I’m not pro-black more than I’m pro-God: Yve’s Black Lit Reading List.

The title of this post is my favorite trending quote right now. (Wait, is it even still trending? Social media has the attention span of a flea….)

Backstory

A clip of the phrase “I’m not pro-black more than I’m pro-God” being spouted by a light-skinned black man with locs caught my attention while scrolling Instagram and I very briefly got sucked into all of the late 2023 hoopla related to the back and forth social media exchanges between Christian hip-hop rappers Dee-1 and Lecrae . Google it if you have no awareness of it because I’m not going to get into it on here. What’s most important to me is the meaning behind the phrase—black Christ-followers should NOT put culture before faith. I mean….I GET it…we wake up black every single day, can’t hide it or wipe it off, and its the first thing the world sees before we can even open our mouths. Which doesn’t negate the fact that either way, as ambassadors of Christ, people SHOULD see Jesus in us more than anything else. In a perfect world that is. But I digress….

Dee-1. A math teacher turned independent rap artist and now also an entrepreneur and professor at Tufts University. All while reppin’ Jesus Christ. www.dee1music.com

Black is more than a race. Its also a culture. For years I would bristle when others would refer to me as “African-American” because in my mind I had more ties to the U.S.A. than the genetic fragments that loosely associated me with unknown countries on an unknown continent that no one in my family had been to in at least 450 years. More or less because honestly, how would I even know? They weren’t passing out census data when the enslaved were set free barely 150 years ago and they definitely didn’t allow birth records on the boats that carried them to American soil. There was so much mixing and what my Maryland-born Mama calls ‘muxing’ of black people from different tribes, languages, African countries, and yes, even with white men, that there is no way to accurately trace my bloodline without scientific intervention. I have yet to do a DNA ancestry test and due to the fact that there was a recent data breach of one of the top U.S. companies that perform the genetic testing, its looking like I will never do one. Even if I shelled out the $50 and swabbed my cheek, all it will tell me is that in the last 400-600 years some of my ancestors may have been from the Ivory coast of Africa, possibly a small percentage hailed from somewhere in Europe, a few probably originated somewhere else in central Africa with a few smatterings of other places that I doubt I have heard of or want to travel to. (Although it would be nice to find out if we have Native American in our ancestry as my mother likes to claim but then again, that’s what most black families claim out of a desire to not to come into agreement with the white blood of the slave masters that raped the enslaved). Thankfully, percentages on a page don’t define me. Jesus does.

Yet again, I digress.

Upon meditating on Dee-1’s quote I realized that he’s not saying he’s not pro-black. He’s just saying that he doesn’t put anything above his faith—that being born & raised into a distinct culture doesn’t trump being born again in Christ, especially if that culture has certain elements that elevate or glorify sin and “ratchet’ , immoral behavior for which Jesus bled out on a cross. In my opinion this is the same effort all American Christians should be undertaking daily, regardless of race or ethnicity.

In a post-Trump era where evangelical Christians are still given the side-eye and I myself lean neither far right nor far left, sadly, I feel obligated to explain: I love being black and being part of the black culture. I love my skin. I love my hair. I love: soul food, the Black arts movement of the Harlem Renaissance, spoken word poetry that is reminiscent of a version of hip-hop that was culturally relevant while still having moral boundaries, making up songs when I’m crackin’ a joke, and stomping my feet and clapping when I laugh. Yes, I’m a black woman. I’m a Christian, black woman. And at times I enjoy reading books that aren’t explicitly about Christ. I love Jesus and I live in a world that is most certainly not racially-blind so at times, I like to put my ear to the wall and hear the echoing creative groanings of a people longing for justice and hunting for peace.

Authenticity.

Life.

Truth.

And it is only when Truth is exposed that it can be healed by grace. So please review this book list thru a lens of redemptive grace and cultural understanding.

The New World Encyclopedia defines African-American literature as: “the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. The genre traces its origins to the works of such late eighteenth century writers as Phillis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano, reaching early high points with slave narratives and the Harlem Renaissance, and continuing today with authors such as Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and Walter Mosley. Among the themes and issues explored in African American literature are the role of African Americans within the larger American society, African-American culture, racism, slavery, and equality…”

Black literature is intellectually cool and cerebrally gratifying…and I want to get back into it now that I have the wisdom and maturity to appreciate its complexities and raw beauty without being overtaken by sin, bitterness, or feelings of defeat. It’s worth stating that my ability to experience a book or poem as a work of art is not limited by the personal beliefs or lifestyle that may or may not be espoused by its creator. Some things just are and more often than not, art just is. Black literature is brilliantly written, at times pithy, always creative, and often a damning commentary on a society that tends to see African-Americans in many roles other than simply ‘human’.

~ Yve

I consider the below works to be similar to certain books of the Bible such as Esther and the book of Judges. In the former, God is never mentioned and in the latter, no judgement is stated against the clearly immoral actions of those within the time period. They are to be studied and learned from with the understanding that God is both the Law-giver and the Judge, and since we all fall short of His standard, it is a needful choice to walk in a space of liberty and grace.

This list of books and authors I’ve enjoyed is abysmally short so it will grow as I seek to honor my cultural roots; simultaneously appreciating the breadth, depth, and talents of my people throughout time while sharing that same love and cultural knowledge with my daughter. I’m teaching her that its ok to love yourself , love your culture, and love people with your eyes, heart, and mind open—Diversity is beautiful and created by God. And so is our black.

Yve’s Black Lit List

• Chinua Achebe

  • Things Fall Apart

• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  • Purple Hibiscus

• Maya Angelou

  • I know why the caged bird sings (memoir anthology)

• James Baldwin

  • If Beale Street Could Talk

  • I am not your Negro

  • The Fire Next time

• J. California Cooper

  • Family

• Edwidge Danticat

  • Breath, Eyes, Memory

• Frederick Douglas

  • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

• Ralph Ellison

  • Invisible Man

    • I don’t think I ever finished this one unfortunately…..

• Nikki Giovanni

  • Assorted poems

• Virginia Hamilton

  • Cousins

• Lorraine Hansberry

  • A raisin in the sun

    • Another one I don’t believe i finished.

• Langston Hughes

  • The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes

• Zora Neale Hurston

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God

• James McBride

  • Deacon King Kong (TBR)

  • The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store (TBR)

• Toni Morrison

  • The Bluest Eye

• Walter Mosley

  • Easy Rawlin series

• Dori Sanders

  • Clover

• Mildred D. Taylor

  • Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

• Alice Walker

  • The Color Purple

Until next time,

Yve