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From Diversity to Equity: A Recommended Reading List
The Massachusetts Library System presents its spring program, "Talking Social Justice in Massachusetts Libraries: Diversity to Equity" in June 2017. We've compiled a list of recommended reads. Feel free to make suggestions for books that have helped you question biases and taught you something new.
Score
A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.
| 1 |
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Buses Are a Comin': Memoir of a Freedom Rider
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4.50 avg rating — 922 ratings
score: 695,
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7 people voted
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| 2 |
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The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row
by
4.65 avg rating — 76,978 ratings
score: 300,
and
3 people voted
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| 3 |
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Just Mercy
by
4.62 avg rating — 256,379 ratings
score: 299,
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3 people voted
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| 4 |
|
Don't Label Me: An Incredible Conversation for Divided Times
by
Irshad Manji (Goodreads Author)
3.68 avg rating — 636 ratings
score: 198,
and
2 people voted
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| 5 |
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America's Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America
by
Jim Wallis (Goodreads Author)
4.07 avg rating — 1,733 ratings
score: 196,
and
2 people voted
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| 6 |
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Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
by
Ibram X. Kendi (Goodreads Author)
4.53 avg rating — 38,009 ratings
score: 193,
and
2 people voted
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| 7 |
|
“All the Real Indians Died Off”: And 20 Other Myths About Native Americans
by
4.11 avg rating — 1,938 ratings
score: 187,
and
2 people voted
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| 8 |
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March: Book One (March, #1)
by
4.35 avg rating — 56,890 ratings
score: 182,
and
2 people voted
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| 9 |
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Hidden Figures
by
Margot Lee Shetterly (Goodreads Author)
3.96 avg rating — 112,474 ratings
score: 180,
and
2 people voted
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| 10 |
|
How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America
by
Kiese Laymon (Goodreads Author)
4.32 avg rating — 5,829 ratings
score: 163,
and
2 people voted
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| 11 |
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Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America
by
4.39 avg rating — 1,963 ratings
score: 152,
and
2 people voted
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| 12 |
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They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement
by
4.04 avg rating — 4,045 ratings
score: 143,
and
2 people voted
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| 13 |
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Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice
by
3.86 avg rating — 754 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
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| 13 |
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On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life
by
4.31 avg rating — 587 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
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| 13 |
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Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India
by
3.80 avg rating — 2,576 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
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| 13 |
|
Backlash: What Happens When We Talk Honestly about Racism in America
by
George Yancy (Goodreads Author)
4.10 avg rating — 271 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
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| 13 |
|
Tales of the Astonishing Black Spark
by
Charlie J. Eskew (Goodreads Author)
4.02 avg rating — 101 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
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| 13 |
|
Queeristan: LGBTQ Inclusion in the Indian Workplace
by
4.03 avg rating — 112 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
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| 13 |
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Bridges to Heal US: Stories and Strategies for Racial Healing
by
4.39 avg rating — 119 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
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| 13 |
|
The People in the Room: Rabbis, Nuns, Pastors, Popes, and Presidents
by
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 14 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
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| 13 |
|
The Cognitive Biases Compendium: Explore over 150 Cognitive Biases (with examples) to make better decisions, think critically, solve problems ... more accurately.
by
Murat Durmus (Goodreads Author)
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
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| 22 |
|
When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America
by
4.13 avg rating — 2,030 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 22 |
|
Citizen: An American Lyric
by
4.26 avg rating — 51,008 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
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| 22 |
|
Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America
by
3.96 avg rating — 227 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
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| 22 |
|
We Can Do It: A Community Takes on the Challenge of School Desegregation
by
Michael T. Gengler (Goodreads Author)
4.53 avg rating — 19 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
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| 22 |
|
JUDGES: When The Light Lay Still
by
3.35 avg rating — 62 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
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| 27 |
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Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza
by
4.33 avg rating — 13,294 ratings
score: 98,
and
1 person voted
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| 27 |
|
Dalit Panthers: An Authoritative History
by
4.09 avg rating — 45 ratings
score: 98,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 27 |
|
The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row
by
4.65 avg rating — 76,978 ratings
score: 98,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 30 |
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Information Services to Diverse Populations: Developing Culturally Competent Library Professionals (Library and Information Science Text Series)
by
4.11 avg rating — 74 ratings
score: 97,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 30 |
|
The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions
by
4.06 avg rating — 687 ratings
score: 97,
and
1 person voted
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| 30 |
|
The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition
by
Thenmozhi Soundararajan (Goodreads Author)
4.44 avg rating — 393 ratings
score: 97,
and
1 person voted
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| 33 |
|
Taking on Diversity: How We Can Move from Anxiety to Respect
by
Rupert W. Nacoste (Goodreads Author)
4.31 avg rating — 54 ratings
score: 96,
and
1 person voted
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| 33 |
|
Are Prisons Obsolete?
