Why education is key to fight racism: a list of novels and movies on race and anti-racism

The killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Tony McDade have once again brought the urgent need for racial justice to the forefront, all over the United States, and in just a couple of days in many countries around the world. Wide-scale movements of protests against racism and police brutality as well as civic unrest have made it impossible for the world to ignore the consequences of a long history of racism and white supremacy against the Black community. Many ways to take action have been displayed around the news and social medias for maximum visibility of the movement, and also showing how the need for education about the history of the long and ongoing fight for racial justice is critical and essential.

While there are many worthwhile books, movies, articles and podcasts about race and anti-racism that have been put out on social medias, we can tend to feel overflowed or incapable to 'catch-up' with the quantity of these lists and selections. 

From what I have read from social media and by myself on this matter, I have gathered a selection of several works from different mediums that I find particularly enlightening, instructive and moving. Here are several books and movies for you to help contextualize the current issues:

Writings:

1. Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2013:

"Some novels tell a great story and others make you change the way you look at the world. Americanah does both"- Guardian

This best-seller is an American/Nigerian fiction that I read during quarantine. A marking and impacting novel, talking about a young Nigerian woman moving to the United States, and having to learn what it means to be black in the modern western world. Ifemelu, the protagonist, is outspoken and determined, and as well deeply humored and attaching but also, which makes this reading both personal and accessible.

2. Born a Crime: stories from a South-African childhood, Trevor Noah, 2016:

"Slick, intelligent, blissfully funny"- Time out

The famous talkshow host of the Daily Show, Trevor Noah, recounts in this autobiography his childhood in South-Africa in the midst of apartheid, and his unlikely path from poverty to becoming on of the biggest names in comedy. In the same vein than Americanah, his experiences are by turns hilarious, dramatic and deeply afflicting. Again, this book remains for me memorable and is very instructive about the issues of South-Africa in the late 1980's.

3. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, 1960:

"No one ever forgets this book"- Independent

This metaphorical novel is not a worldwide classic for nothing. I first read it for school but then reread a couple years later, and I saw it under a different view. Set from the point of view of children growing up in the Deep South of the 1930's, this Bildungsroman deals with racial injustice, the issues of class, the loss of innocence and gender roles. Although fictional, its characters have remained a source of great inspiration until today, such as Atticus, the father and lawyer defending the case of a black man charged with the rape of a white girl, who is according to the historian J.Crespino as: "the most enduring fictional image of social heroism".
You can also view the screen adaptation with Gregory Peck (which is also really good and a classic).

4. I Know why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou, 1969:

"Told with a winning combination of wit and wisdom, this is a paean to the powers of storytelling to build bridges across divides, and heal what has been damaged."- Guardian

This autobiographical novel recounts the difficult coming-age years of the poet and activist Maya Angelou, enduring the ache of abandonment and feeling of uprooting, along with the omnipresent prejudice of local "powhitetrash". The constant underlying conflict between freedom and imprisonment is what drives the novel's power and ability to touch its readers. I first came to know the author with the poem "I Know why the Caged Bird Sings", whose poignant image had made me really emotional.

5. Women, Race and Class, Angela Davis, 1981:

"The power of her historical insights and the sweetness of her dream cannot be denied"- NY Times

I havent read this work, but I know about it since it is quite famous. Written under the form of a historical study, it traces the intertwined histories of the abolitionist and women's suffrage movements while examining the racism and class prejudice inherent in white feminism. By doing so, it brings under a new light pioneering heroines, from field slaves to mill workers, who fought back and refused to accept the lives into which they were born. What I find interesting about it is that it takes into account such a big part of history, from the age of slavery to contemporary injustices, which permits to make certain links between historical events that were not thought of before, and thus look at our western white-male dominated heritage under a new aspect.

6. Beloved, Toni Morrisson, 1987:

"A masterpiece... magnificent... astounding... overpowering!"- Newsweek

Highly recommended from a relative, I wanted to include this historical fiction since it remains a great classic in modern literature (Pulitzer 1988). In the aftermath of the abolition of slavery, this story inspired by real facts, recounts the difficulty of former slave Sethe to let go of her past. Through themes such as the exploration of black identity and the crushing experience of black women, the author establishes a parallel between the 19th century and the 20th century. Another striking aspect for readers at the time of its release, is the absence of white people, a relatively rare thing in fiction of the period. Her writing remains highly singular and even more marking through her luminous incantatory prose. Her books "offers an escape from stereotyped black settings" as she said in an interview in "Conversations With Toni Morrison" in 1994 (New York Times).

