An anti-racist reading list for urbanists and real estate professionals
I am without words after seeing communities of color speak out this past week — and act — against centuries of inequality. The brutal, senseless killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis leaves me heartbroken. My words will come, but I need time to respect the space of my black friends, reflect more, and use my voice compassionately and intelligently. Right now, as a researcher and scholar, my best response is to offer important books that I have read that shaped my thinking in my role working as an urbanist.
I recommend these books to those of us who work in cities, urban planning, and real estate. I offer them without review or comment, only to say that I remember reading these books (or am reading them), and each of these books can expand one’s view of the built environment and your place in institutions. This is not a comprehensive list of everything I have read or that think is valuable, but I offer these because I feel they shaped how I view our world and my role as an urbanist. There is a lot more out there, and I know I need to expand my own reading. I humbly submit these recommendations.
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
by Richard Rothstein
WW Norton & Co. (2018)
Available at Powell’s City of Books
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race
by Beverly Daniel Tatum
Basic Books (2017)
Available at Powell’s City of Books
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
by Matthew Desmond
Broadway Books (2017)
Available at Powell’s City of Books.
Other People’s Money: Inside the Housing Crisis and the Demise of the Greatest Real Estate Deal Ever Made
by Charles V. Bagli
Plume (2014)
Available at Powell’s City of Books
Race and Real Estate (Transgressing Boundaries: Studies in Black Politics and Black Communities)
edited by Adrienne Brown and Valerie Smith
Oxford University Press (2015)
Available at Powell’s City of Books.
Categorically Unequal
by Douglas Massey
Russsel Sage (2008)
Available at Powell’s City of Books.
Segregation by Design: Local Politics and Inequality in American Cities
by Jessica Trounstine
Cambridge University Press (2019)
Available at Powell’s City of Books.
