The Warmth of Other Suns
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. She interviewed more than a thousand individuals, and gained access to new data and offical records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves. - Back cover.
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What Hacker News says
- St. Louis has the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delmar_Divide.
The Warmth of Other Suns is a very good book for filling some of that hole in your education. I am not sure if I wasn't taught about the Great Migration at all or was taught about it for 10 minutes but definitely did not get out of school with much understanding of this aspect of American history.
- I found these twitter threads to be useful about this book: https://twitter.com/drchanequa/status/1278775116059598848
I agree with this thread, and it has a bunch of other great books listed:
https://twitter.com/RheaBoydMD/status/1276909706422829058?s=...
Here's a list of books mentioned in the thread that people may want to read.
The Warmth of Other Suns: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0679763880/
Sister Citizen: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0300188188
Pushout: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1620973421
This Bridge Called My Back: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1438454384
So You Want to Talk About Race: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1541647432
Killing the Black Body: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0679758690
How to be an Anti Racist: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Be-Antiracist-Ibram-Kendi-ebook...
Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American https://www.amazon.co.uk/Racecraft-Soul-Inequality-American-...
Why I'm not longer talking to white people about race: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Longer-Talking-White-People-About/d...
- What gets brought up in addressing the problems of White Fragility by this writer are not the same objections I hear from white people, for the most part. While the article's author has valid critiques, they are not "racism doesn't exist" nor "we shouldn't be taking this time to better understand the role of racism in our culture," nor "most white people are not fairly ignorant when it comes to the role race plays in dealings with police, economic position, or status in many industries including tech."
I would highly recommend doing additional reading that is less concerned with "how white people should feel," and more related to the history and construction of the idea of race in America. Fatal Invention, by Dorothy Roberts, is a good look at the role of science, and the Warmth of Other Suns is an interesting look at migration, for example.
- > For all that went wrong for blacks, they generally didn't flee on boats with only the shirts on their backs after witnessing a quarter of the people that they grew up with being killed. Only to land in a country where they didn't speak the language, or understand the culture, and were generally disliked.
This is literally what happened through the Atlantic slave trade.. just replace "flee" w/ "were sold".
> I'm drawing from my thoughts and other comments here. The determination that it takes to be a refugee. True hope that they can create a better life. A culture of helping fellow minority members. A certainty that no matter what the frustration, it really could be worse.
> Now can we encourage those attitudes in blacks? I believe so.
I know that these characteristics have been shown time and time again within the black community. If you want to see a culture of helping fellow minority members look to the NAACP, if you want to see an example of determination please read "Up From Slavery", if you want to understand the hope to create a better life read "The Warmth of Other Suns".
My argument is not "things are out of your control" nor is it that there is something lacking in the black community that other successful minorities have demonstrated.. my argument is "here are the institutional and systemic barriers that are present -- if you want to understand the present situation and how to move forward you must understand them".
- "The Warmth of Other Suns" may also interest you: http://www.amazon.com/The-Warmth-Other-Suns-Migration/dp/146... (no affil link)
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(lets hear it for perl one-liners.)
