101 Links to Black Writers and Voices - Compiled by Dr Sandy O'SullivanJune 2020

parallaxBanner

avocado

text-only-left

flexible

The following list links to Black writing and voices from across Australia.

The work is from writers, journalists, scholars, activists, curators, radio presenters, health workers, social commentators, lawyers, students, teachers, thinkers, and more.

Some are Elders.

All work listed here comes from the labour of the authors.

Why Black voices?

As I write this on 23 June 2020, the two scholars most cited and promoted on social media in the field of racism and privilege, are White. They are the most heard and the most visible and both have had #BlackLivesMatter applied to posts at a far higher rate over the last few weeks, than the many thousands of Black writers who have been doing this work for decades, and across centuries. One currently tops the NY Times Non-Fiction Best Seller list.

The promotion of their work over Black writers perpetuates the idea that White people understand racism best, and that only they can solve it. Dangerously, it suggests that racism actually has nothing to do with Black people.

To counter this and to respond to the call that Black voices are listened to first, rather than last, here are 101 links and resources already shared across social media.

Selection?

The list represents a range of voices and approaches, but like any list formed by one person, it’s a little idiosyncratic. I really appreciate these people and their work, I think they make the world better. There you go, not very scientific.

Avoiding order

The numbering system isn’t hierarchical and I’ve avoided curating the list into sections because many of the topics overlap in important ways, e.g. people writing about racist tropes are also writing about Black Lives Matter, writers focusing on art are also interested in Treaty. Refusing tidy categorisation also challenges the colonial pattern that forms hierarchies of thought and meaning.

Notes on access to links

At the time of writing, the links are all working. Most of the links are fully accessible, though a couple of crucial pieces are behind paywalls that allow limited access. If you come across a dud link, please let me know.

Next Lists

The next 101 lists are:
101 Black artists, performers arts, photographers, creative practitioners
101 International Black writers.
101 international First Nation's writers and wordsmiths
and then, of course the next lot of these, because I'm missing hundreds from this list.

If you want to do a list, that would be wonderful.

There are tens of thousands of Black and Indigenous writers around the world, the list is exhausting, and wonderful. Let’s exhaust ourselves discovering them.

I’m also developing a creative disciplines guide to writers and makers who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour. If you’d like a copy of that list, or to suggest folks or work to go on that list, or any of the other lists, please contact me (sandy.osullivan@usc.edu.au).

Original tweets

The following is the original tag and top narrative on the links, used on Twitter:

#BlackXplaining101

1-101/million

Instead of whitesplaining articles being avidly retweeted with #BLM, cite these Black words.

parallaxBanner

Public

5

Back to Course

AustLit

Email Alert

Alert

Information