i was wondering if you could recommend some readings for someone who’s looking to get a foundation in the issues you address on your blog. clearly there’s no set of books to get my head around everything, but what are some essentials you might suggest for somebody who’s looking to expand beyond what he’s learned in a very standard, western liberal education?

I genuinely don’t know which of the many issues I regularly blog about you mean. I’d say that if I had to give a very superficial overview of the topics I cover, I’d say I focus mostly on

• gender
• racism and migration justice (and topics associated with this like colonialism, neo- colonialism, etc).
• epistemic justice

But you know, I also blog about pop culture or vintage handbags or just overall bits and pieces I find here and there (DALEKS!). So, I wouldn’t even know how to answer your question. You could read the works of people like Sara Ahmed, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, James Baldwin, Gloria Anzaldua, etc etc but even then, this is an incomplete list. It’s a list that still does not contain nearly enough names or all the valuable information.

So more than “what do I read?” I would shift the question to “How do I read?” which is, how do you engage critically with the knowledge/ texts that you are presented with? You can read entire libraries and remain as oblivious to injustice or dis-privilege as you were when you started. So, it’s not a matter of who you read but how you approach any material you are presented with. And that requires a great dosis of self knowledge more than anything else (how are you positioned in terms of the dominant culture and what is your role within said culture).

So read, but more importantly, think critically. That is something that nobody can do on your behalf.

For the past decade and a half I have been making all my content available for free (and never behind a paywall) as an ongoing practice of ephemeral publishing. This site is no exception. If you wish to help offset my labor costs, you can donate on Paypal or you can subscribe to Patreon where I will not be putting my posts behind a lock but you'd be helping me continue making this work available for everyone. Thank you.  Follow me on Twitter for new post updates.