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Amid the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest spawned by ongoing human rights violations, systemic racism and inequality, it may be tough for young people, and for us adults, to find the energy to stay motivated from day to day. We're often reminded of the need to focus on self care, take breaks, and to step away from it all.

But sometimes we want to stay in the fight, and we need to be energized in order to do so. Music speaks to our hearts and souls. It connects us to one another, encourages us to keep going, and fuels our passions. Sometimes we don't want to be tamed; sometimes we want to turn up.

Following is an activity that invites students to listen to and share music that can inspire and sustain them as they explore ways to battle oppression and push to survive and thrive during these challenging times.
Note: Songs may express strong views and opinions, and may contain strong language/profanity. This lesson plan is intended for high school students.

Welcome students to your gathering.

Remind them that music has always played a key role in our country's periods of revolutionary change.

Share the quote:

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. Plato

Encourage students to think about the relationship between music, motivation, and action with responses to the following prompts:

What is one song you always put on when you need to get pumped or motivated?

What do you need from a song during these moments? What qualities does your song choice have?

When you think of protest music, anti-establishment music, or a song with a powerful message, what songs comes to mind?

Listen and observe

Play snippets of songs for students to listen to. You may decide to provide them with the song lyrics as well. While they listen, have students record their thoughts on the following:

What did you hear in the song? What was the main message?

What was the mood of the song? How did you feel while listening to it?

What lyrics stood out or resonated with you?

Songs to consider
The Beast - Fugees

If I Ruled the World - Nas & Lauryn Hill

A Song for Assata - Common & C-Lo Green

Soldier - Erykah Badu

We the People - A Tribe Called Quest

Get Up Stand Up - Bob Marley

Alright - Kendrick Lamar

Changes - Tupac

So Much Things to Say - Lauryn Hill / Bob Marley

What's Going On - Marvin Gaye

The Colored Section - Donnie

Police State - Dead Prez

Fight the Power - Public Enemy

6 Summers - Anderson Paak

Hands Up - Vince Staples

Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud - James Brown

The Revolution Will Not be Televised - Gil Scott Heron

Count off students in twos or threes, or arrange them into breakout rooms where they will discuss for 5-7 minute songs that get them motivated. Tell students to ask their small group members for permission to share what was discussed with the larger group.

Next, invite one student from each group/pair to share out with the larger group something that was discussed or one song that was mentioned.

After that, give students time to come up with their own "Music for the Revolution" playlist. Encourage them to diversify when possible, using songs in different languages, genres, etc. Allow them to share their list with the group, demonstrating the powerful overlap and variation that will occur. Students are likely to be inspired by each other's lists.

Have students share final thoughts on the quote:

"Can a mere song change a people's minds? I doubt that it is so. But a song can infiltrate your heart and the heart may change your mind." Elvis Costello

Thank students for participating in the circle and encourage them to stay active in the fight for justice, beginning with open, honest conversations with those closest to them. Remind them that sometimes our biggest impact is made in our own homes and communities.

Extended Learning

Create a 7-10 song "Music for the Struggle" playlist to share with classmates. Consider using Spotify, I-Tunes, YouTube, or any other platform that all students have access to.

While listening to music that inspires and motivates, ask students to think about what they can contribute to the movement for justice and human rights, and to share their thoughts with their peers.

Additional Resources
'Revolutionary' DJ Mixes:
The Black Power Mixtape (Spotify) & related article
Music at Home: Songs of Resistance (Spotify)

Jazzy Jeff's The Magnificent Resistance on IGTV

Articles:
5 Songs - Hip Hop's Presence in Politics 50 Protest Songs

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Amid the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest spawned by ongoing human rights violations, systemic racism and inequality, it may be tough for young people, and for us adults, to find the energy to stay motivated from day to day. We're often reminded of the need to focus on self care, take breaks, and to step away from it all.

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Each year around June 19, Black communities across the country unite for a family reunion of sorts. Juneteenth activities feature the sights and sounds of Blackness: People enjoying art, music and food that connect them to a shared ancestry and history. They celebrate being their authentic selves. They celebrate freedom in both solemn and festive ceremonies.

This celebration marks a day in 1865 when enslaved Texans learned they'd be free-two months after Robert E. Lee surrendered and ended the Civil War and two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Initially a uniquely Texan observance, Juneteenth has now been recognized in some form in every corner of the country.

There are many ways to teach students about this celebration. Lessons about Juneteenth need to recognize the challenges those who fight injustice have always faced, but they shouldn't be marked only by the tragedy of enslavement. Students, particularly Black students, can find empowerment in the jubilant celebrations of culture, activism and the humanity of a people.

Teaching Juneteenth: Culture as Resistance

Although the truth had been hidden from them-and they continued to face threats of continued oppression, violence and death-a year after they learned of their freedom, formerly enslaved people resiliently rallied around that date and made the celebration an annual ritual. Early Juneteenth observances included a search for lost family members and an opportunity to uplift each other as they moved through hostile environments.

