Adua- Igiaba Scego

A novel by a Somali-Italian author, translated from the Italian. 
It portrays the life of a Somali woman who moves to Rome to become a film star, but ends up working in the porn field.
What is interesting is the portrait of Italy's engagement with Somalia and the Horn of Africa in the course of the 20th century.  There is a lot of exploitative history there, and historical ugly racism that is explored in the book.  Somalia was Italy's exotic East, same role as the Levant and North Africa played for France and Britain.

White Fragility: Why it's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism - Robin DiAngelo

    A patiently argued book.  As she points out in the book, as a race relations workshop leader, she has faced a lot of angry push-back around these ideas.

    For me, her main idea is that the nature of racism has changed.  Whites are still stuck in the image of racism from the 60s, deliberate acts and attitudes aimed at hurting and excluding people of colour - lynchings, exclusion signs, institutionally separate services.  DiAngelo's point is that the nature of currently troubling racism is much deeper, much more all-pervasive, much harder to pinpoint.  It is what is referred to as systemic racism.  And her idea that causes so much push-back is that, as whites, whether we wish it or not, we all benefit from this systemic racism.  Benefits accrue to us without us even trying.  Therefore we all participate in/benefit from racism.  (I say 'we', which is true, as she points out this white superiority and racism benefits all whites around the world within the context of different societies.  But most of her concrete examples are pulled from the U.S.)
     The type of racism she refers to includes more obvious things like segregation through such means as property prices, where the undesired group is shut out by economics.  This then creates segregation in available services, especially in the area of education quality.  She is also talking about media representation of racial groups and the stereotypes that influence our perception when interacting with members of other racial groups. 
      Notice she is careful to state that whites are also a racialized group, and that some people can hold prejudices and stereotypes that denigrate whites, but the difference is these groups do not have the social position and power to impose their prejudices and stereotypes on us.  They do not control the levers of power that make this racism pay or hurt.

      DiAngelo does not really offer much in the way of solutions.  Speaking up when other whites speak or act insensitively from racial stereotypes.  Raising awareness of one's own racialized stereotypes and ideas as they whisper away in our own heads.

The Lazarus Project - Alexander Hemon

A layering of two stories.  Lazarus is a Jewish immigrant killed without cause by the police in Chicago in the very early 1900s.  It is based on a true story.  This part explores the racism of the dominant society, the exaggerated stories they tell themselves, and also the economic exploitation of immigrants, especially at that time of rapid economic expansion and the founding of great fortunes.  You also get a sense of the social unrest and social conflicts of the time.  Same racist tropes you see today in the U.S,
The other story is about the author working on the Lazarus project, and the trip he takes to Ukraine, Moldova and Sarajevo as part of this ostensible research.  This part looks at difficult cultural / worldview differences between Bosnia, Ukraine, etc, and the more prosperous Western countries but at a very personal, interactive level.  Some of the immigrant author's comments about American culture and world view are very biting, but quite accurate.  There are also many stories about the siege of Sarajevo - one of the side characters.

How Fascism Works - Jason Stanley

A well-written concise book looking at the way fascism/autocratic forms of government establish themselves in a democratic context.  Step by step, technique by technique analysis.  Reads like a "how to" manual for would-be dictators.
Each critical step draws examples from history, mostly Mussolini and Hitler, and then looks at these same steps being taken currently in various countries around the world from the U.S. to Turkey to Russia to many others.
It is both interesting and useful to look at these steps and ask which ones you see currently operating within your own society.  Kind of a social health check-up. 
Worth reading several times.
Also worth reading in tandem with Ece Temelkuran's recent book, "How to Lose a Country".

Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Aichie

Originally checked this book out as a possible addition to my Tanpınar/Saleh cultural alienation collection.  Unfortunately, doesn't meet it, but it is still interesting in some ways.
Basically, the story of a Nigerian woman who moves to the States, struggles at first, but graduates from an elite university.  Years later she returns to Lagos in Nigeria.
In her time in the US, she runs a highly popular blog about being African / black in the US.   Entries from the blog are included in the novel - interesting way to run a novel of ideas within the context of a "story" novel.  For me, these blog entries are the most interesting part of the book - they provide some very sharp and deep thoughts on race, race relations, race culture, race attitudes etc. in the contemporary US.  (One of my favourites:  I wasn't black until I moved to the US)

The book is mostly a very perceptive and critical look at race politics and relations in current society in the US.  The Nigeria section does present some critical analysis, but much more shallow - and strangely, sounding more like the criticism an urban Westerner would levy.

Adjustment Day - Chuck Palahniuk

This book has created quite a bit of controversy with its suggestion in the course of the story that racial groups in the U.S. should inhabit different homelands.  And in fact, the first half of the book reads like a serious, reasonable proposition put forth by a group of essentially white suprematists. 
You have to continue to the last half of the book, however, once the whites, blacks, gays and latinos have all been resettled (or shipped out in the case of the latinos).  As the distinct homelands establish themselves and develop, Palahniuk begins to bring out the essential absurdities of all the current identity politics and doctrines.  Every community becomes a ridiculous and pathetic parody of itself.  In the end, we are left with a small group of fugitives from the various homelands who want to start again in a world where they are not defined by their narrow group identity.
Great sarcasm and parody, but somehow the writing in the last part didn't hold my attention well.

Still worth a read.

Slow Motion Riot - Peter Blauner

Both a gripping read and an interesting account of crack culture and police culture in the 90s in New York City.
It also explores issues around poverty and drug culture, how people end up there, what choices are made, how difficult it is to turn people and situations around,    Blauner doesn't come down on one side or other in terms of responsibilities - there is criticism of both society and its institutions, and the choices people make that lead them to crack culture and crack life.  The institutions exhibit institutional racism, the black characters are decidedly not sympathetic.  He does a good job of portraying the confused thinking (or lack of) behind some of the stupid things the characters do.  He also gives a sense of how thin or delicate the liberal view point can be, and how easy it is to slide into blame and scorn.
The conflict between political correctness and the reality of events on the ground.

The Shadow Girls - Henning Mankell

Another novel by Mankell from outside his detective series.  This one explores the issue of illegal immigrants in Sweden.  Three characters - one from Africa, one from Russia and one from Pakistan.  An attempt to both tell their stories and get inside their heads.  Looks at issue of culture clashes, incompatibility of values, the tensions in being the child of an immigrant with different family cultural values.
No conclusions, no easy solutions  offered - a look at what is.  Also, an implied critique of the liberal, intellectual, self-congratulatory class with its head stuck up its ass.  The most sympathetic Swedish character in the book is an older man who runs a boxing studio in a poor immigrant area.

White Boy Shuffle - Paul Beatty

Another darkly humorous look at stereotypes of both black and white contemporary culture.  This time Beatty's focus is largely on black ghetto cultural stereotypes - gangs, robberies, basketball, sex.

The Fire Next Time - James Baldwin

Essay on his experience as a black man in America.  Baldwin was way ahead of his time.  In this book he is discussing ideas that are currently creating a stir in the news.  His underlying point is how can you see yourself as part of a country when the country wants to exclude you, deny you, kill you.