While protests continue across the country against racial injustice, books about race —particularly anti-racism — have topped bestseller lists at Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and, in some cases, have sold out entirely, according to the Associated Press.
For example, “How to Be an Antiracist” by National Book Award winner Ibram X. Kendi is currently out of stock on Amazon and is just one of many books that have become bestsellers amid protests following the death of George Floyd.
This doesn’t happen everyday. It is fitting it happens on the day we are Blacking out for Black lives and hopefully supporting our local independent bookstores, too. The #1 and #2 overall bestsellers @amazon right now are two books challenging racism. This is you. 🖤🙏🏾🖤🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/jglXmlEfeY
— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) June 2, 2020
Both new and old books have grown in popularity recently, too, including Amazon’s current number one bestseller “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism” by Michael Eric Dyson, “The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin, and “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, according to Time magazine.
“White Fragility” and “How to Be an Antiracist” are on Amazon’s bestseller list ahead of the new “Hunger Games” prequel, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” which was considered a “blockbuster” for selling over 500,000 copies after it was released last week, according to Slate.
Apart from sales of individual books, Black-owned independent bookstores have also seen an increase in sales, according to Time.
“We’ve seen a tremendous increase, and I think it really is stemming from white people,” Ramunda Lark Young, co-founder of MahoganyBooks in Washington, told Time. “In light of recent events, a lot of people are now feeling a very visceral response in how they show up in this world, and how they see it from our lens.”