment more than ever we need to recognise how important the anger is and how everyone should be so angry. I don't think it was like an angry book that's just people playing I think into the trope of Black women as angry but I think it's a very very passionate book that I think should evoke a lot of feelings in us that we should be feeling now. So this is again a UK author. I remember Stephen Lawrence's case is spoken a lot about in this book and how long it took Faze Kindness to be brought to justice. If you don't know about Stephen Lawrence's case regardless of where you live in the world please look it up. It was a shocking indictment of the UK justice system that Black people are viewed as not deserving of justice, of not deserving of being respected after they die. And I think this book is very important in emphasising to us allies. I've seen I've seen white people on Twitter going to Black Book Tubers. Can you give me Black Book recommendations? Can you tell me why this is a bad thing? Can you tell me why this exists? Black people do not owe you anything. It is exhausting day in and day out for them to be explaining racism to you and the whole point of reading books like these and what I hope to do by making this video is to elevate that pressure off of Black people because you cannot, Google exists, Google exists and you cannot expect these people to educate you when you need to educate yourself and this book shows how exhausting it is to be a Black person in somewhere like the UK or America where you are constantly having to explain the situation to people who should be looking to understand the situation themselves. So the next Black Book Tuber I want to recommend is Ella's Novellas. She is a relatively new Book Tuber and she's someone I've been loving watching recently. She again, similar to Simone, I think has quite a calming energy. I love her voice. I haven't told her this. She's just the type of person where you're just going to be smiling throughout the whole video and just like so happy. She just makes me feel very happy. She has a new TBR game called TBR Cluedo which, excuse me, she is a woman after my own heart. That's been really fun to watch and if you like TBR games then definitely go check those out. I watched a book haul of hers the other day and I just wanted to buy every single thing that she mentioned so definitely go sub to her if you enjoy TBR games, if you enjoy people with a calming energy and if you enjoy people with nice voices. The next three books from now on that I'm going to be recommending are books that have written from the Black feminist perspective. It's important that we remember that Black feminism is kind of a movement of its own because feminism too often forgets Black women, forgets what their needs are that are different and Black lives matter unfortunately from you know a lot of commentators say that Black lives matter too often forgets Black women. It was started by Black women. The movement was started by three Black women which I don't think is very known but they are often not supported. Again it's often very focused on Black men. We see so many Black women hardly get any media coverage at all. Brianna Taylor is someone who is being spoken about now in association with George Floyd but I did some research for a university project I was doing and there was no media article or TV package or anything in America written about her in the two weeks after her death. I don't know how long that spans. I was only looking at two week periods of my research but there was not one thing written about her in the two weeks after her death and it shows how close we were to her being entirely forgotten. Black women are the most in my opinion discriminated group in society because they are doubly discriminated against for their race and their gender. In terms of like if you want a more scholarly approach two people whose stuff I've used a lot in my research recently are Patricia Hill Collins so I haven't read a book of hers in her entirety. I've read like essay articles and I read chapters but I read from Black feminist thought knowledge consciousness and the politics of empowerment. If you want this is a lot more scholarly approach it's a lot more in depth it's not as accessible as books like this but if you're wanting to change yourself in Black feminism that's a great one. Also Kimberly Crenshaw I read an article by her called demarginizing the intersection of race and sex a Black feminist critique of anti-discrimination doctrine feminist theory anti-racist politics so those two Patricia Hill Collins and Kimberly Crenshaw are two really really two of the most influential scholars when it comes to Black feminism and so if you're looking for that kind of more academic perspective those are two that I would direct you towards but they're not books physical books or audio books that I've read it's stuff I've read for my studies but they're brilliant and I really really recommend them they they have some really interesting and educating and important thoughts so that's kind of a separate recommendation but the next book I'm going to recommend is Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay. This book is split into sections which is gender and sexuality which isn't as I guess relevant to what I'm talking about oh my gosh I love her writing I think if you are looking to educate yourself on a Black woman's experience in America this is the perfect thing to be reading it's a collection of essays that Roxanne Gay has written and I found it's so eye-opening I feel like a lot of the books that we talk about and I often recommend it are often ones that have a lot of statistics in them and what this book does so well is it's just it's her personal experience and it's so refreshing and so enlightening I found one of my essays was the one on the help both the book and the movie she talks about how problematic the portrayals of Black women are in that and I never knew that I do own the book I bought it for like 50p at a used bookstore but I'm now going to be unhauling because she's explained to me how problematic this portrayal is from a white woman as well the author is a white woman also these are section on the morality of Tyler Perry's work which I found super super interesting Roxanne Gay's writing manages to be incredibly educating and entertaining at the same time and she manages to really cut the court what it's like to live as a black woman if you don't follow her on Twitter go follow her now I'll try to remember to link that as well I loved this book and I really recommend reading it so the next black picture I want to recommend is Chanel our queen Chanel's energy is unmatched no one does it like her no one does it like her she constantly comes out with the most creative funny content that just makes me love so much and I'm I'm so appreciative that she's on booktube she is just the funniest with her energy she does a great job of being really funny in her videos but also being very thoughtful in her discussion at the same time and I know a lot of people love her but I couldn't not shout her out because she is definitely one of my favorite booktubers and someone I admire so much again I haven't told her this she's someone I admire a lot and who I think about a lot when I think like how do I want to conduct myself on booktube or something like that I think she's incredible and if you're not subscribed to her I'd be very surprised if you weren't but if you're not it's a must so the next book I want to recommend I read it's an audiobook and it is how we get free black feminism