Social Justice Books, Part 1

I want to take a moment to share a list of books that have educated me on social justice over the years. My learning (and unlearning) will never be done.

I deeply believe that curiosity keeps us connected to our humanity, if our hearts and minds are open. So, I will always want to know about the lives and experiences of others, and to better understand the world we share. Read these. Even if you don’t consider yourself a feminist, maybe it will help you understand why others are feminists. Be ready to confront your own outdated notions or misinformed ideals. Feminism can’t exist without anti-racism, for example. We have to be in this world together, and protect each other, if we want it to be a better place.

I’ll categorize these by what I understood to be the primary topic after reading, but for many of them there’s a lot of overlap in primary subject matter. So, take this categorization loosely.

Anti-Racism, Abolition

  • An Abolitionist’s Handbook: 12 Steps to Changing Yourself and the World by Patrisse Khan-Cullors
  • Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom by Derecka Purnell
  • South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry
  • So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
  • The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias by Dolly Chugh

Bodies

  • Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion by Gabrielle Stanley Blair
  • The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor
  • The Body Liberation Project: How Understanding Racism and Diet Culture Helps Cultivate Joy and Build Collective Freedom by Chrissy King
  • The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having―or Being Denied―an Abortion by Diana Greene Foster
  • Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey
  • What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon
  • “You Just Need to Lose Weight”: And 19 Other Myths About Fat People by Aubrey Gordon

Feminism

  • All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women’s Bodies and Why It Matters Today by Elizabeth Comen
  • All the Single Ladies by Rebecca Traister
  • Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
  • Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks
  • Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger by Rebecca Traister
  • Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Safety Net by Jessica Calarco
  • Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger by Soraya Chemaly
  • We Should All Be Feminists by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie

Disability Justice

  • Living Disability: Building Accessible Futures for Everybody by Emily MacRae
  • The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Memoir

  • Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper
  • This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in White America by Morgan Jerkins
  • When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Asha Bandele

Politics, Sociology

  • Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap by Matt Taibbi
  • Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future by Jason Stanley
  • Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
  • Hijacking History: How the Christian Right Teaches History and Why It Matters by Kathleen Wellman
  • Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture by Sherronda J. Brown
  • Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America by Talia Lavin

Transformative Justice

  • Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future by Patty Krawec
  • Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement edited by Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
  • How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
  • Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price
  • Radical Inclusion: Seven Steps to Help You Create a More Just Workplace, Home, and World by David Moinina Sengeh
  • Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements by Charlene Carruthers

None of these are perfect; all humans are imperfect. But I have so much respect for these authors and their writings. This list continues to grow and I’m planning to post more of them in the future.