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FROM DR. NICOLE A. COOKE

This project emerged out of the pain and frustration associated with the back-to-back deaths of #GeorgeFloyd #BreonnaTaylor and #AhmaudArbery in 2020.
We must do better as a global society! #BlackLivesMatter

This list is not a panacea. This compilation of resources is JUST A STARTING POINT to encourage people to do their own work and have their own hard conversations.

If you would like to link to this guide with attribution, please use this citation:

Cooke, N. A. (2020, May 30). Anti-Racism Resources for all ages. [A project of the Augusta Baker Endowed Chair at the University of South Carolina]. https://padlet.com/nicolethelibrarian/nbasekqoazt336co

A loose guide to the almost 200 resources listed here.

* Green = materials for youth
* Red = media and other important works
* Other Colors = items of particular interest and/or that I have used in my classrooms.

© 2020 Nicole Cooke

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6 Books To Help Your Kids Understand Race

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6 Books To Help Your Kids Understand Race

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The writer Ibram X. Kendi has been reading a lot of books to his five-year-old daughter, Imani. And when he chooses those books, he makes sure they include many kinds of people.

"I'm also really excited now because her favorite color right now is the rainbow," he says. "And so I feel like we're doing something right because I constantly emphasize this sort of human rainbow and appreciating it."

Kendi is the author of Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. He also produced a youth version of that work, a chapter book called Stamped for Kids. So as we discuss summer reading on current events, we asked him to recommend some other books for younger readers on race.

But because we'll be talking about books on race for young people, I also wanted to ask Kendi about the unfolding debate over the teaching of race in schools. "It's been tragic for me to watch," Kendi says. "Because we unfortunately live in a society where there's racial inequity, and our kids are trying to figure out why. They see, you know, let's say darker people who are more likely to be homeless or incarcerated or impoverished, and they're trying to figure out why is that the case? And if we're not actively teaching them it's because of racism, then what are they going to conclude? The way we can protect them is by actively teaching them about racism. And so I think it's dangerous to not teach kids about why inequality exists in our society."
On whether anti-racist education means being told white equals terrible

I'm so excited about the books that are being produced today that can allow us as parents and caretakers and teachers to facilitate these conversations.

Any good teacher who's going to teach about racism, and also its history, are going to teach about people of different races who were involved in abolitionist struggles, who were involved in the civil rights movement, who are trying to create an equitable and just society today. So what a white student will learn is, they'll learn about a white slaveholder and a white abolitionist, and they'll learn about why both said what they said and did what they did, and they'll learn which one had the morally right and just position.
On whether these lessons are better taught at home
I think these lessons are better taught everywhere. And I think when our teachers are teaching it and the parents are teaching it and, you know, aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins and friends, and we're just we're so focused on ensuring that this next generation of Americans can view different-looking groups as equals and can ultimately eliminate this scourge of racism that this nation has faced. We're collectively focused on that. I mean, to me that's what sort of gets me excited. And that's why I'm so excited about the books that are being produced today that can allow us as parents and caretakers and teachers to facilitate these conversations.

Kendi's reading recommendations

Dear Martin is about a young African American teen who is going to a private school, and is really grappling with his his own identity. And so he ends up, in the book, writing a series of journal entries exploring the life of Martin Luther King to really understand his own identity. And, you know, I think teens everywhere - but especially black teens - are constantly trying to understand who they are. The second book, Dear Justyce, which is one of Justyce's friends who's incarcerated, writing to Justyce ... about what really happened, why he's innocent, but even more importantly about the juvenile justice system. You know, I love when books encourage young people to write and to express themselves, and certainly these two books do.

Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson

This book is really a memoir in verse about her life and her upbringing in South Carolina and in New York. And it's really a book that allows a young person to really explore what it means to to be a child, particularly a child in this world. But I think what I really found fascinating about this book and why I can't wait til [my daughter] reads it one day, you know, is because you can just tell through this text just how much Jacqueline came to love stories and storytelling despite the fact that she struggled to read as a child.

The Poet X, by Elizabeth Acevedo

Elizabeth Acevedo is obviously one of the more gifted writers of our generation, and she writes about a character ... Xiomara, who has all these frustrations as she's growing into herself, and she learns to pour these frustrations and these passions into poems. And she recites them to herself and wants to perform them, and knows her overbearing caretakers would not approve, but this is her outlet, this is the way she wants to speak and share herself, and ultimately she refuses to be silent.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, by Erika L. Sánchez

Well, I think one of the things I'm trying to teach my daughter is the beauty about humanity is our imperfections. And, you know, I think Juan Felipe Herrera spoke about this book as a perfect book about imperfection. And I don't know whether I mean, I feel like quoting his statement. I don't know if there's a better way to describe, you know, I am not your perfect Mexican daughter.

It's really a book in many ways about two sisters, and one sister is perceived, you know, by her mother as this perfect child. And the other child is perceived as this far less than perfect child - to be diplomatic. And then the 'perfect child' tragically passes away. And then the 'not perfect' child begins to learn more about her and begins to find that in many ways she was imperfect, just like she was.

The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person, by Frederick Joseph

I think Frederick is pretty open in this book about this being a text specifically for young white people who want to be better, who want to be anti-racist, who want to be people who are striving to recognize and even take down the structures of racism. And so just like many white adults have begun to realize that this is something that is important, so too have many white teens.

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Ibram X. Kendi Recommends 6 Books To Help Your Kids Understand Race

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The writer Ibram X. Kendi has been reading a lot of books to his five-year-old daughter, Imani. And when he chooses those books, he makes sure they include many kinds of people. "I'm also really excited now because her favorite color right now is the rainbow," he says.

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A Literary Guide to Combat Anti-Asian Racism in America

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A Literary Guide to Combat Anti-Asian Racism in America

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Electric Lit

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If you enjoy reading Electric Literature, join our mailing list! We'll send you the best of EL each week, and you'll be the first to know about upcoming submissions periods and virtual events.

In the last year, the Asian American community has seen an onslaught of verbal harassment and physical attacks, triggered by the onset of COVID-19-still called "the Chinese virus" by many Americans. Despite the continued violence, however, U.S. media has kept relatively silent on the matter. As Anne Cheng writes for The New York Times, "When it comes to Asian-American grief, do Americans want to know?"

We've compiled this list as a way to better understand the deep roots of Asian American discrimination in the U.S. We hope we can help amplify the urgent need to acknowledge anti-Asian racism and the complexity of Asian American identity today. Staying silent exacerbates the portrayal of Asian Americans as the "model minority," ignoring the violent and potentially fatal consequences of anti-Asian racism. This, in turn, creates internal division within BIPOC communities, de-validates Asian American experiences, and continues to perpetuate the vicious cycle of white supremacy. We'd like to emphasize that we should not look towards increased policing as a way to combat the violence; the U.S. police force-as these books note -is a system that perpetuates anti-Black violence and upholds white supremacy. Combating anti-Asian racism means looking beyond the black-and-white binary of racial discussions in America, and understanding how white supremacy pits minority against minority.

The term "Asian America" itself encompasses a broad array of nationalities and accompanying differences; though we've approached this list with an eye towards a variety of perspectives, we recognize we are constrained by our own experiences as Korean American and Chinese writers. While we have tried to include a variety of genres, this is also a limited introduction to an array of books on this topic. However, we hope it offers a starting point to better understand the systematic structures of racism, inequity, and silencing that have let anti-Asian violence in America flourish. If you're moved to take action against anti-Asian violence and help those who have been affected, here is a site of compiled resources; Next Shark is also a non-profit media source that addresses Asian American issues, particularly those that have gone unseen in mainstream media.

Thank you to Dieu Ho, Matt Chan, Jayne Nguyen, Kiki Nakamura-Koyama, and Dana Nguyen for sharing their book recommendations!

Beginning with "Is Diversity for White People?," Chang's collection of essays is a thorough look at how racial inequity functions in America today. Through personal reflection, cultural analysis, and journalism, Chang tackles topics like Ferguson, Black Lives Matter, and the whiteness of Hollywood. The last essay, "The In-Betweens: On Asian Americanness," addresses the unique predicament of Asian Americans in this country, contextualizing it within the broader discourse of race in the U.S. Chang emphasizes the necessity of Asian American communities standing in solidarity with movements like BLM; as he states in an interview, "I think racial justice impacts us all, and now is not the time to be neutral."

A mix of personal anecdotes, journalism, and legal analysis, Yellow offers an intersectional way of dissecting race beyond Black and white. Wu questions the absence of the Asian perspective in America's discussion around race and touches on the complex ideas that have led to our understanding of Asian America via the model minority myth, perpetual foreigner stereotype, affirmation action, interracial marriage, and more.

We may think that jokes about cheap junk being "made in China" are a recent phenomenon. The truth is that this anxiety surrounding Asian influences, or "yellow peril," has been around in Europe since the Enlightenment. Scholars Tchen and Yeats compile a comprehensive archive of "yellow peril" paraphernalia and offer critical insight into this Western paranoia, shedding new light on the structures of current-day anti-Asian sentiments.

An homage to W. E. B. Du Bois's classic The Souls of Black Folk, Vijay Prashad's The Karma of Brown Folk takes a look at the complexities of being South Asian in America. Prashad gives a complex analysis of the model minority myth, particularly as it is deployed against Black America. He takes a deeper look at both Indian and American history, tracing the ways in which Indian culture and thinkers have influenced American issues, and explores not only how South Asian American identity is defined, but also how Americans define and view themselves.

Written by psychotherapist Shinhee Han and critic David L. Eng, Racial Melancholia, Racial Dissociation combines critical race theory with case studies to explore the predicaments Asian American young adults face. Han and Eng take a closer look at Gen X and Gen Y Asian Americans who deal with challenges such as depression, coming out, adoption, parachute children, and a racial discourse in America that excludes Asian America. Eng and Han use psychoanalysis to illuminate the larger social and historical questions and challenges around Asian American identity in our times. Throughout the book, Eng and Han explore and define the concepts of racial melancholia and racial dissociation, taking a closer look at the experiences of loss so many Asian Americans face.

Immigrant Acts is a well-researched, nuanced look at how Asian American culture and identity have been constructed in the U.S. today. Lowe offers acute analysis of Asian American texts (such as No-No Boy), legal proceedings, and historical events-including the history of interracial division within Asian America. In order to better understandthe systems of inequity-like racism, capitalism, and neoliberalism-that help shape and reinforce anti-Asian violence, this academic studyis a must-read.

A radical look into the reality of walking through the world as an Asian American, Cathy Park Hong's Minor Feelings weaves the personal with the political and brings the tough questions around race and identity to the table. The title phrase, "minor feelings" refers to the sense of American optimism that is often forced onto Asian Americans; consequently, Asian Americans often experience a cognitive dissonance that creates a sense of failure. Going beyond the theoretical, Hong grounds us in lived experiences that perhaps create more questions than answers, and opens the table for actual discussion.

Asian American racialization, economics, and the U.S. empire take center stage in this academic study. Analyzing geopolitical events alongside media representations of Asian America, Bascara tracks how the model minority myth and Asian American assimilation interact with American imperialism. Ultimately, Model Minority Imperialism challenges readers to examine the current-day U.S. empire, particularly how it is rooted in racial exclusion.

Asian American Dreams looks into the time period when the Asian population in America grew and Asian American identity began to form. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Helen Zia was born in 1950s America when there were only 150,000 Chinese Americans in the country. From the murder of Vincent Chin to the LA Riots, this book is a historical and personal account of the events that have transformed Asian identity in America. Zia is also the author of Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao's Revolution, a dramatic account of the real-life stories of those who fled China during the Cultural Revolution, when Zia's family first left for the States.

Chia-Chia Lin's debut novel The Unpassing tells the story of a Taiwanese immigrant family of six struggling to make ends meet in Anchorage, Alaska. Against the bleak and cold backdrop of Alaskan winter, ten-year-old Gavin contracts meningitis at school, falls into a coma and wakes a week later to find out his little sister Ruby was infected and died. As grief envelops the family, we see the remaining five members of the family struggle to stay afloat, navigate marginalization and alienation, and search for a sense of belonging in a foreign land. What does it mean to lose the ones you love in a place that is not home? What does it mean when there is no home to return to?

No-No Boy received practically no public recognition upon its publication in 1957, when Americans wanted to leave behind the atrocities of WWII-including the Japanese American internment and the nuclear bomb. Thanks to the efforts of Asian American writers Jeff Chan, Frank Chin, Lawson Fusao Inada and Shawn Wong who reissued the novel in 1976, No-No Boy is now recognized as a canonical Asian American text, one that deals head-on with the long history of anti-Asian racism.

The protagonist, Ichiro Yamada, refuses to serve in the American army and pledge loyalty to the U.S., remembering how the same country forced him and his family into internment. Because of his "No"s, Ichiro is forced to go to prison; and finds himself the target of his community's anger upon his return. Okada's novel examines both the collective and individual trauma of racialized violence against Japanese Americans.

I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita

This wide-ranging novel centers on "I Hotel"-short for the International Hotel in San Francisco-as a way to explore the Yellow Power Movement in the '60s. The Yellow Power Movement-started by UC Berkeley students who were inspired by the Black Power Movement-is credited with coining the term "Asian American". I Hotel is meticulously researched, including memorabilia like pamphlets and news clippings from the era; it is also radical in experimentation as well as content, exploring with multimedia modes like comic strips. Yamashita poignantly conveys the historical struggle for Asian American rights, and the many shifting identities the term "Asian American" can encompass.

Set in both New York and China, The Leavers follows a Chinese American boy whose undocumented mother Polly vanishes one day. Deming Guo-later renamed Daniel Wilkinson by his white adoptive parents-is forced to reckon with what it means to be an "all-American" whose sense of belonging has vanished. What does it mean to belong? Does assimilation mean learning a new language, a new home, a new family, a new house, or a new name? And what happens to the person you used to be?

In Castillo's debut novel, Hero De Vera moves from a politically turbulent Philippines to suburban San Jose. America is Not the Heart explores social inequity and racism amidst the Filipinx American community, as well as what it means to pursue the "American Dream." Castillo also pays careful attention to the code-switching that often happens for immigrant families; her characters speak Spanish, Tagalog, Pangasinan, and Ilocano. The title nods to Carlos Bulosan's groundbreaking novel from the 1970s, America is in the Heart, which describes a Filipino migrant worker's experiences with brutal racism on a California farm. For more books on Filipinx America, check out Castillo's reading list.

About the Authors

Jae-Yeon Yoo is an MA candidate in English at New York University.

Stefani Kuo (郭佳怡) is a poet/playwright/performer and native of Hong Kong and Taiwan. She received her B.A. from Yale and is an MFA Playwriting Candidate at the Yale School of Drama. Fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, French, and English, she is interested in crafting multicultural, multilingual narratives for an international audience. She has been an awardee of the Jerome Fellowship at PWC, Dramatist Guild Fellowship, finalist for the National Playwrights Conference, Jerome fellowship at Lanesboro Arts Centre, Many Voices Fellowship at PWC, the Working Farm with SPACE on Ryder Farm, Van Lier New Voices Fellowship, NAP Series, DVRF Playwrights' Program, BRIC Lab, semi-finalist for the Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship, Princess Grace Fellowship, Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Scratchpad Series at Playwrights Realm. Her play, Architecture of Rain, premiered at the Iseman Theatre at Yale and received a reading in the DVRF Roundtable and Checkmark Theatre Company series. She has received commissions from the Rubin Museum, Roundhouse Theater Company, and Yangtze Repertory Theater Company. Her play delicacy of a puffin heart was produced with the 2018 Corkscrew Theatre Festival and The Parsnip Ship. Her play on the Hong Kong protests, Final Boarding Call,will be presented as a virtual reading co-produced by WP and Ma-Yi Theater Company in March 2021, and was workshopped as a part of the 2020 Bay Area Playwrights Festival at Playwrights Foundation and the 2020 Irons in the Fire Series with Faultline Theater Company. It was also a semi-finalist for Barrington Stage' Company's Burman New Play Award. Her play on the work of Dr. Wu Chien-Shiung, the only Chinese woman to work on the Manhattan Project, will be workshopped and co-presented by the Kitchen and Ma-Yi Theater Company in March 2021. She was a member of Interstate-73, Page 73's Writers Group, in 2019. Her work in creative non-fiction, poetry, and translation have appeared in The New York Times, China Hands, Yale Literary Magazine, and more. Her poetry has been displayed as an installation piece, as part of Berlin Art Week 2017 at the Centre of Substructured Loss. She is represented as a playwright by Kevin Lin at CAA and Jacob Epstein at Lighthouse Management. ( www.stefanikuo.com)

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A Literary Guide to Combat Anti-Asian Racism in America - Electric Literature

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If you enjoy reading Electric Literature, join our mailing list! We'll send you the best of EL each week, and you'll be the first to know about upcoming submissions periods and virtual events. In the last year, the Asian American community has seen an onslaught of verbal harassment and physical attacks, triggered by the onset of COVID-19-still called "the Chinese virus" by many Americans.

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It is important for parents and caretakers to learn about racial and social justice and becoming anti-racist.

Little Moments Count is committed to helping parents understand how structural racism impacts us all and helping to provide resources that assist families on their path to greater racial and social justice.

Here is a list of key resources put together by racial justice experts across different fields to help you learn more as a person and as a parent.

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Little Moments Count is committed to helping parents understand how structural racism impacts us all and helping to provide resources that assist families on their path to greater racial and social justice.

Here is a list of key resources put together by racial justice experts across different fields to help you learn more as a person and as a parent.

virtual sites and parent resources

- A national organization that creates resources for families, teachers and the community to help raise a generation of children that are thoughtful, informed and brave about race. Resources include articles, webinars, action guides, children's books and stories.

- A national organization to support parents and teachers who are trying to talk and race and diversity with young children. The goal of these conversations is to prepare young people to work toward racial justice.

- National organization that provides tools and guidance to inspire peoples' conversations and journeys in learning about race.

- National organization that provides parent, caretaker and teacher social justice education resources and information on a variety of important social justice topics.

NY Times Article: Student Opinion: How Much Racism Do You face in Your Daily Life?

radio and podcasts for adults

Unlocking Us with Brene Brown with Ibram X Kendi:

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Racial Justice Resources | Littlemomentscount

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Little Moments Count is committed to helping parents understand how structural racism impacts us all and helping to provide resources that assist families on their path to greater racial and social justice. Here is a list of key resources put together by racial justice experts across different fields to help you learn more as a person and as a parent.

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Inside Higher Ed

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For faculty of color, women and particularly those scholars who are outspoken about dismantling the master narratives of white supremacy within our colleges and universities, playing by the rules is neither an option nor an obligation. It is, in fact, a terrible burden. A burden to allow an oppressive system breathing down our necks, while we continue to work within institutions that treat us as mere bodies representing "diversity" or what Patti Duncan has called " Hot Commodities, Cheap Labor: Women of Color in the Academy."

My own cathartic moment arrived when I was able to write about my experience and those of other postcolonial scholars in my book, The Postcolonial Citizen: The Intellectual Migrant, in a chapter titled "Threatening Bodies, Dangerous Knowledge, Legal Interventions." It was 2001. The problem of exclusions and a lack of "due process" experienced by various postcolonial scholars were widespread.

After many years and many battles, and after much thought, I have created a list of qualities and attributes of those that overtly or covertly support or contribute to a culture of mundane and everyday white supremacy within our institutions. Such mundane acts manifest themselves in who is hired, who is tenured and promoted, whose scholarship is (de)valued, who receives the campus awards for teaching and service, whose voice is heard, whose ideas are policed, who is tone policed, and who is called out as not being "civil" -- a coded word for speaking against the status quo of white privilege.

Participating in acts that enable white supremacist structures to exist obstructs the social justice and antiracist work that many of us are trained to do within the academy. We are marked as troublemakers when in truth we are trouble identifiers.

Here then is a list of 15 "troubles" that I have identified to help others in academe recognize your (un)conscious contributions to white supremacy.

1. You work in a position of power in a predominantly white institution, and while you claim to be working for social justice, you do nothing to change the white supremacist power structures within your departments, committees and institutional decision-making process.

2. When your colleagues who are marginalized complain to you about their "oppressive" work conditions, you think that they are difficult.

3. When your colleagues and students claim that they experienced microaggressions, your response is "I am so sorry. This is unbelievable!"

4. When you are asked to nominate your students and faculty colleagues for awards or leadership positions, your first instinct is to nominate those that are "stellar" (mostly men) and obviously "white." It doesn't occur to you that you are implicitly supporting a logic of meritocracy that is built on this racist assumption that everyone has had the same access and opportunities.

5. When it comes to understanding your own white privilege, you get very angry if a faculty member of color points out to you where and how your privilege is operating. You deem such critiques as "uncivil" and as not supporting a collegial environment.

6. You are aware of the many wrongs that you see your institution is doing to your marginal faculty and students, and while you sympathize with people of color and marginal students and faculty members behind your closed door, you never openly confront your institution.

7. When a professor of color stands up in your faculty meetings and expresses their frustrations about inequity, you go to your trusted colleagues (the next day) and ask, "Why is s/he or them always so angry?"

8. When you are on a hiring committee, you think that the writing samples by your white candidates of choice are stellar, while what is "stellar" about the candidates of color is, of course, their ethnicity.

9. You never fail to articulate publicly your commitment for increasing diversity within your institution, but when on a hiring committee you express your strong hesitance to let go of your stellar candidate in exchange for a candidate who you perceive as only adding to your institution's diversity mission.

10. When people of color (faculty members and students) complain to you about discrimination and racism, you actively discourage them to report their cases, and often try to convince them that "it must be a misunderstanding."

11. You think of yourself as an ally to your faculty of color colleagues, but cannot understand why your white students are so upset when professors of color teach and critique sites of white privilege.

12. In your institutional reviews for tenure and promotion cases, you advise and critique your faculty of color colleagues to be more sensitive and mindful in respecting the viewpoint of our students. By "our students" you really mean "our white students."

13. You benefit so much from the system that you have decided to stay out of all of this "identity politics."

14. You have never thought of yourself as an ally to any of the causes of faculty of color and you never have any time to go to any events that they and other marginal folks have organized (where they express their everyday struggles). But you will happily go to an event if Ta-Nehisi Coates is speaking in town.

15. Claudia Rankine, Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire and Teju Cole's "The White-Savior Industrial Complex" -- all rub you the wrong way.

If you have made it to this point, you are probably feeling quite hypervisible or fragile and have decided to have some hot chamomile tea from a cup that reads "White Tears" or "Black Lives Matter."

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A checklist to determine if you are supporting white supremacy (opinion)

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For faculty of color, women and particularly those scholars who are outspoken about dismantling the master narratives of white supremacy within our colleges and universities, playing by the rules is neither an option nor an obligation. It is, in fact, a terrible burden.

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Sophia Li: Made this chart as a reminder to myself that being in a learning and growth zone is a never-ending process, there’s not a finite deadline or expiration date— in fact, this is just the beginning.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CBTcjAXJ-SV/?fbclid=IwAR2BCiYZ3HRmP84FuA4PErWeHAlHeVdFqsOR-pAdBHzEZPBeNSthL4F6Ok4

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Created by Dr. Andrew Ibrahim
Becoming Anti-Racist is a journey. Below is a visual that helps captures a lot of what I've learned so far. I share it with hope that it helps your journey too and helps keep you accountable with hard questions you should ask yourself. Whatever we are today, we can all be better. I'm ashamed I did not commit to this sooner. #BlackLivesMatter

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The Winters Group Racial Justice Resource Guide

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The Winters Group Racial Justice Resource Guide

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The Winters Group Racial Justice Resource Guide

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Posted by The Winters Group, Inc. | | The Winters Group Resources |

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'Caste' Argues Its Most Violent Manifestation Is In Treatment Of Black Americans

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'Caste' Argues Its Most Violent Manifestation Is In Treatment Of Black Americans

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To read Isabel Wilkerson is to revel in the pleasure of reading - to relax into the virtuosic performance of thought and form one is about to encounter, safe and secure that the structures will not collapse beneath you.

In the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist's first book, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, Wilkerson evinced a rare ability to craft deeply insightful analysis of deeply researched evidence - both historical and contemporary - in harmonious structures of language and form.

Now, in her sophomore effort, the former New York Times Chicago bureau chief does not disappoint. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is a masterwork of writing - a profound achievement of scholarship and research that stands also as a triumph of both visceral storytelling and cogent analysis.