by
4.52 avg rating — 29,085 ratings
score: 96,
and
1 person voted
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| 33 |
|
Buses Are a Comin'
by
4.50 avg rating — 922 ratings
score: 96,
and
1 person voted
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| 36 |
|
A Warrior of the People: How Susan La Flesche Overcame Racial and Gender Inequality to Become America's First Indian Doctor
by
3.91 avg rating — 932 ratings
score: 95,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 36 |
|
Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement
by
4.44 avg rating — 34,385 ratings
score: 95,
and
1 person voted
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| 36 |
|
The Education of Kendrick Perkins: A Memoir
by
3.91 avg rating — 243 ratings
score: 95,
and
1 person voted
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| 39 |
|
The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism, and White Privilege
by
Robert Jensen (Goodreads Author)
3.99 avg rating — 609 ratings
score: 94,
and
1 person voted
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| 39 |
|
Feminist, Queer, Crip
by
4.39 avg rating — 1,012 ratings
score: 94,
and
1 person voted
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| 39 |
|
The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal
by
4.09 avg rating — 3,522 ratings
score: 94,
and
1 person voted
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| 42 |
|
The White Possessive: Property, Power, and Indigenous Sovereignty (Indigenous Americas)
by
4.29 avg rating — 150 ratings
score: 93,
and
1 person voted
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| 43 |
|
Color Matters
by
Kimberly Jade Norwood (Editor)
4.17 avg rating — 12 ratings
score: 92,
and
1 person voted
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| 43 |
|
Militarized Currents: Toward a Decolonized Future in Asia and the Pacific
by
Setsu Shigematsu (Editor)
4.37 avg rating — 30 ratings
score: 92,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 45 |
|
Two Faces of Exclusion: The Untold History of Anti-Asian Racism in the United States
by
3.89 avg rating — 9 ratings
score: 91,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 45 |
|
Exile & Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation
by
Eli Clare (Goodreads Author)
4.37 avg rating — 2,491 ratings
score: 91,
and
1 person voted
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| 47 |
|
An Examination of Black LGBT Populations Across the United States: Intersections of Race and Sexuality
by
2.50 avg rating — 2 ratings
score: 90,
and
1 person voted
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| 47 |
|
Living a Feminist Life
by
4.31 avg rating — 3,206 ratings
score: 90,
and
1 person voted
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| 49 |
|
Islamophobia: Understanding Anti-muslim Racism Through the Lived Experiences of Muslim Youth
by
4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings
score: 89,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 49 |
|
Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality
by
4.57 avg rating — 402 ratings
score: 89,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 51 |
|
An Examination of Latinx LGBT Populations Across the United States: Intersections of Race and Sexuality
by
did not like it 1.00 avg rating — 1 rating
score: 88,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 51 |
|
A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present
by
4.08 avg rating — 261,225 ratings
score: 88,
and
1 person voted
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| 53 |
|
Long Road to Hard Truth: The 100 Year Mission to Create the National Museum of African American History and Culture
by
Robert L. Wilkins (Goodreads Author)
4.40 avg rating — 55 ratings
score: 86,
and
1 person voted
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| 54 |
|
March: Book Two (March, #2)
by
4.49 avg rating — 28,941 ratings
score: 85,
and
1 person voted
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| 55 |
|
We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future
by
Deepa Iyer (Goodreads Author)
4.02 avg rating — 378 ratings
score: 84,
and
1 person voted
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| 56 |
|
Not Straight, Not White: Black Gay Men from the March on Washington to the AIDS Crisis (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture)
by
3.93 avg rating — 74 ratings
score: 83,
and
1 person voted
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| 57 |
|
March: Book Three (March, #3)
by
4.64 avg rating — 21,493 ratings
score: 81,
and
1 person voted
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| 58 |
|
Between the World and Me
by
4.40 avg rating — 359,241 ratings
score: 79,
and
1 person voted
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| 59 |
|
The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America
by
3.91 avg rating — 472 ratings
score: 78,
and
1 person voted
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| 60 |
|
Teaching for Justice: Implementing Social Justice in the LIS Classroom
by
Nicole A Cooke (Editor)
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7 ratings
score: 77,
and
1 person voted
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| 61 |
|
Good White People: The Problem with Middle-Class White Anti-Racism
by
3.83 avg rating — 122 ratings
score: 76,
and
1 person voted
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| 62 |
|
How I Shed My Skin: Unlearning the Racist Lessons of a Southern Childhood
by
Jim Grimsley (Goodreads Author)
3.54 avg rating — 391 ratings
score: 75,
and
1 person voted
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| 63 |
|
The History of White People
by
4.07 avg rating — 3,184 ratings
score: 74,
and
1 person voted
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| 64 |
|
“I Don’t See Color”: Personal and Critical Perspectives on White Privilege
by
Bettina Bergo (Editor)
