The White Girl Woke Reading List

In a post that I put up a few weeks ago, I mentioned that I
am on the Anti-Racism Committee at my church. Yes, it is a liberal church, and
yes, we have some conservative people who attend who weren’t sorry that Trump
won the election in 2016.

It is also a church that is devoted to social issues. The
Faith in Action group makes a concerted effort to help programs in our area.
The town that the church sits in may be rich but the surrounding towns don’t
always live up to that level of economic stability.

In the two years I have sat on this committee, I have wanted
to move things faster. I wanted to find ways to slowly bring the ‘other’ into
our midst to get people to realize we are all the same. And there were times I
wanted to leave the group because all of the pondering and philosophizing
drives me crazy.

And that is when I do what I do best- I read. I read a book
a week sometimes. Many times I listen to books because there are times I simply
cannot focus to read the written word. It helps me know how to pronounce words
or get the rhythm of how people speak. It helps me learn about a character not
only by what they say but how they say it.

So the following list are books I have read mostly in the
last two years but some were longer ago. I have yet to finish Beloved because
the book is emotionally difficult. I find myself feeling terrible for our woman
who did what she felt was right at the time. But because of this story, based
on a real woman, I made the effort to learn about Medea.

While you have heard of a few of these titles, I am guessing
there are some that are unknown to you. I purposely choose mostly fiction
because I believe fiction gives us a snapshot of time. It is through stories
that we really learn about a time and the people in that time. Even historical
fiction gives us that picture so we can enjoy and learn all at the same time.

I made this list alphabetical, not in order of what I think
you should read. All of the books in the first list are there because of an
element of racial discrimination within the story, even in the vampire story
which seems innocuous at first.

The second list focuses more on women’s issues or
discrimination of other sorts. I found them worth reading in how they made me
think of how people are marginalized in various ways.

Please let me know what you think of any of these selections
in the comments. I want to start a discussion with the hope that better
knowledge can be spread. If being woke means being kinder to anyone who doesn’t
look like me, well then, call me woke. I would rather live in a world where
people didn’t reach for their guns and asked questions later.

Enjoy your reading.

 

 

The White Girl Woke Reading List

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi

Cameron Battle and the Hidden Kingdoms by Jamar J. Perry

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

Finding Me by Viola Davis

The First Ladies by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher
Murray

The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas

The Measure by Nikki Erlick

The Other Princess: A novel of Queen Victoria’s Goddaughter
by Denny S. Bryce

Overground Railroad: the Green Book and the Roots of Black
Travel in America by Candacy A Taylor

The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria
Christopher Murray

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

So Many Beginnings by Bethany C. Morrow

South to America by Imani Perry

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

When Crack was King by Donovan X Ramsey

 

Other
Good Reads to Make You Think

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

I heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Tara Jenkins Reid

The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Regan Barnhill

Continuing the Road of Genealogy

Until I looked back at this blog, I did not realize I have been working on my family history for two years now.

During that time I have found many families and secrets, wondered what people were like all while digging into the mystery of Ira Marshall.

When I say secrets, I really don’t think I have found deep dark secrets. In reality, they are secrets that I never knew. Like what you ask?

Secrets like my great-great aunt Inez named her first born son Ira during the time that my great-grandfather was living in Chicago. His brother, my great great uncle John Sherman named his son Russell Ira during that same time. Russell would be mayor of Taylor Mills in Kentucky for a time.

During this time, I met a cousin. Our common relative is Robert Mason Marshall, our two times great grandfather. He was a Union soldier who’s first wife died sometime in 1873. He marries a younger woman in 1875, Sara Catherine. They end up have five children together along with the three living children he brings from his first marriage. I’m not sure Robert Mason was an easy man to live with as his wife lived with their remaining son according to the 1910 and 1920 census. I haven’t found his will yet but I feel certain there will be some bombs in it.

But I did visit the graves of Ira, Robert Mason, and Sara Catherine. During that same visit to Independence, Kentucky, I saw the gravestone for Francis, Montie, and Inez – siblings to Ira. Their brother Charles is buried in Washington State. Alma is buried in a town west of Independence. Mary is buried in Missouri.

There are other people I cannot find or will need to start going through archives to make better connections. At this time I am ordering death certificates for a few family members so my DAR application can go farther. I never thought I would ever have cause to apply for Daughters of the Revolution. Now, I know through research and contact with other family members that I might be connected to at least four “patriots.”

