MLK Day - 2021: Still in Transit
MLK-Day 2021 arrives in the midst of another inflection point in US history.
A president unabashedly supported by white supremacists is about to exit office on the heels of an attempted insurrection he catalyzed.
The first Afro-Asian woman is about to be sworn in as VP.
International protests declaring that black lives matter still echo in many of our hearts as we hope for true change.
Last year, a knee on one man’s neck forced the world to contend with a simple fact—so many of us can’t breathe for no other reason than we happened to be born “black”. A woman shot at 32 times and murdered as she slept reminded so many of us that we are free—most oft—in word only. I wish I could say these two cases were outliers, but we all know they are not.
As protests erupted not just across America but even throughout the world, I hoped to amplify black voices by giving away a book a week for seven weeks. Each week, I found it difficult to choose just one person to “win” what should be digested by all. I ended up giving away 20 books when all was said and done. I hope these books, like planted seeds, bear much fruit. These are the books I gave away, hoping to inspire and encourage:
Week 1:
Highlighted the tail of the immigrant and the diaspora with Ibi Zoboi’s American Street.
Week 2: Mixed it up with a SciFi/ Fantasy classic—Ocatavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower.
Week 3: Kept it real with Franz Fanon’s pivotal post-colonial work—The Wretched of the Earth.
Week 4: Dared us to dream with Jaqueline Woodson’s: brown girl dreaming.
Week 5: Sought balance in a world where we’re often denied authenticity with Franz Fanon’s other pivotal work—Black Skin, White Masks.
Week 6: Offered one of my favorite books, Irene Sabatini’s The Boy Next Door—a riveting tale of love conquering prejudice in post-colonial Zimbabwe.
Week 7: Empowered our shared purpose—to fight against inequity—with Ibram X. Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist.
May these books inspire you to fight as MLK fought for a fairer world.