With this knowledge, students can also identify ways the descendants of the enslaved recapture and honor the cultures, customs and practices lost through slavery.

Early celebrations involved readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, religious ceremonies, singing, games and enjoying foods that enslaved people ate. Today, it doesn't look that much different. People retell histories, have family reunions, eat foods reminiscent of early Juneteenth celebrations such as barbeque, attend religious services or choir performances and have elaborate displays such as fancy dress and parades.

Teaching Juneteenth: Understanding Emancipation

That's why Juneteenth is more than an observance of freedom. It's also a time to share the experiences of those who fought- literally and figuratively-to seek true freedom for future generations. It's important that we don't whitewash this history.

A common mistake among those who teach the history of American slavery is to center the U.S. government's role in granting freedom while also placing the onus to navigate through a racist society solely on the formerly enslaved.

Perhaps many center Lincoln in this history because we tend to think of the Emancipation Proclamation, instead of the 13th Amendment, as ending slavery. Our 2018 Teaching Hard History report found that 59 percent of high school students couldn't correctly identify the latter as the legal end to slavery in the United States.

But it's important for students to know that enslaved people didn't willfully accept enslavement or wait for others to free them. They resisted often and consistently. While rare, violent rebellions did occur. Some people successfully escaped enslavement. And everyday acts of resistance, such as breaking tools or pretending to be ill were other ways enslaved people asserted their humanity.

While it certainly encouraged enslaved people to liberate themselves (letting them know they wouldn't be re-enslaved if they escaped behind Union lines), the Emancipation Proclamation didn't end U.S. slavery because it didn't apply to Union states. January 31, 1865 marks the day the 13th Amendment-which officially abolished slavery in the United States-was passed in Congress. Students need to know that there were people enslaved in Delaware until December 6, 1865, the day the 13th Amendment was finally ratified.

Juneteenth offers an opportunity to talk to students about this complex history. When you do, you can also talk about the progress and opposing forces that continue to threaten all of these milestones, even though they're protected by the Constitution of the United States.

Teaching Juneteenth: Backlash to Freedom

American history has often been reduced to a simple story of continuous progress. In this context, the Emancipation Proclamation represents an important turning point-the country coming to its senses and setting the course for concrete steps toward true equality.

But it's important for students to know that the announcement-and the celebration afterward-was short-lived and riddled with setbacks, including violence. For example, some enslavers intentionally waited until the harvest before they announced that the enslaved were freed.

And some people taking advantage of their freedom were met with terror or even death. Newly freed people didn't have protection until September 1865 with the creation of the Freedmen's Bureau, and even those efforts were often thwarted during Reconstruction.

As TT Associate Editor Julia Delacroix points out, "Students tend to think of the fight for civil rights as though there has always been a set list of hurdles to be overcome-slavery, then racial terror, then segregation, then disenfranchisement, then mass incarceration."

But we know that "racism takes the shape of whatever will hold it." Barriers to freedom weren't predestined, but they do confirm that there has always been a force to maintain racial hierarchy by pushing back against change.

In other words, with each attempt to bring justice and equality to all people, there is often a quick and fierce response. With each victory, there is yet another dueling force to conquer. The announcement of emancipation was no exception, and Juneteenth is a perfect opening to invite students to think about the "story of America" they often hear.

Teaching Juneteenth: American Ideals

It's not too challenging to ask students to consider what Juneteenth tells us about our ideas about the United States. After all, another holiday-July Fourth-is in the shadow of Juneteenth. It's a time when Americans are encouraged to rejoice in its independence...and freedom.

Students might recognize a paradox with July Fourth celebrations. They might question how a country could have touted the idea of freedom and liberty for all while also oppressing and treating an entire group of people as property. Those celebrations of independence went on for 89 years before the United States abolished slavery.

Abolitionist Frederick Douglass acknowledged this as "inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony" during his July 5, 1852 speech in Rochester, New York.

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Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

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What Educators Should - and Should Not Do - in Response to George Floyd's Death

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What Educators Should - and Should Not Do - in Response to George Floyd's Death

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The question is:
What should teachers learn from the killing of George Floyd?
Today, Dr. Tracey A. Benson and Holly Spinelli contribute their commentaries.

Several more posts in this series will appear throughout the week.
"Educators play a central role in the perpetuation of anti-black racism in our society"
Dr. Tracey A. Benson is an assistant professor of educational leadership at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His research explores the vestiges of structural racism in K-12 education that continue to impede the academic success of students of color. His book, Unconscious Bias in Schools: A Developmental Approach to Exploring Race and Racism, was released by Harvard Education Press in August 2019:

The law-enforcement officer who has been charged with murdering George Floyd and the other cops who witnessed it were all once students in someone's classroom. How did the teacher of Derek Chauvin, the officer with his knee on the neck of George Floyd, teach him and his classmates about the civil rights movement and the historical oppression of Black people in the United States? What might have happened differently on that fateful day if the educators who cared for Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng, the officers who stood by as George Floyd lay on the ground, had taught their students how to stand up against racism as a part of their socio-emotional development? What would Tou Thao, the officer filmed holding onlookers back as George Floyd cried out for help, have done if his teachers used historical moments such as the murder of Emmitt Till or the beating of Rodney King to help him understand how Black people have been and continue to be the targets of racialized violence?