Viewings:

1. When they see us, Ava DuVernay, 2019:

"'When they see us' is a searing portrait of injustice and innocence lost"- Boston Globe

I watched this miniseries when it came out last year, and was particularly struck with its resonance with today's current affairs, although it recounts the case of "The Central Park Five" that took place more than 30 years ago. Appealing the emotions more than our conscience, we follow the specific stories of each of the five black and Latino teens who were railroaded into jail on false charges of rape of a white woman in Central Park. Knowing with certainty that they were innocent makes watching even more hard and the injustice even more present. Indeed, from the damning groupthink media coverage that follows the manipulated false confessions, to the destruction of youth during prison time and the stigma that sticks to them once they are released; it provides this series an aspect of doom-ridden tragedy. Indirectly targeting USA's president (who involved himself in the affair at the time), it also seriously puts back into question America's criminal justice system.

2. Do the right thing, Spike Lee, 1989:

"Racial tensions hit the boiling point in the Brooklyn streets in a masterwork whose relevance remains starker than ever."- Guardian

Emblematic movie from both its underlying socio-political approach and the affirmation of American-Black culture. Its great style and rhythm (respects the three unities rule of a tragedy) permits to deliver a marking and important statement, in particular at the end, that leaves an ambiguous and unsatisfying conclusion, actually in order to make its audience consider the unchanging state of racism in contemporary America, which is all more powerful. The film also end with contrasting quotes on the use of violence as self-defense vs. the use of nonviolence with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

3. Guess who's coming to dinner, Stanley Kramer, 1967:

"Problem: how to tell an interracial love story in a literate, non-sensational and balanced way. Solution: make it a drama with comedy."-Variety

Although I did not watch it yet, I put this movie in the list as it remains a groundbreaking movie known for stirring a social taboo at its release, with its plot resolving around the issues that caused interracial marriages. Indeed, until the landmark 1967 civil-rights case Loving vs. Virginia, which was decided five months before the movie was released, marriage between blacks and whites was still illegal in certain American states. Katharine Hepburn and Sidney Poitiers portray the interracial romantic relationship in the movie, as she brings her fiancé to meet her parents. The movie examines the reactions of the young couple various family members and friends to their relationship. An important social examination, that shows how issues that seem unconceivable today actually happened not such a long time ago.

4. I am not your negro, Raoul Peck, 2017:

"Peck's aim seem to be to reintroduce Baldwin and his way of thinking to the world. Not that Baldwin is forgotten, but sometimes we need a bold red arrow to helps us redirect our thinking, especially in a media world as cluttered and noisy as ours."- The Times

A propulsive documentary about James Baldwin, his writings and his times. Inspired by Baldwin's unfinished manuscript, Remember This House a collection of notes and letters written in the mid 1970s. The memoir recounts the lives of his close friends and civil rights leaders: Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Medgar Evers. Narrated by the voice of Samuel L. Jackson, it explores the history of racism in the United States all through the writer's reminiscences and personal observations of America's history. Since those events took place 50 years ago, this graphic and vivid documentary reminds us of how far we've yet to go in the fight against systemic racism and white supremacy.

5. Mississippi Burning, Alan Parker, 1988:

"Incandescent civil rights thriller"- Guardian

This biographical crime thriller is based on the investigation of two FBI agents on the disparition of three civil rights -two Jews and one black- workers in a fictional city in Mississippi in 1964. Their duty is met with hostility by the town's residents, local police, and the Ku Klux Klan. The date was not picked unpurposefully as the move is  on a true case; the 1964 murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, whose justice was served 40 years later. Being able to put an unsolved and secreted crime under the spotlight remains necessary for the minds and for the victims and their families.
In a similar vein, Betrayed by Costa Gravas (1988) also explores FBI investigation on another white supremacist group The Order.

6. Selma, Ava DuVernay, 2014:

"Ava DuVernay's look at MLK's march against racial injustice stings with relevance to the here and now."- RollingStone

This historical drama about the 1964 Selma to Montgomery Marches, retraces Martin Luther King's lifetime fight for African Americans voting rights. The movie is based on the processes that led to the execution of these memorable marches and the difficulties encountered by their leading figures; MLK, Hosea Williams and John Lewis. The outcome of the movement is also shown in the movie, as president Johnson signs the Voting Rights Acts in 1965.

7. Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino, 2012:

"crazily entertaining, brazenly irresponsible and ethically serious in a way that is entirely consistent with its playfulness"- The NY Times

This movie is legendary in every way. The inimitable style of Tarantino's sheds under a new light an America in the midst of slavery during the 19th century. Set in the Old West, it is highly-stylized and heavily revisionist tribute to Spaghetti Westerns. However, although the movie appears excessive in its style, it remains a practical film satire by effectively depicting the violence of slavery, and creating a graphic and gripping work. The Times sums this well: "a troubling and important movie about slavery and racism".  While some may say that the movie is taking liberties that it shouldn't in order to respect the historical reality, I think that what matters the most is being able to reach as much consciences as possible, which is here the case since the movie is the most audacious on the way it treats such subject.

That was my personal selection, however I know that there are much more works that have been done on the matter, so feel free to add a movie, book, podcast or other that are instructive and insightful on the history of racism and white supremacy, systemic oppression, and anti-racism.
Education is key in order to take a rightful action for racial justice and equality!

- Jeanne Foltzer