Anti-racist book sales surge in US and Britain after George Floyd killing
Books tackling racism and white supremacy by authors including Reni Eddo-Lodge, Ijeoma Oluo and Layla F Saad are selling out in Britain in the wake of eight days of protests in the US over the police killing of George Floyd.
Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race is the bestselling book on Amazon in the UK, where it is listed as temporarily out of stock. The award-winning title, which was first published in 2017, has also made this week’s paperback nonfiction charts from Nielsen BookScan. Saad’s Me and White Supremacy – subtitled How to Recognise Your Privilege, Combat Racism and Change the World – is at No 5 in Amazon’s UK charts, and also out of stock, as is Akala’s Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, at No 7.
Eddo-Lodge has asked purchasers of her book to match the price they paid with a donation to the Minnesota Freedom Fund. “Because of the past week’s horrible and tragic events, I’ve noticed a marked uptick in people recommending my book,” tweeted the author, who has made a $1,000 donation herself. “This book financially transformed my life and I really don’t like the idea of personally profiting every time a video of a black person’s death goes viral.”
In the US, Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism is No 1 in Amazon.com’s book charts, and also out of stock, along with books including Oluo’s So You Want to Talk About Race, Ibram X Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist, and Sesame Street picture book We’re Different, We’re the Same helping fill out the top 10.
“This doesn’t happen every day,” tweeted Kendi on Tuesday. “It is fitting it happens on the day we are blacking out for black lives and hopefully supporting our local independent bookstores, too. The #1 and #2 overall bestsellers right now are two books challenging racism. This is you.”
Oluo tweeted: “I am happy people are reading my book. But if you read my book and think ‘oh - now I understand racism!’ You have a lot more books to read. My book was intended as an introduction. It is a tool to help you discuss issues of racism in your workplace, your towns, your schools. But ‘how can I better talk about this’ isn’t even step 1 – it’s the beginning of your research on the way to step one.”
She advised her followers to read “revolutionary books” by authors including Assata Shakur, Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, Octavia Butler and James Baldwin. “If we want to end violent white supremacy it will take more than talk and more than mutual understanding,” she wrote. “Understand that for hundreds of years black people have been documenting and analysing this murderous system and that there is no one book that will capture it all. You owe this work your time and respect.”