Who would have thought I would find all of these people?

My Testimonial

Recently, I gave a testimonial at my church in regards to the work we do regarding racism on the Anti-Racism Committee. Later in March, there will be a workshop to help people start working their way through what they know and what they feel in regards to racism. This is my testimonial which took at least two months to write, and more shaking around in my head.

Good Morning

I am here today to give my testimonial on racism. About why I would want to talk about racism.

And I know what you’re thinking. “Why is she talking about this? Look at her, she is whiter than white.”

How white am I? I am the person who uses the highest sun block possible or I look like a lobster in the summer.

I come from a long line of white people from Eastern Europe and the UK. Many of them came in 1905. Another couple arrived in the 1870s. Because of that, I was always told the slavery question did not matter to our family as we did not participate in that practice. Even my Proctor relatives who came in the 1850s were busy settling the Illinois prairie. The most that patriarch had to do with slavery was to fight on the Union side, and thereby earn his citizenship. 

Like many families, we have stories I like to tell. Such as the one about Michaly Riban who was walking in Chicago with friends when he spied a pretty girl. He nudged his friend and said “that’s the girl I’m going to marry.” And he did.

But there are other stories that I don’t like telling. Such as the great-grandfather who deserted the army in 1905 and later deserted his family. Or the beloved grandmother who taught me many life lessons but she was also a member of the KKK in the 1920s. She said they only ever held picnics and didn’t do anything else.

What I cannot deny is that the thoughts and behaviors of that group made their way down to my father and were given to me as well. My world was rocked a little more during my genealogical adventures when I discovered a four-times great-grandfather who was a revolutionary patriot and slave-owner. It’s right there in the 1790 census, that he owned twelve people.

I can tell you these and more stories. But there are other stories I do not ‘have’ to tell. Such as my grandfather having to keep a cap in his nice car in case he got stopped so he could explain that he was driving his employer’s car. My sons don’t have to keep a toy in the back seat of their nice cars to show they are family men and not potential drug dealers.

I will never be able to tell the story of my daughter being pulled over because she did not use a turn signal to show she was changing lanes when a police car suddenly sped up behind her and she moved over to be out of his way.

These are not my stories because of my lily-white skin that was passed on me and I passed on to my children. We have been given a pass, even when I and my children have made stupid decisions. Stupid decisions such driving around with a broken taillight or going to the convenience store for an Arizona and Skittles while wearing a hoodie. Stupid decisions such as getting out a wallet for requested ID.

I could go on with references of people killed because of the color of their skin, something they cannot control. But I am guessing Julie wants to give us her sermon before eleven. And I am certain some of you are wondering where all this talk about different types of stories is going.

If I have learned anything from the Anti-Racism Committee, it is that we need to look at the stories that are hard to tell. Such as why an item like the Green Book had to be created. The singer and actor Billie Porter recently said, sometimes we have to name that which is ugly.

Racism is that ugly product of the legacy of slavery when our country’s forefathers – whether they are yours or not – forced unwilling African immigrants to work.

Despite everything I have read on the subject and seen with the C-ROAR group, I still don’t like talking about racism. Its painful to think that a quirk of fate has given me advantages because of my lily-white skin. I don’t like that story. But as Mia Henry, an activist and motivational speaker, said “it’s not going to go away because we don’t talk about it.”

So that is why I talk about it. That’s why I read books on the subject so I can have a better understanding without having to pain people to tell me their stories. Racism comes at a cost to all of us. It forces you to stay in certain pathways, no matter what color skin you might have. And when a person strays from those pathways, others feel threatened.

Just because I was born with lily-white skin and have histories of past family members with racists beliefs and actions, doesn’t mean I have to go along with their beliefs. I don’t have to stay in familiar pathways.

If I believe that all people should have the same kind of ease with which I move through life, then I have to shake off those old belief systems. And it isn’t always easy.

While I am not perfect, I have been able to make different choices than my parents.

After hearing all of this, I hope that you will talk about these things no matter how difficult. Read books by different authors, attend the upcoming workshop, mull over all that you learn, and let it move you into a different pathway. Make racism disappear by talking about it so that racism is out in the open and burned up in the sunshine like the soul-sucking societal vampire racism is.

Thank you.

For more information about the upcoming workshop, please visit the website for the Flossmoor Congregational Church at http://www.fccfaithful.org