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Got this question yesterday and I’ve been mulling how to respond for a long time.
My response comes down to two questions: How can books help? How can they harm?
My response comes down to two questions: How can books help? How can they harm?
We’ve said it before but it bears repeating: books aren’t going to rid this country of the toxins of racism, white supremacy, and fascism. In 2020, bookstores sold more books about race and racism than ever before and in 2021 the problems persist. It takes more work than reading.
The right books can begin to help, though:
they can help folks bear witness to the victims of violence, racism, and fascism
they can contextualize events like yesterday’s in short and long history (because this isn’t just a “yesterday” problem)
they can help folks bear witness to the victims of violence, racism, and fascism they can contextualize events like yesterday’s in short and long history (because this isn’t just a “yesterday” problem)
The right books can also begin the necessary work of helping privileged people see how they’re complicit in the systems of racism & white supremacy, and how they benefit from those systems.
But books can also do harm. Two of the senators responsible for fueling yesterday’s insurrection have recent or forthcoming books. People and their ideas, no matter how harmful, gain legitimacy when attached to a dust jacket, blurbs, and shelf space.
It’s not just those two books. Recent history is filled with problematic situations arising from throwing big money at people complicit in all this so they can publish books about it. Others have spoken about this elsewhere with great eloquence.
Our friend @InOrderOfImport articulated it clearly yesterday: https://twitter.com/inorderofimport/status/1346914362007674882
So books can do a bit of help or a lot of harm. Can they restore someone’s faith in America? That seems to be a personal question. Maybe the journey that starts with the right book ends up restoring that faith. But I’m not sure I can tell you what that book will be.