Educators play a central role in the perpetuation of anti-black racism in our society. All too often, classroom teachers and school leaders subscribe to an ethos of color-mute racism, deliberately suppressing conversations about race and racism, even as the country is in racial peril. Kids want to talk about what they see and how they feel, but educators, especially White educators, sacrifice student learning about racism in society because of their personal discomfort. However, what we often do not realize is that the very color-mute racism we perpetuate as educators is a direct result of the racially illiterate teachers who taught us.

The reason adults are racially illiterate, struggle to talk openly about racism, and have an intense fear of being labeled "racist" is because we don't teach racial literacy in our schools ... we teach racism. We teach interpersonal racism when we act on our biases and treat White students better than students of color. We teach structural racism when we accept the barriers that prevent students of color from enrolling in honors and AP classes. We teach cultural racism when we use a White-centric curriculum that only talks about people of color with relation to times of struggle and ignores vital contributions people of color have made to this country. We teach White liberal racism by treating racist incidents, like the killing of George Floyd, as "bad apple" anomalies, rather than a product of our racist society.

Racism is foundational to the United States and continues to plague our society in innumerable ways. The civil unrest we witness time and time again after yet another killing of an unarmed Black person is, as Martin Luther King said, "... an expression of the unheard." These trends will not be legislated away. It will take a concerted effort from a majority of society to combat the stranglehold racism has on our country.

So, what can educators do?

First, what not to do: 1) Express on social media sentiments of "heartbreak" and "sorrow" and be done with it. Expressions of personal feelings are nice but don't make change. 2) Absolving oneself of responsibility because of lack of know-how. If you are not actively anti-racist, you are directly contributing to racism in society. 3) Reach out to your colleagues or co-workers of color to "check on them" as your sole act, especially if you have not shown up for them before during the litany of previous acts of racism in society. Patronizing for the purpose of self-gratification is irresponsible.

What to do: 1) Pick up literature to get a better understanding about the legacy of racism toward people of color in this country before attempting to enter into conversations or take action. Good intentions are not a substitute for ignorance. It is amazing how folks can Google how to make face masks or homemade bread but never think to Google how to fight racial bias or be an anti-racist. 2) Make a deliberate plan of how you will disrupt racism within your circle of influence. There are plenty of opportunities in our schools and school communities to address vestiges of racism (learn where these areas are by reading literature). 3) Resist the urge to be color mute. After you educate yourself about how the legacy of racism contributes to contemporary racism and anti-black violence, create deliberate spaces for your students to discuss these topics in your classroom.

Our collective discomfort is a direct result of the legacy of color-mute racism in schools, which has left the vast majority of us well-meaning, caring, invested educators racially illiterate. All of the perpetrators who held George Floyd in custody were students once in someone's classroom. It is our responsibility to eradicate racism within our circle of influence. Our actions in our schools, especially in schools without a single student of color, should be guided by our desire to allow our students to build a more racially just society. Silence robs our students of a better future. To all of my fellow educators, please read, learn, do better.

"We must examine our pedagogical practices" Holly Spinelli is an active member of the National Council of Teachers of English's Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English, who began her career as an English teacher and student-rights' activist in New York City public schools and continues this work in a public high school in the Hudson Valley of New York and as an adjunct instructor at SUNY Orange County Community College:
The death of George Floyd is not the first killing of an unarmed black man at the hands of uniformed white men, but his is the one that, despite a long documented history of violent crimes committed against the black community in this country, seems to have awakened folks, namely white people, from a sleepy, complacent existence to one of questioning and action. So, what should teachers learn? Teachers, especially white teachers, should learn that it is time to educate themselves and the other white folks in their homes, neighborhoods, and school communities about their privilege in this country and then follow up by using that privilege to take action against the unjust systems that target, harm, and in extreme cases, murder black folks and other IBPOCs (Indigenous, Black and People of Color). White educators need to do this even if, and especially when, it comes at a cost to our personal security and our personal gain.

We must examine our pedagogical practices: the language we use, the texts and materials we present to our students, and the curriculum we build to see how we can change them to be culturally inclusive, responsive, and anti-racist. As educators, we must continuously work toward becoming agents of positive change through self-reflection, education, and allyship with our IBPOC communities. Educators need to familiarize themselves with the history of systemic oppression and institutional racism in this country, but they must do so together and not by asking their IBPOC friends, neighbors, community members, and colleagues to do the work for them. This is a time for white educators to step away from the sidelines, to conduct their own research, and to begin doing the work. The safety and future of our schools, students, and communities depend on it.

George Floyd's death amplifies Angela Davis' message that, "In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be antiracist." Educators need to do the work to become anti-racist and to create anti-racist educational spaces. The outdated tradition of teacher "neutrality" on issues of racism and human-rights violations is complicit with upholding antiquated, racist, sexist, classist, oppressive systems.