What is caste? According to Wilkerson, "caste is the granting or withholding of respect, status, honor, attention, privileges, resources, benefit of the doubt, and human kindness to someone on the basis of their perceived rank or standing in the hierarchy." Racism and casteism do overlap, she writes, noting that "what some people call racism could be seen as merely one manifestation of the degree to which we have internalized the larger American caste system."

Wilkerson's central thesis is that caste, while a global occurrence, achieves its most violent manifestation in the treatment of American Blacks, set at the lowest level in society through historical and contemporary oppression, marginalization and violence - all legally maintained through systems of law and order. "The English in North America developed the most rigid and exclusionist from of race ideology," Wilkerson writes, quoting the anthropologists Audrey and Brian Smedley.

Wilkerson establishes a correlation between American Blacks, whom she names the "American untouchables" and the Indian "untouchables," or Dalits, as the lowest caste; while whites in America are the dominant, highest caste equivalent to the Indian Brahmins. Describing the treatment of Blacks in America, Wilkerson writes:

"The institution of slavery was, for a quarter millennium, the conversion of human beings into currency, into machines who existed solely for the profit of their owners, to be worked as long as the owners desired, who had no rights over their bodies or loved ones, who could be mortgaged, bred, won in a bet, given as wedding presents, bequeathed to heirs, sold away from spouses or children to convene an owner's debts or to spite a rival or to settle an estate. They were regularly whipped, raped, and branded, subjected to any whim or distemper of the people who owned them. Some were castrated or endured other tortures too grisly for these pages, tortures that the Geneva Conventions would have banned as war crimes had the conventions applied to people of African descent on this soil."

Wilkerson's argument is based on an exploration of what she names the three resonant caste systems in history: the Indian caste system, the Nazi caste system and the American caste system - which the Nazis researched when creating their own. "There were no other models for miscegenation law that the Nazis could find in the world," Wilkerson writes, citing Yale legal historian James Q. Whitman as evidence: "'Their overwhelming interest was in the 'classic example,' the United States of America."

Wilkerson supports her analysis with an immense compendium of documented research that spans centuries. Through her detailed historical research, she unearths evidence that the violence toward Blacks that the American caste system espoused was too much even for the Nazis; they balked at replicating some of the more horrific acts of American racism toward Blacks. "[Herbert] Kier was just one of several Nazi researchers who thought American law went overboard," Wilkerson writes, while others, like Hans F. K. Günter, thought the American laws so outrageous as to be untrue.

Caste, Wilkerson posits, is dependent upon the dehumanization of the other, most powerfully seen in the use of Jews and Blacks as the subject of horrific experiments by the respective dominant caste systems of Germany and America. "German scientists and SS doctors conducted more than two dozen types of experiments on Jews and others they held captive," while "in the United States, from slavery well into the twentieth century, doctors used African-Americans as a supply chain for experimentation, as subjects deprived of either consent or anesthesia," Wilkerson writes.

One of the most poignant examples Wilkerson describes is the violence done by Dr. J. Marion Sims, lauded as the founder of American gynecology, on the bodies of Black women:

"He came to his discoveries by acquiring enslaved women in Alabama and conducting savage surgeries that often ended in disfigurement or death. He refused to administer anesthesia, saying vaginal surgery on them was not painful enough to justify the trouble. ..."

Wilkerson says Sims would "invite leading men in town and apprentices in to see for themselves. He later wrote, 'I saw everything as no man had seen before.' "

Medical experiments were also carried out on Black men and Black children: Wilkerson notes Harriet Washington's research in Medical Apartheid in which a plantation doctor "made incisions into a black baby's head to test a theory for curing seizures" with "cobbler's tools" and "the point of a crooked awl." The horror is legion.

Wilkerson documents the pogroms of violence against the caste of American untouchables as waves throughout history - whether the violence of slavery or the waves of vigilante violence that that rose during Reconstruction and have continued since; incidents such the Ocoee, Fla., massacre in 1920 or the 1921 destruction of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Okla., are set in a continuum that meets with the attacks on Black Americans in Birmingham, Ala., 40 years later in the 1960s, and then again in Charleston, S.C., by Dylann Roof on a Black church five years ago. This violent terror is a marker of the caste system, Wilkerson writes. The descriptions are vivid in their horror; the connections travel across history and time to resonate in the mind.

This structural move is a classic trademark of Wilkerson's style, and one of the attributes of her unique voice that imbues her writing with such textured depth. Wilkerson's use of a poetic focus on imagery and detailed characterization allows us an intimate and personal relationship with the lives of those she chronicles; when this empathic closeness is juxtaposed with the harsh brutality of the historical record the contrast is resonant and haunting, becoming a towering memorial to those violated by the violence of caste.

Caste is divided into six sections exploring the various aspects of caste: its origins, its sustainment and far-reaching "tentacles," and its effects - whether detrimental health for the givers and receivers of racism or the expected white supremacist backlash to the election of the first president of recognizable Black heritage: "The ability of a black person to supplant the racial caste system," Wilkerson writes, quoting the political scientist Andra Gillespie of Emory University, was "the manifestation of a nightmare which would need to be resisted."

Although a claim can be made that the opening chapter or two on the fallout of the 2016 election appear dated, this to be fair, is only because of what has happened to America in the interim since Wilkerson penned those words.

What is problematic is the glaring absence of Africa in a book that aims to position itself as a seminal text on the concept of a global caste system and the positioning of Blackness within that global caste system. Wilkerson glances at this briefly with a scant mention of South Africa in a couple of paragraphs and by quoting a woman identified only as a Nigerian playwright saying that "there are no Black people in Africa" - and then keeps it moving. Both are moments that do need to be unpacked. It is understandable why Wilkerson does not walk through this door to explore caste in Africa - Caste is 400 pages before adding the impressive list of research sources. But if Wilkerson is not opening that door, there does need to be an acknowledgement of why not, an acknowledgement of that absence.

Simply put: With colonization, European colonizers brought their caste system to Africa and implemented it over the already existing caste systems among many African ethnic groups.

Perhaps the absence of Africa is because of the caste system Wilkerson speaks of itself - to get people in the dominant caste to care about a narrative about Blackness and Brownness, about the lower castes, there must be a strong presence of whiteness in the conversation because it is the dominant caste system within the narrative.

And thus the caste system rears its head to affect a work about the caste system in real time.

This points, ultimately, to the role of personal accountability within a caste system. What does one do with this knowledge of the violence of caste? Does one perpetuate it? Eradicate it?

Interestingly, Wilkerson at times seems to argue not for an eradication of caste, but to create space for her, and others she meets, who have been miscast in their "caste" - regulated to the lowest caste when by intelligence or other attribute they should be in the higher caste, or vice versa. "We had defied our caste assignments: He was not a warrior or ruler. He was a geologist. I was not a domestic. I was an author," Wilkerson writes. Even the ending "Awakening" section, couched as a look forward, is depicted less of an articulation of the possibilities of a world without caste, and more of her desire simply to be seen as equal to those of the dominant caste.

In this, Wilkerson leans to biology. She offers the example of wolves as her support for the necessity of this hierarchal structure - the necessity not just of the alpha, but of the omega, or the underdog, beaten and abused by the others, the "untouchable." When the underdog dies, she writes, the whole pack is destabilized. No one wants to be the lowest of the low, "the scapegoat," but the pack needs one to survive.

Without the untouchable, Wilkerson argues here, society collapses. The untouchable is needed. Wilkerson just does not want to be one.

Writes Wilkerson:

"The great tragedy among humans is that people have often been assigned to or seen as qualified for alpha positions - as CEOs, quarterbacks, coaches, directors of film, presidents of colleges or countries - not necessarily on the basis of innate leadership traits but, historically on the basis of having been born to the dominant caste or the dominant gender or to the right family within the dominant caste."

I would argue that the tragedy, rather, is the need for these positions such as "omega" to still exist, which then justifies the need for this caste structure and its continued existence - even if it exists with Wilkerson's proffered edit that would allow an individual, no matter "background or caste," to hop into their desired caste and profit from the continued oppression of others the caste system welds.

If we are to look at biology as evidence, let us consider the research of Eli D. Strauss and Kay E. Holekamp on hyenas in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the official journal of the National Academy of Sciences, which offers another model for social positioning. Within the hyena community, as with wolves, there is a strict hierarchy of dominant caste and lower castes. But, if a female understands the hierarchy as unjust and challenges a more dominant member of the higher caste and her female peer group agrees with her, they will rise up across caste and challenge the dominant caste; if this female cross-caste coalition wins, the hierarchy is destabilized, and this radical feminist hyena and her cross-caste pack become the new dominant caste.

It is not enough, but it is a start.

Let us think not just about our own individual desires to be seen as a member of the dominant caste and benefit accordingly, but about the necessity to challenge this entire system of oppression radically. Let us think not just about replicating oppressive patriarchal systems but about alternative models such as matrilineal cross-cultural communication and connection.

Let us look not to the wolves, but to the hyenas.
Hope Wabuke is a poet, writer and assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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'Caste' Argues Its Most Violent Manifestation Is In Treatment Of Black Americans

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To read Isabel Wilkerson is to revel in the pleasure of reading - to relax into the virtuosic performance of thought and form one is about to encounter, safe and secure that the structures will not collapse beneath you.

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The Mind Of The Village: Understanding Our Implicit Biases

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The Mind Of The Village: Understanding Our Implicit Biases

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NPR's Hidden Brain:

A CONVERSATION ABOUT LIFE'S UNSEEN PATTERNS

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Where do our minds live? A simple, scientific response would be to say our minds live in our brains. But Harvard psychologist Mahzarin Banaji says we should not think of our minds as being solitary.

"The individual mind sits in society. And the connection between mind and society is an extremely important one that should not be forgotten."

Banaji is one of the creators of the Implicit Association Test, a widely-used tool for measuring a person's implicit biases. She says it's important to acknowledge that problems rooted in prejudice cannot be solved by finger pointing.

"One of the difficulties we've had in the past is that we have looked at individual people and blamed individual people. We've said if we can remove these 10 bad police officers from this force, we'll be fine. And we know as social scientists - and I believe firmly - that that is no way to change anything."

This week on the Hidden Brain radio show, we examine research about the mind of the village. We'll begin with a focus on police shootings of unarmed black men. Later in the show, we look at how biases affect judges in the U.S.
Additional Resources:
This episode includes references to research by Mahzarin Banaji, Eric Hehman, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Joshua Correll, and Maya Sen. You'll also hear from Philip Tetlock.

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The Mind Of The Village: Understanding Our Implicit Biases

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Where do our minds live? A simple, scientific response would be to say our minds live in our brains. But Harvard psychologist Mahzarin Banaji says we should not think of our minds as being solitary. "The individual mind sits in society. And the connection between mind and society is an extremely important one that should not be forgotten."

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SOME AMERICANS cling desperately to the myth that we are living in a post-racial society, that the election of the first Black president spelled the doom of racism. In fact, racist thought is alive and well in America - more sophisticated and more insidious than ever.

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RACE. IN YOUR FACE.

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How Can Parents Make Their Kids Understand How To Be Anti-Racist?

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How Can Parents Make Their Kids Understand How To Be Anti-Racist?

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NOEL KING, HOST:

At this point, given what's happening in our country, a lot of parents want to talk to their kids about racism. Some admit they don't know how. For thoughts on where to start, I talked to anti-racism scholar Ibram Kendi and children's author Renee Watson. I started by asking Ibram about a distinction that he often makes. Should parents teach their kids to be not racist or to be anti-racist?

IBRAM KENDI: From my understanding, when parents desire for their kids to be not racist, they typically do not talk to their kids about race. They avoid conversations about race or even explaining the racial inequities and dynamics in their community. As a result, typically, those kids are taught to be racist by society.

And so by contrast, when you're essentially raising a kid to be anti-racist, you're deliberately encouraging them to talk about race and Racism. You're deliberately teaching them that all the racial groups are equals. You're deliberately showing them, yes, there are different colors and there are different cultures. And we should value them all equally.

KING: Renee, Ibram is saying that if parents don't talk openly to their kids about racism, they will go out into the world and society will make them racist. Do you agree with that?

RENEE WATSON: Absolutely. I think that it's important for parents and for educators to be intentional about preparing our young people for the world that they are inheriting and living in. To not talk about it is a disservice to all young people. So not just black students who need to learn about their blackness and their history, but white students as well and nonblack people of color need to know our country's history and talk explicitly about it.

KING: There's research now that shows kids can internalize racial bias between the ages of 2 and 4. How should adults talk to such young children about racism?

KENDI: You can use books as a conversation-starter. What I find with my 4-year-old daughter is when I'm reading her books, she asks questions about those books. And so use tools like books. And then the child will potentially guide the conversation. I also think you can turn on the demonstrations on TV or go to the demonstrations. And I suspect even the 3 year olds will ask, what is going on? Again, it gives you the opportunity to talk about race and racism.

KING: May I ask - 4-year-olds often will ask you to read the same book over and over and over again.

KENDI: (Laughter).

KING: Is there a particular book that you read to your daughter where you think, OK, as I read this to her, I see her young mind getting it?

KENDI: Oh, well, she loved "Hair Love" and I think partly because I have locks. And she just saw me in the book and certainly saw herself.

KING: Renee, how do you talk to the young people in your life?

WATSON: Especially for the little ones, bringing them books that give historical context, like biographies. There's so many picture books that are biographies of black activists, artists, people who paved the way for us to be here. And then, I also think - I want to go back to "Hair Love." I think it's important to bring in books that allow readers to see black people living their everyday lives.

We don't want to teach children that black pain and struggle is the only part of black life. But I also think it's important to just let young people see that black people live lives. And they do their hair. And they play outside. And they have fun and that that is an important part of the conversation, too.

KING: Ibram, when you talk to your daughter about how to talk to other kids - if they hear something racist or something racist is said to them, these are young kids we're dealing with, what should their response be?

KENDI: If it's a black child, if it's a child of color, it's critically important for the parents of black children to, even long before they go and experience another child telling them their hair is ugly, to be constantly sharing with them and telling them that their hair is beautiful because when they receive that type of racist idea from another young child, they may not internalize it. They may not see themselves as the problem. They may see what the child said as the problem.

And then, simultaneously, I always encourage Imani (ph), who is - our daughter's name, to, if something happens to her, for her to have the ability to speak up about it. One thing I want to emphasize, though, is parents, caretakers, you know, anyone who loves young children, are typically teaching them how to be kind - why? - because we recognize that we should raise kind children.

It's the same thing when it comes to being anti-racist. We can teach these concepts before the children can fully understand them just as we teach many different values. And as they grow, they're going to understand it more just as we're growing, hopefully, we're understanding it more.

KING: In this country and around the world, we're seeing a period of immense turmoil and unrest with racial injustice at the center of it. What are you each telling the children in your lives about this particular moment?

WATSON: I've been having conversations about the historical context of it all. This isn't just happening. You know what I mean? We can go back just a few years. And then we can go back and encourage them to learn about activists who fought for our civil rights, who fought for our freedom. People have stood up before and that you've inherited that, too.

It's not just the pain that's been passed down, but it's also the resilience and the wherewithal to fight back and to stand up. So what are you going to do? How are you going to raise your voice? And I particularly talk about poets and artists a lot because I think that that's a way young people, especially, can lend their voices to the cause.

KING: And, Ibram, how about you?

KENDI: When George Floyd's daughter was on television and expressed, of course, how sad she was that he was no longer there and Imani saw that. And so she asked us, you know, about it. And ultimately, where we sort of landed on was me explaining that there was nothing wrong with black people.

If one day she is rejected because of the color of her skin and she doesn't have awareness of racism, who is she going to blame? Herself. And there's nothing worse for a very young child to be struggling with their own sense of self and their own confidence in themselves. And so I actually see this literature and these conversations as protective.

KING: Renee Watson and Ibram Kendi, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

WATSON: Thank you.

KENDI: You're welcome.

(SOUNDBITE OF KEEM THE CIPHER'S "TRANSCEND.")

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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.

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How Can Parents Make Their Kids Understand How To Be Anti-Racist?

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NOEL KING, HOST: At this point, given what's happening in our country, a lot of parents want to talk to their kids about racism. Some admit they don't know how. For thoughts on where to start, I talked to anti-racism scholar Ibram Kendi and children's author Renee Watson.

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Ibram X. Kendi's concept of antiracism reenergizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America--but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. Instead of working with the policies and system we have in place, Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.

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How to raise kids to be anti-racist and talk to them about racism

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How to raise kids to be anti-racist and talk to them about racism

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How to raise kids to be anti-racist and talk to them about racism

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From Privilege to Progress

Please amplify author Jason Reynolds in your networks. Did you know that if you’re white, statistics show that your network is more than 91% white? When you amplify the voices of people of color to your friends and followers, you are desegregating the conversation. You should also read his book STAMPED to educate yourself and cleanse your lens. #ShowUp

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Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man

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Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man

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Emmanuel Acho sits down to have an “uncomfortable conversation” with white America, in order to educate and inform on racism, system racism, social injustice, rioting & the hurt African Americans are feeling today.

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The Inaugural Episode - Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man

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Posted by Ibram X. Kendi
What a graphic @jane_mount, what a great stack of antiracist books for anyone starting or already on this journey to understand themselves and their society in order to transform themselves and their society. Thank you, Jane and @marmarfrick for this list! 😘
📚
#antiracism #antiracist #idealbookshelf #soyouwanttotalkaboutrace #howtobeabantiracist #stampedfromthebeginning #meandwhitesupremacy #thisbookisantiracist #stamped #betweentheworldandme #thecoloroflaw #blindspot #thewarmthofothersuns #goodtalk #minorfeelings #imstillhere #thefirenexttime #thenewjimcrow #whitefragility #mindfulofrace #justmercy #whentheycallyouaterrorist #whyimnolongertalkingtowhitepeopleaboutrace

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Jacqueline Woodson's Shares Essential Book for Discussing Racism With Kids

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Jacqueline Woodson's Shares Essential Book for Discussing Racism With Kids

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"It’s up to us to decide whose narrative we will not only choose to see, but choose to believe."

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These Children’s Books About Race Can Help Start Essential Conversations With Your Kids

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These reads selected by author Jacqueline Woodson will help us “decide whose narrative we will not only choose to see, but choose to believe.”

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The difference between Being "not racist" and anti-racist

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The difference between Being "not racist" and anti-racist

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There is no such thing as being "not racist," says author and historian Ibram X. Kendi. In this vital conversation, he defines the transformative concept of antiracism to help us more clearly recognize, take responsibility for and reject prejudices in our public policies, workplaces and personal beliefs. Learn how you can actively use this awareness to uproot injustice and inequality in the world -- and replace it with love.

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Ibram X. Kendi: The difference between being "not racist" and antiracist

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There is no such thing as being "not racist," says author and historian Ibram X. Kendi. In this vital conversation, he defines the transformative concept of antiracism to help us more clearly recognize, take responsibility for and reject prejudices in our public policies, workplaces and personal beliefs.

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The Beatley Library Anti-Oppression Guide!

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The Beatley Library Anti-Oppression Guide!

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This guide is intended to provide some general information about anti-oppression, diversity, and inclusion as well as information and resources for the social justice issues key to the Simmons University community.

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is the range of human differences, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual identity & orientation, age, socioeconomic class, physical ability or attributes, neurodivergence or neurological condition, religious or ethical values system, and national origin. (adapted from Ferris State University)

is defined as "the state, quality or ideal of being just, impartial, and fair." The concept of equity is closely tied to fairness and justice, and all three are context-specific to the historical, systemic barriers, disadvantages, and power disparities present in any given situation. It is helpful to think of equity as not simply a desired state of affairs or a "finish line," but instead as a continuous structural concept-a lens and mindset (proactively reinforced by policies, practices, attitudes, and actions) through which power and ownership are redistributed and inequity is challenged and addressed. (adapted from Race Equity and Inclusion Action Guide)

is involvement and empowerment, where the inherent worth and dignity of all people are recognized. An inclusive community promotes and sustains a sense of belonging; it values, celebrates, and recognizes the enriching benefits of diversity and practices respect for the talents, beliefs, identities, and lived experiences of its members. (adapted from Ferris State University)

is the systematic fair treatment of all people along all axes of identity and of any social position. In practice, it is the proactive operationalization of policies, practices, attitudes, and actions resulting in equitable access, opportunities, treatment, empowerment, and outcomes for all. (adapted from Center for the Study of Social Policy)

". Diversity & Inclusion have to do with the acknowledgment, valuing, celebration, and empowerment of difference, whereas Diversity & Inclusion" is a very frequently heard phrase. Though they go hand in hand, diversity & inclusion is notthe same as anti-oppression ference. Diversity & Inclusion and Anti-Oppression are all necessary in order to work toward Equity and Justice. Anti-Oppression challenges the systems and systemic biases that devalue and marginalize dif

Note: Definitions for diversity are...well...diverse. Context and environment play a big part in what we mean when we say "diversity," and as social justice movements have gained media spotlight, the term has unfortunately become somewhat hollowed out from being overused and under-defined from situation to situation. The definitions above do notcapture the many, many cultural and political nuances embedded in these terms, rather they are intended to provide a broad scaffolding for understanding and engaging with the dialogues in and outside Simmons a nd on which more specific iterations of these concepts as they apply to particular communities can be structured.

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Reading Is Only a Step on the Path to Anti-Racism

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Reading Is Only a Step on the Path to Anti-Racism

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Publishers' Weekly Column written by Nicole Cooke

Anti-racism is a long game. Instead of just reading, I want to challenge you to go the distance. I want you to do the real work of becoming anti-racist.

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Here’s How We Can Make A Deeper Change To Stop Systemic Racism

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Here’s How We Can Make A Deeper Change To Stop Systemic Racism

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Author of “I’m Still Here: Black Dignity In A World Made For Whiteness,” Austin Channing Brown and co-host of the web series “The Next Question,” Jenny Booth Potter explain the ways in which white people can be effective in making change during this time.

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Here’s How We Can Make A Deeper Change To Stop Systemic Racism

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An Anti-Racist Graphic Novel Reading List

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An Anti-Racist Graphic Novel Reading List

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In tribute to the memory of George Floyd, who died at the hands of the Minneapolis police, and in support of the worldwide outcry over his death, PW 's comics editors have compiled a list of graphic titles about African American life and history. The titles listed here are primarily nonfiction graphic works that address topics including the Civil Rights Movement, hip-hop, gentrification, white supremacy, the criminal justice system, police brutality, and the lives of black women. In addition the list also offers several works of fiction that offer insights into similar topics via their settings and skillful characterizations. We welcome suggestions for other titles to add to our list.

A Black Woman Did That by Malaika Adero and Chanté Timothy (Downtown Bookworks)
A lively compilation of illustrated biographical profiles of 42 dynamic black women whose accomplishments have transformed the world, including such figures as Michelle Obama, Ida B. Wells, Serena Williams, Ava DuVernay, and Stacey Adams. For young readers.

Bingo Love by Tee Franklin and Jenn St-Onge (Image).
Hazel and Mari, two black teen girls, meet at a bingo hall in 1963 and fall in love but must hide their feelings and go separate ways, only to accidentally reunite decades later-after marriage and raising children-in a lovingly rendered fictional tale about second chance queer love.

Black History in Its Own Words by Ronald Wimberly (Image)

A collection of inspirational quotations from black leaders and artists throughout American history accompanied by Wimberly's evocative drawings.

Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence byGeoffrey Canada with art by Jamar Nicholas (Beacon)

This vivid graphic adaptation of Canada's acclaimed memoir marks his emotional evolution as he moves through escalating levels of neighborhood violence while growing up poor in the Bronx.

Ghetto Brother: Warrior to Peacemaker by Julian Voloj with art by Claudia Ahlering (NBM)

The true story of Bronx legend Benjy Melendez, son of Puerto-Rican immigrants, who founded the notorious Ghetto Brothers gang in the 1960s before establishing peace between the warring gangs in the 1970s in what was a prelude to the Hip-hop era.

Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor (Fantagraphics)

This massive 4-volume graphic history of Hip-hop beginning in the 1970s in the Bronx covers four decades of musical, visual, and literary innovation that has transformed music and youth culture around the world.

Hot Comb by Ebony Flowers (Drawn & Quarterly)

Flowers offers a series of poignant and insightful graphic stories that explore the lives of black women, the cultural complexities around their hair, and issues of race and class in the U.S. and in Africa.