3.60 avg rating — 5 ratings
score: 73,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 65 |
|
But I Don't See Color: The Perils, Practices, and Possibilities of Antiracist Education
by
Terry Husband (Editor)
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating
score: 72,
and
1 person voted
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| 66 |
|
The Invention of the White Race
by
4.39 avg rating — 223 ratings
score: 71,
and
1 person voted
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| 67 |
|
The Myth of the Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism
by
4.18 avg rating — 101 ratings
score: 70,
and
1 person voted
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| 68 |
|
The Machinery of Whiteness: Studies in the Structure of Racialization
by
3.75 avg rating — 16 ratings
score: 69,
and
1 person voted
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| 69 |
|
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
by
4.47 avg rating — 14,651 ratings
score: 68,
and
1 person voted
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| 70 |
|
Working Toward Whiteness: How America's Immigrants Became White: the Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs
by
3.83 avg rating — 363 ratings
score: 67,
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1 person voted
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| 71 |
|
How Race Survived US History: From Settlement and Slavery to the Obama Phenomenon
by
3.91 avg rating — 140 ratings
score: 66,
and
1 person voted
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| 72 |
|
Men We Reaped: A Memoir
by
Jesmyn Ward (Goodreads Author)
4.30 avg rating — 27,990 ratings
score: 64,
and
1 person voted
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| 73 |
|
Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities
by
3.83 avg rating — 753 ratings
score: 62,
and
1 person voted
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| 74 |
|
Yellow Peril!: An Archive of Anti-Asian Fear
by
4.04 avg rating — 80 ratings
score: 61,
and
1 person voted
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| 75 |
|
Negroland
by
Margo Jefferson (Goodreads Author)
3.62 avg rating — 7,862 ratings
score: 60,
and
1 person voted
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| 76 |
|
Queer: A Graphic History
by
3.92 avg rating — 7,176 ratings
score: 59,
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1 person voted
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| 77 |
|
Scapegoating Islam: Intolerance, Security, and the American Muslim
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating
score: 58,
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1 person voted
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| 78 |
|
The State of Race
by
Nisha Kapoor (Editor)
0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings
score: 57,
and
1 person voted
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| 79 |
|
Arab America: Gender, Cultural Politics, and Activism (Nation of Nations, 13)
by
Nadine Naber (Goodreads Author)
4.42 avg rating — 48 ratings
score: 56,
and
1 person voted
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| 80 |
|
White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son
by
4.10 avg rating — 5,376 ratings
score: 55,
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1 person voted
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| 81 |
|
Occupied America: A History of Chicanos
by
4.13 avg rating — 354 ratings
score: 54,
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1 person voted
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| 82 |
|
News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media
by
4.21 avg rating — 169 ratings
score: 53,
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1 person voted
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| 83 |
|
The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color Among African Americans
by
4.16 avg rating — 373 ratings
score: 52,
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1 person voted
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| 84 |
|
Race, Incarceration, and American Values (Boston Review Books)
by
4.01 avg rating — 137 ratings
score: 51,
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1 person voted
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| 85 |
|
Is Racism an Environmental Threat?
by
3.97 avg rating — 67 ratings
score: 50,
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1 person voted
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| 86 |
|
The Wedding Portrait
by
Innosanto Nagara (Goodreads Author)
4.59 avg rating — 97 ratings
score: 49,
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1 person voted
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| 87 |
|
A Perilous Path: Talking Race, Inequality, and the Law
by
4.40 avg rating — 344 ratings
score: 48,
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1 person voted
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| 88 |
|
Marked, Unmarked, Remembered: A Geography of American Memory: Marked, Unmarked
by
4.18 avg rating — 17 ratings
score: 47,
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1 person voted
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| 89 |
|
Charleston Syllabus: Readings on Race, Racism, and Racial Violence
by
4.33 avg rating — 76 ratings
score: 46,
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1 person voted
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| 90 |
|
From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation
by
4.47 avg rating — 2,329 ratings
score: 45,
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1 person voted
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| 91 |
|
Blood Sugar: Racial Pharmacology and Food Justice in Black America
by
3.82 avg rating — 22 ratings
score: 44,
and
1 person voted
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