We need to speak up. We need to teach ourselves, each other, and our students how to identify, engage, and dismantle racism and oppression within ourselves and among those around us. Educators' silence on issues of racism, bias, and oppression has never been and can no longer be acceptable. Silence aids white supremacy. Silence aids racism. Refusing to acknowledge the black community's centuries-long pain and suffering at the hands of racist and oppressive systems in this country sends a clear message to our students that it is OK to ignore these issues and to continue with life as it is. This is a privilege that can no longer be ignored. It is a privilege that needs to be checked. Not doing so is an injustice to education and an injustice to all.
Steps You Can Take in Your Classrooms and Within Your School Communities:

Amplify and study voices of IBPOC authors and content providers.

Cite IBPOC authors and content providers when you include their work and ideas in your PD sessions or in any other materials you share with others.

Be self-reflective. Ask yourself about any past harms you may have intentionally or unintentionally caused. Recognize these and fix the behaviors so you and your school community can move forward. Ask:
Who was harmed? How were they harmed? What can I do to make positive changes moving forward? How can I make sure I do not make the same mistakes?

If you make a public error, make a public apology.

Challenge school or district policies that discriminate/target/police students of color (hair policies, dress codes that include hoodie or hat policies, etc.).

White educators: Talk to each other about anti-racism and educate yourselves and each other on how to take well-informed, actionable steps.

Here are resources to help:

Thanks to Dr. Benson and to Holly for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And if you missed any of the highlights from the first eight years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. The list doesn't include ones from this current year, but you can find those by clicking on the "answers" category found in the sidebar.

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What Educators Should-and Should Not Do-in Response to George Floyd's Death (Opinion)

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The question is: What should teachers learn from the killing of George Floyd? Today, Dr. Tracey A. Benson and Holly Spinelli contribute their commentaries. Several more posts in this series will appear throughout the week. "Educators play a central role in the perpetuation of anti-black racism in our society" Dr. Tracey A.

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CNN/Sesame Street Town Hall - Coming Together: Standing Up To Racism

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CNN/Sesame Street Town Hall - Coming Together: Standing Up To Racism

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Watch the entire CNN/Sesame Street racism town hall | CNN

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CNN's Van Jones and Erica Hill partner with "Sesame Street" for Coming Together: Standing Up to Racism, a town hall for kids and families. Watch the town hall in its entirety below:

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So You Wanna Talk About Race: Ijeoma Oluo

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So You Wanna Talk About Race: Ijeoma Oluo

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Ijeoma Oluo: "So You Want to Talk About Race" | Talks at Google

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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Strategies for Creating Racial Equity in Classrooms and Schools

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Strategies for Creating Racial Equity in Classrooms and Schools

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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What White Colleagues Need to Understand

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What White Colleagues Need to Understand

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What White Colleagues Need to Understand

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White supremacy doesn't stop at the teachers' lounge door.

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Discussing Race

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Discussing Race

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Jay Smooth

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TEDxHampshireCollege - Jay Smooth - How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Discussing Race

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If You Listen, We Will Stay: Why Teachers of Color Leave & How to Disrupt Teacher Turnover

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If You Listen, We Will Stay: Why Teachers of Color Leave & How to Disrupt Teacher Turnover

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Reviews of Multicultural Speculative Fiction

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Reviews of Multicultural Speculative Fiction

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Here are my reviews of fantasy and science fiction books (266 at the moment) for kids/teenagers featuring central characters of diverse cultures and ethnicities. I've organized them alphabetically within age groups. (if you see an obvious book missing from 2014-2019, it's probably because I wrote about it for the B and N Kids blog, RIP, and someday I'll get around to reviewing it again for my own blog!)

Other great lists can be found at Stacy Whitmn's Grimoire (mg) and Poking Badgers With Spoons (YA)

Picture Books (5)
Bonjour, Lonnie, by Faith Ringgold (1996)

Chalk, by Bill Thompson (2010)

The Rock Maiden, by Natasha Yim (2017)

Rooster Joe and the Bully/El Galo Joe y el Abusõn, by Xavier Gars (2016)

The Secret Box, by Barbara Lehman (2011)

Graphic (or at least heavy on the graphics) Novels for Kids (11)

The Shark King, by R. Kikuo Johnson (2012)

The Adventures of Ook and Gluk, Kung-Fu Cavemen from the Future, by Dav Pilkey (2010)

Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers, by Dav Pilkey, (2012)

Astronaut Academy Zero Gravity (2011), and Astronaut Academy Re-Entry (2013), by Dave Roman

Cleopatra In Space, Book 1: Target Practice (2014), and Book 2: The Thief and the Sword (2015), The Secret of the Time Tablets (2016) The Golden Lion (2017), by Mike Maihack

Little Robot, by Ben Hatke (2015)

Sanity and Tallulah, by Molly Brooks (2018)

Early Chapter Book/Elementary/Ages 5-9ish (7)

In Due Time series books 1-3, by Nicholas O. Time (2016)