Kindred byOctavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy and John Jennings (Abrams ComicArts)

Recreated graphically, Butler's acclaimed 1979 novel tells the story of an -African American woman from the 1970s who travels back in time to slavery and meets an unlikely ancestor.

Nat Turner by Kyle Baker (Abrams)

Baker's powerful graphic work depicts the life and times of the self-educated African American preacher who led a slave revolt in Southampton County, Va., in 1831, believing that God wanted him to free the slaves.

Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm by Percy Carey and art by Ron Wimberly (Vertigo)

The true story of the life of legendary Hip Hop MC Percy "MF Grimm" from his time as child actor on Sesame Street, then as a drug dealer who uses a wheelchair after a murder attempt, and his eventual rise to become an underground rap star.

Showtime at the Apollo: The Epic Tale of Harlem's Legendary Theater by Ted Fox and James Otis Smith (Abrams ComicArts)

Fox's history of the famous venue surveys the personalities and social issues that have impacted the theater and the Harlem neighborhood that surrounds it, over the course of 85 years.

Six Days in Cincinnati: A Graphic Account of the Riots That Shook the Nation a Decade Before Black Lives Matter by Dan Mendez Moore (Microcosm)

An account of an uprising that engulfed Cincinnati in 2001 after 19-year-old Timothy Thomas was killed by the police, as told from the viewpoint of a participant in the civil disobedience.

Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History by Joel Christian Gill (Fulcrum). The lives of little known figures in black American history such as Box Brown and Bass Reeves are featured in biographical stories that bring them back to life.

Stuck Rubber Baby by Howard Cruse (First Second).
A pioneering queer/civil rights graphic novel based in-part on Cruse's life, it is the story of a young gay white man growing up in the Jim Crow south and his complex relationships with queer and straight members of the African American community in the early days of the Civil Rights Movement.

Yummy: the last days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri and Randy Duburke (Lee and Low)
A YA graphic novel based on the life and death of Robert "Yummy" Sandifer, an 11-year-old gang member from Chicago's Southside who was killed by members of his own gang.

March Trilogy by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell (TopShelf)

The three volumes covering the life of Rep. John Lewis offer a gripping and panoramic narrative of the Civil Rights Movement across the arc of Lewis' heroic social activism and public service.

King: A Comics Biography by Ho Che Anderson (Fantagraphics)

The final deluxe hardcover compilation edition of a pioneering and critically acclaimed graphic biography of Martin Luther King Jr. has been praised for its expansive and creative depiction of King's life.

Martin Luther King and The Montgomery Story by Fellowship of Reconciliation, Alfred Hassler, Benton Resnick (Fellowship of Reconciliation)

The landmark 16-page 1957 comic book account of the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott led by Rosa Parks details the tenets of the philosophy of nonviolence as well as the tactics used to battle Jim Crow segregation on city buses.

Big Black: Stand at Attica by Frank "Big Black" Smith and Jared Reinmuth, art by Améziane. (Archaia)

A graphic memoir by the late Frank "Big Black" Smith, a former Attica prison inmate later turned prisoner-rights advocate, who was an inmate leader during the four-day 1971 Attica prison uprising, a landmark event in the history of mass incarceration.

Race to Incarcerate by Marc Mauer with art by Sabrina Jones (New Press)

Maurer and Jones adapt Maurer's landmark examination of four decades of the explosive and socially corrosive expansion of the American prison population into a graphic work.

The Real Cost of Prisons Comix edited by Lois Ahrens (PM Press)

This anthology of comics looks at the economics, racial disparity, and racist social impact around financing and building prisons.

Race and Social Justice

Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet by Ta-Nehesi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze (Marvel)

The classic Marvel black superhero, the Black Panther T'Challa, King of the Afrofuturist African domain of Wakanda, has been reimagined for a new generation by National Book Award -winner Coates.

BTTM FDRS byEzra Claytan Daniels and Ben Passmore (Fantagraphics)

An irresistible combination of satire and horror in a quirky graphic exploration of urban gentrification, racial tropes, and class among the young and insufferably hip in a former working class Chicago neighborhood.

I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Media with art by Stacey Robinson and John Jennings (Lee and Low)

This complex and inspirational graphic novel is aimed at young adults and memorializes a number of victims of police violence (among them Eleanor Bumpurs, Amadou Diallo, and writer Henry Dumas), while also probing the issues surrounding police brutality and Black Lives Matter.

Your Black Friend and Other Strangers by Ben Passmore (Silver Sprocket).

These thoughtful and dazzlingly illustrated short stories and graphic essays focus on contemporary responses to race, prisons, police brutality, gentrification, radical politics, and more.

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An Anti-Racist Graphic Novel Reading List

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In tribute to the memory of George Floyd, who died at the hands of the Minneapolis police, and in support of the worldwide outcry over his death, the 'PW' comics editors have compiled a list of graphic titles about African American life and history.

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Jane Elliott's "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" Anti-Racism Exercise 

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Jane Elliott's "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" Anti-Racism Exercise 

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The Oprah Winfrey Show,1992

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Jane Elliott's "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" Anti-Racism Exercise | The Oprah Winfrey Show | OWN

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Essential Listening: Podcasts on Race and Racism

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Essential Listening: Podcasts on Race and Racism

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Looking to educate yourself on racial injustice? Start with these recommended audio roundups.

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158 RESOURCES TO UNDERSTAND RACISM IN AMERICA

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158 RESOURCES TO UNDERSTAND RACISM IN AMERICA

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These articles, videos, podcasts and websites from the Smithsonian chronicle the history of anti-black violence and inequality in the United States.

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158 Resources for Understanding Systemic Racism in America

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These articles, videos, podcasts and websites from the Smithsonian chronicle the history of anti-black violence and inequality in the United States

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The E Pluribus Unum Fund will bring people together across the American South around the issues of race, equity, economic opportunity and violence, proving the American motto that "out of many, one," and we are better for it.

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"E Pluribus Unum" is Latin, meaning "out of many, one." A long-held motto for the United States, the phrase was first included in a sketch for a national seal in 1776. Since 1782, it's been included in the official Great Seal of the United States, which is affixed on formal State Department documents.

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'There Is No Neutral': 'Nice White People' Can Still Be Complicit In A Racist Society

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'There Is No Neutral': 'Nice White People' Can Still Be Complicit In A Racist Society

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For white people who have just recently recognized their own complicity in America's racist systems and are looking to "fix" that - it's not going to happen overnight.

"It's a little bit like saying 'I want to be in shape tomorrow' ..." says author Robin DiAngelo. "This is going to be a process."

DiAngelo is the author of White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. The book came out in 2018 and is back on the bestseller lists as streets fill with protesters calling for an end to police violence against black people.

The status quo in the United States is racism, DiAngelo says, and "it is comfortable for me, as a white person, to live in a racist society."

To sustain the momentum of these protests, DiAngelo says, it must become uncomfortable for white people to continue to benefit from racist systems.

"We've got to start making it uncomfortable and figuring out what supports we're going to put in place to help us continue to be uncomfortable," she says. "Because the forces of comfort are quite seductive."

Interview Highlights
On encouraging white people to reflect on how race has shaped their lives
This [work] will be lifelong: really thinking deeply about what it means to be white, how your race shapes your life. We live in a society that turns race over to people of color. They have a race. We're just people. And so we see ourselves as outside of race. And that's problematic for many reasons. But there's so much potentially rich insight that we can gain from deeply reflecting on our own racial experiences.
On how white people can be complicit in racist systems without recognizing their own racism

Nice, white people who really aren't doing anything other than being nice people are racist. We are complicit with that system. There is no neutral place.

Racism is what happens when you back one group's racial bias with legal authority and institutional control. ... When you back one group's collective bias with that kind of power, it is transformed into a far-reaching system. It becomes the default. It's automatic. It's not dependent on your agreement or belief or approval. It's circulating 24/7, 365.

Racism is the foundation of the society we are in. And to simply carry on with absolutely no active interruption of that system is to be complicit with it. And in that way, we can say that nice, white people who really aren't doing anything other than being nice people are racist. We are complicit with that system. There is no neutral place.
On challenging definitions
We've been taught to think about a racist as someone who consciously and intentionally seeks to hurt people based on race. And if that's what you think it means to be racist, then of course it's offensive that I would say you were racist. That's not what I mean by that. ... All of the racism I've perpetrated in my life was neither conscious nor intentional, but harmful to other people nonetheless.
On suggesting that white people ask how - rather than if - they have been shaped by race and racism
When you change your understanding of what it means to be racist, you will no longer be defensive. ... Who among your listeners right now would ever say they're consciously, intentionally mean across race? I think that definition [of racism as individual, conscious, malintent across race] is the root of most of the defensiveness.

When you change your definition, it's actually liberating. ... It's transformative. You know, you can stop defending, deflecting, denying, explaining away, giving all the evidence for why you are different and couldn't possibly have been impacted by the society you live in.

And you can start getting to work actually trying to identify: All right. It was inevitable that I was socialized into this system. It's inevitable that I will have blind spots. ... And so I'm going to focus my energy on how I've been shaped by the system, but not if.

We have to change our question. If our question is if I've been shaped, the answer will be an easy no. And then what further action is required of us? Nothing.

When the answer is how, well, that sets you on a lifelong process.
On specific steps white people can take
I would start with some very deep reflection on what it means to be white: How your own race shapes your life. ... Our voices, our part in this has been missing for all too long.

But again, we're never going to understand this if we don't listen to black, Indigenous and other peoples of color. So start reading what they're writing, listening to their videos, attending their talks and educating yourself.

There are two really excellent resources. ... One is Dr. Eddie Moore's 21-Day Racial Equity [Habit] Building Challenge - it'll walk you through a daily practice. And Layla Saad's Me and White Supremacy Workbook. That's a book you do rather than read. That will start us on what is a process - not a moment or an instant.
On asking white people to have humility
I've never met a white person who didn't have an opinion on racism. ... That doesn't make it informed. It's so complicated and nuanced and layered. ... So be willing to consider that maybe your opinions are not as informed as you think they are. ...

Most white people live segregated lives. Most of us don't really even know black people. Most of us go cradle to grave with few, if any, authentic, sustained cross-racial relationships and no real sense of loss about that. And yet, we have these opinions that we feel are equal to people who have, you know, studied and struggled and worked on these issues for decades. And so it's a little bit like saying, well, I've been to the Epcot Center, therefore I'm qualified to wade in on a debate with Neil deGrasse Tyson on whether Pluto is a planet.
On the two questions she hears most frequently
There are two top questions I get when I give a talk ... The first one is: What do I do? And when I get that question, I offer one back: ... How have you managed not to know? How have you managed to be a full-functioning, likely educated adult in 2020 and not know the answer to that question? And that's meant to challenge that person that, that's on you. The information's everywhere. Why haven't you sought it out up until this moment? What did it take to get you to ask that question?

So that's meant to be a challenge, but it's also a sincere question. Take out a piece of paper and jot down your answer to why you don't know what to do, or how to get started. And there will be your map. Everything you write on that piece of paper can be addressed. None of it will be quick or easy. But begin with that list.

The second top question that I get is: How do I tell or talk to other white people about racism? ... You notice that that question assumes that it's not us. We're good to go. We're down now. Let's go out and change the world.

It is us. We can never take ourselves out of that equation. And I think actually, the more we work on our own conditioning, the more effective we will be at helping others see theirs.
On maintaining momentum
We've seen these moments before. We thought we were post-racial after the civil rights movement. We thought we were post-racial after Obama's presidency. We are so not post-racial and we have never been. I do see these protests being sustained and different kinds of demands coming out of them. That is hopeful.

But the key is: What will happen when those cameras go away and when it's no longer - for lack of a better word, for white people, anyway - "exciting" or "righteous" to go down and protest? In some ways, that's the easier kinds of actions. What are we going to do to sustain it when we no longer have that kind of pressure, when we're back into our racial comfort zone?
Mallory Yu and Sarah Handel produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Beth Novey adapted it for the web.

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'There Is No Neutral': 'Nice White People' Can Still Be Complicit In A Racist Society

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For white people who have just recently recognized their own complicity in America's racist systems and are looking to "fix" that - it's not going to happen overnight. "It's a little bit like saying 'I want to be in shape tomorrow' ..." says author Robin DiAngelo. "This is going to be a process."

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What to read, listen to and watch to learn about institutional racism

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What to read, listen to and watch to learn about institutional racism

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As protesters take to the streets to speak out against police brutality and systemic racism long endured by black people in the United States, during a pandemic that disproportionately affects communities of color, the myriad consequences of institutional racism is a matter of national conversation and reflection.

In this moment, many non-black people are seeking to educate themselves about the experiences of black Americans and what actions everyone - but specifically, white Americans - can take to dismantle their own racial biases, as well as the larger discriminatory social, political and economic power structures that shape the nation.

Books, podcasts, films, articles and other resources can serve as a starting point for people who wish to become better allies in the fight for racial justice and equality by engaging with the work of black writers and scholars, learning about intersectional forms of oppression in the U.S. and actively educating their friends and family on these topics. Talking with some of the voices featured on the PBS NewsHour, as well as sharing some of our own recommendations, we've compiled a list of things for you to read, listen to and watch that might illuminate your understanding. This list is just a starting point.

Books

"White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide" by Carol Anderson

"Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon To White America" by Michael Eric Dyson

"How To Be Anti-Racist" by Ibram Kendi

"White Fragility: Why It's So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism" by Robin DiAngelo

"Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do" by Jennifer L. Eberhardt

"So You Want to Talk About Race" by Ijeoma Oluo

"The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap" by Mehrsa Baradaran

"The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism" by Edward Baptist

"The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story Of America's Great Migration" by Isabel Wilkerson

"Me And White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor" by Layla F. Saad

"White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America" by Margaret A. Hagerman

"The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin

"Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility" by Dorceta Taylor

"Playing In The Dark: Whiteness And The Literary Imagination" By Toni Morrison

"No, You Shut Up: Speaking Truth to Power and Reclaiming America" by Symone D. Sanders

"Say It Louder! Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving Our Democracy" by Tiffany Cross

"Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People" by Ben Crump

"Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements" by Charlene A. Carruthers

"To The Mountaintop: My Journey Through the Civil Rights Movement" by Charlayne Hunter-Gault

"The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr." by Peniel E. Joseph

"We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

"Life Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008" by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

"Stony The Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, And The Rise Of Jim Crow" by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

"Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity" by C. Riley Snorton

"The Mis-Education of the Negro" by Carter G. Woodson

"Come Hell Or High Water: Hurricane Katrina And The Color Of Disaster" by Michael Eric Dyson

"When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir" by Patrisse Cullors and ashe bandele

"Vernon Can Read!: A Memoir" by Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.

"Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement" By John Lewis and Michael D'Orso

"My Vanishing Country: A Memoir" by Bakari Sellers

"In My Place" by Charlayne Hunter-Gault

"How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir" by Saeed Jones

"Angela Davis: An Autobiography" by Angela Davis

"Black Indian: A Memoir" by Shonda Buchanan

"The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas

"Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler

"Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi

"Mama's Girl" by Veronica Chambers

"With the Fire on High" by Elizabeth Acevedo

READ MORE: Go beyond Toni Morrison with these 7 books that stare down the white gaze
Podcasts and films

Broken Justice is a PBS NewsHour original podcast series that looks at the impact that overworked and underfunded public defenders have on the American criminal justice system. It tells the story of Ricky Kidd, who was sentenced to life without parole for a double homicide he says he didn't commit and argues his court-appointed lawyer is the reason for that conviction.

Code Switch is an NPR podcast created by "a multi-racial, multi-generational team of journalists" that covers "overlapping themes of race, ethnicity and culture, how they play out in our lives and communities, and how all of this is shifting."

1619 is a podcast series from New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah Jones that connects "past and present" by examining "the long shadow of American slavery."

Say It Loud is "a PBS Digital Studios series that celebrates Black culture, context, and history."

" 13th," available both on Netflix and YouTube, is a documentary from director Ava DuVernay that looks at the U.S. prison system and "how the country's history of racial inequality drives the high rate of incarceration in America."

More to read
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Candice Norwood, Bakari Sellers and Tonya Alston contributed recommendations to this list.
READ MORE
13-year-old founder of #1000blackgirlbooks shares some of her favorite reads 10 books besides 'To Kill a Mockingbird' that tackle racial injustice 10 children's books that feature diverse characters

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What to read, listen to and watch to learn about institutional racism

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As protesters take to the streets to speak out against police brutality and systemic racism long endured by black people in the United States, during a pandemic that disproportionately affects communities of color, the myriad consequences of institutional racism is a matter of national conversation and reflection.

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Showing up for Racial Justice

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Showing up for Racial Justice

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A home for white people working for justice - SURJ

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A home for white people working for justice Join SURJ Support When we fight racism, we all win.We want you on our team. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25F8qz8hKBg Find a Chapter Get Updates Learn More Current Campaigns Monthly Racial Justice Action Hours Ready to get off the sidelines and into action to support campaigns to close detention centers and ...

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Commitment To Combat Racism — Jane Elliott

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Jane Elliott, internationally known teacher, lecturer, diversity trainer, and recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence in Education, exposes prejudice and bigotry for what it is, an irrational class system based upon purely arbitrary factors. And if you think this…

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They Can't Kill Us All: The Story of the Struggle for Black Lives

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They Can't Kill Us All: The Story of the Struggle for Black Lives

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Conducting hundreds of interviews during the course of over one year reporting on the ground, Washington Post writer Wesley Lowery traveled from Ferguson, Missouri, to Cleveland, Ohio; Charleston, South Carolina; and Baltimore, Maryland; and then back to Ferguson to uncover life inside the most heavily policed, if otherwise neglected, corners of America today.

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The Anti-Racist Starter Pack: 40 TV Series, Documentaries, Movies, TED Talks, and Books to Add to Your List

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The Anti-Racist Starter Pack: 40 TV Series, Documentaries, Movies, TED Talks, and Books to Add to Your List

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Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays

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So you want to be an ally but don't know where to start? First of all, thank you and welcome. This is an ever growing community of people who refuse to accept Black death and institutionalized racism as the norm. This community takes measurable steps, is intentional about their day-to-day interactions, and is committed to self- education. Where to begin? Look no further than the below starter pack of TV shows, documentaries, films, TED talks, and books that can ground your activism and ensure you're offering this movement more than lip service. Grab an accountability partner (or start a group!) as a way of debriefing what you learn and ensuring you stick with it.

There's no better day than today! Here's your anti-racist starter pack.

TV Series

1. Ava DuVernay's When They See Us stopped the world when she told the stories of the (now) Exonerated Five. This is a cautionary tale for some on the dangers of making the narrative match a racist agenda and insight into the fear of Black families across the country, and world.

2. OWN's Queen Sugar: Queen Sugar shares the beauty and complexity in family, legacy, and justice through the warmth of a Black family. Over the course of the seasons, we become even more exposed to Black rural advocacy and the power in land ownership.

3. FX's (available on Netflix): The Black LGBTQ+ community is no stranger to over-policing and brutal violence and Pose gives us a front row seat to the resilience and ingenuity of Ballroom culture and the fight for autonomy and safety.

4. Netflix's Seven Seconds: Before the hashtags and media, what is it like for a Black family learning they've lost a loved one and for a police officer realizing he took a life. How do these stories intertwine and what insight can we glean about repairing harm?

5. Dear White People (available on Netflix):Dear White People has drawn controversy from many who have been afraid to push past the title, but it's great insight to the inner workings of Black student activists and their campus experiences.

Related: 40 Ways White Women Can Help Fight Racism
Documentaries

Netflix's 13th by Ava DuVernay: Many cite The New Jim Crow (book by Michelle Alexander) as what woke them up to the extreme injustice in our criminal justice system and arguably 13th would be the documentary version of that, exposing how deep-rooted institutionalized racism is.
Related: Self-Care for Black Women Activists Right Now

1. The Children's March: Youth-led activism has been on the rise since the fearless survivors of Parkland sparked a 21st century gun violence movement. To understand the shoulders on which we stand, learn about the children of Alabama that brought a racist police chief and segregation to its knees.

2. The Kalief Browder Story (available on Netflix): For many of us, protesting is a right we take for granted. For those in the belly of our criminal justice system, advocating for yourself can be deadly. We must honor Kalief's sacrifice by knowing his story and ending cash bail.

3. The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975: The Black Liberation movement of the late 20th century is riddled with stereotypes and propaganda causing many to believe that the movement died following the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. This documentary sets the record straight from the source with powerful interviews and recollections.

4. LA92 (available on Netflix): It's important that we never lose sight of the legacy of police violence. To understand the righteous anger of the Black community, learn more about the LA riots following the Rodney King trial.

Related: Beyoncé, LeBron James, Viola Davis, Taylor Swift and More Celebs Demand Justice for George Floyd
Movies and Short Films

1. Fruitvale Station (directed by Ryan Coogler): When advocating around police brutality, we often lose touch with the humanity of those we fight for. In this masterful film, we see a glimpse of what is stolen from us each time police use excessive force.

2. Higher Learning (directed by John Singleton): Since 2016, many have become hyper-aware of the deep rifts that exist in American society and others have always known that we have very different experiences of this country. Higher Learning will surprise you in how relevant it is to today and showing some of the hurdles to achieving a "post-racial" society.

3. Do The Right Thing (directed by Spike Lee): Eric Garner and George Floyd have both drawn connections to a fiction character who preceded them both: Radio Raheem of Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing. The film masterfully highlights where unrest stems from and what leads to the rage felt in uprisings and rebellions.

4. If Beale Street Could Talk (directed by Barry Jenkins): Activism can be very glorified by those privileged to be advocating from the abstract. This film-part love story, part drama-gives us a look into what is truly at stake for those facing wrongful incarceration head on.

5. I Am Not Your Negro (directed by Raoul Peck): James Baldwin has provided novels, personal essays, and prose to last many lifetimes! The film adaptation explores the extended history of racism through Baldwin's recollections and personal observations.

Related: 18 New Artists, Songs and Albums to Add to Your Playlists in Honor of Black Music Month

TED Talks

1. Bryan Stevenson's We Need To Talk About An Injustice:Bryan Stevenson is one of the leading racial justice advocates, working with people incarcerated on death row. If anyone can diagnose recent injustices and understand the steps forward it would be him.

2. Kimberle Crenshaw on The Urgency of Intersectionality: Following 2016, 'intersectionality' became quite the buzzword, yet gets used out of context often by both the Right and Left alike. Hear from the black woman who coined the term in the '80s as to how we use intersectionality to defend Black women.

3. Baratunde Thurston on How To Deconstruct Racism, One Headline At A Time: Racism isn't funny, but in this TED talk you'll learn about the pervasive nature of racism and laugh out loud way more times than you'll be able to count.

4. T. Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison on The Trauma of Systemic Racism is Killing Black Women:Racism is traumatic. Oftentimes we are focused so much on legislative changes and urgent calls to action, that we neglect the emotional well being of Black people everywhere facing PTSD from this cyclical violence. Dive more into self-care as radical preservation with this joint TED talk.

5. Verna Meyers on How To Overcome Our Biases? Walk Towards Them: #AllLivesMatter is the new color blind and both terms are proof that people fear being accused of biases more than they feel committed to addressing them. Let's lose the shame and take bold steps deeper into your allyship.

6. Heather McGhee's Racism Has A Cost for Everyone:My liberation is bound in yours. This is not a feel good statement but a reality when it comes to how racism impacts policy, budgets, and prevents us from achieving a society that works for us all

7. The Human Stories Beyond Mass Incarceration:We can never lose sight of the people behind the statistics and in this powerful TED talk, you'll be reminded of why we fight this fight.

8. Marlon Peterson's : Marlon Peterson is formerly incarcerated and one of the leading national experts on alternatives to incarceration. Learn about why we desperately need more empathy when it comes to addressing harm.

9. Emma Harrison's From Reform to Abolition: The Future of the U.S. Prison System: More than ever before, people are Googling abolition and exploring what a society without prisons looks like. Have questions about why we can't reform these systems or what this looks like in reality? Listen up!

10. Rayna Gordon's Don't Be A Savior, Be An Ally:Sometimes with the best intentions we still fall short. Hear from Rayna about thoughtful allyship that seeks to uplift and support not take over or "save."

