2020 has so far been a year in which it is easy to feel powerless, especially when it comes to the idea of racial injustice. The events in America that sparked the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement could make us feel that not much has changed, and that black people are still being treated unfairly and must fight to have their voices heard.
So, what can we do? Well a key thing we can do is to educate ourselves by reading more books by black writers so that we can understand the experiences of people with a different culture and background to us. As the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie points out in her brilliant Ted Talk The Danger of a Single Story, we need to be careful that we do not think that our experiences are the only ones. She talks about how her American college roommate was surprised that she spoke English (it is actually the first language of Nigeria) and that she listened to Madonna and Mariah Carey. Her novels, like Purple Hibiscus, won many prizes and introduced many readers to writing by an African author, opening up a whole new, vibrant world. Stories, Adichie argues, can challenge stereotypes and can allow the reader to know what it feels like to walk in someone else’s shoes.
In Britain writers like Benjamin Zephaniah and John Agard use humour and a rap style of poetry to write about the experience of coming from immigrant families and the racist attitudes of some people they encountered. In the poem ‘Half-Caste’ Agard challenges the idea of being called ‘half’ a person with ‘half a shadow’ and shows us how even language can be racist and demeaning and we all need to think about how we use it. Literature can challenge our own prejudices and give us a wider view of the world.
‘If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be’
- Maya Angelou
Alison's recommendations for books by Black writers (per Key Stage)
KS2
- ‘Look up’ by Nathan Bryon illustrated by Dapo Adeola
- ‘Sulwe’ by Lupita Nyong’o illustrated by Vashti Harrison
- ‘Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History’ by Vashti Harrison
- ‘Funky Chickens’ by Benjamin Zephaniah (poetry)
- ‘Walter Tull’s Scrapbook’ and ‘Respect’ by Michaela Morgan
- ‘If a bus could talk - The story of Rosa Parks’ by Ringgold Faith
KS3
- 'Noughts and Crosses’ by Marjorie Blackman (recommended 12 and over)
- ‘Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry’ by Mildred. D. Taylor (12 and over)
- ‘Hell and High Water’ by Tanya Landman (12 and over)
- ‘Coming to England’ by Floella Benjamin
- ‘The Shadow of the Sun’ by Ryszard Kapuscinski
- ‘The Story of Windrush’ by K.N. Chimbiri
KS4
- ‘I know why the caged bird sings’ by Maya Angelou
- ‘The Color Purple’ by Alice Walker
- ‘The Lonely Londoners’ by Sam Selvon
- ‘Half-Caste and other poems’ by John Agard
- ‘Hidden Figures’ by Margot Lee Shetterly
- ‘The Help’ by Kathryn Stockett
- ‘Small Island’ by Andrea Levy
KS5
- ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison.
- ‘Becoming’ by Michelle Obama
- ‘And still I rise’ by Maya Angelou (poetry collection)
- 'The Girl with the Louding Voice' by Abi Daré
- ‘The Underground Railroad’ by Colson Whitehead
- ‘Home Coming’ by Colin Grant (about the Windrush generation)
- ‘Purple Hibiscus’ by Chimamanda Adichie
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