The Magic Mirror, by Zetta Elliott (2014)

Mouldylocks and the Three Beards, and Little Red Quaking Hood (Princess Pink series), by Noah Z. Jones (2014)

The Phoenix on Barkley Street, by Zetta Elliott (2014)

Middle Grade/Ages 8-12 (138)

Abracadabra Tut, by Page McBriar (2014)

Ambassador, by William Alexander (2014), and its sequel, Nomad (2015)

Archer's Quest, by Linda Sue Park (2006)

The Atomic Weight of Secrets, by Eden Unger Bowditch (2011)

The Astounding Broccoli Boy, by Frank Cottrell Boyce (2015)

Bansi O'Hara and the Bloodline Prophecy, by John Dougherty (2008)

The Battle, by Karuna Riazi (2019)

The Book of Wonders, by Jasmine Richards (2012)

The Book That Proves Time Travel Happens, by Henry Clark (2015)

Breadcrumbs, by Anne Ursu (2011)

Bridge of Time, by Lewis Buzbee (2012)

The Cheerleaders of Doom (N.E.R.D.S. Book 3) by Michael Buckley (2011)

Celia's Robot, by Margaret Chang (2010)

The Chaos Curse, by Sayantani Dasgupta (2020)

Charlie Hernández and the League of Shadows, by Ryan Calejo (2018)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again, (2012), and its sequel, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time, by Frank Cottrell Boyce (2013 in the US)

Chronal Engine, by Greg Leitich Smith (2012)

Chronicles of the Red King: The Secret Kingdom (2011) and its sequels, The Stones of Ravenglass (2012), and Leopard's Gold (2013) by Jenny Nimmo

City of Fire, and its sequel, City of Ice, by Laurence Yep (2010, 2011)

City of Islands, by Kali Wallace (2018)

Claws, by Mike and Rachel Grinti (2012)

Cog, by Greg van Eekhout (2019)

Come Fall, by A.C.E. Bauer (2010)

The Conch Bearer, by Chitra Banerjee Divkaruni (2003)

A Crack in the Sea, by H.M. Bouwman (2017)

The Creature Department, by Robert Paul Weston (2013)

The Curse of the Chocolate Phoenix, by Kate Saunders (2016)

The Curse of the Were-Hyena, by Bruce Hale (2016)

Dactyl Hill Squad, by Daniel José Older (2018)

Dayshaun's Gift, by Zetta Elliott (2015)

Dead Air (The Kat Sinclair Files), by Michelle Schusterman (2015)

Defender of the Realm, by Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler (2017)

Dragon Magic, by Andre Norton (1972)

Dragons in a Bag (2018), and its sequel, The Dragon Thief (2019), by Zetta Elliott

The Dragon Warrior, by Katie Zhao (2019)

The Dream Stealer, by Sid Fleischman (2009)

The Elsewhere Chronicles, by Nykko (2009)

Explorer Academy: the Nebula Secret, by Trudi Trueit (2018)

The Extraordinary Book of Doors, by Anne E.G. Nydam (2014)

Flashback Four: The Lincoln Project, by Dan Gutman (2016)

The Forgotten Girl, by India Hill Brown (2019)

Freedom Stone, by Jeffrey Kluger (2011)

Galaxy Games: The Challengers, by Greg R. Fishbone (2011)

The Gauntlet, by Karuna Riazi (2017)

Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, by Mike Jung (2012)

The Ghosts in the Castle, by Zetta Elliott (2016)

Gloom Town, by Ronald L. Smith (2020)

Greenglass House (2014), Ghosts of Greenglass House (2017), Bluecrowne (2018), by Kate Milford

Hoodoo, by Ronald L. Smith (2015)

Hour of the Bees, by Lindsay Eager (2016)

How Oscar Indigo Broke the Universe (and Put it Back Together Again), by David Teague (2017)

I Lived on Butterfly Hill, by Marjorie Agosín (2014)

The Infinity Ring series (various authors): Mutiny in Time (2012), Divide and Conquer (2012), The Trap Door (2013), Curse of the Ancients (2013) and Cave of Wonders (2013), Behind Enemy Lines (2013)

Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow (2011) and Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp (2013) by Nathan Bransford

Jagger Jones and the Mummy's Ankh (2019), by Malayna Evans

Jinx (2013) and Jinx's Magic (2014), by Sage Blackwood

Justice and Her Brothers, by Virginia Hamilton (1978)

Key Hunters-- The Mysterious Moonstone and the Spy's Secret (2016), by Eric Luper

The Last Last-Day-of-Summer, by Lamar Giles (2019)

Lavender-Green Magic, by Andre Norton (1974)

(2019), and
Love Sugar Magic-- A Dash of Trouble (2017) A Sprinkle of Spirits A Mixture of Mischief, by Anna Meriano
The Magical Misadventures of Prunella Bogthistle, by Deva Fagan (2010)

Mars Evacuees, by Sophia McDougall (2015)

The Menagerie (2013), and Dragon on Trial (2014) by Tui T. Sutherland and Kari Sutherland

