The Sunday Six 6/28/20 #linksilove

Here are six important reads that came across my social media feeds in the past couple of weeks.

YA novelist Tiffani Jackson reflects on “this pivotal, purposeful moment” and gives advice to young Black women who are observing and protesting and wondering what next. (Cosmopolitan)

Crystal Marie Fleming shares 10 Practical Steps for Building a Less Racially Stupid Society. (Beacon Broadsides)

Student Saoirse Herlihy pens an open letter to teachers at her high school explaining the curricular violence of texts like Huck Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird. A must-read for teachers. (Blog)

I’m still sitting with poet Elizabeth Alexander’s gorgeous and devastating piece of writing about The Trayvon Generation. (New Yorker)

Author L.L. McKinney describes the retraumatization that can occur when teachers assign books by Black authors only when they center “Black pain”: “for every “issue” book, we need at least five more where we can go on adventures, fall in love, solve mysteries, be heroes, do everyday things like everyone else. Black readers need to see themselves in narratives outside of racism, slavery, Jim Crow, police brutality. As do non-Black readers.” (Tor)

Rachel Charlene Lewis explains why asking Black friends or co-workers what you should be reading to learn about Black history or racism or what you should be planning to assign to your students is so exhausting (and if you’re still looking for reading lists, she links to several good ones). (BitchMedia)