Related: 25 Anti-Racist Instagram Accounts to Follow for Listening, Learning and Action-Taking
Books

1. by Bryan Stevenson: You've likely heard the story of someone who served decades in prison for a crime they didn't commit. How does that happen and how do we ensure people don't disappear behind the bars and into bureaucratic systems that value process more than justice?

2. Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward: America often equates Black to mean urban America when more of us live in "middle America" and the deep South than anywhere else. Ward is a literary artist who spins the stories of Black men in Mississippi with so much love and a deep desire to protect those she loves.

3. Free Cyntoia by Cyntoia Brown-Long: Everyone from Rihanna to Kim Kardashian was tweeting about Cyntoia Brown-Long, the young woman incarcerated for defending herself against her abuser and a sexual predator. Cyntoia's story is one that many women share-and this book sheds light on how systems set up to protect us, fail us time and time again.

4. by Trevor Noah: Noah's book reads like an episode of his late night show which is to say it's informative, compelling, and well researched. This is a must read for those looking to understand race and class.

5. Unafraid of the Darkby Rosemary L Bray: Racism feels like this big scary monster which can make some of us feel like we don't know where to begin in dismantling it and others feel it's not relevant to them at all. Bray sets the record straight with these vignettes and anecdotes about what racism looks like in practice but also how police interventions can work to alleviate the pressures.

6. How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective by Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor: "Listen to Black women!" Want to learn what Black women from movements past have to say about justice and freedom? Look no further than this foundational manifesto.

7. Children of Blood and Bones by Tomi Adeyemi: Science fiction is a powerful tool for exploring problems from the distance we normally aren't afforded with day-to-day life. This first part of the electric new trilogy explores issues of fear, revenge, and what it takes to build a new future.

8. When They Call You A Terrorist by Patrisse Khan Cullors: Cullors co-founded Black Lives Matter over five years ago alongside two other Black women organizers. Years later, she reflected on her own journey to that moment and what it means to be labeled a terrorist by the government that has sought to erase you and those you love.

9. Let's Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice by Paul Butler: This Harvard Law grad turned prosecutor went from high-powered attorney to wrongfully accused Black man in one day. What that experience taught him is cemented through this book and will tell you all you need to know about this rigged system.

10. Pushout by Monique Morris: Black girls and women are often left out of the conversation when it comes to criminal justice reform but Morris reiterates exactly how Black girls are oversexualized, more likely to be described as aggressive, and more frequently suspended or expelled, leading to this school-to-prison pipeline we hear so much about.

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The Anti-Racist Starter Pack: 40 TV Series, Documentaries, Movies, TED Talks, and Books to Add to Your List

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So you want to be an ally but don't know where to start? First of all, thank you and welcome. This is an ever growing community of people who refuse to accept Black death and institutionalized racism as the norm. This community takes measurable steps, is intentional about their day-to-day interactions, and is committed to self- education.

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As much as any film out there today, 'I Am Not Your Negro' helps us face our racial divide and possibly begin to change it as well.”– Kenneth Turan, LA Times.

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Search for showtimes and purchase tickets for I Am Not Your Negro. See the release date and trailer. The Official Showtimes Destination brought to you by Magnolia Pictures

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I Am Not Your Negro: Theater Showtimes & Ticket Purchasing - The Official Showtimes Destination

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Search for showtimes and purchase tickets for I Am Not Your Negro. See the release date and trailer. The Official Showtimes Destination brought to you by Magnolia Pictures

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10 Documentaries To Watch About Race Instead Of Asking A Person Of Colour To Explain Things For You

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10 Documentaries To Watch About Race Instead Of Asking A Person Of Colour To Explain Things For You

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Take some time to watch some (or all) of these important documentaries about race, racial prejudices and privilege within our society.

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10 Documentaries To Watch About Race Instead Of Asking A Person Of Colour To Explain Things For You

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It's important now more than ever that Australians engage in important conversations about race.

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A Call to Action for White Educators Who Seek to Be Anti-Racist

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A Call to Action for White Educators Who Seek to Be Anti-Racist

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PBS Teachers' Lounge

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I am a white mother and educator. For decades in school I have taught "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Unfortunately, for many of my students, the suffering often seems abstract and they falsely believe these are stories from a distant past. But, racism didn't end with the Civil Rights Movement. It is an ever present, persistent evil that impacts us all in every aspect of our daily lives. Wishing and hoping that systemic racism will just go away--or believing that it doesn't exist in our own communities--is its own form of violence. And recently I have been asking myself if I've made this point clearly enough in my teaching practice.

It should not have taken the recent brutal murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade, at the hands of police, to spark our consciousness. But it has, and this is now the time for me, and for other white parents and educators like me, to sit up, take notice, listen to Black communities, talk to our children and demonstrate anti-racist actions. This is not a time to be dismissive, but instead it's time for us to reach out, support in every way possible and take meaningful action. I am taking action to build a better future for my children and the children in my care. As a parent and educator I can help dismantle systemic racism. As I continue my own journey of learning about, and committing to, anti-racist action, here's what I believe we can do as educators to support meaningful change.

Our words must match our actions
Frankly, what we have done in the past has not worked. If our society had dismantled systemic racism, then we would not be seeing the necessary unrest that we see today. Our rhetoric needs to match our actions. As I think about what I do as an educator and as a parent, I am not 100 percent confident that my rhetoric and actions have always matched. But when I know better, I do better. I have friends, writers and public figures whose words I listen to, whose words I reflect on, and whose words I take to heart in order to support the change that needs to happen in our society. But it's not enough to read and reflect on those words, I must put those ideas into action.

We must broaden representation in classroom reading
When I reflect on my teaching practice and consider the words that I teach - the novels I use in my classroom, the authors whose works I use on a regular basis--it is clear that I have not had enough Black, Indigenous, or People of Color representation in my curriculum. On reflection, I have not ensured that every student who sits in a seat in my classroom has felt that their experiences were reflected in what we read. As a high school English teacher, I know that the white savior trope dominates our canon of American literature. I need to do a better job of including more writers who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. People like Maya Angelou and Zora Neale Hurston, people like Amy Tan and Ta-Nehisi Coates, people like Jason Reynolds and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, people like Sandra Cisneros and Junot Díaz, people like Celeste Ng and Ted Chiang, Langston Hughes and Cleo Wade, Sherman Alexie and Leslie Marmon Silko.

We must embrace tough conversations
First, we must be better listeners. It is time to de-center myself, my stories and my experience, especially when talking about race and racial justice. This is not about me; it's about my friends, colleagues, and community. We must be disciplined and listen to the stories and experiences of others. Listening means not interjecting my point of view or saying anything that might invalidate the experience of others. I listen to People of Color on the news, I read their words in books and on social media. I listen with the intention of hearing what they have to say so I can create a connection and an understanding. I listen to the conversations students have when they are in my classroom and I find teachable moments when the conversation needs to change. I do not pretend I don't hear it. Even if this may feel uncomfortable, we need to have these conversations. I listen to the questions my own children have about race and I answer truthfully and transparently. I acknowledge the mistakes I have made as well as the mistakes others make, and we talk about ways to actively change hearts and minds.

We must explore different ideas, and listen with intention to change
I talk openly about race issues, not just on social media but with people in real life. I initiate conversations (but only if they want to talk) with non-white friends, colleagues, and students, and I actively participate by asking questions to gain understanding. Not everyone in a cultural group feels the same way and by asking questions I can explore different ideas. Again, this requires being present in the conversation, and listening to learn. I talk to my students about racial stereotypes, about how so much of what we read in class overwhelmingly has white characters and about how literature supports learning empathy for others. As a parent, I talk to my children about current events, about historical events, about implicit bias and overt racism. I talk to them about the importance of speaking up, listening, and learning.

We must commit to constant self reflection and admit our own bias
I'm still learning. I am learning how much words matter. I love To Kill a Mockingbird but it is one of many books that uses the White Savior trope - as a society we have so much exposure to this idea that white people have to step in and save Black people. This reinforces that idea that Black people need to be saved by white people. Through my own reflection, I understand how this trope is harmful. True allies don't seek to "solve and save," instead we stand beside our Black friends and colleagues, build empathy, amplify their voices, and stand up alongside them. I now constantly check my thoughts, and question even those that are fleeting: are my ideas influenced by bias, white supremacy and racism? I recently read this from Greater Good Magazine, and it stayed with me: "Admitting that we are all subject to biases creates a safer space to examine them more carefully and take steps to fight them..."

We must use media to strengthen understanding
I'm still learning about cultural appropriation, implicit bias and the historical events that have gone largely ignored, but which have inevitably led our country to this moment. Education plays a role in change. My own learning has been shaped by I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Invisible Man, and more recently, titles like Stamped, Just Mercy, The Hate U Give, Monster, and Dear Martin. These are books I can pass along to my colleagues, my high school students and to my own sons. I watch movies with my family like Akilah and the Bee, Raising Dion, See You Yesterday, Hidden Figures and BlacKkKlansman. I'm learning from podcasts such as Code Switch and Seeing White and my children and I listen to them at home and in the car.

I'm learning why and how Black communities are disproportionately impacted by Covid-19. I'm learning how and why Black people, especially Black men, are disproportionately killed by police. I'm learning and sharing the names and circumstances of the deaths with my children. I'm learning that I need to support organizations like the NAACP that actively support change. I'm learning that I need to show up.

We must keep doing the work
There is no quick fix for systemic racism. It requires continued, ongoing effort to dismantle white supremacy. But I also have hope. With our combined voices and our combined intelligence, we fight for racial justice and usher change. My Black students, colleagues and friends are in pain. As a white person, as a mother of white sons, as a white educator, it is incumbent on me to be more aware, to learn more, to empathize, to listen and to support others as we work to dismantle white supremacy and forge a new way forward.
More Resources

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a call to action for white educators who seek to be anti-racist

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A Call to Action for White Educators Who Seek to Be Anti-Racist | PBS Education

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I am a white mother and educator. For decades in school I have taught "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Unfortunately, for many of my students, the suffering often seems abstract and they falsely believe these are stories from a distant past.

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Say Her Name: The Life and Death Of Sandra Bland

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Say Her Name: The Life and Death Of Sandra Bland

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Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland explores the death of Sandra Bland, a politically active 28-year-old African American who, after being arrested for a traffic violation in a small Texas town, was found hanging in her jail cell three days later. Dashcam footage revealing her arrest went viral, leading to national protests. The film team followed the two-year case beginning shortly after Bland's death, exploring the questions of what really happened to her, and what we may learn from her tragedy.

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Twelve books that give context to current protests

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Twelve books that give context to current protests

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Oxford University Press

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Cities across the United States have seen ongoing protests since the death of George Floyd while in police custody on 25 May. Conversations are taking place on social media as well as in the real world, and media coverage has been relentless. We at Oxford University Press would like to highlight some of our books across politics, history, and philosophy that we hope can contribute to the important conversations currently taking place and provide valuable context. Where possible, we've made some of these books available at no cost for a limited time. Explore additional free articles on race and diversity on our website.

1. American While Black: African Americans, Immigration, and the Limits of Citizenship by Niambi Michele Carter
Carter argues that immigration, both historically and in the contemporary moment, has served as a reminder of the limited inclusion of African Americans in the body politic. As Carter contends, immigration provides a way to understand the nature and meaning of black American citizenship-specifically the way that white supremacy structures and constrains not only African Americans' place in the American political landscape, but the black community's political opinions as well.
American While Black is free on Oxford Scholarship Online until 10 July.

2. The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea by Christopher J. Lebron
Started in the wake of George Zimmerman's 2013 acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin, the #BlackLivesMatter movement has become a powerful campaign to demand redress for law enforcement injustices against the African American community in the United States. Drawing on the work of revolutionary black public intellectuals, Lebron clarifies what it means to assert that "Black Lives Matter" when faced with contemporary instances of anti-black law enforcement.

3. Situational Breakdowns: Understanding Protest Violence and Other Surprising Outcomes by Anne Nassauer
Nassauer demonstrates that when routines break down, surprising outcomes often emerge. Focusing on detailed accounts of peaceful and violent protests from the 1960s until 2010, violent uprisings such as Ferguson 2014, and armed store robberies caught on camera, Nassauer argues we can understand how and why routine interactions break down by looking at how situations develop systematically. She discusses how violence emerges and what police and protesters can do to avoid violent clashes.

4. Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones, and the New Protest #Journalism by Allissa V. Richardson
This book reveals how the perfect storm of smartphones, social media, and social justice empowered Black activists to create their own news outlets, which continued a centuries-long, African American tradition of using the news to challenge racism.Bearing Witness While Black is the first book of its kind to identify three overlapping eras of domestic terror against African American people-slavery, lynching, and police brutality-and explain how storytellers documented such atrocities through journalism.

5. Steeped in the Blood of Racism: Black Power, Law and Order, and the 1970s Shootings at Jackson State College by Nancy K. Bristow
Minutes after midnight on 15 May 1970, white members of the Jackson city police and the Mississippi Highway Patrol opened fire on young people in front of a women's dormitory at Jackson State College, a historically black college. Just ten days after the killings at Kent State, the attack at Jackson State never garnered the same level of national attention. In the aftermath, the victims and their survivors struggled unsuccessfully to find justice. The shootings were soon largely forgotten except among the local African American community. This book reclaims this story and situates it in the broader history of the struggle for African American freedom in the civil rights and black power eras.
Steeped in the Blood of Racism is free on Oxford Scholarship Online until 10 July.

6. Black Software: The Internet & Racial Justice, from AfroNet to Black Lives Matter by Charlton D. McIlwain
Activists, pundits, politicians, and the press frequently proclaim today's digitally mediated racial justice activism the new civil rights movement. InBlack Software, McIlwain shows how the story of racial justice movement organizing online is much longer and more varied. Chronicling the long relationship between African Americans, computing technology, and the Internet from the 1960s to present, the book examines how computing technology has been used to neutralize the threat that black people pose to the existing racial order, but also how black people seized these new computing tools to build community, wealth, and wage a war for racial justice.

7. Sick from Freedom: African American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction by Jim Downs
Downs recovers the untold story of one of the bitterest ironies in American history-that the emancipation of the slaves had devastating consequences for innumerable freed people. Slaves who fled from bondage during and after the Civil War did not expect that their flight toward freedom would lead to sickness, disease, suffering, and death. But the war produced the largest biological crisis of the nineteenth century, with deadly consequences for hundreds of thousands of freed people.
Sick from Freedom is free on Oxford Scholarship Online until 10 July.

8. A Duty to Resist: When Disobedience Should be Uncivil by Candice Delmas
Advocates from Henry David Thoreau and Mohandas Gandhi to the Black Lives Matter activists have recognized that there are times when, rather than having a duty to obey the law, citizens have a duty to disobey it. There are limits: principle alone does not justify law breaking. But Delmas argues that uncivil disobedience can sometimes be not only permissible but required in the effort to resist injustice.
A Duty to Resist is free on Oxford Scholarship Online until 10 July.

9. Until There is Justice: The Life of Anna Arnold Hedgeman by Jennifer Scanlon
Scanlon presents the first-ever biography of Hedgeman, a demanding feminist, devout Christian, and savvy grassroots civil rights organizer. Anna Arnold Hedgeman played a key role in over half a century of social justice initiatives. Hedgeman ought to be a household name, but until now has received only a fraction of the attention of activists like A. Philip Randolph, Betty Friedan, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

10. Most of 14th Street Is Gone: The Washington, DC Riots of 1968 by J. Samuel Walker
Walker's book takes an in-depth look at the causes and consequences of the Washington, DC, riots of 1968. It shows that the conditions that existed in the city's low-income neighborhoods helped generate the problems that erupted after Martin Luther King's murder. The book also discusses the growing fears produced by the outbreaks of serious riots in many cities during the mid-1960s. Walker analyzes the reasons for the riots and the lessons that authorities drew from them. He also provides an overview of the struggle that the city faced in recovering from the effects of the 1968 disorders.

11. The Color of America Has Changed: How Racial Diversity Shaped Civil Rights Reform in California, 1941-1978 by Mark Brilliant
Brilliant examines California's history to illustrate how the civil rights era was a nationwide and multiracial phenomenon-one that was shaped and complicated by the presence of not only blacks and whites, but also Mexican Americans, Japanese Americans, and Chinese Americans, among others. The Golden State's status as a civil rights vanguard for the nation is due in part to the numerous civil rights precedents set there and to the disparate challenges of civil rights reform in multiracial places.

12. Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Raymond Arsenault
They were black and white, young and old, men and women. In the spring and summer of 1961, they put their lives on the line, riding buses through the American South to challenge segregation in interstate transport. Their story is one of the most celebrated episodes of the civil rights movement, yet a full-length history has never been written until now. In these pages, acclaimed historian Raymond Arsenault provides an account of six pivotal months that jolted the consciousness of America.

Feature image created by OUP.

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Twelve books that give context to current protests [reading list]

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Cities across the United States have seen ongoing protests since the death of George Floyd while in police custody on 25 May. Conversations are taking place on social media as well as in the real world, and media coverage has been relentless.

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Summer Reading: Over 40 Books on Race, Racism, and the Black American Experience to Read Now, as Recommended by Rutgers-Newark Faculty

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Summer Reading: Over 40 Books on Race, Racism, and the Black American Experience to Read Now, as Recommended by Rutgers-Newark Faculty

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In these socially charged times, one of the most important things in the fight against systemic racism and our own internal biases is education. Faculty at Rutgers University-Newark teach and work at one of the most diverse university in the United States, and their research covers race and bias from across a wide range of disciplines in the arts, humanities, sciences, business and law. We put out a general call asking for book recommendations on the black experience in America, and the response was immediate and overwhelming. Below, our faculty recommend their current and classic favorites and tell us why we should read them now.

Most Recommended:

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, Richard Rothstein

From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

In the Castle of My Skin, George Lamming

The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin

These books were named multiple times as essential reading. The Color of Law is a "hard-hitting and sobering book [that] traces the role of local, state and federal housing policies in segregating the races in the United States," says Tom McCabe, who teaches a History of Newark course at RU-N. "If you ever wondered how your neighborhood came to be all-white, all-black-or-brown, or if you ever wondered the same about your schools, read this book," adds Belinda Edmondson, acting chair of African American and African Studies.

Melissa Valle, an assistant professor in Sociology says From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation "provide[s] much needed structural analyses and context for this latest spate of uprisings around the country. Lamming's novel, In the Castle of My Skin, is "A powerful story about the relation between the UK and its Caribbean colonies," says Sadia Abbas, associate professor of English. And finally, Mark Krasovic, says The Fire Next Time, is a classic for reasons including "the stunning beauty of its language in the face of ugliness and its constant reminder of our interconnected fates, whether they ultimately be liberatory or destructive."

Full Reading List

Recommends:

"A powerful story about the relation between the UK and its Caribbean colonies and the ways in which race structures experience in the colony and the colonial center. Characterized by Lamming's densely suggestive storytelling and analytical style."

"Professor Judy is originally from Minneapolis. The book brings together critical theory, the suppressed Muslim history of american slavery, antiblack racism and the philosophical tradition. It's a significant and brilliant contribution to several disciplines and a profound meditation on language, thought and the possibilities of different varieties of signification."

"A powerful and slily brilliant modernist text about race, poverty and disability."

"The first volume of Moten's trilogy, consent not to be a single being, this book is a collection of brillliant and anarchic, brilliantly anarchic, deeply thoughtful essays aesthetics, politics, life and blackness."
Recommends:
Recommends:

"This collection of essays by writer, cultural critic and Emerson College professor Jabari Asim explores our contemporary moment of emergency as an afterlife, marshaling the past to shed light on the present. Asim salvages hope through a focus on black resilience and black survival. The collection was a finalist for PEN's Art of the Essay award last year. Asim has also written children's books about African-American history."

"This is the first and only substantive history of the U.S. Border Patrol, by UCLA African-American Studies professor Kelly Lytle Hernandez, who won a MacArthur Genius Award last year. Just as interrogating the history of policing in the United States is key to understanding black lives and Black Lives Matter, knowing the history of how our borders are policed is key to understanding the lives of immigrants and racialized Others in the United States."

"Minneapolis-based author and scholar Erika Lee provides a tragically timely genealogy of hate directed at "aliens" in American society, beginning with Ben Franklin and ending with Trump's travel bans. Lee is director of the Immigration Resource Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Her comprehensive narrative shows how a nation of immigrants is, paradoxically, also a nation of xenophobia."

Recommends:

"It's easy to read and provides useful background."

"Provides theoretical background, comparative perspective."

"This is a great novel by a major writer."
Recommends:

If you ever wondered how your neighborhood came to be all-white, all-black-or-brown, or if you ever wondered the same about your schools, read this book.

"It argues that the reason we, the residents of the richest country on earth, find ourselves in a pandemic without enough hospital beds or indeed (for 10 percent of the population) without even healthcare; or with barely enough unemployment insurance policies to cover the masses of suddenly unemployed people, is because in the United States the white majority would rather shrink the social welfare net than pay into any system that supports "undeserving" people of color."

"It examines recent US history to argue that the segregation that plagues our cities and contributes to the kind of explosive racial strife we are currently experiencing is the result of decades of consistent anti-integration local, state and federal policies in housing and education. If you ever wondered how your neighborhood came to be all-white, all-black-or-brown, or if you ever wondered the same about your schools, read this book."

"This book builds on the argument, first advanced by Trinidadian historian (and eventually prime minister) Eric Williams that slavery and capitalism are intrinsically linked by illustrating how slavery did not simply contribute to but actually provided the foundation for America's present wealth. In so doing it refutes the belief that African Americans are somehow marginal or play a supporting role in the creation of this country's wealth when their ancestors provided the very basis of it."

"It links the present injustices--the systematic incarceration of mostly African American men, the denial of voting rights to ex-felons who are disproportionately African American--to the nation's shameful "Jim Crow" era of the past century, arguing that the segregation era has never ended, only resulted in (to paraphrase Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man) a more efficient blinding."

"A classic."
Recommends:
"My main advice is that what is needed right now, above all, in this era of COVID-19 and BLM, is class-conscious antiracist literature that points to the material interests that most people in the 99% share when it comes to eradicating racism. Some poems by Langston Hughes in the 1930s are particularly powerful and accessible e.g., "Always the Same"; "Open Letter to the South"; "White Man!"; "Rising Waters" -- and there are plenty more.

"A novel that explores the need for antiracist class consciousness among working-class whites in the South."

Two short stories: "A Party Down at the Square", Ralph Ellison, and "Like a Winding Sheet", Ann Petry

"These two stories from the 1930s have worked for me time and again in the classroom. This last short story is just wonderul for the way it links the alienation of labor to sexist and racist ideology and practice."
Recommends:
"This is a comprehensive review article by one of the premier social psychology researchers of this topic. In it, Fiske distinguishes between the three anti-social tendencies, between motivated prejudice and prejudice that arises from mental short-cuts (automatic processes), and between overt, conscious expressions of prejudice and more subtle, implicit forms of prejudice."

"This book, although a bit old, provides an excellent review of what it feels like to be stigmatized--as well as why stigmatization happens. Chapters discuss how stigmas affect the way one is treated, how it restricts relations with others and limits one's own public behaviors, and how it affects one's own sense of self. This is a text I go back to often."

"This is a somewhat unconventional choice, but it may be an important part of the total story. Fogelman tries to understand the motives and characters of people who overcame their prejudices and did so at a crucial time under the most trying of circumstances. Knowing how and why prejudices are overcome may provide some markers on our way out of the current difficulties."

Recommends:

"I recommend this for so many reasons, including the stunning beauty of its language in the face of ugliness and its constant reminder of our interconnected fates, whether they ultimately be liberatory or destructive."

"Read this for its chronicle of the life of one of our nation's most remarkable thinkers and organizers, for its detailing of her 'radical democratic vision,' and for its conviction that there is no shortcut around that vision in our search for peace and justice."

Recommends:

"This book makes connections between the founding organizations and publications of intersectional black feminism in the 1970s, the radical abolitionism of Harriet Tubman and leaders of the Movement for Black Lives today... The book recounts how Black queer feminists, survivors of violence, have historically and recently organized themselves to demand freedom. As Yamahtta-Taylor's title suggests, this primer shows how to get free by drawing on lessons from history and responding with alacrity, passion, and creativity to violence and crisis."

