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Recommendations, May 13

Black Lives Matter sign in office window
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ThoughtForm Staff

Here are some resources that made an impression on us as we continue our journeys to learn about the Black experience. We hope they provide inspiration and insight.

 

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson (book)

Recommendation by Gwyn Creedy

I was blown away by this book, which does something very simple: It takes what we in the U.S. view as race and looks at it instead as a caste system—one as brutal and unforgiving as the caste system in India and the one the Nazis put in place in Germany. This gestalt in point-of-view makes it clear that the United States has been built and continues to function on a very ugly framework created and supported by those of the highest caste—white people. It’s a challenging topic, to be sure, especially for white people, but Wilkerson, who is a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner, writes in a way that draws you in from the first page. I couldn’t put it down. It’s a book that must be read.

 

Woke (TV series, Hulu)

Recommendation by Gwyn Creedy

In this comedy series, Keef Knight is a black cartoonist in San Francisco on the verge of success. Based on real-life cartoonist and show co-creator Keith Knight, Keef, a fun, easy-going kind of guy, is mistaken for a criminal and gets beaten up by a police officer, something that happened in real life to Keith Knight. After the incident, Keef’s light-hearted cartooning seems unfulfilling to him, and he explores other ways to express his feelings. Despite the dark premise, the show is a comedy. Lamorne Morris, who starred as one of the roommates in New Girl, is perfect as Keef (who, by the way, has a pair of charmingly odd roommates himself).

I enjoyed finding out what it might be like being a black cartoonist in a mostly white field and being able to explore Keef’s psychological challenges after his run-in with police. As a big scripted TV consumer, I find shows that focus on people who are outside the regular roundup of character types one normally finds on network TV—shows like Woke and Shrill—much more engaging than other scripted shows.

 

I am Not Your Negro (documentary, Netflix)

Recommendation by Keirstin Townsend

This is an exploration of the history of racism in the United States based on poet, playwright, and author James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript, Remember This House. Samuel L. Jackson’s narration of Baldwin’s reflections on civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcom X, and Martin Luther King Jr. is tracked over historical footage and pop culture film clips that have been expertly edited to illuminate Baldwin’s points. I enjoyed learning more about James Baldwin’s life, and plan to read his essay “Letter from a Region in My Mind” next.

 

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