Books that explore the history of racial discrimination in the United States have become bestsellers as many seek to educate themselves on existing systems of marginalisation and oppression.
The boost in sales comes in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, which has sparked protests around the world.
Floyd, a black man, died in police custody after a white police officer suffocated him by pinning him under his knee.
Sadly, Floyd is far from being the first victim of racial discrimination and police brutality. And many are now turning to books to see how far-reaching and intricate these systems of discrimination are. Education is, after all, the first step towards building a more just and equitable society.
As of Thursday, June 4, 15 of the 20 books on Amazon’s bestseller list are about race and the history of racial injustice. We take a deeper look at nine of the best books on the topic.
‘So You Want to Talk About Race’
In this New York Times-bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo unpacks the complex reality of the racial landscape in the US in a clear and accessible manner. Oluo directly takes on issues such as white privilege, intersectionality, police brutality, the Black Lives Matter movement, and micro-aggressions.
‘How to Be an Antiracist’
A concept that transforms and revitalises conversations about race and racism, Antiracism can lead readers towards new ways of thinking about some of the most pressing issues of the day.
In How to be an Antiracist, author Ibram X. Kendi asks us to imagine what an antiracist world can look like, and we can each play a vital part in making it a reality.
The work takes on the topic from various facets of human society, blending together texts on ethics, law, history and science. How to be an Antiracist is an essential read for anyone who not only wants to develop an awareness of racism, but wants to help in building a better world.
‘The Colour of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America’
Richard Rothstein, a leading authority on housing policy, highlights the fact that US cities were segregated based on discriminatory patterns that continue to this day. The Colour of Law unpacks how this system of segregation began in the 1920s with explicit racial zoning, as millions of African-Americans moved from the south to the north.
The book explores how the American sub-urbanisation in the years after the World War 2 was spurred by federal subsidies for builders on the condition that no homes be sold to African-Americans. The Colour of Law also goes on to show how police and prosecutors cruelly continued these standards by bolstering violent resistance to black families in white neighbourhoods.
‘The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colourblindness’
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States.
In this scathing critique of contemporary America, legal-scholar Michelle Alexander shows the racial caste system has not ended, but has only been redesigned.
Alexander elaborates how the criminal justice system operates as a modern apparatus of racial control, targeting black men and destroying communities of colour.
‘Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America’
Ibram X Kendi won the National Book Award for Nonfiction for this title, which explores how racist ideas were created and spread within US society.
The author of How to be an Antiracist chronicles the history of anti-Black ideas and narratives, showing how they served to change the course of US history.
‘Between the World and Me’
Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote this book as a letter to his teenage son, adopting the structure of James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time.
In Between the World and Me, Coates examines the feelings, symbolisms and realities associated with being black in the US.
Written with a poetic and sombre tone, Coates details his youth in Baltimore before exploring the ways in which institutions – such as schools, the police and even "the streets" – endanger and marginalise black men and women.
‘Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor’
When Layla Saad launched the Instagram challenge #meandwhitesupremacy, she never expected it to spread as widely as it did.
The challenge encouraged people to admit and share their racist behaviours, however severe or small.
Thousands took part in the challenge, and countless more downloaded the Me and White Supremacy Workbook.
Me and White Supremacy expands on the original workbook, adding historical and cultural contexts alongside personal anecdotes.
‘White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism’
This book by Robin DiAngelo is at the top of Amazon’s best seller list right now. The work aims to challenge racism by comprehending and unravelling what the author describes as white fragility, a reaction in which white people feel attacked and offended when the topic of racism comes up.
The book draws from DiAngelo’s experiences as a diversity and inclusion training facilitator.
‘We're Different, We're the Same’
Elmo, Big Bird and their friends at Sesame Street teach children (and adults) that no matter how different we look on the outside, everyone is the same on the inside.
The author, Bobbi Kates, focuses on things we all have in common while celebrating the things that make us different.
With charming illustrations, the book sends across a powerful and strong message, exploring how our differences make this world wonderful.
______________
Read more:
'Black lives have always mattered': John Boyega gives powerful anti-racism speech in London
What is Blackout Tuesday? 'Perhaps with the music off, we can truly listen'
'George Floyd's life mattered': Meghan Markle addresses police brutality in graduation speech
Murder charge upgraded over George Floyd killing
______________
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-finals, first leg
Liverpool v Roma
When: April 24, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Anfield, Liverpool
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ETelr%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ELaunch%20year%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202014%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E65%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%20and%20payments%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Enearly%20%2430%20million%20so%20far%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
WITHIN%20SAND
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Moe%20Alatawi%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%20Ra%E2%80%99ed%20Alshammari%2C%20Adwa%20Fahd%2C%20Muhand%20Alsaleh%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