Midsummer's Mayhem, by Rajani LaRocca (2019)

MiNRS, by Kevin Sylvester (2015)

The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (2005)

Monster Matsuri (Takeshita Demons, 3), by Cristy Burne (2012)

The Moon Over Crete, by Jyotsna Sreenivasan (1996)

Moonshadow: Rise of the Ninja, by Simon Higgins (2010)

My Neighbor Totoro (the novel), by Tsugiko Kubo (2013)

The Night Fairy, by Laura Amy Schlitz (2010)

Night of the Living Lawn Ornaments, by Emily Ecton (2009)

Ninth Ward, by Jewell Parker Rhodes (2010)

Phyllis Wong and the Return of the Conjuror, by Geoffrey McSkimming (2014 in Australia, 2015 in the US)

The Prince of Fenway Park, by Julianna Baggott (2009)

A Properly Unhaunted Place (2017), and A Festival of Ghosts (2018), by William Alexander

The Remarkable and Very True Story of Lucy and Snowcap, by H.M. Bouwman (2008)

The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse, by Brian Farrey (2016)

Secrets of the Terra-Cotta Soldier by Ying Chang Compestine and Vincent Compestine (2014)

The Serpent's Secret, by Sayanti Dasgupta (2018)
Shadows of Sherwood, and Rebellion of Thieves (Robyn Hoodlum, 2015 and 2016), by Kekla Magoon

Skeleton Man (2003), and The Return of Skeleton Man (2006), by Joseph Bruchac

Sophie Quire and the Last Story Guard (2016), by Jonathan Auxier

Space Case (2014), and Spaced Out (2016), by Stuart Gibbs

The Spider Ring, by Andrew Harwell (2015)

Starry River of the Sky, by Grace Lin (2012)

This Side of Magic (Key Holders Vol. 1), by Debbie Dadey and Marcia Thornton Jones (2009)

The Taker and the Keeper, by Wim Coleman and Pat Perrin (2009)

Thief, by Malorie Blackman (1995)

Time Travelling with a Hamster, by Ross Welford (2016)

The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez, by Adrianna Cuevas (2020)
Trapped Between the Lash and the Gun, by Arvella Whitmore (1999)

Turning on a Dime, by Maggie Dana (2014)

Tut: The Story of My Immortal Life, by P.J. Hoover (2014)

The Twelve, by Cindy Lin (2019)

Unidentified Suburban Object, by Mike Jung (2016)

Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer (2015), and Are You Ready to Hatch an Unusual Chicken? (2018) by Kelly Jones

The Water Castle, by Megan Frazer Blakemore (2013)

The Way to Rio Luna, by Zoraida Córdova (2020)

The Wells Bequest, by Polly Shulman (2013)

When You Trap a Tiger, by Tae Keller (2020)

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin (2009)

Wild Born (Spirit Animals Book 1) by Brandon Mull (2013)

Wish Girl, by Nikki Loftin (2015)

A Wish in the Dark, by Christina Soontornvat (2020)

Woundabout, by Lev Rosen (2015)

The Zero Degree Zombie Zone, by Patrik Henry Ness (2014)

Zombie Baseball Beatdown, by Paulo Bacigalupi (2013)

Middle Grade/Young Adult (books that in my opinion can be comfortably read both teenagers and older middle grade kids. Which isn't to say the books that are just middle grade won't be enjoyed by some teenagers. Or grown-ups) (55)

Akata Witch, by Nnedi Okorafor (2011)

The Black Canary, by Jane Louise Curry (2005)

The Boy at the End of the World, by Greg van Eekhout (2011)

Boys of Blur, by N.D. Wilson (2014)

Cat Girl's Day Off, by Kimberly Pauley (2012)

Circus Galacticus, by Deva Fagan (2011)

Cinder, by Marissa Meyer (2012)

City of a Thousand Dolls, by Miriam Forster (2013)

Dragon Keeper, by Carole Wilkinson (2003)

Dragon Pearl, by Yoon Ha Lee (2019)

The Dragon's Tooth, by N.D. Wilson (2011)

Drift, by M.K. Hutchins (2014)

Dust Girl, by Sarah Zettel (2012)

East of the Sun, West of the Moon, by Jackie Morris (2013)

The Freedom Maze, by Delia Sherman (2011)

Gateway, by Sharon Shinn (2009)

The Galahad series, by Dom Testa, of which I've reviewed The Dark Zone (2011) and The Galahad Legacy (2012)

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, by Yasutaka Tsutsui (1967, 2011 English translation by David Karashima)

Hammer of Witches, by Shana Mlawski (2013)

Hannah's Winter, by Kierin Meehan (2001, 2009 in the US)

The Heavenward Path, by Kara Dalkey (1998)

House of the Star, by Caitlin Brennan (2010)

I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade, by Diane Lee Wilson (1998)

The Immortal Fire (Chronus Chronicles) by Anne Ursu (2009)

Little Sister, by Kara Dalkey (1996)

