anti-racism 101
mandatory reading
BOOKS
So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo — Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to "model minorities" in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life.
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad — Me and White Supremacy teaches listeners how to dismantle the privilege within themselves so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander — Michelle Alexander, a legal scholar, outlines how the Reagan government exploited 1980s hysteria over crack cocaine to demonize the Black population so that 'black' and 'crime' became interchangeable. A timely guide to the labyrinth of propaganda, discrimination, and racist policies masquerading under other names that comprises what we call justice in America.
The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America by Khalil Gibran Muhammad describes the creation following slavery of a racist ideology that framed African Americans as dangerous and likely criminals; that mindset animated laws, policies, and aggressive police practices that dehumanize, criminalize, incarcerate, and sometimes lead to the killing of disproportionate numbers of African Americans.
Raising Our Hands: How White Women Can Stop Avoiding Hard Conversations, Start Accepting Responsibility, and Find Our Place on the New Frontlines by Jenna Arnold — Consider Raising Our Hands your starting place, your Intro to Being a White Woman in Today's World freshman-year class. Jenna Arnold peels back the history that's been kept out of textbooks and the cultural norms that are holding us back, so we can start really listening to marginalized voices and doing our part to promote progress.
Racism Without Racists by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva — This book documents how, beneath our contemporary conversation about race, there lies a full-blown arsenal of arguments, phrases, and stories that whites use to account for-and ultimately justify-racial inequalities.
Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi (For younger readers, check out Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You) — In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history, dismantling the claim that we're living in a post-racial society.
ARTICLES
Anti-Racist Checklist for Whites by Robin DiAngelo (checklist on pg 19!)
What To Do Instead of Calling the Police by Aaron Rose
White Fragility and the Rules of Engagement by Dr. Robin Diangelo
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh
From White Racist to White Anti-Racist: the life-long journey by Tema Okun
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
BOOKS
A compilation of Black revolutionary texts available in PDF format here. (Big big thanks to Burn All Books for these resources!)
How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi — In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas — from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities — that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.
From Slavery to Prisons: A Historical Delineation of the Criminalization of African Americans by Deborah Burris-Kitchen and Paul Burris
The Origin of Others by Toni Morrison — America's foremost novelist reflects on the themes that preoccupy her work and increasingly dominate national and world politics: race, fear, borders, the mass movement of peoples, the desire for belonging. What is race and why does it matter? What motivates the human tendency to construct Others? Why does the presence of Others make us so afraid?
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson — this book plainly shows us that whenever African Americans started to make any strides (in education, voting, employment, home ownership), those gains were a threat to the status quo of inequality — those strides sparked incredibly intense and well-organized blowback — all of which leads me to appreciate just how insidious and persistent racial hatred is in the U.S.
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
NOTE: If you buy this book, please read this article as well. White Fragility has been criticized for being too navel-gazey and fostering complacency by creating an opportunity for white folks to stare into their whiteness, learn all the right terminology, and then absolve themselves of doing any further work.
Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth by Claude S Fischer et al — Through a clear, rigorous re-analysis, Inequality by Design offers a powerful alternative explanation to the incendiary 1994 bestseller The Bell Curve, stressing that economic fortune depends more on social circumstances than on IQ, which is itself a product of society. More critical yet, patterns of inequality must be explained by looking beyond the attributes of individuals to the structure of society.
Laissez-faire racism: The crystallization of a kinder, gentler, antiblack ideology. by Bobo, L., Kluegel, J. R., & Smith, R. A.
The Emperor Has No Clothes: Teaching About Race and Racism to People Who Don’t Want to Know a dissertation by Tema Jon Okun
America’s Original Sin by Jim Wallis
Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L Eberhardt
Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements by Charlene Carruthers
Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do by Claude Steele
Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (LISTEN to the NPR interview here)
ARTICLES
The Work Is Not The Workshop: Talking and Doing, Visibility and Accountability in the White Anti-Racist Community by Catherine Jones
Costs of Racism to White People Checklist by Paul Kivel
Accountability in a Time of Justice by Vivette Jeffries-Logan, Michelle Johnson, Tema Okun
Racial Identity Caucusing: A Strategy for Building Anti-Racist Collectives
White People, It’s Time To Prioritize Justice Over Civility by Tauriq Moosa
“Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?” by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
My Role in a Social Change Ecosystem: A Mid-Year Check-In by Deepa Iyer
The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning The 1619 Project. Take some time to read the entire thing, particularly this essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones
The Subtle Linguistics of Polite White Supremacy by Yawo Brown
The Intersectionality Wars by Jane Coaston
Grieving the White Void by Abraham Lateiner
Tips for Creating Effective White Caucus Groups by Craig Elliott PhD
The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture by Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun
Converting Hidden Spiritual Racism Into Sacred Activism: An Open Letter to Spiritual White Folks by Virginia Rosenberg
Why On-Screen Diversity Is So Important by Kimberly Lawson
SisterSong’s primer on Reproductive Justice
Talking About Race — The National Museum of African American History & Culture
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