"Cathy Park Hong recalls the long history of Anti-Asian racism and incarceration in the United States. This precisely written anti-racist manifesto addresses complex feelings of guilt, shame, and rage through readings of the brilliant Afro-Latino standup comic Richard Pryor; meditations on migrating while Asian; and unflinching assessments of quotidian, startlingly normalized racist violence that characterizes the United States from the 1882 race-based Chinese Exclusion Act through the first decades of the twenty-first century."

"The first generation of formerly enslaved Hispanic Caribbean migrants arriving in New York and South Florida in the 1870s organized themselves into clubs that gave them a voice in a revolutionary political party, created a self-funded voluntary night school, and created newspapers where they published their opinions and engaged in interpretation, critique and debate.

Members of this tight-knit Afro-Latinx community eventually founded the Schomburg Collection... at a time of extreme anti-black racial terror and Supreme Court decisions that made racial segregation and exclusion from full citizenship the law of the land. These Afro-Latinx thinkers offer a model for how to get organized to bring about change that is relevant during the economic and policing fallout of the COVID19 global pandemic."

Recommends:

"Part history, part memoir this page-turner lays bare a 1970s racial murder in North Carolina, and it also eloquently elicits a time and place in America that seems like it was a long time ago, but it wasn't. Tyson experienced these events and tries to make sense of them through the lens of the humanist-historian."

"A New Journalism account of the Newark Rebellion of 1967, Ron Porambo's book is a years-long investigation of institutional racism and corruption that spread from the top of city and state governments to local police forces in the state's largest city."

"This hard-hitting and sobering book traces the role of local, state and federal housing policies in segregating the races in the United States. Rothstein, who spoke at the HLLC a year or so ago, details how the government and our courts upheld racist policies to maintain the separation of whites and blacks."

Recommends:

Recommends:

We can counteract our own prejudices. The first step is to turn a hidden bias into a visible one.

Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, Anthony Greenwald and Mahzarin Banaji

"A deep dive into the origins of implicit bias for all readers by the two researchers who put implicit bias on the map with their ground-breaking work. A take-home message is that we may not have much power to eradicate our own prejudices, but we can counteract them. The first step is to turn a hidden bias into a visible one."

"Dr. Eberhardt makes a connection between implicit bias and system racism. She exposes racial bias at all levels of society, including law enforcement. And she also offers us tools to address it."
Recommends:
"This book makes the critical distinction between race, which is a construct, and racism, which is a real and devastating set of behaviors that create oppression and distort democracy. Progress will not be possible until the nation recognizes and acts upon the fact that racism, not 'race,' is our biggest problem. Racecraft can be read in tandem with Melissa L. Cooper's brilliant intellectual history Making Gullah: A History of Sapelo Island, Race, and the American Imagination. Cooper's book details how white Americans created a 'racial' identity for African Americans from Georgia's coastal islands, and how black Sapelo Islanders understood their own history and identity as one of struggle against oppression. It thereby shows the critical distinction between 'making race' and 'fighting racism' in U.S. life."

"Muhammad's study of Progressive-era Philadelphia shows how easy it was for white "experts" to manipulate seemingly neutral statistics about crime to support their belief that African Americans were inherently criminal."

"White Americans' ongoing economic exploitation and cultural denigration of African Americans has been strongly facilitated by residential segregation. Rothstein's comprehensive study details the multiple ways that U.S. laws at the local, state and federal level have consistently buttressed segregation. He demonstrates how at least some Americans have demonstrated a willingness to live in integrated communities, only to have their efforts thwarted by often obscure forms of institutionally racist laws. Until these laws are exposed and replaced by policies facilitating integration and fairness, segregation and its attendant evils will remain a primary support for the American racism."

"This book examines the famous power outage and subsequent looting that hit New York City in the summer of 1977 through multiple perspectives, but makes the fundamental point that looting and civil unrest is ultimately caused by a maldistribution of power."
Recommends:

In Darkness and Confusion, Ann Petry, a 1947 short story about the Harlem Riot of 1943 which appears in Petry's 1971 collection.

The Movement: Documentary of a Struggle for Equality, Lorraine Hansberry - a book-length brochure by the Civil Rights group, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) with text by Lorraine Hansberry.

"The Riot" Gwendolyn Brooks - a series of three poems about the Chicago Riots of 1968.

The three books that I've chosen are lesser-known works by authors renowned for championing racial and gender justice. As importantly, they were written as Ann Petry, Lorraine Hansberry, Gwendolyn Brooks engaged with the respective social justice movements of their time and how they as black women turned their words into being witnesses to and weapons to injustice.

Recommends:

"I would recommend Faces at the Bottom of the Well by Derrick Bell because it is such an important read of the condition of racism through a legal and political lens but with such narrative creativity. Books like this that are rich and provocative yet nontraditional and accessible invite vigorous discussion. Plus he's just so smart about so much. And We Are Not Saved is equally good for similar reasons."

Recommends:

"All three books provide much needed structural analyses and context for this latest spate of uprisings around the country. Taylor focuses specifically on the Black Lives Matter movement and the purposes of these kinds of protests. Hill uses high-profile and controversial cases of State violence similar to the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor (e.g., the police killings of people like Mike Brown, Kathryn Johnston and Freddie Gray, as well as the poisoning of the water in Flint, MI) to demonstrate that such cases are "a symptom of a deeper American problem," and that at the root of each case "is a more fundamental set of economic conditions, political arrangements, and power relations that transform everyday citizens into casualties of an increasingly intense war on the vulnerable" (p.xxii). Davis provides insights into what a just future could and should look like and the need for a radical re-imagining of the criminal justice system that abolishes prisons."

Recommends:

"These books constitute serious scholarship that combines historical sense with uncompromising anti-racism. Each places the question of race in historical, political and ideological contexts in the United States while avoiding the perils of race reductionism or reducing racism to a question of perception or individual prejudice. Required reading to enable effective anti-racism in the context of broad emancipatory politics in the United States."
Recommends:
"Typically, when we think of racism, our focus is on major events that generally receive widespread news coverage. However, racism also occurs in everyday, mundane situations such as those that occur in the marketplace. It is in this context that we often see what researchers describe as microaggressions, microassaults, implicit racism, etc. This research-based book provides not only empirical evidence of marketplace discrimination, but it also examines the legal issues and historical contexts of such marketplace phenomena."

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Summer Reading: Over 40 Books on Race, Racism, and the Black American Experience to Read Now, as Recommended by Rutgers-Newark Faculty

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In these socially charged times, one of the most important things in the fight against systemic racism and our own internal biases is edu

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How can we help students understand George Floyd’s death in the context of institutionalized racism?

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Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus - JSTOR Daily

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How can we help students understand George Floyd’s death in the context of institutionalized racism?

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Curriculum for White Americans to Educate Themselves on Race and Racism–from Ferguson to Charleston

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Curriculum for White Americans to Educate Themselves on Race and Racism–from Ferguson to Charleston

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A good collection of articles/links from 2015.

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When teaching about race and racism, I invite participants to consider the following analogy: Think of racism as a gigantic societal-sized boot.

" Which groups do you think are fighting the hardest against this boot of racism? " I ask them. Invariably, participants of diverse races answer that those fighting hardest to avoid getting squashed by the boot are people of Color. (Keep in mind that I don't ask this question on day one of our study of race. Rather, participants come to this conclusion after exploring the concept of White privilege and studying the history of race and racism in the United States through multiple sources and perspectives.)

" If that's true," I continue, " then who do you think is wearing the boot?" The participants' answer (though it often only reluctantly hits the air): White people.

" If that's true, then whose responsibility is it to stop the boot from squashing them? The people of Color already pushing upward and resisting the boot? Or the people wearing the boot-consciously or not-who contribute to a system that pushes downward? "

Everyone has a role in ending racism, but the analogy shows how little sense it makes for only those facing the heel-end of oppression to do all the work. It's time for White America to take on a far bigger role in taking off the boot.

There are no doubt complexities that come with White Americans working for racial justice. White privilege can lead to a chronic case of undiagnosed entitlement, creating poor listeners, impatient speakers who talk over others, and people unaccustomed to taking orders. Nevertheless, the movement for racial justice needs more White Americans to get involved. And it's our responsibility to help each other get involved-and get involved productively.

I compiled this list to help White Americans do so. One positive to emerge from these difficult times is the wealth of resources now available for White Americans. Never have I seen so many ideas, options, and concrete steps to take action against racism. And we are making progress: Looks Like White Americans Are Finally Starting to Come Around on Race and Policing. A few police officers are even being held accountable -finally-for their devastating decisions.
But so much work remains. A few notes about this list:

To keep this list from becoming overwhelmingly long, I prioritized recent sources-from Ferguson to Charleston-and organized them in reverse chronological order.

Every resource listed is relatively short. Not one of these resources links to a book (except here, here, and here). In other words, there's no excuse not to dig into them.

Many links on the list focus on the recent killings of Black men, but, as the three articles below illustrate, institutionalized racism has a much longer reach (and that these lists are hardly comprehensive):

Finally, by "curriculum," I do not mean a unit of study for classroom use (to be clear: this list is separate from my work in the classroom); rather, these resources, inspired by the #Charlestonsyllabus, are for anybody who wants to learn more from perspectives often underrepresented among many White circles.

Reading Articles Written Specifically for White Americans

To My White Friends Who See Tragedy in the Black Community and Say Nothing, Make it Personal, published by Huffington Post on June 26, 2015

'We need co-conspirators, not allies': how white Americans can fight racism, published by The Guardian on June 26, 2015

Be Less Racist: 12 Tips for White Dudes, by A White Dude, published by Mash-up Americans

7 Ways To Be A White Ally For Charleston And The Black Community, published by Huffington Post on June 19, 2015

10 Things All White Folks Need to Consider about the #BaltimoreUprising, published by Everyday Feminism on April 29, 2015

11 Things White People Can Do to Be Real Anti-Racist Allies, published by AlterNet on April 27, 2015

6 things I wish people understood about being biracial, published by Vox on March 11, 2015 (This one is not specifically addressed to White people but many would benefit from reading it.)

What white people need to know, and do, after Ferguson, published by The Washington Post on November 28, 2014

12 Things White People Can Actually Do After the Ferguson Decision, published by Huffington Post on November 26, 2014

To follow sources that publish such articles, find an extensive listing here. If these articles leave you with unanswered questions, there's now even a website devoted to answering the questions of White Americans: askawhiteperson.com.

Understanding Whiteness, White Privilege, Microaggressions, and a History of Racial Discrimination

Native Americans Get Shot By Cops at an Astonishing Rate, published by Mother Jones on July 15, 2015

Slavery to Mass Incarceration, a five-minute video, narrated by Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative, that concisely contextualizes mass incarceration as an evolution of slavery, published on July 7, 2015

I, Racist: Why I don't talk about race with White people, published by Medium on July 6, 2015

The Atlantic Slave Trade in Two Minutes, a short video that provides a "haunting" glimpse into the mass abduction, abuse, and murder of Black people that lasted centuries, published by Slate Magazine on June 25, 2015

What Is Whiteness?, published by The New York Times on June 20, 2015

We Need To Talk About White Culture, published by The Daily Beas t on June 19, 2015

Historian Says Don't 'Sanitize' How Our Government Created Ghettos, a 35-minute interview with Historian Richard Rothstein, in which he links current racial inequities directly to past governmental policies, from NPR's Fresh Air on May 14, 2015

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism, published by The Good Men Project on April 9, 2015

Only Part of the Story Is Being Told About the Police Shooting in Pasco, published by Time on March 3, 2015

Our Anti-Immigrant Racism Is Rooted in History, published by Common Dreams on February 17, 2015

Killing in Washington State Offers 'Ferguson' Moment for Hispanics, published by The New York Times on February 16, 2015

If Anyone Ever Questioned How White Privilege Manifested Itself in America This Is The Perfect Illustration, a five-minute video excerpt showing that, though race is a social construction with no scientific basis, governmental policy systematically gave it social and economic significance-all to the benefit of White Americans over the course of centuries-from Atlanta Blackstar on February 2, 2015

We Can't 'Get Over It': 4 Ways Understanding Past Wrongs Can Create Better Indigenous Allies, published by Everyday Feminism on January 15, 2015

Why Ferguson Should Matter to Asian-Americans, published by Time on November 26, 2014

Joining Groups

Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites (CARW): a group of white people in the Seattle area working to undo institutional racism and white privilege through education and organizing in white communities and active support of anti-racist, people of color-led organizations. We support the self-determination of people of color, honor their leadership and are held accountable to people of color-led organizations.

European Dissent: A national network of groups with the goal to be a visible force in the creation of a multiracial network of people intent on building working relationships between the white community and the communities of color in the struggle for a just society.

Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ): A national network of groups and individuals organizing white people for racial justice.

Parenting Racially-Conscious Children

How silence can breed prejudice: A child development professor explains how and why to talk to kids about race, published by The Washington Post on July 6, 2015

It's My Job to Raise Children Who Are Not Only Not Racist But Actively Anti-Racist, published by Huffington Post on July 1, 2015

The Hard Talk: White Parents Discussing Racism with White Children, published in Uprooting Criminology on June 20, 2015

Facing this country's racist past and present will likely stir up a lot of feelings for many of us. Guilt may be among them. In dealing with guilt, I encourage you to read the words of Audre Lorde:

. I cannot hide my anger to spare you guilt, nor hurt feelings, nor answering anger; for to do so insults and trivializes all our efforts. Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one's own actions or lack of action. If it leads to change then it can be useful, since it is then no longer guilt but the beginning of knowledge. Yet all too often, guilt is just another name for impotence, for defensiveness destructive of communication; it becomes a device to protect ignorance and the continuation of things the way they are, the ultimate protection for changelessness.

Instead of spending your energies on guilt, I encourage you to spend them seeking inspiration to act. There's no shortage of inspiration. For a moment on June 30th, in the wake of terrorism in Charleston, you could even find it on a flagpole at the South Carolina State House.

Less than two weeks after Bree Newsome's act of resistance, the governor of South Carolina signed a bill into law removing the Confederate Flag from the State House. Change is possible.

Stay connected for more ways to fight for social justice!

To learn more about the race curriculum controversy that led to the creation of this website, a controversy in which a public school district attempted to shut down a long-established study of race for seniors-all based on the misinformation of one White family-click here.

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Curriculum for White Americans to Educate Themselves on Race and Racism-from Ferguson to Charleston

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The movement for racial justice needs more White Americans to get involved. And it's our responsibility to help each other get involved-and get involved productively. I compiled this li...

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These recent poetry collections offer poignant narratives and snapshots of racial injustice in America, from lasting testaments of systemic violence to a public appeal for the vital work that remains to be done as the country confront its legacy of racism and exploitation.

White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia by Kiki Petrosino (Sarabande)
"In this deeply felt fourth collection, Petrosino investigates her family tree-especially its roots in Virginia-and reports back on this exploration and its gaps.... This is an important and remarkable exploration of heritage."

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These recent poetry collections offer poignant narratives and snapshots of racial injustice in America, from lasting testaments of systemic violence to a public appeal for the vital work that remains to be done as the country confront its legacy of racism and exploitation.

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Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism

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Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism

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Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism a book by Derrick Bell and Michelle Alexander

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The groundbreaking, “eerily prophetic, almost haunting” work on American racism and the struggle for racial justice (Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow). In Faces at the Bottom of the Well, civil rights activist and legal scholar Derrick Bell uses allegory and historical example--includi…

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Black Parents Explain How to Deal with the Police | Cut

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Black Parents Explain How to Deal with the Police | Cut

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Black Parents Explain How to Deal with the Police | Cut

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The New York Times

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Antiracist Reading & Viewing | Book Pulse

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Antiracist Reading & Viewing | Book Pulse

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By Library Journal

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The ongoing debate over the freedom to read moved to the chambers of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which held a hearing September 12 entitled "Book Bans: How Censorship Limits Liberty and Literature."

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Book Riot

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Why You Need to Stop Saying "All Lives Matter"

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Why You Need to Stop Saying "All Lives Matter"

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Let me be clear: stating that black lives matter doesn’t insinuate that other lives don’t.
BY RACHEL ELIZABETH CARGLE

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Teenagers Discuss Microaggressions and Racism #HatchKids

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In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma 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.

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The Power Book: What is it, Who Has it and Why? 

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The Power Book: What is it, Who Has it and Why? 

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With this inspiring and brightly illustrated guide to power, learn about the different types of power, what it means to have power, and what you can do with your own power to create positive change in the world, no matter who or how old you are.

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The Power Book: What is it, Who Has it, and Why? (Hardcover)

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With this inspiring and brightly illustrated guide to power, learn about the different types of power, what it means to have power, and what you can do with your own power to create positive change in the world, no matter who or how old you are. What makes you the boss of me?

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In these times of tragedy it’s more important than ever to educate ourselves about America’s long history of racial injustice, racially motivated violence, and silencing of Black voices. It’s important to discover new ways of supporting the Black community and celebrating Black culture.

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Tehama Lopez Bunyasi, Candis Watts Smith

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It’s more important than ever to educate ourselves about America’s long history of racial injustice, racially motivated violence, and silencing of Black voices. It’s important to discover new ways of... READ MORE

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Ten myths white people believe about racism

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Ten myths white people believe about racism

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Predominantly white churches may be hesitant to talk about racism. Some may fear saying the wrong thing or not getting it right. Others may assume their congregation does not need to talk about racism, since they do not see their members reflecting racist actions or beliefs. Even if a predominantly white church views itself as socially progressive and talks about concepts such as systemic racism, persons in these congregations may still harbor illusions about racism that prevent a deeper understanding of the problem. The following myths often arise or lurk near the surface in white people's discussions of racism.

Myth 1: Racism is not our problem. This perspective can be seen in the question "Why do we need to talk about that?" The assumption is that we, in our faith community, are not racists.

A helpful way to expand listeners' capacity to see racism as everyone's problem is to name some of the implicit biases that people may not even notice: pulling your purse closer to you when in an elevator with a black man; walking to the other side of the street when you see people of color coming your way; feeling afraid or nervous when you are around people of color; assuming a person of color must be guilty of a crime when they're pulled over or arrested by the police; jumping to conclusions about a person of color stealing something that you may have misplaced; or feeling the impulse to ask people of color "Where are you from?" (meaning a different country) when you do not ask whites the same question. These examples highlight the subtle ways implicit bias is still at work.

Another way of framing racism as our problem is to identify the advantages white people may experience. In other words, name not just the negative side of the impact of racism on communities of color, but also the way white people have benefited from years of racism. These privileges may be different for whites who experience other aspects of their identity as marginalizing, but there are enough examples that it is possible for even the most disadvantaged white person to be able to relate to at least one of them.

Myth 2: Racism is about hateful actions and words. If racism were just about mean actions and words, then we could easily say this is not about us; we ourselves do not harbor racist beliefs or say racist things (at least to people of color). Two problems arise from this belief. The first is that it assumes that we are the best judges of whether we are racist or not. The second is that it misses a whole world of data that shows less obvious factors in racial inequality and discrimination.

Racism is more than someone calling a person of color by a terrible name. It is also seen in differences in pay, housing discrimination, mortgage lending, school segregation, and rates of policing and incarceration. White people may not feel that we have anything to do with these larger problems, but our silence is part of the problem. Our acceptance of the status quo makes these injustices harder to challenge. While racism is certainly seen in hateful actions and words, it is also seen in our inaction and silence regarding the larger social problems that stem from our racist history and continue because of our indifference.

Myth 3: Only Ku Klux Klan members and self-proclaimed white supremacists perpetuate racism. It is easy to envision the "bad guys" when it comes to talking about racism-men wearing white sheets and pointy hats, burning crosses in yards. Or we think of the images of young white men chanting "Blood and soil!" in Charlottesville in the summer of 2017.

The moment we point away from ourselves to some other person or group as the "real racists," we become like the self-righteous character in Jesus' parable who declares, "God, I thank you I am not like other people" (Luke 18:11). The moment we catch ourselves making that distinction, we need to remind ourselves to be more like the tax collector in the story, asking, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" (Luke 18:13). Even when we are faced with great opposition in talking with other white people about racism, we need to remember that we are no different from those people. We share the same benefits from the sinful legacy of racism.

Racism is evident not only in hateful actions but in silence and inaction.

Myth 4: Racism has to do with intentions. If we have no intention of offending someone else and no consciousness of racial bias, then we may feel resentful for being accused of racism. If we are generally good people who feed and clothe the homeless and give our money to the poor, it can feel as if we are being unjustly accused of racism when the rest of our behavior shows our moral intentions.

Unfortunately, great harm comes to others not simply by our intentions, but by our inattentions. If we are not paying attention to how others are harmed by large social forces that may be out of our personal control but nevertheless benefit us in unjust ways, our inattentiveness to these social forces can be hurtful. Paying attention to the ways racism continues to unjustly privilege white people and disadvantage people and communities of color enables us to see racism as much bigger than our intentions. Separating intention from inattention means that if we say something that inadvertently hurts someone else, we do not need to get defensive. Instead, we can say, "I'm so sorry. I did not realize what that would sound like or feel like for you." We can use the experience as a learning opportunity to see life from another's point of view.

Myth 5: Racism is caused by ignorance. We cannot blame racism on ignorance, because we perpetuate it even when we should know better. To say racism is only about ignorance denies the ways racism is perpetuated even by those who denounce white supremacy and seek to work against it.

It also ignores the fact that racism has been justified and defended by persons who have received many years of education. Scientists have claimed to demonstrate the inferiority of other races to Caucasians by pointing out head circumference and other physiological "proofs" for the white man's superiority. Trained clergy with academic degrees argued for the legitimacy of slavery on religious grounds. Lawyers made cases for "separate but equal" schools for children of color segregated from white children. White politicians with college degrees have labeled entire countries of black and brown populations with derogatory terms. Even at the highest levels of academia, persons of color continue to experience racism from those who are bearers of the intellectual torch.

Myth 6: Racism is irrational. This myth assumes that racism does not make sense and that it is based on faulty ideas about the racial superiority of whites over nonwhites. But what do we mean by rational? Sometimes we operate out of a rationality of common sense that includes "what serves our best interests." As a white person, if you've been given the choice to live in a good neighborhood with excellent schools for your children where your house is likely to appreciate in value, would it not be rational for you to want to live there if you can afford it? If developers want to build apartments in the neighborhood that will increase the availability of low-income housing, giving more people access to these great schools, it may seem just as rational to want to protest such development. After all, you do not want your children's schools overcrowded, and maybe you fear the possibility of increased crime in your neighborhood or even your home value declining. These responses may all seem rational, but at the same time they perpetuate a system of racial exclusion.

The way racism perpetuates itself is often through these subtle avenues. We fail to consider how our prejudices operate to preserve our own self-interests. It is completely rational for us to want the best schools for our children. It is completely rational to want our home investments to increase in value. But how do we respond to persons for whom the color of their skin prevents them from buying a home in the best school districts or getting a mortgage for a home they can invest in?

Myth 7: Racism can be remedied through education. Unfortunately, education cannot solve all of our problems. We are selfish. Even if we know we should be less selfish, it does not make it any easier for us to want to share with others. Even if we have been educated in liberal schools, it does not prevent us from operating out of our unconscious biases. Even if we have been taught to recognize that the stereotypes about people of color are not true, we may still respond physically out of deep prejudices when we are least aware. Learning the right definitions of racism or using the most up-to-date terms will not inoculate us against continuing to act in racist ways or contributing to racial inequity.

Some people have never had the advantages of an education and yet have led the way in antiracism and kindness toward all people. If we assume racism can be remedied through education, then we are assuming a privileged status for those who are educated, as if those with education are more virtuous or have a greater capacity to be good.

Myth 8: Racism will end as we have more and more interracial relationships. While it is important for our congregations to become more diverse, it will not be enough to end racism. Traci West, in her book Disruptive Christian Ethics: When Racism and Women's Lives Matter, writes about her experiences as an African American in white congregations where she was repeatedly told that she had a beautiful voice, though she was actually self-conscious about not having a good voice. Because she was the only African American in these congregations, these awkward interactions and the assumptions behind them left West feeling even further marginalized.

Even within multicultural faith communities, racism has opportunities to operate. Sociologist Korie Edwards conducted a study of a multiracial congregation to see how whites and people of color negotiated their relationships in the church community. Edwards found that whites continued to remain dominant in power positions in the church, even when their percentage of overall membership declined to the point of being a minority within the church. In other words, racism exists even in multicultural contexts, and it is important to keep talking about it even when we have made significant progress in becoming a more integrated church and society. White people in particular need to continue to examine our own racism and how it may be at work even when we have a lot of interracial relationships.

