Elly Belle has a brief, useful primer on how “fellow white people can and should use their white privilege to educate other white people” which explicates four “necessary steps we should all take to fight racism and spread positive change”.
- Trust black people and people of color.
- Words aren’t always enough.
- Confront fellow white people.
- Speak up, but know when to be quiet.
As a fellow white person, I’d suggest that when you’re done reading up on Belle’s overview you follow up by reading the following books, all of which I discovered over the last few years thanks to a methodical effort to expand the range of voices I listen to on Twitter. They’re listed here in the order in which I happened to read them.
- Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram X. Kendi
- White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, by Carol Anderson
- The History of White People, by Nell Irvin Painter
- So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, by Robin DiAngelo
One likely addition to this list that’s waiting for me on my Kindle is Kendi’s new one, How to Be an Antiracist, which definitely skips to the head of the line immediately upon finishing my current nonfiction read.