The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 turned the nation’s attention to the issue of deep-seated American racism — and ignited a massive grassroots movement against police violence. Throughout the nation’s history, writers have been shining a light on American racism and issuing clarion calls for change. It is a necessary tradition: as James Baldwin wrote in Notes of a Native Son. “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”

These powerful critiques keep coming. Here are ten recent, important books that explore racism, anti-racism, and racist violence from a variety of perspectives:

1. Getting Smart About Race: An American Conversation

Margaret L. Andersen

Rowman & Littlefield

A clear and engaging introduction to understanding racial inequality, and a look into why racial healing should be at the forefront of our everyday discussions about race.

2. Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning

Ibram X. Kendi & Jason Reynolds

Little, Brown and Co.

A crucial and energizing narrative that shines light on the many forms of racism and anti-racism in America.

3. The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth and Power

Deirdre Mask 

St. Martin’s

An illuminating discussion of the striking ways street names and addresses work to decide who counts and who doesn’t. 

4. Reactionary Democracy: How Racism and the Populist Far Right Became Mainstream 

Aurelien Mondon & Aaron Winter

Verso Books

A meticulous deconstruction of the current hegemonic discourse around race in America –– one that works to blind us to the systemic forces underpinning our current model of democracy.

5. Digitize and Punish: Racial Criminalization in a Digital Age

Brian Jefferson

University of Minnesota Press

A comprehensive study of the use of digital technology in American criminal justice –– how it enables our current state of mass incarceration and further entrenches our nation’s racialized policing.

6. American Poison: How Racial Hostility Destroyed our Promise

Eduardo Porter 

Knopf Doubleday

A timely exploration into how racial animus in the United States has worked to perpetuate a system that fails not only its black and brown citizens, but white Americans as well. 

7. Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World and Become a Good Ancestor 

Layla F. Saad 

Quercus

A crucial guide for white people looking to dismantle privilege within themselves, and work to avoid inflicting –– often unconsciously –– damage on people of color.

8. Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone

Minna Salami

Zed Books

Prying apart systems of power and privilege, Salami forges a path for a radical Black feminist way of knowing for everyone. 

9. Administrations of Lunacy: Racism and the Haunting of American Psychiatry at the Milledgeville Asylum

Mab Segrest 

The New Press

A scathing look at the racist origins of modern-day American psychiatry, a practice forged in the traumas of slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.

10. Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger

Julie Sze

University of California Press

An exploration into the ways in which environmental injustices have manifested across racial and class divides in disastrously disproportionate ways.