Hey everyone, it’s Holmes from HolmesStorybooks
and I am here today to talk about activism
and access. Before I start, I wanted to acknowledge
that I stand in solidarity with the Black
Lives Matter movement. The work is just beginning.
Keep writing letters, keep protesting, keep
calling your representatives, keep donating,
keep demanding justice. Demanding justice
for George Floyd, justice for Breonna Taylor,
for Tony McDade, for Regis Korchinski-Paquet,
for Ahmaud Arbury, for Dominique ‘Rem’mie’
Falls and Riah Milton. I stand in solidarity
with those communities, with the victims and
their families.
I’ll have some resources listed below, my
list will not be a perfect or complete list
so please continue to educate yourself and
to add to your own list of resources.
Today I wanted to talk about activism and
access in regards to specific well-known collections
of Black, feminist non-fiction. I talked about
this about 10 months ago in relation to queer
books, where I basically talked about how
I struggled to find queer and trans books
even though they were published fairly recently.
These books were often expensive, only available
through a very long inter-library loan process
or just plain not affordable for me. I acknowledge
that different people have different ideas
of what expensive is, what affordable means
too.
While exploring many an array of anti-racist
reading lists (I think the fact that Black
authors dominating the best-seller lists,
after one man’s tragic, graphic death, after
being drastically underpaid by their publishers
could be a whole other discussion), I found
myself trawling through list after list and
seeing the same names very often. I’m not
critiquing the lists, or the creators, or
the authors in those lists, this is merely
an observation. This might just be a set of
circumstances, or the fact that the creators
wanted a list of books that were accessible,
available now and published recently so that
people could access these books as soon as
possible. But I noticed a real lack of certain
essential voices in the lists I was seeing.
When I was seeing these books it was with
the caveat that they might be difficult to
find, and they often were. The books can also
be really expensive. And in some cases, they
just aren’t available. This is not a criticism
of the author, or the content of these books.
I am actively searching for many of these
books, looking to acquire through more affordable
means and will share where I’ve found some
of them at the end of this video. I looked
on four main websites while looking up these
books, Amazon, Book Depository, AbeBooks and
Thrift Books. Most of my prices are in Canadian
dollars, because I live in Canada, except
for Abebooks, which is in USD.
My point with this video is not to complain
about price, but rather I couldn’t help
thinking that these books, by virtue of being
so expensive, or unavailable, would never
get into the hands of people who needed them
the most. And I’ll get into why that is
later in the video. This is only a video,
it’s only the beginning of a conversation,
but it is something that’s really been on
my mind since all this talk of activism began.
Let’s FINALLY get into the books.
I wasn’t seeing a lot of Kimberle Crenshaw,
the lawyer, civil rights advocate and leading
scholar on critical race theory. Her book
on critical race theory introduced the theoretical
construct of intersectionality, which identifies
how certain factors such as a person’s gender,
race, sexuality, ability or disability can
all compound under systemic oppression like
white supremacy. She has a new book coming
out in 2021 called Blackness at the Intersection
and I’ll be keeping my eye out for that
release date. Her book Critical Race Theory
is available on Amazon for $64.76 or $71.95.
On Abebooks, her book was a little more reasonably
priced at $35.37 and $5 shipping. On Book
Depository it was about $50.
I wasn’t seeing a lot of bell hooks, who
is an author, a professor, a feminist and
a social activist. Her work focuses on class,
gender, feminism, classism and media critique.
Some of her notable works are Feminism is
for Everybody: Passionate Politics, (one of
my favourite books ever), Ain’t I a Woman:
Black Women and Feminism, Feminist Theory:
From Margin to Centre, and We Real Cool: Black
Men and Masculinity. She also founded a bell
hooks institute at Berea College in Berea,
Kentucky in 2014. Her book Feminism is for
Everybody: Passionate Politics is $43.46 for
a paperback on Amazon, $31.86 for an ebook,
which seems really expensive for an ebook.
Some of her other works are even more expensive
which is just like … okay. It was also interesting
to note that a lot of her work on gender,
on sexuality, on race, was more expensive
than her books on writing, or her memoirs.
I wasn’t seeing a lot of Patricia Hill Collins
who is another black, feminist academic. Her
book Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness
and the Politics of Empowerment which examines
the work of Angela Davis, Alice Walker, Audre
Lorde and others. She also has a book called
From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism
and Feminism which critically examines the
relationship between Black nationalism, feminism
and women hip hop artists which sounds very
cool. Her book on Black Feminist Thought was
about $44 on Amazon and Book Depository, with
the hardcover being considerably more expensive.
Abebooks does have a more affordable option,
though, only $18.75 with $8 shipping. Thriftbooks
was … $181.84 or unavailable. So.
I did find books available for Katherine McKittrick,
who is a professor in Gender Studies at Queens
University. Her work is specifically Black,
feminist and follows anti-colonial and African
diasporas and was one of the first scholars
to introduce the idea of Black feminist geography.
Her work focuses on art as liberation. On
Amazon, with her books being some of the more
reasonably priced of this list. Her book Demonic
Grounds was $29.21 on Amazon, with her books
about the same price on Book Depository ($32.46),
aside from one exorbitantly-priced hardcover
($140.50). On Abebooks, her books are about
$21.04 and $35.00 respectively.
I also looked up Assata Shakur’s autobiography.
Assata Shakur was a former member of the Black
Liberation Army and the Black Panther party.
Known as an activist and a feminist, she is
also on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, as a
result of J. Edgar Hoover’s efforts to disrupt
the Black power movement. Her book is available
on Amazon ($20.24 for a paperback and $7.41
for an ebook) and Abebooks for a reasonable
price of $32.77 and $5 shipping, (Abebooks
also has only one English edition), but then
not available at all on Book Depository or
Thrift Books.