Racism can continue to operate even within multicultural faith communities.

Myth 9: Racism is not something that impacts my friends of color. If your friends of color do not share with you their experiences of discrimination, it does not mean that such experiences have never happened to them. There are many reasons why persons of color may choose not to share such stories with others. Even if your friends of color tell you racism does not impact them, there are still many others for whom racism is a daily threat to their well-being.

A related sentiment is that people of color benefit from talking about racism-that they have a "race card" they can play to their advantage. Anne Cheng has written about the race card and its meaning for persons of color. She asks, "What does it mean that the deep wound of race in this country has come to be euphemized as a card, a metaphor that acknowledges the rhetoric as such yet simultaneously materializes race into a finite object that can be dealt out, withheld, or trumped?" She points out the irony that the liability of race has come to stand for an asset: a special card.

To respond to this sentiment, it can be helpful to highlight recent statistics about the impact of race on one's ability to secure a mortgage from a bank or pass wealth on to one's children, to be shown homes one is interested in buying or renting, to get interviewed for a job, or to live a long life with access to quality health care-or, conversely, one's likelihood of being stopped by the police.

Myth 10: Racial discrimination is against the law; what else can we do? While overt racial discrimination is outlawed, there are ways in which laws continue to enable such discrimination to take place. Michelle Alexander has argued that the harsh drug laws of the 1980s' War on Drugs have resulted in the mass incarceration of men of color through prison sentences and felony convictions that justify the same kind of discrimination allowed legally under the Jim Crow laws of 1877-1950: housing discrimination, job discrimination, and the inability to vote.

There are some state and federal laws that have been (or should be) put into legislation requiring greater accountability for police officers' use of deadly force. There are laws that can address the unequal sentencing practices and the detrimental effect of over-policing poor neighborhoods. More laws are certainly still needed, but laws will not be enough. The relationship between legislation and racism is always complex and yet interrelated. We need to advocate for greater racial justice in every area of our society and at all levels of government.

This exercise of naming ten myths and misperceptions about racism may help us better prepare for the challenges of talking about racism in white contexts.

Of course, the answer to these myths is not simply telling another person, "What you are saying is a myth." The solution is more difficult and more relational. It involves conversation, listening, and respect. The more we can help one another understand the complexity of the problem, the closer we can get to addressing it. Awareness of these myths helps us paint a more nuanced picture, inviting listeners to see more deeply the many facets of racism that contribute to the fissures in our community and inspiring change in congregations.
Read the author's list of ten strategies for preaching about racism in mostly white churches. A version of this article appears in the print edition under the title "Ten myths about racism." It was adapted from Carolyn B. Helsel's forthcoming book, Preaching about Racism: A Guide for Faith Leaders, just published by Chalice Press. Used by permission.

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Ten myths white people believe about racism

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It's not our problem. Education can fix it. Only extremists are...

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Quite frankly, the first book I've seen that provides an honest explanation for kids about the state of race in America today. --ELIZABETH BIRD, librarian

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Not My Idea: A Book about Whiteness a book by Anastasia Higginbotham

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An honest explanation about how power and privilege factor into the lives of white children, at the expense of other groups, and how they can help seek justice. --THE NEW YORK TIMES ONE OF HUFFPOST’S RECOMMENDED ANTI-RACIST BOOKS FOR KIDS AND TEENS **A WHITE RAVEN 2019 SELECTION** NAMED ONE OF SCHOO…

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Austin Channing Brown

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Scroll through social media, and you will be sure to find a million photos of Martin Luther King Jr, dressed up, holding hands with other Black Americans in gorgeous black and white photos. Above or below, Im sure you've seen captions that echo the sentiment: This is how protesting is done the correct way.

When I have posted support of the rebellion, I've personally received plenty of challenges like, "What would MLK do?"

Both types of posts serve to imply that there are easy answers to this present moment in history.

But I want to encourage us to Trouble The Narrative. It's time for you to move beyond simplistic, convenient narratives and wrestle with complexity and nuance.

It's easy to believe that the 1960s had only one leader, MLK, and that he led the perfect protests and that those protests are what led to change. As much as I honor King, that is entirely ahistorical. The 60s were filled with protests like King's but also rebellions (riots) like the ones we've seen over the last...

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Scroll through social media, and you will be sure to find a million photos of Martin Luther King Jr, dressed up, holding hands with other Black Americans in gorgeous black and white photos. Above or below, Im sure you've seen captions that echo the sentiment: This is how protesting is done the correct way.

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Dear White People, Stop Making Racism All About You

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Dear White People, Stop Making Racism All About You

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Here are 10 ways to talk about white privilege on social media without annoying people of color.

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Racism is a problem in the United States.​ Identify your own bias and help others explore theirs with this graduated scale.

Created by https://racismscale.weebly.com/

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Project Implicit, Harvard University

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Preliminary Information

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On the next page you'll be asked to select an Implicit Association Test (IAT) from a list of possible topics . We will also ask you (optionally) to report your attitudes or beliefs about these topics and provide some information about yourself.

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Some Guidance for Talking with Kids about the Protests that are Sweeping this Country

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Some Guidance for Talking with Kids about the Protests that are Sweeping this Country

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©2020 TEACHERS COLLEGE READING AND WRITING PROJECT. CREATED: 5.31.20

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100 PICTURE BOOKS INCLUDING BLACK PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES & WHY YOU NEED THEM

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100 PICTURE BOOKS INCLUDING BLACK PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES & WHY YOU NEED THEM

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It Does Not Matter If You Are Good: On Omar Jimenez, George Floyd, Christian Cooper and the myth of being non-threatening.

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It Does Not Matter If You Are Good: On Omar Jimenez, George Floyd, Christian Cooper and the myth of being non-threatening.

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BY R. ERIC THOMAS, ELLE

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On Omar Jimenez, George Floyd, Christian Cooper and the myth of being non-threatening.

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11 Things White People Should Stop Saying to Black People Immediately

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11 Things White People Should Stop Saying to Black People Immediately

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Whenever a black youth like Michael Brown gets shot, or a racist blowhard like Donald Sterling gets exposed, many white people on and off the Internet react with remarks brimming with the ugliness of anti-black racism. And it absolutely has to stop.

More often than not, many white people resort to putting the onus back on the people who are experiencing the pain of racism. This tactic often derails the broader conversation, allowing white people to continue ignoring their own biases, and prevents a frank examination of the larger systems and powers accountable for enshrining the dehumanization of and discrimination against blacks and people of color. That larger system is white supremacy, a version of which has little to do with neo-Nazis or the KKK as most would assume.

A growing number of black people have been ruthlessly beaten, shot and killed by white police officers of late, a fact all too easy to gloss over for white people who will continue moving through American life with white privilege. White privilege means not having to deal with the disproportionate impact of police brutality, racial profiling and exclusion from everyday social settings and public accommodations.

Rather than tackle a thorny issue with tact and honesty, however, privilege also allows people to ignore the conversation, mock it or walk away from it altogether. But it doesn't have to be that way. Americans don't have to let this type of ignorance stop us from examining the many subtle, insidious attitudes and beliefs that help perpetuate racism through microaggressions - a term coined by African-American psychologist Chester Pierce and further developed by Derald Wing Sue and researchers at Columbia University to explain smaller instances of systemic, cumulative racial indignities.

Here are a few problematic examples that can be used to help elevate a much-needed dialogue as the images streaming out of Ferguson, Mo., bring us face to face with America's legacy of institutional intolerance.

1. "Why do black people have to make everything about race?"

If it seems as though black people talk about race so much, that's because America, as a government and as a power structure, has made everything about race, from the moment Columbus landed in 1492 to the recent shooting of Michael Brown at the hands of a cop with institutional power and privilege on his side.

White people will never fully understand how racism impacts the everyday lives of black people and people of color. That's because they benefit from a racial system that enshrines institutional racism and racial prejudice as the rule of law and social order.

For those who aren't already actively anti-racist, however, exercising empathy is a good place to start. Doing so means taking the lead from black people, listening to their stories of racialized pains and struggles, and reflecting on the ways privilege minimizes those hindrances for white people.

If the continuing conversation about racism upsets you, take a second to imagine what it's like for the black people who deal with racism everyday, and who are tired of thinking and talking about it, but discuss it anyway because for them, it's not just a dinner table dialogue.

2. "I don't have white privilege. Stop saying that I have white privilege."

White privilege isn't inherently about being raised in an affluent, two-parent home with high educational attainment and markers of upward mobility in American society. White privilege is the many built-in perks afforded to white people by virtue of being born with white skin and white ethnicity in a social and legal system that enforces white supremacy as the rule of law. It's not having to seriously think about or discuss how the situation in Ferguson will affect friends and relatives or even how a broader justice system will work to protect (or to not protect) the constitutional rights of black people.

White privilege is being able to walk away from the conversation, or to stop reading a piece about racism when it stirs up discomfort, rather than wrestling with the subject matter and owning up to personal biases and limits to understanding.

White privilege can be used for good too, of course, if those who wield it actively challenge the prejudices of their white friends and reject white supremacy. But as long as white people keep denying their privilege, white officers with badges and institutional power on their side will continue killing blacks with impunity.

3. "I'm not racist. I have black friends."

CNN via YouTube

Aside from the lazy logic of such a statement, this phrase describes the phenomenon wherein people use black people as accessories and distractions.

Having a black friend, or any relationship with a person of color, doesn't mean your everyday habits and politics are exempt from having racist implications. For proof, look no further than Donald Sterling, who told his girlfriend, a person of color, to stop bringing black people with her to basketball games because he feels blacks are inferior.

4. "These protesters speak so well, but they're such violent people."

AP

Most of the protests in Ferguson have been peaceful, but that fact hasn't stopped some characterizations from making it appear as though a race war is brewing. In effect, blacks are being typecasted as loud, irrational people who shouldn't be paid attention to, when they actually have valid concerns about the abuses from their local police force.

These types of remarks go hand in hand with an amazement about how poised, well-spoken and presentable some black protesters have been amid the chaos. In other contexts, "You speak so well" may sound like earnest praise, and sometimes it's received by black people as a commendation because of the apparent intent. However, more often than not, this sentiment is a backhanded compliment that assumes most black people speak with rudimentary grammar and communicate using "lesser" linguistic patterns such as Ebonics.

If a black person has great oratory skills, it's certainly possible to say so in a way that isn't infantilizing or denigrating. Talk about the content of the remarks and other communication dynamics they employed to be effective, but please do not assume that someone else's method of communication is automatically inferior just because it sounds different.

5. "You probably voted for Barack Obama just because he's black."

President Obama issued a statement on Tuesday regarding Brown's shooting death, and finally spoke Thursday about it as he would any other major policy issue, noting a Justice Department investigation already in progress, and that there's "never an excuse" for police brutality or excessive force against peaceful protesters.

Unlike many other presidents and political leaders before, Obama has a better understanding of black issues, given his lived experiences as a person of color and his education. But don't treat black people as though they can't make an informed political decision that uses a cost-benefit analysis, or even a pragmatic approach to politics, in order to cast their vote.

The vast majority of African-Americans vote for Democratic candidates like President Obama in major elections, but this is often because of a sense of " linked racial fate" - in other words, the candidate that represents the issues most relevant to the everyday lives of black people is most likely to win a disproportionate share of votes from black constituents. So it's not as much about skin color as it is about positions on issues, which is how most anyone else votes.

Otherwise, people like former Tea Party Republican congressman Allen West would have swept the the black vote in their elections, despite their problematic views on issues affecting black people.

6. "It's not fair that you all can say the n-word, but we can't."

The n-word has hundreds of years of slavery, segregation and institutional racism attached to it. But in recent decades, it's been reclaimed by black people, which now means that some blacks use it in a variety of different ways, often to refer to one another in a not-so-derogatory manner.

But just because some black people have reclaimed the word in their everyday vernacular, or even in their cultural productions, doesn't mean white people get to participate in that same reclamation. White people irrevocably lost that opportunity the day the n-word coincided with lynchings, whippings, mob beatings and police shootings.

7. "I'm clutching my purse or my wallet when you walk past, because I think you might steal from me."

Anyone of any race can perpetrate a mugging, or commit any other crime that involves physical or personal property. But because of how white overrepresentation in America's police departments and the justice system impacts the enforcement of laws, research shows there's a disproportionate impact on how blacks are caught and publicly held accountable for their wrongdoing. The situation in Ferguson mirrors that very reality, as the Los Angeles Times shows, based on a report from the Missouri attorney general's office about racial profiling in that state. That might explain why some people feel as though every time they hear about a violent crime or theft, they see a black mugshot or hear a name that "sounds" black.

It also removes accountability from larger social systems, such as the school-to-prison pipeline and the prison-industrial complex, that may put someone in a position where they must choose between not having basic needs and stealing from someone who can afford them. Instead, disproportionately white police departments pull out all the stops in a show of excessive force, protecting white privilege and white wealth in the process.

8. "I don't understand why you people..."

The phrase "you people" is coded language, a euphemism for the n-word, black people, outsiders or "the other." By being an outsider to whiteness and white supremacy, "you people" suggests that blacks (and other people of color) do not belong in the same rooms, venues or halls of power as white people.

9. "When I see you, I don't see race."

Color-blind racism is still racism. Without facing history and the present realities, it's impossible to understand how racism affects the everyday life of peoples of all races and ethnicities.

Almost everyone, save for those who ascribe to a racist system or retain deep-seated racial prejudice, wants to be able to unite across races, ethnicities and cultures to live in harmony. But with the systems and structures of previous generations still in place, which codify and promote racism in politics and everyday life, we're nowhere close to being post-race or being able to "not see" skin color.

But there are moments every day when that racial divide is bridged in a way that is mutually beneficial and even life-giving for all parties involved. For proof, take a look at this black family, which welcomed a white reporter from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch into their home for safe shelter and sustenance while he reports about the situation in Ferguson. It's an illuminating example of what an authentic cross-cultural embrace can look like.

10. "If black men don't want to get stopped by police, maybe they shouldn't dress that way."

It shouldn't matter what a young person is wearing, or how they walk down the street, or how they talk, how they speak or where they come from. It doesn't matter if black men wear suits everywhere, or stop sagging their pants, or stop wearing hoodies - a "classy" dress code isn't going to stop police brutality.

In fact, many white young people wear the same kinds of clothing, yet are not subjected to the same kinds of the racialized subtexts. On average, a white man in a hoodie is less likely to be perceived as a threat by a police officer or concerned citizen. Indeed, the moment a self-appointed Florida neighborhood watchman named George Zimmerman thought he could accost and harass a black young man wearing a hoodie and jeans, the situation snowballed into that young man's death.

It is never the victim's fault. And no change of clothing will hold the people and systems accountable for murdering young black people.

11. "Racism ended in the 1960s. Stop making such a big deal out of nothing."

Jackie Summers via Twitter

This statement couldn't be farther from the truth. In fact, if you pay attention to news coverage, there's a laundry list of big and small issues proving that American racism is far from being a thing of the past.

The killings of Michael Brown, Renisha McBride, Jordan Davis, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and many other nameless, faceless black young people - all at the hands of police and whites - come at a time when black women like Marissa Alexander are simultaneously being denied the " stand your ground" defense and instead threatened with decades in jail for firing a warning shot at an allegedly abusive spouse.

When it comes to the reality in Ferguson, Mo., the images speak for themselves. And that unsavory reality begins with the family that Brown leaves behind, including a father and mother struggling with the pain of burying their son because of the very people who should be keeping them safe.
Image Credit: AP

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11 Things White People Should Stop Saying to Black People Immediately

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Whenever a black youth like Michael Brown gets shot, or a racist blowhard like Donald Sterling gets exposed, many white people on and off the Internet react with remarks brimming with the ugliness of anti-black racism. And it absolutely has to...

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Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story about Racial Injustice

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Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story about Racial Injustice

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Something Happened in Our Town follows two families -- one White, one Black -- as they discuss a police shooting of a Black man in their community. The story aims to answer children's questions about such traumatic events, and to help children identify and counter racial injustice in their own lives.

Includes an extensive Note to Parents and Caregivers with guidelines for discussing race and racism with children, child-friendly definitions, and sample dialogues.

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Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story about Racial Injustice a book by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, Ann Hazzard, et al.

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A Minneapolis Children’s Theatre Company Original World Premiere Production A NEW YORK TIMES and #1 INDIEBOUND BEST SELLER American Library Association’s Office of Intellectual Freedom’s Top 10 Most Challenged Books A Little Free Library Action Book Club Selection National Parenting Product Award…

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27 THINGS WHITE PEOPLE SHOULD NEVER, EVER SAY TO THEIR BLACK CO-WORKERS

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27 THINGS WHITE PEOPLE SHOULD NEVER, EVER SAY TO THEIR BLACK CO-WORKERS

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While most agree these issues aren’t appropriate to discuss at work, they inevitably do come up. However, in order to keep the peace with their co-workers of color, it’s probably a good idea if our white colleagues tread lightly on matters that are really emotional and of consequence to the black community.

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27 Things White People Should Never, Ever Say to Their Black Co-Workers

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We asked our audience to post across Black Enterprise’s social media accounts things white people should never say to their black co-workers.

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Author Jason Reynolds shares a powerful message about racism and antiracism.

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We can’t have an honest reckoning about race until we start to recognize all the ways in which privilege and prejudice creep into our lives.

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We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide

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We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide

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Carol Anderson's White Rage took the world by storm, landing on the New York Times bestseller list and best book of the year lists from New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Chicago Review of Books. It launched her as an in-demand commentator on contemporary race issues for national print and television media and garnered her an invitation to speak to the Democratic Congressional Caucus. This compelling young adult adaptation brings her ideas to a new audience.

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Mapping Our Roles in a Social Change Ecosystem

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Mapping Our Roles in a Social Change Ecosystem

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Welcome to Solidarity Is, a project that generates tools, trainings, and narratives to facilitate transformative solidarity practices for movement building organizations and activists who are invested in meaningful social change.

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Implicit Bias -- how it effects us and how we push through | Melanie Funchess | TEDxFlourCity

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Implicit Bias -- how it effects us and how we push through | Melanie Funchess | TEDxFlourCity

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Everyone makes assumptions about people they don’t know. Melanie will teach us to recognize these assumptions and work toward a common understanding.

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Implicit Bias -- how it effects us and how we push through | Melanie Funchess | TEDxFlourCity

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This Comic Perfectly Explains What White Privilege Is

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This Comic Perfectly Explains What White Privilege Is

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This Comic Perfectly Explains What White Privilege Is

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Artist Jamie Kapp took to Tumblr with a succinct explanation of this complex issue.

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The Talk: Conversations about Race, Love & Truth

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The Talk: Conversations about Race, Love & Truth

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In the powerful follow-up to We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, thirty diverse and award-winning authors and illustrators capture frank discussions about racism, identity, and self-esteem. Here is an invitation to all families to be advocates and allies for change. (to be released 9/29/2020)

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Bookshop: Buy books online. Support local bookstores.

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Sorry, the page you’re looking for doesn’t seem to exist. If you’re looking for a specific book, you may find it by searching by title or author below:

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Things Not To Say As a White Person When Talking About Racism

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Things Not To Say As a White Person When Talking About Racism

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Things Not To Say As a White Person When Talking About Racism (Updated) - Justine Larbalestier

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Not all white people are racist. True. Also irrelevant. Not all white people are racist but we all benefit from being white because we live in a world that is structured to give white people advantages and that makes whiteness the default. #notallwhitepeople is also an attempt to change the subject…

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It's Hard to See Racism When You're White

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It's Hard to See Racism When You're White

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Well, if you are actually interested in understanding racism and how it ties into cultural appropriation, please read instead of endlessly badgering PoCs on tumblr with your cliched, unoriginal arguments and repeating the same questions over and over.

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Check Your Privilege: Live into the Work

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Check Your Privilege: Live into the Work

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In this book, five social activists offer a window into their journeys of Living Into the Work. Learning from their relationships with anti-blackness, white supremacy, privilege, and discrimination, we feel empowered to brave the next step on our our Check Your Privilege journeys.

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Bookshop: Buy books online. Support local bookstores.

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Sorry, the page you’re looking for doesn’t seem to exist. If you’re looking for a specific book, you may find it by searching by title or author below:

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Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color

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Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color

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Invisible No More is a timely examination of how Black women, Indigenous women, and women of color experience racial profiling, police brutality, and immigration enforcement. By placing the individual stories of Sandra Bland, Rekia Boyd, Dajerria Becton, Monica Jones, and Mya Hall in the broader context of the twin epidemics of police violence and mass incarceration, Andrea Ritchie documents the evolution of movements centered around women's experiences of policing.

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Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color a book by Andrea Ritchie and Angela Y. Davis

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“A passionate, incisive critique of the many ways in which women and girls of color are systematically erased or marginalized in discussions of police violence.” --Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow Invisible No More is a timely examination of how Black women, Indigenous women, and women…

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Resources for Further Research

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Understanding My Privilege | Sue Borrego | TEDxPasadenaWomen

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Understanding My Privilege | Sue Borrego | TEDxPasadenaWomen

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University Chancellor, Susan E. Borrego, reflects on her life as an emancipated minor and dissects the emotionally charged conversation surrounding race relations in the United States. This raconteur uses her powerful first-person account of "White Privilege" and "Black Lives Matter" to underscore the responsibility each one of us has to bring about change.

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Understanding My Privilege | Sue Borrego | TEDxPasadenaWomen

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Stop Asking People Of Color To Explain Racism – Pick Up One Of These Books Instead

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Stop Asking People Of Color To Explain Racism – Pick Up One Of These Books Instead

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#blacklivesmatter library, teaching, activism, and community resource list

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#blacklivesmatter library, teaching, activism, and community resource list

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23 BOOKS TO DEEPEN OUR COMMITMENT TO RACIAL JUSTICE

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23 BOOKS TO DEEPEN OUR COMMITMENT TO RACIAL JUSTICE

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Undoing racism takes work: a lifetime of learning hard truths, challenging systems, and asking questions that bring us closer to a just world. Where do you start?

FoodCorps is striving for a world where every kid in every school has access to healthy food. The health disparities that face kids in communities where we serve are a direct result of structural inequities and systemic discrimination based on race, place, and class.

We recognize how we have perpetuated these inequities in our work: there are times when we have fallen into patterns of white saviorism, for example, and leaned heavily on white-dominant organizational practices. Over the past year, we've begun to realize the extent of the harm we've contributed to in new and difficult ways. Mending this harm is complex work we take seriously; we're working toward building a service corps that reflects the communities we serve and a staff culture where everyone feels welcomed and included. Still, we realize we haven't figured it out yet, and that this is the beginning of what will be a long journey.

Part of our pursuit toward becoming an anti-racist organization involves some individual learning about how we contribute to, and benefit from, structural inequities. For many of our staff, that means reading up on racial justice-including books specifically about this topic as well as other works that center the stories of people of color. Here, we also recognize the importance of white-identifying staff educating themselves on the realities of racism in our world, rather than placing the burden on colleagues of color to teach them.