The Lost Hero, by Rick Riordan (2010)

The Jaguar Stones series: Middleworld (2010), The End of the World Club (2010), The River of No Return, and The Lost City (2015) by J. & P. Voelkel

The Order of Odd Fish, by James Kennedy (2008)

The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away, by Ronald L. Smith (2019)

Parched, by Melanie Crowder (2013)

Race to the Sun, by Rebecca Roanhorse (2020)

The Red Pyramid, by Rick Riordan (2010)

Remembering Green, by Lesley Beake (2010)

The Ring of Solomon, by Jonathan Stroud (2010)
The Savage Fortress, by Sarwat Chadda (2012)

Sea of the Dead, by Julia Durango (2009)

The Silver Anklet, by Mahtab Narsimhan (2009)

The Snipesville Chronicles: Don't Know Where, Don't Know When (2007), A Different Day, a Different Destiny (2009)
Look Ahead, Look Back (2012), One Way or Another (2016) by Annette Laing

Sorrow's Knot, by Erin Bow (2013)

Summer of the Mariposas, by Guadalupe Garcia McCall (2012)

Spirit Hunters (2017), and The Island of Monsters, by Ellen Oh (2018)
Spirit's Princess, by Esther Friesner (2012)

Tall Story, by Candy Gourlay (2010 UK, 2011 US)

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, by Kwame Mbalia (2019)

Watersmeet, by Ellen Jensen Abbott (2009) and its sequel, The Centaur's Daughter (2011)

Zahrah the Windseeker, by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu (2005)

The Zodiac Legacy: Convergence, by Stan Lee, Stuart Moore, and Andie Tong (2015)

The Afterlife, by Gary Soto(2003)

Along The River, by Adeline Yen Mah (2010)

Ash, by Malinda Lo (2009)

A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts, by Ying Chang Compestine (2009)

Black Dog, by Rachel Neumeier (2013)

Black Powder, by Staton Rabin (2005)

Bleeding Violet, by Dia Reeves (2010)

The Blending Time, by Michael Kinch (2010)

Bone and Jewel Creatures, by Elizabeth Bear (2010)

The Broken Lands, by Kate Milford (2012)

Chainbreaker, by Tara Sim (2018)

The Demon's Surrender, by Sarah Rees Brennan (2011)

Diverse Energies, edited by Tobias S. Buckell and Joe Monti (2012)

Dragons of Darkness, by Antonia Michaelis (2010)

The Drowned Cities, by Paolo Bacigalupi (2012)

Echo, by Alicia Brewster (2013)

The Empty Kingdom, by Elizabeth Wein (2008)

Feral Nights, by Cynthia Leitich Smith (2013)

Future Shock, by Elizabeth Briggs (2016)

Gateway, by Sharon Shinn (2009)

The Girl from Everywhere, by Heidi Heilig (2016)

Honor Among Thieves, by Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre (2018)

Huntress, by Malinda Lo (2011)

The Immortal Rules, by Julie Kagawa (2012)

Libyrinth, by Pearl North (2009)

The Living, by Matt de la Peña (2013)

The Lost Girl, by Sangu Mandanna (2012)

Luminous, by Dawn Metcalf (2011)

Magic Under Glass, by Jaclyn Dolamore (2010)

Magic Under Stone, by Jaclyn Dolamore (2012)

Manifest, by Artist Arthur (2010)

Misfit, by Jon Skovron (2011)

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, by Nahoko Uehashi (2008)

The Opposite of Always, by Justin Reynolds (2019)

Orleans, by Sherri L. Smith (2013)

The Other Side of Dark, by Sarah Smith (2010)

Passenger (2016), and Wayfarer (2017), by Alexandra Bracken

Rebel Seoul, by Axie Oh (2017)

Seven Stitches, by Ruth Tenzer Feldman (2017)

Shadow of the Fox, by Julie Kagawa (2018)

Shadowboxer, by Tricia Sullivan (2014)

Shadows on the Moon, by Zoe Marriott (2012)

Shipbreaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi (2010)

Sorrow's Knot, by Erin Bow (2013)

Soul Enchilada, by David Macinnis Gill (2009)

Spindle, by E.K. Johnston (2016)

Stranger, by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith (2014)

The Summer Prince, by Alaya Dawn Johnson (2013)

A Thousand Nights, by E.K. Johnston (2015)

Tiger Moon, by Antonia Michaelis (2008 US edition)

Toads and Diamonds, by Heather Tomlinson (2010)

The Tomorrow Code, by Brian Falkner (2008 US edition)

Transcendence, by C.J. Omololu (2012)

The Way We Fall, by Megan Crewe (2012)

What Goes Up, by Katie Kennedy (2017)

A Wish After Midnight, by Zetta Elliott (2008)

Wolf Mark, by Joseph Bruchac (2011)

Published as adult books, but good cross-overs for YA readers (6)

Alice Payne Arrives, by Kate Heartfield (2018)

The Black God's Drums, by P. Djèli Clark (2018)

Cold Magic, by Kate Elliott (2010)

The Indigo Pheasant, by Daniel Rabuzzi (2012)

Kindred, by Octavia Butler (1979)

Norse Code, by Greg van Eekhout (2009)

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Reviews of Multicultural Speculative Fiction for kids and teens

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Here are my reviews of fantasy and science fiction books (266 at the moment) for kids/teenagers featuring central characters of diverse cultures and ethnicities. I've organized them alphabetically within age groups. (if you see an obvious book missing from 2014-2019, it's probably because I wrote about it for the B and N Kids blog, RIP, and someday I'll get around to reviewing it again for my own blog!)