in the Kumbahi River Collective so the Kumbahi River Collective was a group of radical black feminists in the 60s and 70s who enacted real change in their work and this is talking to four of the women who were kind of the heads of the organization and speaking to them about their experiences I never knew about the Kumbahi River Collective and now I know about their work I'm seeing them everywhere I see their influences everywhere and so if you want to learn about the history of the civil rights movement and of how black feminists were so influential during that period I would really recommend this audiobook it's really fascinating to learn about these women's lives the forces that shaped them how they joined this group and what they did within this group I just think like learning about these women and this organization should be like mandatory and the fact that I never knew about them beforehand is really really sad the one thing I would say my one critique of this book is that I think maybe read it physically the ebook is also on script and I just wish I had read it as an ebook or as a physical book not an audiobook because it's just for interviews essentially with these women and I think sometimes I would have preferred maybe a chronological approach or something because I did sometimes get lost in the interviews and where we were in terms of what the other woman had said in the course of the collective but maybe this is kind of a book you want to read alongside researching the collective independently which I think I'm going to do I'm going to try and find a lot more resources on the collective but again I think they're just something that isn't spoken about enough but I what I think is so important about this is that it really gives the women the voice in the book you know it's not someone else writing about them they have the voice and the authority in this audiobook to talk about their experiences I would really really recommend it because I think it's just so eye-opening what these women did and what they stood for the next back book to you but I want to recommend is jasmine oh I love jasmine I've like seen jasmine getting some recognition lately in the past few days I've seen a lot of people speaking about jasmine and I'm like finally sis is getting what she deserves she is a sweetheart she is one of the most kind loving like she is the epitome of a cinnamon roll person she's the kind of person you meet and I haven't met her but I've watched her a lot and you think she just has the purest heart like she doesn't have a bad bone in her body her videos just cheer me up jasmine someone I go to when I'm feeling a bit down because she is just so positive and I just think she's someone who deserves so much more attention and praise and people watching her so definitely go check out her videos so the next book I want to recommend the last book I want to recommend is a bit different some of the others and it is Dear Agila Welle or a Feminist Manifesto in 15 Suggestions this isn't directly about race it is by a tremendous Yadici who if you haven't watched many of her speeches she is a person you need to go to but this book is her writing to her friend in Nigeria saying how to raise your child as a feminist it's not directly a book on race but race frames the book and also the cultural practices in Nigeria from the book it's a very important that we educate ourselves on how black women across the world live and the cultural practices with which they live outside of the US this is a really accessible book one that I know a lot of people love and I think it's important that when we are wanting to educate ourselves on race we read of women's perspectives of ordinary life of things like motherhood to educate ourselves on their perception of the world and their lived experience and in the last Black Book Tuba I want to recommend that you need to go watch is Mina so Mina I don't know why but she's the person I go to when I'm in need of the tea she's the one person if there's any kind of drama and I don't know why because it's not like this is what she's known for but like in my mind Mina is the only person who's going to give me the tea and the facts without any waffle she's just going to tell me how it is when the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes came out is that what it's called I don't even know I'm not a Hunger Games stan but I was like I'm not going to watch all the vlogs because I'm not interested in this book but I was like Mina's is the only vlog I'm going to watch because she's the only one who's going to give me everything I need all the tea nicely wrapped up hers was the channel one of the first channels I really fell in love with of smaller booktubers and I still love her content to this day she has really great reading vlogs she's just great there's great all videos I just love Mina's content she is funny she is creative she is very charismatic one of the most charismatic people on booktube in my opinion and definitely someone you need to go and subscribe to I should have said this at the beginning I wish I'd mentioned it at the beginning for the people that will now be gone but Bookshade is running a who is also just one of the sweetest people ever is um running a read-a-thon called blackout buddy read or it's a buddy read sorry it's not read-a-thon and I was really really happy to see that one of the two is white fragility by Robin de Angelo so I've had this I got to my birthday actually and I've been wanting to read it for the longest time it's written from a white person's perspective on why white people find it so difficult to talk about racism and to accept racism this is a book I'm going to be reading very soon for the blackout buddy read I'm also going to be reading white rage which is by a black author and in her announcement video which I would really recommend you go check out again I'll link the Twitter and the YouTube video for this buddy read down below um Shay talked about how important she saw it to have one white author and one black author to get both sides of the coin and get two different perspectives which I think is is brilliant and white rage wasn't on my radar I hadn't heard of it unlike white fragility which I'm lucky to own already to take part in the buddy read another book I've been wanting to get to for the longest is biased by Jennifer Eberhardt so this is about the science behind race this um racial inequality I guess the science behind subconscious racism subconscious bias and how we can eradicate that this is all I want to read right now because I want to educate myself even more I hope that by the the books I've spoken about I've given you places to educate yourself but like I said it's not a one and done situation I hope you find places to educate yourself through this video and I hope that you like I said diversify the people that you watch on booktube and recognize that booktubers very whitewashed I would not be at the point I am on booktube if I wasn't white I would not have almost three thousand subscribers in the period of time I've been on booktube if I wasn't white I don't I don't believe and look at how the upper echelons if you will be you know the most popular booktubers it's very white dominated and that's something we need to change and that'll only happen not by you going and clicking subscribe like I said on these booktubers but watching our content promoting their content engaging with their content and I hope that you will do that thank you so much for watching please check out all the links that I will link in the description below bye