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Here are EDIN's reading recommenations.
Caste By Isabel Wilkerson
Argues that the current social and political landscapes in America derive from the infrastructure of human hierarchy developed 400 years ago when Europeans first came to this land. This hierarchy placing whites at the top and black people at the bottom is the American caste system, and although no one alive today is responsible for starting it, we have inherited it and perpetuated it for generations.Wilkerson examines the different caste systems around the world and how they damage the lives of everyone involved, even those at the top. She believes that to understand how to move forward, we must examine the past and the racial structures that keep progress as a nation at bay.
The Sum of Us By Heather McGhee
[McGhee] takes readers on an intimate odyssey across our country’s racial divide to explore why some believe that progress for some comes at the expense of others. Along the way, McGhee speaks with white people who confide in her about losing jobs, homes, and hope, and considers white supremacy’s collateral victims. Ultimately, McGhee—a Black woman viewing multiracial America with startling empathy—finds proof of what she terms the Solidarity Dividend: the momentous benefits that derive when people come together across race. A powerful, singular, and prescriptive blend of the macro and the intimate.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
How To Be An Antiracist By Ibram X. Kendi
The book discusses concepts of racism and Kendi's proposals for anti-racist individual actions and systemic changes.
21 Thing You May Not Know About The Indian Act By Bob Joseph
Since its creation in 1876, the Indian Act has shaped, controlled, and constrained the lives and opportunities of Indigenous Peoples, and is at the root of many enduring stereotypes. Bob Joseph's book comes at a key time in the reconciliation process, when awareness from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities is at a crescendo. Joseph explains how Indigenous Peoples can step out from under the Indian Act and return to self-government, self-determination, and self-reliance - and why doing so would result in a better country for every Canadian. He dissects the complex issues around truth and reconciliation, and clearly demonstrates why learning about the Indian Act's cruel, enduring legacy is essential for the country to move toward true reconciliation.
They Said This Would Be Fun By Eternity Martis
Author Eternity Martis, who did undergraduate studies at Western University in London from 2010 to 2014 wrote this memoir about her time as a young, racialized student there. It details her experiences with racism, misogyny and surviving a sexual assault at Medway-Sydenham Hall. Commenting on the continued sexual assaults at Western, Martis says it’s in part due to the university’s history of remaining silent on these issues. “That silence really harms and retraumatizes students,” she says. “By not acknowledging it, they make it worse and they enable these students who feel emboldened to go out and sexually assault and drug and harass other students. (interview in the Toronto Star Sept 25, 2021)
The Inconvenient Indian By Thomas King
"No writer is better positioned than Thomas King to tell a richly Native history that reveals the common threads weaving North American patterns across the boundary line between Canada and the United States. The Inconvenient Indian sweeps up popular culture, law and policy, and the complexities of resistance and reinvention, framing all the tough issues through King's powerful storytelling and penetrating eye."—Philip J. Deloria, University of Michigans
The Skin We're In By Desmond Cole
Month-by-month, Cole creates a comprehensive picture of entrenched, systemic inequality. Urgent, controversial, and unsparingly honest, The Skin We’re In is destined to become a vital text for anti-racist and social justice movements in Canada, as well as a potent antidote to the all-too-present complacency of many white Canadians.
Seven Fallen Feather By Tanya Talaga
The book chronicles the systemic racism, education, the failure of the policing and justice systems, and Indigenous rights by Tanya Talaga. Over the span of eleven years, seven Indigenous high school students died in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
The NRA, The Unauthorized History By Frank Smyth
The National Rifle Association is unique in American life. Few other civic organizations are as old or as large. None is as controversial. It is largely due to the NRA that the U.S. gun policy differs so extremely - some would say so tragically - from that of every other developed nation. But, as Frank Smyth shows, the NRA has evolved from an organization concerned above all with marksmanship - and which supported most government efforts around gun control for a hundred years - to one that resists all attempts to restrict guns in any way. At the same time, the organization has also buried its own remarkable history.
Five Little Indians By Michelle Good
Five Little Indians is a heartbreaking account of five young First Nation kids who were kidnapped from their parents and taken into a residential school. Five Little Indians won the 2021 Amazon Canada First Novel Award and the 2020 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction.
Indian Horse By Richard Wagamese
"The story takes place in late 1950s Ontario, where eight-year-old Saul Indian Horse is torn from his Ojibway family and committed to one of Canada's notorious residential schools. A heart-breaking and heart-warming story about growing up, racism, community residential schools, survival and hockey."
More books coming soon...