I added The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston because it's a great text on Chinese culture and how first-generation Chinese-Americans deal with the tensions between their cultures. I also added Sherman Alexie's book because it's a collection of short stories dealing with issues affecting Native American culture. Alexie's an amazing writer and his work is very easy to relate to.

How about 'White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son' - Tim Wise?

Thanks for adding new books to the list! Please note that the focus is on non-fiction & memoir (arbitrary, for sure). Would someone like to make a fiction list?

Why title this "Books White People Need To Read?" I find this slightly ignorant. These are books that ALL people should read. I hardly condone all of the actions and attitudes of my ancestors. A list of this nature won't be very helpful in promoting respect and understanding between diverse cultural groups.

Good point, all people do need to read these books and to engage in dialogue with people who are different from them. However, this list was sparked by an article listed in the intro up top which specifically addressed the need for white people to educate themselves about race and not exclusively rely on people of color to educate them. That's why the list is titled the way it is, check out the article cited for more! And thanks for participating in the conversation.

an excerpt from Full Circle, Chapter 24:

"...The Ancestors waited patiently, watching as their descendants are forced to live that hell. They wait, until Hell becomes accepted as normal and evil becomes accepted as common place. They watch, their grand children so completely lost to them. These same children given explicit instructions for return but the instructions ignored. No one capable of interpreting the instructions any longer.
The Ancients wait and watch as foreign invaders reign down devastation in less than 300 years. Wait and watch as the invaders turn a pristine utopia into a fetid pool of decay and the Ancients descendants become replica’s of the invaders. As these descendants wreak the same havoc and destruction upon each other. For millennia the Ancients exist watching as what was given so freely becomes a commodity where the greedy demand payment for what has never been theirs to sell..."

http://www.amazon.com/Full-Circle-Mic...

Why Warriors Lie Down and Die

For those who are really interested in Black History, please check out my non-profit educational organization. It's called the Black-a-Day Project.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Bl...

i'm wondering about 2 of these books:
after the arab spring
looming tower

so, no racism against arabs but prejudice against muslims is still ok? why are those books on this list?

I don't think The Help should be on this list. (And it definitely shouldn't be near the top!) Every review I've read of that book that was written by a black person says that that book is really heavy on the white saviour crap. Only white people seem to think it's good.

Does the name of this list strike anybody as racist?

To be more direct, the name of this list is racist.

How can this list exist without a presupposed and prejudiced stereotype of what white people think and are?

Paul wrote: "Does the name of this list strike anybody as racist?

To be more direct, the name of this list is racist.

How can this list exist without a presupposed and prejudiced stereotype of what white peop..."

No, it's not racist. White people have a racist history and still tend to be racist, even if unintentionally. That is a fact, and it's not racist to point that out.

No person should accept stereotyping based on their genetics or cultural background.

Is that something that we all agree upon?

Thank you for your consideration.

Paul wrote: "No person should accept stereotyping based on their genetics or cultural background.

Is that something that we all agree upon?

Thank you for your consideration."

Sure, but this isn't stereotyping. How is it stereotyping to say that white people need to learn about racism?

Also, you have to keep in mind that there's a difference between stereotyping white people and actual racism. White people are not in any way disadvantaged because of our race. The system is completely in our favour.

Let us please see people as the individuals we are.

If the list were about tolerance for all people, that would be excellent and not offensive; or as Grant indicated, books that all people need to read.

The world will be a more peaceful place when we stop seeing people as "the other" based on genetic heritage.

Well sure, but in the meantime racism still exists and is a big problem, and pretending that race doesn't exist will not solve that problem.

"There is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America. There's the United States of America."

- Barack Obama in a public speech.

Yeah, that quote has nothing to do with this...

Here's my point: Racism exists. White people are the ones in power and therefore the ones responsible for ending racism. The only way to end racism is to make white people stop being racist. This is our responsibility. That's why white people need to read these books.

Please, everybody show respect for all persons?

well, i guess there are least two responses that a white person could have, reading this list title. 'ok, lets find out which books should i read?' or 'how dare they call me a white person and i won't read anything they think i should'.
a person with the second reaction probably wouldn't benefit much from these books anyway, regardless of what the list is titled.
we need to be moving away from the construct of so-called 'race' anyway. but again, that depends on white people, those who constructed, benefited, and continue to benefit from 'race', letting it go. or mixing beyond identification. at which point humans will find some other characteristic to divide us.

hmm, I wonder how people would react to a list entitled "books black/chinese/latin people need to read"? I get the point, and I would like to read MANY of the books on this list, but I still find the title to be a racist generalization which promotes the exact ideas you seem to want to undo. I am 1/8 black, but I have pale skin and blue eyes which makes me white to everyone else. The reality is that everyone should read a number of these books regardless of their race.

Oh, and you know what else is a fact? Racism is NOT an exclusively white problem. Many people of ALL races are racist. In fact, there are many white people in the world who are better educated on historical racism than many black people.

Bottom line, the title is ignorant, racist, and detracts from the whole point of the list.