During and after reading the White Fragility book, I saw several interviews of Robin Diangelo, who is white. She has been a consultant and corporate trainer on race related issues for decades and so has the right background to write the book. It is a short book (160 pages) with brief chapters. I liked her direct unflinching approach to "racism in the society" discussion that usually makes most Americans uncomfortable. She argues that despite whatever the media or your family may say, we live in a very racist society and all of us are racists. There is no point denying it. Only thing we can do is to be aware of this reality and then work on reducing/eliminating biases everywhere possible.
In the initial chapters she explains as to how most whites think of racism in the US as something that evil doers of the bygone era practiced. The general US historical narrative talks about slavery that was abolished with Lincoln's emancipation proclamation, civil rights era of the 60's that resolved ongoing racism of that time dovetailing to the election of Barack Obama that has culminated in the total elimination of racism from the society. Since these are problems already taken up and resolved years back, whites tend to think we live in a post racial society and so blacks have nothing to complain about. She repeatedly argues that this perception of good/bad binary is not the reality since white privileges and prejudices against blacks continue to exist at various levels throughout the society. There are amusing examples as to why whites claim they are not racists like, I don't see color, I have been to Costa Rica, I have a black relative, I voted for Obama, I am a vegetarian, etc. She has a lot of anecdotal examples from her training sessions. Instances where whites feel that whatever they say is thrown back at them and there is no way for them to defend themselves. Similarly the only black woman in an office meeting, who listens to her peers discussion for an hour and then asks couple of questions only to be told by her supervisor later that the others in the room felt attacked by her. Many whites feel discriminated against by the society that is trying to coddle blacks.
She has an interesting chapter titled White Women's Tears. Here she discusses as to how in most corporate or social environments when racism is under discussion, white women that are supportive starts crying to show their level of sympathy for blacks and to express how they are hurt by what the society is doing. This then results in everyone there running to console the crying white women, who then becomes the center of attraction, while the actual discussion or progress that need to be made falls by the wayside. In my personal life I don't encounter a lot of people who are emotionally upset and crying on a daily basis. So, I can see how I might be tempted to help pacify an adult crying, without realizing how the main purpose of the meeting is getting derailed. Such distractions can be occurring at several points in life that could potentially frustrate the blacks in the room. While these are all good debate points to discuss and make people realize the absurdity, my mind trained as an engineer always looking for solutions, didn't find much in this book that talks about how to solve the problem. The author says the number one question white people ask her during her training sessions is "How do I tell another white person that they are being racist without triggering their white fragility?". Her response is "How would I tell you that you are being a racist without triggering your white fragility?". This response is to point out to them that by the mere question, the questioner has separated themselves from the issue, indicating that the problem is outside of them. She has few more of such clever ripostes. But when it comes to solutions, she says if you ask, "So, what should I do to address these issues?" or "Can I ask black people for guidance?", they are all wrong questions since you should know yourself the answers. This will be confusing for whites even when they sincerely want to improve, since current norm is to provide simple clear answer/take away to people so that they can go implement. There is indeed one page of write up right at the end titled "Few strategies for working together". But it doesn't really have much in the way of strategies. While being woke first may be important as she repeatedly points out, in a book that is this accusatory and preachy, shying away from clear takeaways and action plans seems odd, particularly since she is a corporate trainer! There is not a lot of discussion as to how blacks are empowering themselves either. Not clear if telling all the white people they are the problem and they should feel ashamed alone is enough. 
Stamped - Racism, Antiracism, and you seems to be mostly written by Jason Reynold is based on Kendi's previous work titled Stamped from the beginning. It is listed on the cover as a remix and is aimed at young (i.e. undergrad students) readers. While proclaiming "This is not a history book", written in simple prose, book's chapters re-narrates the US national history from black perspective in a very chronological order. Thus, Section 1 covers years 1415 to 1728, section 2 covers 1743 to 1826 and so on with Section 5 covering civil rights era (the 1960s) to Obama/Trump years. Writing is playful and sarcastic. Here is a sample: About Jefferson. You know how I said Gomes Eanes de Zurara was the world’s first racist? Well, Thomas Jefferson might’ve been the world’s first White person to say, “I have Black friends.” I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m willing to make the bet. As a young man, he didn’t think of them as less or consider slavery much at all. It wasn’t until he was older, when his African “friends” started telling him about the horrors of slavery — including the terror in his own home — that he realized their lives were more different than he’d even known. I don’t know about you all, but I don’t own my friends.
Book argues that a lot of shenanigans have gone into writing US history and teaching them in schools in a way that is comfortable to the white population. For example, some school books in the Southern states of US describe slavery (without using that term) as a practice of bringing people from Africa to do chores. I myself have noticed similar air brushing or modified portrayals in various parts of the US. For example, couple of decades back when we went to Smokey Mountains in Tennessee, saw a show featuring two teams of equestrians competing in events. They were portrayed as and carried flags of Union and Confederate armies from the era of US Civil Wars in the mid 1800's. Though the Southern Confederate army (that supported slavery) was defeated by the Union army (which initially supported slavery but in the end made abolishing slavery its main platform), this show continues to show confederate army as a set of jolly good fellows, equal to and competing with Union army even now! While that show was a bit confusing for me decades back, this book points out as to how in so many other ways history got distorted to take away the shame. The notion that this reorientation extends to Tarzan, developed as a white character who lives in the jungle and still has all the virtues of a civilized white man, was new to me. Book even argues that the series of Rocky and Rambo movies starring Sylvester Stallone is a thinly disguised attempt to make the white man look like hero. Could be true but I didn't see it from that angle till now. But the effect of the old racist movie Birth of a Nation, once shown in the Whitehouse, to dog whistles Presidents Nixon and Reagan used were all discussed concluding with Obama described as assimilationist and Trump, not even bothering much with dog whistles. There are discussions of many other racially significant events and developments, like The Bell Curve book published in the early 90's to argue how blacks are genetically inferior as indicated by IQ tests, rise of the Black Panthers, assassinations of black leaders like M.L.K and Malcom X. But there is hardly any discussion of how native Americans suffered through their own persecution along the same historical time lines. The flippant tone may make some assertions appear as pushing the envelope. Since the book is aimed at young readers, presumably it is all intentional. Thus, though neither book can be described as perfect, they both are worth the easy read. In a way, they remind me of Oliver Stone's The Untold History of the United States documentary series that discussed world history from first world war onwards describing the role of US not as the shining star that it is usually portrayed as, but more of a powerful nation that still commits a lot of errors, misses lot of good opportunities to set the world in better directions and just bumbles its way through. While I understand how making citizens believe in the manifested destiny of US helps its cause, air brushing history too much to make ourselves feel good can't be good in the long run. Thus such works are warranted in open societies. If you have read them, PLMK what your thoughts were. Though this is an uncomfortable topic, it deserves unbiased civil & cerebral discussions that are not too emotional.