There's no shortage of inspiring, informative, and even challenging books on the realities of racism in America and around the world. Here are some of the books a few of us have read-or that have been recommended to us-as part of our quest to work toward racial justice together.
"This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color" edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa
Originally published in 1981, "This Bridge Called My Back" is a classic feminist anthology of works centering on the intersectional identities and experiences of dozens of women writers and artists of color.
"How to Be an Antiracist" by Ibram X. Kendi
From the publisher: "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."
"So You Want to Talk About Race" by Ijeoma Oluo
Ijeoma Oluo's book is an accessible but robust primer on race in America-including why it can be so hard to talk about racism, and how to confront that discomfort and talk about it anyway.
"For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood" by Christopher Emdin
Educator Christopher Emdin challenges the perception of "urban youth of color as unteachable," and instead provides both theoretical and practical guidance for white educators and others teaching in urban schools.
"The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table" by Minda Harts
Described as "Lean In for women of color," a career advice guide that considers how white privilege, microaggressions, and other mechanisms of racism prevent women of color from advancing professionally, and provides support to women of color navigating these systems.
"Juliet Takes a Breath" by Gabby Rivera
The sole young-adult fiction book on this list, this novel looks at issues of race, gender, and sexuality through the eyes of Juliet, a Puerto Rican lesbian from the Bronx exploring a summer internship in Portland, Oregon.
"Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race" by Beverly Daniel Tatum
This classic book examines the psychology of racial dynamics in America, with a particular eye toward how these dynamics play out for young people.
"When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir" by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele
This memoir from a founder of the Black Lives Matter movement takes a long look at the epidemic of police brutality and the formation of Black Lives Matter: "Condemned as terrorists and as a threat to America, these loving women founded a hashtag that birthed the movement to demand accountability from the authorities who continually turn a blind eye to the injustices inflicted upon people of Black and Brown skin."
"An African American and Latinx History of the United States" by Paul Ortiz
American history as it's taught in many high schools is often framed through a white-centric lens. This book challenges that default, offering "an intersectional history of the shared struggle for African American and Latinx civil rights" using a variety of narratives and primary source documents.
"Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor" by Layla F. Saad
Layla F. Saad's book invites readers into an interactive reading experience focusing on the ways they uphold white supremacy in their lives, taking responsibility for this truth, and learning from it.
"The Color of Food: Stories of Race, Resilience and Farming" by Natasha Bowens
From the publisher: "Author, photographer, and biracial farmer Natasha Bowens' quest to explore her own roots in the soil leads her to unearth a larger story, weaving together the seemingly forgotten history of agriculture for people of color, the issues they face today, and the culture and resilience they bring to food and farming."
"The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" by Michelle Alexander
Legal scholar Michelle Alexander challenges the idea that the election of President Barack Obama signaled an end to racism in the United States, and instead posits the criminal justice system as "a contemporary system of racial control."
"The Nickel Boys," Colson Whitehead
This work of historical fiction is based on the real story of an abusive reform school for boys in Florida. In Colson Whitehead's version, two friends have different ideas about how to escape the injustices they suffer during the Jim Crow South of the 1960s.
"This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror" by Moustafa Bayoumi
A collection of essays, this work considers the "culture of fear and suspicion" that follows Muslim Americans in the United States and examines how Islamophobia plays out across institutions after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
"Black is the Body: Stories From My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, And Mine" by Emily Bernard
A collection of essays about the author's experiences with race: "Blackness is an art, not a science. It is a paradox: intangible and visceral; a situation and a story. It is the thread that connects these essays, but its significance as an experience emerges randomly, unpredictably."
"Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land" by Leah Penniman
Soul Fire Farm is a community farm centering people of color and committed to "ending racism and injustice in the farm system." Farming While Black offers a manual for people of African heritage reclaiming their roles in the food system.
"The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority" by Ellen D. Wu
From the publisher: "The Color of Success tells of the astonishing transformation of Asians in the United States from the 'yellow peril' to 'model minorities'-peoples distinct from the white majority but lauded as well-assimilated, upwardly mobile, and exemplars of traditional family values."
"Queer and Trans Artists Of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives" by Nia King
This collection of interviews has been described as containing "the future of QPOC art activism." It centers the ideas of queer and trans artists of color about what it means to survive and find success-and it's been expanded into additional volumes, too.
"Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism" by Safiya Umoja Noble
How search engines reinforce racism? UCLA associate professor Safiya Umoja Noble researched algorithms and bias for six years to learn about how search engine results uphold stereotypes about black people-as well as the human decisions responsible for creating these systems.
"The History of White People" by Nell Irvin Painter
From the publisher: "Nell Irvin Painter guides us through more than two thousand years of Western civilization, illuminating not only the invention of race but also the frequent praise of 'whiteness' for economic, scientific, and political ends."
"On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" by Ocean Vuong
Another work of fiction on our list, poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel is an exploration of race, class, gender, and sexuality as it comes to light for a family grappling with the effects of war in their home country of Vietnam.
"Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race" by Reni Eddo-Lodge
Inspired by the author's viral blog post on the same subject, this book unpacks the author's frustration with "the way that discussions of race and racism in Britain were being led by those who weren't affected by it," and posits new ideas for thinking and talking about race.
"Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
This powerful work is framed as a letter from the author to his adolescent son, sharing both the history and the modern burdens of racism as it manifests in the United States.
"Antagonists, Advocates and Allies: The Wake Up Call Guide for White Women Who Want to Become Allies with Black Women" by Catrice M Jackson
How do white women perpetuate racism against Black women? This book "delivers uncomfortable truths and painful realities about the conscious and unintentional pain you have inflicted on Black women" and shares how white women can use their privilege to eliminate racism.
"This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work" by Tiffany Jewell
One more book for the young people in your life: Tiffany Jewell's book is an accessible overview of racism, privilege, and oppression and full of tools for dismantling systemic racism as well as challenging day-to-day instances of racism in life.

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25 Books to Deepen Our Commitment to Racial Justice

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Undoing racism takes work. That means reading up on racial justice and learning how we contribute to-and benefit from-structural inequities.

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One day in 1968, Jane Elliott, a teacher in a small, all-white Iowa town, divided her third-grade class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups and gave them a daring lesson in discrimination. This is the story of that lesson, its lasting impact on the children, and its enduring power 30 years later.

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(sirens wailing) >> NARRATOR: 27 years ago, when civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, grief and frustration erupted in America's cities.

And far away in Iowa, one third-grade teacher knew she had to do something.

>> The shooting of Martin Luther King could not just be talked about and explained away.

There was no way to explain this to little third graders in Riceville, Iowa.

I knew that it was time to deal with this in a concrete way, not just talk about it, because we had talked about racism since the first day of school.

>> This is a fact.

Blue-eyed people are better than brown-eyed people.

>> NARRATOR: It was a daring experiment in prejudice.

>> I watched wonderful, thoughtful children turn into nasty, vicious, discriminating little third graders.

>> NARRATOR: Can one teacher in one day change the lives of her students forever?

Tonight, "A Class Divided."

>> August 1984.

A high school reunion brings some 50 former students to Riceville, Iowa.

Eleven of them, some with their spouses and children, arrive early for a special reunion with their former third-grade teacher, Jane Elliott.

>> Oh... (laughing) >> And this is my husband.

This is my husband Tom.

>> Tom... Brian?

(laughing) >> How are you?

>> Oh, fine, I'm just... Roy Wilson!

>> I made it!

>> You darling, oh, Roy!

>> Haven't been here in 14 years.

>> I'm so glad to see you.

(all talking at once) >> How are you doing?

>> Fine.

>> Long time since I've seen you.

>> Yeah, it has been.

>> Where are your little ones?

>> They're at home with Mama.

>> And this is your husband?

>> Yeah, that's Greg.

Greg Rollins.

>> Greg Rollins, nice to meet you.

>> NARRATOR: Fourteen years earlier, when they were students in her third-grade classroom, ABC News filmed a two-day exercise for a documentary, "The Eye of the Storm."

Now, at their request, they will see that film again and relive the experience of her unique lesson in discrimination.

>> ♪ God bless America, my home sweet home ♪ ♪ God bless America, my home sweet home.

♪ >> This is a special week.

Does anybody know what it is?

>> National Brotherhood Week.

>> National Brotherhood Week.

What's brotherhood?

>> Be kind to your brothers?

>> Okay, be kind to your brothers... >> ...like you would like to be treated.

>> Treat everyone the way you would like to be treated.

Treat everyone as though he was your... >> Brother... >> Brother.

And is there anyone in this United States that we do not treat as our brothers?

>> Yeah... >> Who?

>> Black people.

>> The black people.

Who else?

>> Indians?

>> Absolutely, the Indians.

And when you see, when many people see a black person or a yellow person or a red person, what do they think?

>> Look at that... dumb people.

>> Look at the dumb people.

What else do they think sometimes?

What kind of things do they say about black people?

>> They call them Negroes, niggers... >> In the city, many places in the United States, how are black people treated?

How are Indians treated?

How are people who are of a different color than we are treated?

>> Like they're not part of this world.

They don't get anything in this world.

>> Why is that?

>> Because they're a different color.

>> Do you think you know how it would feel to be judged by the color of your skin?

>> Yeah... >> Do you think you do?

No, I don't think you'd know how that felt unless you had been through it, would you?

It might be interesting to judge people today by the color of their eyes... would you like to try this?

>> Yeah!

>> Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Since I'm the teacher and I have blue eyes, I think maybe the blue-eyed people should be on top the first day.

>> And up here?

>> I mean the blue-eyed people are the better people in this room.

>> Huh-uh.

>> Oh yes, they are... blue-eyed people are smarter than brown-eyed people.

>> Huh-uh.

>> My dad isn't that... stupid.

>> Is your dad brown-eyed?

>> Yeah.

>> One day you came to school and you told us that he kicked you.

>> He did.

>> Do you think a blue-eyed father would kick his son?

>> My dad's blue-eyed, he's never kicked me.

Ray's dad is blue-eyed, he's never kicked him.

Rex's dad is blue-eyed, he's never kicked him.

This is a fact.

Blue-eyed people are better than brown-eyed people.

Are you brown-eyed or blue-eyed?

>> Blue.

>> Why are you shaking your head?

>> I don't know.

>> Are you sure that you're right?

Why?

What makes you so sure that you're right?

>> I don't know.

>> The blue-eyed people get five extra minutes of recess, while the brown-eyed people have to stay in.

>> Ooh.

>> The brown-eyed people do not get to use the drinking fountain.

You'll have to use the paper cups.

You brown-eyed people are not to play with the blue-eyed people on the playground, because you are not as good as blue-eyed people.

The brown-eyed people in this room today are going to wear collars.

So that we can tell from a distance what color your eyes are.

On page 127... one hundred twenty-seven.

Is everyone ready?

Everyone but Laurie.

Ready, Laurie?

>> She's a brown-eye.

>> She's a brown-eye.

You'll begin to notice today that we spend a great deal of time waiting for brown-eyed people.

The yardstick's gone, well, okay.

I don't see the yardstick, do you?

>> It's probably over there.

>> Hey, Mrs. Elliott, you better keep that on your desk so if the brown people, the brown-eyed people get out of hand... >> Oh, you think if the brown-eyed people get out of hand, that would be the thing to use.

Who goes first to lunch?

>> The blue eyes.

>> The blue-eyed people.

No brown-eyed people go back for seconds.

Blue-eyed people may go back for seconds.

Brown-eyed people do not.

>> Why not the brown-eyes?

>> Don't you know?

>> They're not smart.

>> Is that the only reason?

>> ...afraid they'll take too much.

>> They might take too much.

Okay, quietly now... not a sound.

>> And it seemed like when we were down on the bottom, everything bad was happening to us.

>> The way they treated you, you felt like you didn't even want to try to do anything.

>> It seemed like Mrs. Elliott was taking our best friends away from us.

(playground whistle blows) >> What happened at recess?

Were two of you boys fighting?

>> Russell and John were.

>> What happened, John?

>> Russell called me names and I hit him.

Hit him in the gut.

>> What did he call you?

>> Brown eyes.

>> Did you call him brown eyes?

>> They always call us that... all the blue eyes call us that.

>> They say (taunting): "Come here, brown eyes"... >> They were calling us blue eyes.

>> I wasn't.

>> Sandy and Donna were... >> Yeah.

>> What's wrong with being called brown eyes?

>> It means that we're stupider and... well, not that but... >> Oh, that's just the same way as other people calling black people niggers.

>> Is that the reason you hit him, John?

Did it help?

Did it stop him?

Did it make you feel better inside?

Make you feel better inside?

Did it make you feel better to call him brown eyes?

Why do you suppose you called him brown eyes?

>> Because he has brown eyes?

>> Is that the only reason?

He didn't call him brown eyes yesterday and he had brown eyes yesterday.

Didn't he?

>> We just started this... >> ...yeah, ever since you put those blue things on.

>> They kind of tease him.

>> Oh, is this teasing?

>> No... when he did it, it was.

>> Were you doing it for fun, to be funny, or were you doing it to be mean?

>> Mean?

>> I don't know, don't ask me.

Did anyone laugh at you...?

I watched what had been marvelous, cooperative, wonderful, thoughtful children turn into nasty, vicious, discriminating, little third-graders in a space of 15 minutes.

>> Yesterday, I told you that brown-eyed people aren't as good as blue-eyed people.

That wasn't true.

I lied to you yesterday.

>> Ooh boy, here we go again.

>> The truth is that brown-eyed people are better than blue-eyed people.

>> (laughter) >> Russell, where are your glasses?

>> I forgot them.

>> You forgot them.

And what color are your eyes?

>> Blue.

>> (laughter) >> Susan Ginder has brown eyes.

She didn't forget her glasses.

Russell Ring has blue eyes and what about his glasses?

>> He forgot them.

>> He forgot them.

Yesterday we were visiting and Greg said, "Boy, I like to hit my little sister as hard as I can, that's fun."

What does that tell you about blue-eyed people?

>> They're naughty... in fact, they fight a lot... >> The brown-eyed people may take off their collars.

And each of you may put your collar on a blue-eyed person.

The brown-eyed people get five extra minutes of recess.

You blue-eyed people are not allowed to be on the playground equipment at any time.

You blue-eyed people are not to play with the brown-eyed people.

Brown-eyed people are better than blue-eyed people.

They are smarter than blue-eyed people and if you don't believe it, look at Brian.

Do blue-eyed people know how to sit in a chair?

Very sad.

Very, very sad.

Who can tell me what contraction should be in the first sentence?

Go to the board and write it, John.

Come on, let's do it again, loosen up.

Up, up, up!

Come on.

That's better.

Now, do you know how to make a W?

Okay, write the contraction for "we are."

Now that's beautiful writing!

Is that better?

>> Yes.

>> Brown-eyed people learn fast, don't they?

>> Yeah.

>> Boy, do brown-eyed people learn fast.

Very good.

Greg, what did you do with that cup?

Will you please go and get that cup and put your name on it and keep it at your desk?

Blue-eyed people are wasteful.

Okay, want to be timed this morning?

>> Yeah.

>> I use Orton Gillingham phonics.

We use the card pack, and the children, the brown-eyed children were in the low class the first day and it took them five and a half minutes to get through the card pack.

The second day it took them two and a half minutes.

The only thing that had changed was the fact that now they were superior people.

>> You went faster than I ever had anyone go through the card pack.

Why couldn't you get them yesterday?

>> We had those collars on.

>> You think the collars kept you... >> We kept thinking about those collars.

>> My eyes kept rolling around.

>> Oh, and you couldn't think as well with the collars on.

Four minutes and 18 seconds.

>> I knew we weren't going to make it.

>> Neither did I.

>> How long did it take you yesterday?

>> Three minutes.

>> Three minutes.

How long did it take you today?

>> Four minutes and 18 seconds.

>> What happened?

>> Went down.

>> Why?

What were you thinking of?

>> This.

>> I hate today.

>> You do?

I hate it too.

>> Because I'm blue-eyed.

>> See, I am too.

>> It's not funny, it's not fun, it's not pleasant.

This is a filthy, nasty word called discrimination.

We're treating people a certain way because they are different from the rest of us.

Is that fair?

>> No.

>> Nothing fair about it.

We didn't say this was going to be a fair day, did we?

>> No.

>> And it isn't.

It's a horrid day.

Okay, you ready?

What did you blue... people who are wearing blue collars now find out today?

>> I know what they felt like yesterday.

>> I do too.

>> How did they feel yesterday?

>> Like a dog on a leash.

>> Yeah... like you're chained up in a prison and they throw the key away.

>> Should the color of some other person's eyes have anything to do with how you treat them?

>> No.

>> All right, then should the color of their skin?

>> No.

>> Should you judge people... >> No.

>> By the color of their skin?

>> No.

>> You're going to say that today.

And this week and probably all the time you're in this room.

You'll say, "No... Mrs. Elliott..." >> No... >> Every time I ask that question.

>> No, Mrs. Elliott.

>> Then when you see a black man or an Indian or someone walking down the street, are you going to say, "Ha ha, look at that silly-looking thing"?

>> No, Mrs. Elliott.

>> Does it make any difference whether their skin is black or white?

>> No.

>> Or yellow?

Or red?

>> No.

>> Is that how you decide whether people are good or bad?

>> No.

>> Is that what makes people good or bad?

>> No.

>> Let's take these collars off.

>> Here, Mrs. Elliott, you can have it.

>> What would you like to do with them?

>> Throw them away.

>> Go ahead!

Now you know a little bit more than you knew at the beginning of this week.

>> Yes... a lot... >> Do you know a little bit more than you wanted to?

>> (in sing-song): Yes, Mrs. Elliott.

>> This isn't an easy way to learn this, is it?

>> (in sing-song): No, Mrs. Elliott.

>> (teasingly): Oh, will you stop that!

>> (laughter) >> Okay, now let's all sit down here together, blue eyes and brown eyes.

Does it make any difference what color you are?

>> No.

>> Down, girl... >> (laughter) >> Oh, you found your friend, huh?

>> Okay, ready to listen now?

Okay, now are you back?

>> Yes!

>> Does that feel better?

>> Yes!

>> Does the color of eyes that you have make any difference in the kind of person you are?

>> (mockingly): No, Mrs. Elliott.

>> Does that feel like being home again, girls?

>> (mockingly): Yes, Mrs. Elliott.

>> (teasingly): Oh, will you stop it?

>> (laughter) >> CHARLIE COBB: This was the third time Jane Elliott had taught her lesson in discrimination.

The first, two years earlier, was in April of 1968.

>> On the day after Martin Luther King was killed, I... one of my students came into the room and said "They shot a king last night," Mrs. Elliott.

"Why'd they shoot that king?"

I knew the night before that it was time to deal with this in a concrete way, not just talking about it, because we had talked about racism since the first day of school.

But the shooting of Martin Luther King, who had been one of our heroes of the month in February, could not just be talked about and explained away.

There was no way to explain this to little third graders in Riceville, Iowa.

As I listened to the white male commentators on TV the night before, I was hearing things like "Who's going to hold your people together?"

as they interviewed black leaders.

"What are they going to do?"

"Who's going to control your people?"

As though this was... these people were subhuman and someone was going to have to step in there and control them.

They said things like, "When we lost our leader, "his widow helped to hold us together.

Who's going to hold them together?"

And the attitude was so arrogant and so condescending and so ungodly that I thought if white male adults react this way, what are my third graders going to do?

How are they going to react to this thing?

I was ironing the teepee... we studied an Indian unit, we made a teepee every year.

The first year the students would make the teepee out of pieces of sheet, we'd sew it together.

And the next year we'd decorate it with Indian symbols.

I was ironing the previous year's teepee, getting it ready to be decorated the next day.

And I thought of what we had done with the Indians.

We haven't made much progress in these 200, 300 years.

And I thought this is the time now to teach them really what the Sioux Indian prayer that says, "O great spirit, keep me from ever judging a man until I have walked in his moccasins," really means.

And for the next day I knew that my children were going to walk in someone else's moccasins for a day.

Like it or lump it, they were going to have to walk in someone else's moccasins.

I decided at that point that it was time to try the eye color thing, which I had thought about many, many times but had never used.

So the next day I introduced an eye color exercise in my classroom and split the class according to eye color.

And immediately created a microcosm of society in a third-grade classroom.

>> COBB: Riceville hasn't changed much in the 17 years since then.

It's still a small farming community surrounded by corn fields.

Its population is still under a thousand.

And it's still all white and all Christian.

And though Jane Elliott has continued to teach her lesson in discrimination, there has been little outward local reaction: no objections from school authorities or the parents of the 300-odd students who have by now been through it.

>> Okay, let's... let's get in a circle.

>> The reunion of her former third-graders was Jane Elliott's first chance to find out how much of her lesson her students had retained.

>> All right, now, Raymond.

Why...

I want to know why you... were so eager to discriminate against the rest of these kids.

At the end of the day, I thought, "the miserable little Nazi."

>> (laughter) >> Really, I just...

I couldn't stand you.

>> It felt tremendously evil.

You could... all your inhibitions were gone.

And no matter if they were my friends or not, any pent-up hostilities or aggressions that these kids had ever caused you, you had a chance to get it all out.

>> Yeah, I felt like I was... like a king, like I ruled them brown-eyes, like I was better than them, happy.

>> And you did it all day.

>> Yeah.

>> How did you feel when you were the out-group?

>> Boy, that day, after we went home... (laughs) ooh, you know, talk about hating somebody.

>> Yeah.

>> It was there.

>> You hated me.

>> Yeah... of what you were putting us through.

Nobody likes to be looked down upon.

Nobody likes to be hated, teased or discriminated against.

And it just boggles up inside of you... you just get so mad.

>> Were you just angry or was there more than that?

>> I felt demoralized, humiliated.

>> Is the learning worth the agony?

>> Yeah, it is.

>> Yes.

>> It made everything a lot different than what it was.

We was... we was a lot better family altogether, even in our houses we was probably, because it... it was hard on you; when you have your best friend one day and then he's your enemy the next, it brings it out real quick in you.

>> Some of the remarks were the kinds of things I would have wished I could have programmed into them, if I had been able to program them.

They are the things I would have wanted them to say.

Some of the things were just mind blowing.

>> You know you hear these people talkin' about, you know, different people and how they're, you know, different and they'd like to have 'em out of the country: "I wish they'd go back to Africa," you know an' stuff.

An' sometimes I just wish I had that collar in my pocket.

I could whip it out an' put it on and say, "Wear this, and put you... put yourself in their place."

I wish they would go what I, you know, do what I went through.

>> We was at a softball game a couple weekends ago and there was a black guy, "Hi Verla," you know... and we hugged each other and everything, and some people really looked just like, "What are you doin' with him?"

you know.

And you just get this burning feeling... sensation... in you that you just want to let it out and put them through what we went through to find out; they're not any different.

>> I still find myself sometimes when I see some people together and I see how they act... you know, I think, "Well, that's black."

And then right in the next second...

I won't even finish the thought, I'm saying, "Well, I've seen whites do it.

"I've seen other people do it.

It's not just the blacks."

It's... everyone acts differently.

It's just a different color is what hits you first.

And then later, as I said, I don't even finish that thought before I remember back when I was like that and then I remember not, you know... everyone acts the same way; it's just your way of thinking is the difference.

>> Like when my grandparents or somebody and they start talkin' about old times and they say, "the Japs" and all this an' that, and they start, you know, holdin' that against them.

I think, "How'd you like to have been them?

"Japanese-Americans get thrown into these camps just because they happen to be part Japanese."

You know, I...

I just said, "You, you calm down and think about it," but when they get older they're set in their ways and they're not gonna change.

>> When you get older?

>> I'll be set in my ways but they're different than their ways.

>> I was absolutely enthralled.

Sandy Dohlman's statements that "When my son comes home "with the word 'nigger' and the other things "that he hears downtown, I say to him, 'Listen, "that isn't the way we judge people.

"You don't judge people by how they look.

"You judge them by what's on their inside, not their outside.'"

>> I'm glad that she's teachin' them not to hate because even though he does hear this from the other people, he... if he goes home and he thinks, "Well, Mom and Dad like the black people; I'm gonna like 'em too," so I don't think he's gonna pick nothin' bad up out of it.

>> You chose your husband well.

>> (laughter) >> He chose me.

>> You chose her well.

>> (laughter) >> Little kids'll take it... you know, they'll listen to a lot of other people too, so they're gonna end up kinda confused over it.

>> But if she keeps on telling him.

>> Yeah.

>> Is he going to be the kind of person you kids are?

Or is he going to be the kind who judge people by the... >> Well, he'll know right... somewhat right from wrong.

>> He'll know that.

>> He'll know that he will.... >> ...but he'll have the, the ideas.

He won't be judging 'em by their color but he won't know what we know fully, having been through it.

>> He won't learn the collar thing.

>> The prejudice from us.

>> He won't... he won't learn prejudice first-handed.

>> Yeah.

>> He won't learn to be prejudiced from us, I mean, they won't learn to discriminate between people from us.

They may... he might hear it from others but never from us.

>> Okay, what's it like to be married to somebody like that?

>> (laughter) >> When I was gonna marry Sheila, I knew I... for my future that I was going into the military.

At first I thought, "Is she gonna be able to handle being with all the different nationalities?"

And then I read "The Storm"... read the book.

>> "A Class Divided."

>> "A Class Divided" before we got married and before I joined the Army, and I said, "Hey, she's not gonna have any problems."

>> Should every... should every child have the exercise or should every teacher?

