George Floyd: Books about racism and white supremacy see huge surge in sales amid Black Lives Matter protests
Books about racism and white supremacy are selling out in the UK, following protests around the world over the death of George Floyd.
Floyd died in Minneapolis last week after a white police officer knelt on his neck, prompting global protests over police brutality and systemic racism.
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge is currently the bestselling book on Amazon in Britain, where it is listed as temporarily out of stock.
Published in 2017, the book explores issues from eradicated black history and the political purpose of white dominance to whitewashed feminism and the inextricable link between class and race.
Layla F Saad’s Me and White Supremacy, meanwhile, is in fifth place on Amazon’s UK charts, and is also out of stock. The book, which came out earlier this year, advises readers on how to dismantle the privilege within themselves so that they can stop inflicting damage on people of colour.
Akala’s Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, which is seventh on the charts, is sold out, too. It was published in 2019 and covers the police, education, identity, politics, sexual objectification and the far right.
Eddo-Lodge asked people buying her book to match the price they paid with a donation to the Minnesota Freedom Fund. She tweeted: “Because of the past week’s horrible and tragic events, I’ve noticed a marked uptick in people recommending my book. This book financially transformed my life and I really don’t like the idea of personally profiting every time a video of a black person’s death goes viral.”
In the US, Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Ijeoma Oluo’s So You Want to Talk About Race, Ibram X Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist, and Sesame Street picture book We’re Different, We’re the Same are all at the top of the book charts.
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