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The Literary Criticism You Might Not Have Read Since College
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This Required History Reading

The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter

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Extra Credit

Wrenched of the Earth by Franz Fanon

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This James Baldwin Essay

"Stranger in the Village" by James Baldwin (from his book Notes of a Native Son)

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More Baldwin

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

'The Atlantic' magazine cover image from June 2014

This Groundbreaking Article

"The Case for Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates (From The Atlantic’s June 2014 issue)

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On Mass Incarceration
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander



Claudia Rankine is a poet, essayist and playwright. She is the author of Citizen and her next book, Just Us: An American Conversation is forthcoming with Graywolf Press. She teaches at Yale University.