Comments on Books for Dumb White People

Still haven't read Apex Hides the Hurt, but I really enjoyed Whitehead's The Intuitionist.

Not American, but Zadie Smith writes fantastically about mixed-race characters in her novels. White Teeth, e.g.

I heartily agree on Beverly Daniel, though I haven't read the rest.

Two books I thoroughly enjoyed, even though they are about colonial era slavery rather than modern race relations:

I heartily agree on Beverly Daniel, though I haven't read the rest.

Two books I thoroughly enjoyed, even though they are about colonial era slavery rather than modern race relations:

I heartily agree on Beverly Daniel, though I haven't read the rest.

Two books I thoroughly enjoyed, even though they are about colonial era slavery rather than modern race relations:

"The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano" (autobiography)

"Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America" by Ira Berlin

I always thought that, There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in The Other America by Alex Kotlowitz, was an excellent book. Non fiction too! About children growing up in the projects of Chicago.

Oh I adore "The Color of Water." GREAT LIST! I will add these to mine.

Is there something like Netflix for books? Oh, right ... it's called the library.

Ah yes, "the color of water": A paean to a white incest surviving mother who beat her african american children black and blue while in PTSD induced trances, by a son who basically says he and his siblings needed to be beaten to stay in line.

Beautiful Light Lady... nice article on the slayers office.

May I suggest holding on tight with a rose in your teeth and keeping your hands and feet out of the water as an answer to your last line in s.C.A.?

While "The Random Family" is a great book, how is it a book about race relations? This is a book about some dingbats who happen to Latinas.

Anne Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi is set in the 40s/50s but it's still an amazing read!

Oh, and I get to hang out with Rick Bragg this weekend at the Decatur Book Festival (in Decatur, GA).

He's terrific and extraordinarily smart and right-on with his social commentary.

The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty
Ego Trip's Big Book of Racism by the editors of Ego Trip
Native Seattle by Coll Thrush

The Celestine Prophesy?

I recommend Obama for Beginners.

Seriously, it's a real book.

You'll find it at the UW Bookstore, right above Understanding Feminism and Understanding Plato.

i HEART colson whitehead. he has such an original voice. i am in the middle of "apex hides the hurt" right now and i loved the intuitionist.

but how can you forget octavia butler? "kindred" is a good one more directly about race, but "parable of the sower" and "parable of the talents" are my favorites.

The Color of Water is a DUMB book for DUMB white people. He goes on and on about how great his mother was about race with Black people, but I got the impression that she was profoundly anti-Semitic.

And I actually had to read it for college, so it probably should be disqualified from the list.

Zora Neale and I got along well, though - she should be on the list.

What about Pete Dexter? Train or Paris Trout come to mind.

Thumbs up on Beverly Daniels!

The book helps explain a lot of phenomenon that white people are generally clueless about, as well as pointing out common mistakes/assumptions that most white people make.

If you're recommending these books to people, wouldn't that just underscore your point that Obama's book is much more widely read?