Politics and Prose: Where have all the anti-racist reading lists gone?

It wasn’t long ago when the term “anti-racism” was on the tip of every avowed liberals’ tongues (I specify “liberals” here because it has since become painfully apparent how averse a sizable portion of the country is to ideas such as anti-racism). An explanation for the term’s sudden but sustained ascendance shouldn’t be necessary, but for the purpose of establishing context, I’ll elaborate. 

Following the murder of George Floyd in May and during the months of protests, uprisings and intellectual and cultural shifts that ensued, common knowledge and usage of the term “anti-racism” increased exponentially. The term wasn’t new, but it powerfully encapsulated the ethos of the moment and offered many Americans a new framework through which to evaluate their own beliefs and behaviors. It wasn’t enough to simply not be racist — not being racist amounted to tacit complicity with racism — now, the expectation for baseline decency was to actively fight against racism in all of its forms; in other words, to be anti-racist. 

With this traction also came traction in popular literary and reading circles. Book stores became inundated with orders and requests for anti-racist reading material. Self-proclaimed anti-racist book clubs proliferated across the country. Posts about purchasing, reading and, in some cases, merely owning anti-racist books became commonplace on many people’s social media feeds. In addition, anti-racist reading lists became a fixture on social media and in nearly every major media publication.

So, it is with this in mind that I feel compelled to ask, as videos of violent hate crimes and racist bile threatening Asian Americans becomes a daily norm, “Where have all the anti-racist reading lists gone?”

Of course, this isn’t to equate the experience of Black Americans in the United States with the experience of Asian Americans. Comparisons between marginalized groups are often unproductive and prone to reducing racial trauma to a competitive sport. However, if the purpose of anti-racist reading lists and their curators — major news publications, magazines, bookstores, public figures and social media activists — really is to combat racism in all of its forms, it stands to reason that a wave of anti-racist reading lists on anti-Asian American hate should’ve proliferated by now. 

This also isn’t to suggest that these lists don’t exist at all. A simple Google search would result in several applicable reading lists on the issue, but this misconstrues the point. What I’m trying to draw attention to is a lack of urgency and frequency. Simply put, my feed is not being flooded with anti-racist reading lists as it was last summer. I don’t see anyone displaying stacks of anti-racist books by Asian American authors or bringing attention to Asian American literature, even though everyone and their mother was woefully desperate to parade around their copies of “White Fragility” and “How to be an Antiracist.”  

All of this has brought me to a simple conclusion, one that I’ve understood for most of my life: The United States still does not care about Asian Americans. 

I recognize that some might take issue with this. Anti-racist reading lists and social media posts about them are not necessarily representative. In the same vein, the potentially superficial and performative nature of the various forms of anti-racist activism described above are well documented. Large amounts of those previously mentioned anti-racist reading orders were canceled or never picked up from bookstores. It also goes without saying that it is more than likely that many of those who posted about their newly acquired anti-racist libraries never got to the more substantive work of reading. 

At the end of the day, the form of activism I’ve alluded to is almost entirely performative. I’m almost certain that last summer’s anti-racist reading lists didn’t save or substantially improve any Black lives, and I’m similarly certain that they wouldn’t be saving or substantially improving any Asian American lives today. Anti-racist reading lists, and even the books contained within them, can be useful and extraordinary things, but none of them are magical cure alls for our collective ignorance, biases and prejudices. 

Still, even performative activism is better than no activism; and performative activism still contributes to elevating long-overlooked injustices and indignities to mainstream, common acceptance. It also can engender broader recognition that a problem exists. 

So, as I continue to see people that look like me, my mother and my grandparents attacked, brutalized and harassed seemingly every day, even if the activism is all performative, the performance, at a bare minimum, would be appreciated right now. 

Stuart Carson is a senior writing about political literature. He is also an associate managing editor of the Daily Trojan. His column, “Politics and Prose,” runs every other Monday.