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Buy It From Me, or Buy It Somewhere Else, Either Way, Here's What Happens to Your Money.

I've got three books and two programs down here, and I want you to know exactly what happens once you check out. If you order a signed copy, it ships from my own hands (I'm the one packing the box). If you order a paperback, it goes through a Black-owned bookseller first, before it ever touches the big retailers. And if your kid joins the book club, that money turns into a scholarship for a kid at my old university. The price is the same wherever you buy it. What that money does once it leaves your hands isn't.

Every purchase completes on the retailer's site. Nothing is sold or stored here.

The Books

I Wrote Three Books, and Each One's for a Different Reader.

There's a field manual, a memoir, and a book for our kids. The prices below are the publisher's prices, so buying through these links won't cost you a dime more, it just sends your money somewhere better than it would otherwise go.

Field Manual · Paperback · 2025

How Black History Can Save Your Life

From the Talk to George Floyd, Everything You Need to Know to Deescalate a Racist Situation. I didn't write this to be theory. I wrote it for the moment the room turns on you and you need to know, right then, what to do with your hands, your voice, and your history. 256 pages, Mango.

From $19.99

Order from Mahogany Books

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Mahogany Books is a Black-owned independent bookseller.

Memoir

Black History Saved My Life

How My Viral Hate Crime Led to an Awakening. This is the full account, in my own words, of the night at the festival, the verdict that refused to call it what it was, and what I built out of both of those things.

[PRICE PENDING]

Find a copy

[RETAILER PENDING]

Children's · Hardcover · Signed · 2nd Edition

The ABCs of Affirming Black Children

I picked twenty-six artists, activists, scientists, and speakers who dared to be great in the face of injustice, one for every letter, and built in affirmations, facts, a glossary, and space for our kids to make it their own.

$29.95 signed

Order a signed copy on Gumroad

I sign every one of these and ship it myself.

Same Book, Same Price, But Where You Buy It Decides Who It Helps.

You can get most of this anywhere, at the same price, and I wouldn't hold it against you. But when you buy a signed copy, it comes from my hands. When you order a paperback here, it goes through a Black-owned bookstore before it goes through anybody else. And when your kid joins the book club, that money sends another kid to the same university that trained me. None of that changes what you pay. All of it changes who it helps.

The Programs

I Built Two Things Here You Join, Not Buy.

One's for your kid, one's for you. I teach both of them myself, live, nothing here just gets shipped to you and left alone on a shelf.

K-5 · Live Virtual · Taught by Ernest

The Black History Book Club for Kids

I teach this live, virtually, for kids in K-5, and I built it on the Africana Studies Framework, aligned to Common Core, drawing on my twelve years as a certified secondary social science educator. Our kids build racial and cultural esteem here, and the non-Black kids in the room learn what allyship actually asks of them.

[SCHEDULE PENDING]
[SESSION LENGTH PENDING]
Proceeds fund scholarships for African American students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

[PRICE PENDING]

Adults · Recurring · Substack

The Adult Book Club

This is the paid tier of Crim's Class, for readers who want to go through the books together with me, discussion, historical context, and the parts that never fit in a newsletter. Cancel any time.

Builds on the free Crim's Class newsletter
[CADENCE PENDING]

[PRICE PENDING]· recurring

Join the book club on Substack

And if you're not ready to pay for anything, the free newsletter is on the resources page and always will be.

Where the Money Goes

Why I Started a Scholarship Fund, and Where This Money Actually Goes.

I set this up because the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is where I earned my degree in history and my minor in African American Studies, and I know what it cost me to get there and stay there. So every dollar the Black History Book Club brings in goes straight into a scholarship fund for African American students at that same school, no detour, no overhead I can avoid. This page isn't the business. The business is on the booking page. This is what the paid things are actually for.

Scholarship fund · University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · Funded by book club proceeds

See the nonprofit work

For Schools

I Know Districts Can't Buy Through Gumroad.

Class Sets · Purchase Orders · Invoices

Buying for a school, district, or library

Most institutions can't run a purchase through a creator storefront. I get that, you need an invoice, a W-9, and a PO number. Just say so in your message, and I'll send you all three. I've got class sets and bulk pricing available for all three titles.

Request an invoice

I Give Most of My Work Away for Free. This Is the Rest of It.

The curriculum, the guide for parents, the newsletter, the podcast, and the reading list all cost nothing, and they always will. If you're not buying anything today, take those instead.

Browse what's free Work with me

“History is not background. It is context.”