>> Everybody.

>> Everybody, not just... >> Everybody who has... >> I think every school ought to implement something like this program in their early stages of education.

>> COBB: If Jane Elliott's lesson in discrimination changed the way these young people feel about discrimination and racism, it also had a totally unexpected result.

>> The second year I did this exercise I gave little spelling tests, math tests, reading tests two weeks before the exercise, each day of the exercise and two weeks later and, almost without exception, the students' scores go up on the day they're on the top, down on the day they're on the bottom and then maintain a higher level for the rest of the year after they've been through the exercise.

We sent some of those tests to Stanford University to the Psychology Department and they did sort of an informal review of them, and they said that what's happening here is kids' academic ability is being changed in a 24-hour period.

And that isn't possible but it's happening.

Something very strange is happening to these children because suddenly they're finding out how really great they are and they are responding to what they know now they are able to do.

And it has happened consistently with third graders.

>> COBB: The film made of Jane Elliott's third graders in 1970 has been widely used with students and teachers... and by government, business, and labor organizations concerned about human relations.

Perhaps the most unusual use of it is here, at Green Haven Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Stormville, New York.

Here, in a sociology course taught by Professor Duane W. Smith of Duchess Community College, his almost exclusively black and Hispanic classes have been seeing the film for more than ten years.

>> What I'd like to do is introduce the subject of prejudice and discrimination through this film called "The Eye of the Storm."

>> Blue-eyed people are smarter than brown-eyed people.

>> Huh-uh.

>> They are cleaner than brown-eyed people.

>> Huh-uh.

>> They are more civilized than brown-eyed people.

>> FILM NARRATOR: Sandra and her brown-eyed friends didn't like that day, but Raymond did.

>> I felt like I was a king, like I ruled them... >> Do you think the children, by this process, really learned the meaning of discrimination?

>> Most of the children, before the film started, they had played and lived together in harmony and a certain action coming from the teacher and seeing the teacher as an authoritarian figure and someone to respect, they accepted the views that was being given to them.

But I think that at the end of the lesson they could clearly see that prejudices and other forms of discrimination are things that people build within their minds.

They are not actual physical barriers that say, "Yo, you can't cross the street."

>> The one kid I could really agree with was, at recess, he was a brown-eyed kid.

He had this inner turmoil against this feeling of being divided or prejudiced against where he would hit another kid that he's known for so many years in the gut.

Whether... he also stated that it didn't help any, so that automatically should be a lesson to every adult in the world.

Violence doesn't help any, and, you know, this is a film that I hope my children get to see.

>> COBB: Unlike New York, Iowa is 98% white Anglo-Saxon; yet even here, minority groups account for more than 20% of the prison population.

To make sure its prison system employees are sensitive to the concerns of this large minority, the Iowa Department of Corrections last fall hired Jane Elliott to give her lesson to some of them.

The group, which included prison guards and parole officers, was told only that it would be attending a day-long workshop.

David Stokesbery.

>> Most of our training you go to, people give you information and you learn that way.

>> Blue-eyed?

>> When I first came with the sign-up and such and got put in the group, I didn't know... when I started seeing the signs around, you know, "brown-eyes only" and such, I figured they were the better group because they had a lot of spaces available and there were none for the blue-eyes.

So when I got put in the blue-eyes group and put the collar on, I knew then that I was going to be in the deprived group, I guess.

>> Okay, now you can stay in this area... >> The workshop was supposed to begin at 9:00.

They took the brown-eyes in about 9:00 and left us standing in the hall.

I literally stood because there weren't enough chairs and I didn't know whether I wanted to fight to take a chair down, I didn't know if somebody would come and take the chair away from me if I did.

>> COBB: While David Stokesbery and the other blue-eyed people waited, inside the meeting room, Jane Elliott prepared the brown-eyed people for what was going to happen.

>> Now this is not something I can do alone.

This exercise won't work without your cooperation.

Blue-eyed people aren't allowed to smoke, blue-eyed people aren't allowed to sit in these empty chairs.

Do not let a blue-eyed person sit next to you.

You know you can't trust them and besides which they don't smell good.

Everybody knows that about blue-eyed people.

You don't know what you can catch from a blue-eyed person.

>> By 9:20, I felt some antagonism.

I'm stuck out here for 20 minutes standing, waiting.

>> I still say we ought to see what kind of a reaction we'd get by everyone just simply going in.

Anyone who wants to do it?

>> Nobody seems to have courage in their conviction.

They do a lot of talking but nobody takes any action.

>> Maybe we should oppose it by all singing a song or doing something really loud, you know.

>> "We shall overcome"?

>> Yeah.

All right (laughter).

>> I need to have you keep it down.

I don't know how many times I need to give that instruction, but you need to keep it down so you don't bother the people in the, in the workshop.

>> I was pretty well ticked off by the time we got taken in there.

>> ...purses and overcoats in the corner.

I need to have you put your purse and your coat in the corner.

>> It would be to your advantage in the future, people, if you'd get to meetings on time.

It would also be to your advantage if you'd put your gum away.

>> I'll leave.

>> Put your gum away.

>> I'll leave.

>> Do you want to get paid for today?

>> Uh-huh.

>> Well, then stay, but put your gum away.

>> I don't have a purse, so I don't have any place to put my gum.

>> I'm sure that you are inventive enough to find a place for the gum.

Now I'd like for you to notice where she put her gum.

You have this problem with blue-eyed people.

You give them something decent, and they just wreck it.

You'll also notice that blue-eyed people spend a lot of time playing "Look at me, "see how cute I am, I can be funny.

"I can make a joke of this.

This is amusing, I'm amused by this."

Another thing that is obvious about blue-eyed people is that they are poor listeners.

The first thing you have to do when you get... when you are teaching in a segregated situation, when you're working in a segregated situation, is teach the listening skills.

The listening skills are: number one, good listeners have quiet hands, feet and mouths.

Everyone needs to write these down.

I'd like for you to look at the man in the back, in the black jacket.

The game we're playing is, playing it cool.

This is a favorite blue-eyed game, playing it cool.

"Nobody can bother me, man.

"I can handle this.

I don't have to do this.

I'm gonna ignore this whole thing."

Number two, good listeners keep their eyes on the person who is speaking.

I take it you don't have a pencil?

>> No.

>> Nor you?

>> No.

>> Perhaps you could borrow one from one of your neighbors.

Sir, I realize that you feel that you don't need to write it down, but whether or not you write it down, perhaps you could remember it.

>> I'll borrow a pen.

>> Good listeners have quiet hands, feet and mouths.

Do you know what that means?

>> I'm not sure.

>> I believe that.

Do you want me to explain it to you?

>> No, that's okay.

I'll get a pencil and write this down directly.

>> Look, blue-eyed people, all... many of you have pencils.

Will one of you please lend him a pencil?

Or don't you trust him?

Which I can understand.

From the last ten minutes, what have you observed about blue-eyed people?

>> Blue-eyed people are very stubborn, very self-centered, and wish to control as much of their surrounding as possible, people-wise I mean.

Very inconsiderate people.

I don't even know why you have them here in the first place.

>> We have them here because we are required to have them here.

>> We, we have to, huh?

>> This is one of the things you have to put up with.

>> Oh.

>> Number three, good listeners listen from the beginning to the very end.

Okay, good listeners decide to learn something.

And this is the thing you'll have the most difficulty with with blue-eyed people.

They decide not to learn something.

Some of you have had trouble with blue-eyed people in your home environment.

Some of you have had trouble with blue-eyed people in your workplace.

Does anybody have an example of that that they'd like to talk about?

Anyone?

>> Yeah.

I have two nephews, and one is blue-eyed, and one's brown-eyed.

And the blue-eyed one, like, he never cleans his room, and he's real lazy.

And the brown, you know... and he doesn't seem to have a lot of energy, the blue-eyed one.

But the brown-eyed one, he's real outgoing, and he plays in sports and he's pretty good at it.

And, he just seems like a better kid.

So if I have kids, I hope they have brown eyes.

>> You, are you married?

>> No.

>> Then it's a good thing you don't have kids, isn't it?

>> Right.

>> Then you will know what to do when, when you choose a mate.

>> Right.

>> Would you like to read that first listening skill to me?

>> I haven't got it on my paper yet.

>> Oh, why is that?

>> I haven't borrowed the pencil to write it down as yet.

>> And you think it's unnecessary?

>> Well, at this particular point, yes, I do.

>> Why?

>> Well...

I, I have it in my head for the most part.

>> There's a lot of space up there for it, isn't there, friend?

Do you suppose you could tell me what it is?

>> It has something to do with keeping your hands and feet still, as I recall.

>> Has something to do with that.

>> (laughter) I find it interesting that you're amused by our having to stand here and wait for this man to do something that everybody else has already done.

I find that highly interesting.

Stupid, but interesting.

If, if you are in a situation where someone is constantly, constantly refusing to do what the people in authority ask them to do, what do you know about them?

What do you know about that person?

>> Well, I think it's a game with them.

Attention.

>> Has it gained anything for this gentleman?

>> Disrespect from, I think, the brown-eyed people.

>> Has it proven anything to brown-eyed people?

>> Yes.

It, this is a typical trait of a blue-eyed person.

>> Now read the second one.

>> I don't have the second one.

Can I read it off hers?

>> You don't have the second one, either?

>> No.

>> You have, you were keeping it in your head.

What happened to that plan?

>> Just the, just the first one I had in my head, not the second one.

>> Oh, the other three aren't important?

>> Well, they're probably important.

>> But not important enough for you to write down, right?

>> Well, they're important.

I should've written them down, most probably.

>> Most probably?

Does anybody back there know?

You don't have it written down either?

I want you to take a look at these two so-called gentlemen.

Now, we need to hear the good listening skills from you.

I don't want you to think that I'm badgering you boys.

But on the other hand... >> I don't think that.

>> On the other hand, you're here to learn something.

And if you learn nothing else today, it would be nice if you would learn the listening skills.

What do you know now about brown-eyed people that you didn't know before... about blue-eyed people that you didn't know before you came in here?

>> I'm finding I'm gonna have to explain things a bit more explicitly to a blue-eyed person than I would to a brown-eyed person.

>> How many times did I have to repeat the listening skills for Roger?

>> Well, brother Roger is having a rough time today, isn't he?

It was about six or seven different times.

>> You think that's amusing, Roger?

>> Apparently somewhat amusing.

>> COBB: As part of the lesson, the Corrections Department employees took a written test.

>> All right, I need these names and the scores.

>> I have K.R., eleven.

>> I'm sorry I can't hear you.

>> K.R., just initials, eleven.

>> K.R., just an initial?

No last name?

>> No names.

>> How many?

>> Eleven.

>> And Churdin, or Charles, I'm not sure.

>> Thank you, sir.

>> Tell me the name again.

>> Uh... Churdin?

>> You can't read the name?

>> No, I can't.

>> It's probably mine.

>> What's your name?

>> My name is Chambers.

>> First name?

>> Jeanine.

>> And what was her score?

>> Six.

>> Next?

>> E. Riley, with a five.

>> E?

>> E. Riley?

>> Will E. Riley please stand?

>> It's mine.

>> You know, it's... what you do to the image of blues with your behavior is unfortunate.

What you three people do to the image of women, with your behavior, really makes me angry.

The fact that you do this kind of thing and this kind of sloppy work reflects badly on women.

I resent that doubly.

Yes?

>> Ma'am, I'd really appreciate it if you'd call us by name.

When you say "you three people," we don't know who you're speaking to.

It could be anyone here.

>> My dear, if you wanted me to call you by name, you'd have put your name on your paper.

>> It's on my coat.

>> It was to be on your paper.

>> You didn't see my papers, ma'am.

>> I didn't get your name either, because it wasn't on your paper.

>> That's right.

>> All right.

Now how could one call you by your name if you don't care enough about your name to put it on your paper?

Don't expect me to... >> You don't know how to read?

>> Don't expect me to worry about it if you don't put it on your paper.

Don't sit here and say "My name is important to me" after you have just deliberately not put it on your paper.

>> I don't remember saying my name was important to me.

I remember saying, "I'd like to know who you're speaking to," when you say "you three."

>> Then what should you do?

>> Ask you to use my name, which I did.

>> And where should your name have been?

>> Right where it is... >> On your paper?

>> ...and on my birth certificate.

>> Is it on your paper?

>> No, ma'am.

>> Where'd you get a birth certificate?

>> Same place you got yours.

>> Out of a slot machine, same as you did, lady.

>> I think you're probably right about your own.

>> At least I know who my parents are, ma'am.

>> Is she being rude?

>> Yes.

>> Is she being inconsiderate?

>> Very.

>> Is she being uncooperative?

>> Very.

>> Is she being insultive?

>> Yes.

>> Are all those the things that we've accused blue-eyed people of being?

>> Yes.

>> Is she proving that we're right?

>> Yes.

>> Does anyone have any comments to make at this point?

>> Do you feel that there are important blue-eyed people?

>> There are exceptions to every rule.

>> And what are those exceptions?

>> There are a few important blue-eyed people.

>> Very few.

>> You said that.

>> Do you think that you are one of them?

>> No.

>> That's good.

>> Then why are you up there then?

>> I'm blue-eyed.

The difference between you and me is, I have a brown-eyed husband and brown-eyed offspring, and I've learned how to behave in a brown-eyed society.

And when you can act brown enough, then you, too, can be where I am.

>> I wouldn't want to be where you are.

>> Are you certain?

>> Absolutely positive.

>> You like where you are?

>> I love where I am.

>> You like it so much that you don't even identify yourself on your paper.

>> I don't need to, lady.

>> Her using the term "lady" where I'm concerned, what do you think she's trying to do?

Is it ignorance, or is it deliberately insulting?

>> I would say it was deliberately insulting.

>> If it's ignorance, she needs to be taught that to many of us, the word "lady" is a pejorative.

I don't appreciate it.

It is, it's a put-down.

And it's used to keep women in their place.

>> I promise in the future to call you by the correct name.

>> I'm sorry.

>> I will call you by the correct name after this.

I won't be kind.

>> That was kindness on your part?

>> Yes, I think to call someone a lady is a kindness.

>> Then your problem is ignorance.

>> You can call me "lady" any time you like.

>> I wouldn't do that to you.

>> No, I know you wouldn't.

>> I really wouldn't.

I, I think that, and that's part of the problem.

Is a total lack of awareness at what sexism amounts to and how much you contribute to the sexism that keeps you where you are.

>> I like where I am, lady.

I did it again, didn't I.

>> Yes.

>> I'm getting kind of fed up with this whole bunch of garbage.

>> Why?

>> Brown-eyed peoples are no different than we are.

I hate to tell them that.

They have these false delusions and such.

>> Are they being disruptive?

>> No, you trained them very well.

I think that's what they did with the storm troopers in Germany, also.

You guys do a real good job sitting up there.

>> You think that what's happening here today feels like it would have felt to be in Nazi Germany?

>> Yes.

>> Where, where do you think you are in that then?

>> Where do I think I am?

>> Who are you?

If you're in Nazi Germany, who are you?

>> Ah, the Jews?

>> COBB: After a break for lunch, Jane Elliott helped the Corrections Department employees analyze what had happened.

>> Did you learn anything this morning?

>> I think I learned from the experience a feeling like I was in a glass cage and I was powerless, there was a sense of hopelessness...

I was angry, I wanted to speak up and yet I... at times I knew if I spoke up, I'd be back in a powerless situation, I'd be attacked.

A sense of hopelessness.

Oppression.

>> Had you experienced that before?

>> I realized this morning that there were very few times in my life that I've ever been discriminated against.

Very few.

>> And you were this uncomfortable in an hour and a half?

>> I was amazed at how uncomfortable I was in the first 15 minutes.

>> Can you empathize at all then with blacks, minority group members in this country?

>> I'm hoping better than before.

>> If we tried to argue with you you would use just the mere argument as reason for us being lesser than the brown-eyed folks, you know, you couldn't win.

>> Yeah, but don't we do that every day?

>> I think some do, yeah, but I would hope that I never get so unreasonable.

I... you know, the statements you were making were groundless and such, and yet we couldn't argue with them because if we argued then we were argumentative and you know, not listening and getting out of our place and all that stuff.

And that was frustrating to me.

And then frustrating to me was the other... the little green tags who were sitting on their hands.

My group here was...

I didn't think boisterous enough in our opposition to the whole thing.

>> Why didn't you people support one another?

Why didn't the blue-eyed people... the blue-eyed people on this side just sat there.

And let's face it, you covered your asses.

Right?

Why did you just sit there?

>> I think that's symptomatic of the problem as a whole.

We see that, you know, in society in general.

We see a few people who are making a lot of noise and the rest of the people sitting back waiting to see what they're going to do.

>> Okay, as long as I was picking on him, I was leaving you alone, right?

>> Right.

>> I'd say a lot of people accept that.

They let... have a few people do their fighting for them and they stand back and if this person's going to win, then they'll get on this side.

But if that person's not going to win, they'll stay back over here, you know.

That's just how it works.

>> If you were in a real situation where you had to do something about racism, would you stand up and be counted?

>> What I would do I don't know.

It would depend on... >> But you would do something.

>> I would have to do something.

I couldn't go home tonight and face my kids if I didn't.

>> How did you brown-eyed people feel while this was going on?

>> A sense of relief that I wasn't a blue-eyed person.

>> Sense of relief that you had the right color eyes.

>> Right.

>> Absolutely.

>> I really understood, at least I felt that I understood what it was like to be in the minority.

>> Why were you angry?

>> First of all, because it was unreasonable.

Secondly, because I felt discriminated against.

Thirdly, I think that all of us, everyone in this room has dealt with discrimination on both sides.

You don't have to be black or Jewish or Mexican or anything else to have felt discrimination in your life, and as you become an adult you learn to deal with those feelings within yourself and you learn to handle those.

And when you feel yourself in a situation that you can't get out of, which we couldn't... we were a captive audience and it was not a normal situation because normally you aren't badgered.

>> What if you had to spend the rest of your life this way?

>> I don't know how to answer that.

>> You don't wake up every morning knowing that you're different.

You wake up as a white woman who is going to her job at 8:00 or whatever.

Where a black person is going to wake up knowing from the minute they get up out of the bed and look in the mirror, they're black and they have to deal with the problems they've had to deal with ever since they were young and realize that I am different and I have to deal with life differently.

Things are different for me.

And I don't think you can really say that you have felt... maybe you have felt some sort of discrimination, but you haven't felt what it is like for a black woman to go through the daily experiences of arguing and saying, "Listen to me, my point of view is good," you know, "what I have to offer here is good."

And no one wants to listen because white is right, that's the way things are.

>> I think the necessity for this exercise is a crime.

No, I don't want to see it used more widely, I want to see it... the necessity for it wiped out.

And I think if educators were determined that we could be very instrumental in wiping out the necessity for this exercise.

But I want to see something used.

I'd like to see this exercise used with all teachers.

All administrators.

But certainly not with all students unless, unless it's done by people who are doing it for the right reasons and in the right way.

I think you could damage a child with this exercise very, very easily, and I would never suggest that everybody should use it.

I think you could have training classes for teachers, bring them in, put them through the thing, explain what happened, do the de-briefing and then practice doing this until teachers... until a group of teachers were able to do it on their own.

And I... teachers are not disabled learners.

They could learn to do this obviously.

If I can do it, most anyone can do it.

It doesn't take a super teacher to do this exercise.

>> COBB: What began in a third-grade classroom has spread from students to teachers to corrections officers.

At the center is still a single teacher determined to inoculate her students, both young and old, against the virus of bigotry.

>> After you do this exercise, when the de-briefing starts, when the pain is over and you're all back together and you're all one again, you find out how society could be if we really believed all this stuff that we preach.

If we really acted that way, you could feel as good about one another as those kids feel about one another after this exercise is over.

You create instant cousins.

I thought maybe that lasted just while they were in my classroom because of my superior influence, but indeed these kids still feel that way about one another.

They said yesterday... over and over the remark was made, "We're kind of like a family now."

They found out how to hurt one another and they found out how it feels to be hurt in that way and they refuse to hurt one another that way again.

And they said, "We're kind of like a family now," and indeed we were.

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FRONTLINE | A Class Divided | Season 1985 | Episode 9 | PBS

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One of FRONTLINE's most requested programs -- a teacher's lesson in discrimination.

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Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School

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Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School

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Leading experts offer concrete and realistic strategies for dealing with race in schools in a groundbreaking book that should become required reading for every teacher in the country.

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Dear fellow white people: Here’s what to do when you’re called racist

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Dear fellow white people: Here’s what to do when you’re called racist

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/dear-fellow-white-people-heres-what-to-do-when-youre-called-racist/2019/08/20/6e31941a-beda-11e9-b873-63ace636af08_story.html

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IN LESS THAN TWO MINUTES, THIS CLIP FROM 'BLACK-ISH' EXPLAINS WHY RACISM IN AMERICA ISN’T OVER

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IN LESS THAN TWO MINUTES, THIS CLIP FROM 'BLACK-ISH' EXPLAINS WHY RACISM IN AMERICA ISN’T OVER

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The scene is a simple family discussion around the living room TV, but for one minute and 30 seconds, Anthony Anderson transforms it into a profoundly moving meditation on police violence, the hope Barack Obama’s election represented, and the reality of being black in America.

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"Let's say they listen to the cops and get in the car," Anthony Anderson's character Dre said Feb. 24 on black-ish, referring to his kids, if they were to be arrested.

"Look what happened to Freddie Gray."

The scene is a simple family discussion around the living room TV, but for one minute and 30 seconds, Anthony Anderson transforms it into a profoundly moving meditation on police violence, the hope Barack Obama's election represented, and the reality of being black in America.

Racism is still a live issue in the United States, and on Feb. 24, black-ish explained why. Watch below:

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In Less Than Two Minutes, This Clip From 'black-ish' Explains Why Racism in America Isn't Over

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Racism is still a live issue in the United States, and on Feb. 24, black-ish explained why.

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Can We Talk about Race? AND OTHER CONVERSATIONS IN AN ERA OF SCHOOL RESEGREGATION

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Can We Talk about Race? AND OTHER CONVERSATIONS IN AN ERA OF SCHOOL RESEGREGATION

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In this ambitious, accessible book, Tatum examines some of the most resonant issues in American education and race relations.

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Skip to Main Content (Press Enter)

"What Tatum seeks to do above all is trigger sometimes challenging discussions about race, and infuse those discussions with a reality-based focus on how race affects us all. Her latest book does that beautifully, asking touch questions, and patiently, inclusively seeking answers."- Boston Globe

"Ten years ago, Tatum's book asked the question, ' Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?' Her latest book follows up with a broader question about the nation's readiness to talk honestly about the forces that continue to make race such a thorny issue . . . A probing and ambitious start to a series of books to prod national discussion on issues of race, education, and democracy."-Vanessa Bush, Booklist

"Four research-rich, concisely written essays on race and education, including examinations of the 'resegregation of our schools,' the need for educational curricula and staff that respect the diverse communities they serve, [and] the challenges of interracial friendships . . . What Tatum seeks to do above all is trigger sometimes challenging discussions about race, and infuse those discussions with a reality-based focus on how race affects us all. Her latest book does that beautifully, asking tough questions, and patiently, inclusively seeking answers."-Chuck Leddy, Boston Globe

"Another thoughtful, personal and provocative book that will encourage discussion about many of the difficult issues still surrounding race in America-in and out of the classroom."-Marian Wright Edelman, president, Children's Defense Fund

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Can We Talk about Race? by Beverly Tatum: 9780807032855 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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Major new reflections on race and schools-by the best-selling author of "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?" A Simmons College/Beacon Press Race, Education,...

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Philip Nel: "Was the Cat in the Hat Black?" | Talks at Google

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Philip Nel: "Was the Cat in the Hat Black?" | Talks at Google

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Philip Nel is an academic who discusses the hidden messages of race within children’s books. His latest title, Was the Cat in the Hat Black?, presents five serious critiques of the history and current state of children's literature tempestuous relationship with both implicit and explicit forms of racism.

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Was the Cat in the Hat Black? | Philip Nel | Talks at Google

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This video provides a crash course in how to identify and overcome white fragility in order to a) improve our racial literacy, b) become better allies, and c) amplify black and brown voices in the interest of achieving equality and justice for people of color.

Source material: Diangelo, Robin. "White Fragility," The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 2011. Read the full article here: http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/view/249