The two authors I saw come up in these lists
a lot were Angela Davis and Audre Lorde. Angela
Davis is a political activist, philosopher,
professor and author whose work focuses on
prison abolition, class, feminism and race.
A lot of her books are sold out right now,
but again, I think that’s because everyone
is getting on the activism train, which I
don’t mind as long as people, myself included,
read the books. Her books are usually about
$20 or $30 or so.
I was also seeing Audre Lorde and her works
Sister Outsider and Zami: A New Spelling of
My Name as well as other essay collections.
Audre Lorde is a self-described 'black, lesbian,
mother, warrior, poet', whose work explores
black feminist lesbian identity, racism, sexism,
classism, homophobia, heterosexism and more.
Her books range anywhere from $5.00 for her
smallest collection, with her other books
costing about $15 across all the retailers
I investigated.
I also wanted to acknowledge that some of
these books are treated as textbooks and so
textbooks can be more expensive. (I guess
you could also then look in university bookshops
— which are notoriously expensive — and
specific textbook websites?) But then I keep
thinking about how African American studies
and Black diaspora studies are electives,
while white history is the backbone of every
curriculum in most commonwealth countries
and in the United States. Or the fact that
if you don’t go to college or whatever reason,
you don’t get to learn about these histories,
from these wonderful professors with these
books. Many of the authors of these books
also have a multitude of articles written
on their respective subjects but many of those
are behind academic paywalls too.
While me critiquing and complaining about
the access of these specific, sometimes 20-year-old
textbooks is a real niche, it is vital that
we consider economic disparities, educational
disparities and other gaps before we start
asking Black and People of Colour to do emotional
labour for us.
In the end, if these books are so expensive
or just completely unavailable, are they really
going to end up in the hands of young Black
feminists? What about rural communities? People
experiencing poverty, queer people, trans
people, who struggle with financial stability?
Who can afford these books? Who has that kind
of disposable income? Especially in a pandemic,
where many libraries are closed.
How do young, racialised organisers access
these books? My library does not even have
many of these books. I will have to request
them for purchase and see what they say, but
since many of them, even in their third and
fourth editions, are over 10 years old, it’s
unlikely they’ll get purchased.
I have a friend who is a grass roots organiser
in my city who regularly goes to the Bay Area
of the United States just to find specific
radical bookshops with a particular selection
of activist non-fiction. Per says it’s not
just the individual books that he finds inspiring,
but seeing them altogether, seeing how independently-owned
bookshops curate not only books, but ideas
to create kinship, understanding and celebrate
different radical movements together on the
shelves. Ideally, he shouldn’t have to go
overseas to find a selection of books that
per feels is necessary to per’s work.
Books are luxury items (in my opinion) but
with activists like adrienne maree brown’s
Pleasure Activism and Emergent Strategy, Leah
Lakshmi Piepezna-Samaransinha’s Care Work:
Dreaming Disability Justice, Mikki Kendall’s
Hood Feminism, Desmond Cole’s The Skin We’re
In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power,
Policing Black Lives by Robyn Maynard and
so many more books, so many more voices. With
all of these books fairly affordable and in
my local library, I can only hope that these
books are found in the hands of the people
that need them the most, and their allies.
Hey! It’s me, two days later. I didn’t
want to leave this video in a place where
it was unresolved. So that’s why I did a
whole bunch of research and found lots of
links to lots of pdfs of these books, so you
can access them yourself. I did find a link
to many resources via amy_sall’s instagram,
it will be linked in the description below,
from SUNU Journal. I found her page through
interestedinblackbook’s instagram. I found
a Black History Month Google Drive with pretty
much every book mentioned in this list available
there as a pdf. I remembered the Black Lives
Canada Syllabus that’s been in my bookmarks
for a long time that has a tonne of books,
documentaries and films, photographers, choreographers,
visual artists and musicians you can follow.
There’s a resource for Chronically Ill and
Disabled People, because I know that not every
protest or movement actively includes disabled
people. There’s an Anti-Racism Resource
list from Booked with Jameelah, so thank you
Jameelah.
There’s some Implicit Bias tests I found
through Harvard that are pretty interesting,
they measure how you associate things like
gender, skin tone, disability or ability with
certain words, images and your response time.
(There’s also a whole bunch of questions
about yourself that you don’t have to answer.)
What’s interesting is that the researchers
say that diversity training often doesn't
change or challenge bias, the only way to
challenge bias is to introduce blind auditions
and deny bias the chance to operate.
Obviously, not all of these resources will
interest you or be valuable to you, please
use your discretion, your critical thinking
skills and decide what works for you personally.
I also included a few books about police abolition
and mass incarceration provided free by certain
publishers during this time. Verso Books are
providing free copies of certain ebooks, asking
that people instead donate the cost of the
ebook to a worthy cause. Haymarket Books also
have a book available on police abolition
so I’ll link that below if it’s still
available. As a library assistant, I feel
very passionately about people being able
to access books freely and easily, and so
I wanted to share this video and these resources
with you today.
So, while many of the physical books might
still be more expensive, or might be difficult
to access, I managed, with a little work,
to find many ebook editions of these books.
It is only just the beginning and I hope that
I can expand this list, continue to add to
it and to continue to celebrate and support
those activists, scholars and leaders who’ve
been doing this work for years.
I also have a letter template in a Google
document down below that you can use to support
and advocate for Black voices, authors and
books in your library system. Please feel
free to personalise it, to speak to the vibrancy
of your own community, talk about your own
experiences with the library and what you
wish your library could be for
your community.
Keep up the necessary work. Keep advocating
for change, for justice. Any hate comments
criticising the Black Lives Matter movement
will be deleted. Otherwise, let’s chat in
the comments below. Thanks for watching. Bye
everyone!
