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Over the past couple of months, I have seen several ugly reminders that racism is alive and well. I just don't see it a whole lot because I'm, you know, a middle-class white woman. I don't have to look if I don't want to, and that's a privilege.
But that doesn't mean that it's not my responsibility to do what I can. So, some promises:
* I am going to do my best to call out racism when I see it. Even if it's my friends doing it. Even if it hurts. Some days I'll have more energy for it than others, but... I already call out sexist speech, and it's short-sighted (and privileged) in the extreme for me to only stand up about things that affect me personally. In other words: I will do my best to be an ally, in whatever small way I can.
* I am going to participate in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
50books_poc, the pledge to read 50 books by people of color during the year. (I'm already up to, hm, let's see -- six, I think -- so it's feasible.) I'm not counting manga, not because they're not legitimate books written by non-white people, but because I can read a volume of a manga in twenty minutes, so it isn't much of a challenge to read 50. I may do a secondary challenge to read 25 manga, too. Why do this? Because it's easy for an American reading books in English put out by an American publisher to read very little besides white people just by accident -- so it's worth putting the extra effort in to make sure I'm reading diverse voices. If that sounds cool to you, I encourage you to join! If your reading rate is too slow for 50 to be feasible, you can always pledge to do 50 in two years or something -- that's not too uncommon either.
And if you see me acting in a way that's racist, please call me out, too. (Or sexist, heterocentrist, etc., it's just that those are easier for me to see myself.) I am so far from perfect that it's not funny, but I'm trying.
And if you have any recommendations for books by non-white authors, I would love to hear them!
But that doesn't mean that it's not my responsibility to do what I can. So, some promises:
* I am going to do my best to call out racism when I see it. Even if it's my friends doing it. Even if it hurts. Some days I'll have more energy for it than others, but... I already call out sexist speech, and it's short-sighted (and privileged) in the extreme for me to only stand up about things that affect me personally. In other words: I will do my best to be an ally, in whatever small way I can.
* I am going to participate in
50books_poc, the pledge to read 50 books by people of color during the year. (I'm already up to, hm, let's see -- six, I think -- so it's feasible.) I'm not counting manga, not because they're not legitimate books written by non-white people, but because I can read a volume of a manga in twenty minutes, so it isn't much of a challenge to read 50. I may do a secondary challenge to read 25 manga, too. Why do this? Because it's easy for an American reading books in English put out by an American publisher to read very little besides white people just by accident -- so it's worth putting the extra effort in to make sure I'm reading diverse voices. If that sounds cool to you, I encourage you to join! If your reading rate is too slow for 50 to be feasible, you can always pledge to do 50 in two years or something -- that's not too uncommon either.And if you see me acting in a way that's racist, please call me out, too. (Or sexist, heterocentrist, etc., it's just that those are easier for me to see myself.) I am so far from perfect that it's not funny, but I'm trying.
And if you have any recommendations for books by non-white authors, I would love to hear them!
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Are you interested in movies too? Gurinder Chadha did two films that I love (in completely different ways): Bend it like Beckham (a british football romantic comedy), and Bride & Prejudice (a Bollywood musical of Pride & Prejudice). And Mira Nair did Monsoon Wedding.
And someone else mentioned it, but I found Octavia Butler's Lilith's Brood (first book: Dawn) very fascinating. It is the most convincing aliens and alien contact that I've ever read (and I read a lot of scifi).
Banana Yoshimoto writes neat short stories and novellas -- my favorite is Lizard, I think Matt's favorite is Asleep. She's a Japanese author. If you like the mindbending, and you want even more, you can try The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.
If you like children's books:
Laurence Yep -- Ribbons (San Francisco Chinese-American ballet students)
Lensey Namioka -- Yang the Youngest and his Terrible Ear (Chinese immigrants in Seattle)
Allen Say -- Tea with Milk, Grandfather's Journey, the Ink-Keepers Apprentice (loosely biographical stories)
Yoshiko Uchida -- Journey to Topaz and Journey Home (about Japanese-American internment and going home to California race riots afterwards)
And I can give you way more suggestions (if you want any more -- just email) if I open up my book database, these books were just the ones in my head. You may have noticed a theme, and yes, I do tend to read more books and watch more movies that are connected to India or Japan. And I guess my own book challenge is that I like reading books from other countries -- so if you ever have suggestions of good translations, or New Zealand authors, or what have you, I'd love that. (Or if you want some good Canadian or British books, I can probably find too many of those too.)
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The other recs are wonderful. Thank you so much. I will probably hit you up for more suggestions via email in the future as well.