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Race and the Imagination in Children's Books

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NOTE: This post contains spoilers for the HBO TV series Game of Thrones, as well as George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels.

--

Hello, everyone! Long time no blog! #31DaysIBPOC brought me back -- thanks, Dr. Kim Parker & Tricia Ebarvia, for the invitation!

My last post was on March 31, 2016. Life has been a whirlwind since then. Last year, I made tenure at Penn, and was promoted to Associate Professor of Education.

My book, The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to The Hunger Games, will be officially released from NYU Press next Tuesday (May 21!). The seeds of my book can be found in my earliest posts here, "The Imagination Gap" and "Why Is Rue a Little Black Girl?"

My graduate students and I still maintain our booklists over on @HealingFictions, and we hope to (finally) launch our website later this year.

And the most popular show on television, Game of Thrones, took a sudden nosedive this spring. It's on track to finish tomorrow with one of the most controversial finale episodes in recent memory.

There are many people who are currently debating the ultimate fate of one of the protagonists, Daenerys Targaryen, a dragonriding exiled queen from the deposed ruling family. I'm among them.

But this post is not about Daenerys.

This post is about Missandei.

*

I said:
Now will the poets sing,-
Their cries go thundering
Like blood and tears
Into the nation's ears,
Like lightning dart
Into the nation's heart.

*

The HBO television series Game of Thrones is based on a series of novels by fantasy author George R.R. Martin, collectively titled A Song of Ice and Fire.

In the novels, Missandei of Naath is a ten-year-old girl from the Summer Isles. She is described as having "a flat face, dusky skin, and eyes like molten gold." She and her brothers were captured by slave traders when she was a young child. Her brothers were pressed into service with the Unsullied, a famed enslaved army, noted for being castrated in their youth.

While racial and ethnic characteristics in Martin's stories do not always coincide with our own (after all, Dany in the books has "purple eyes"), the show's casting of mixed-race British actress Nathalie Emmanuel seems to indicate that Missandei on the show can be read as a character of color in our world.

Specifically, a Black character.

*

In the YA literary world, there has been much talk recently about whether race in fantasy is analogous to race in the real world, and if so, what to do when books feature racist characterizations, worldbuilding, plots, themes or settings.

I'm not here to rehash those conversations. Yet.

I am here to pay my respects to Missandei.

*

Remembering their sharp and pretty
Tunes for Sacco and Vanzetti,
I said:
Here too's a cause divinely spun
For those whose eyes are on the sun,
Here in epitome
Is all disgrace
And epic wrong,
Like wine to brace
The minstrel heart, and blare it to song...

*

Four observations follow. Perhaps more, after the show and the academic year are (blessedly) done, and I have more time.

But for now, I offer just these four.

1. In other people's fantasies, we are rarely allowed to be children. The decision to cast an adult is an example of Black girl adultification, something that scholar Stephanie Toliver has noted in her recent work on Rue in the The Hunger Games. That takes nothing away from Nathalie Emmanuel's incredible performance. After all, Judy Garland's young Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz was restoried into Stephanie Mills' young adult Dorothy in The Wiz on Broadway, and eventually transformed into Diana Ross' grown-up Dorothy in the musical film of the same name.

Adaptation is an act of interpretation. The fact that showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss read about little Missandei, then chose to double her age changes the character from the novels. While other characters have changed, Missandei's literal adultification is notable.

What was it about little Missandei on the page that made Benioff and Weiss choose to make her an adult on the screen, instead of a little Black girl? Was it to provide Dany with a (Black) best friend? Why, then, did the screenwriters not evolve the story accordingly?

2. In other people's fantasies, we are rarely allowed to exist for ourselves. We exist only to be of service to others. Missandei was the "Black best friend" chararacter -- sort of. When we meet her in the novels and on the show, she is the enslaved translator for Kraznys, one of the Good Masters of Astapor. Dany uses her dragons to sack the city, then frees Missandei. Missandei chooses to remain with Dany as her handmaiden, translator and confidante.

There were many other narrative choices that could have been made by the writers.

They could have had Dany offer Missandei unconditional freedom.

They could have had Missandei return to Naath for a time -- opening space in the narrative for her to exist for herself, on her own terms -- and showing us another culture before her story rejoined Dany's.

There are a thousand other possibilities. The problem is the imagination gap. Writers can't imagine that characters like Missandei might have plausible motivations beyond service, obedience, and knowing one's place.

Although Missandei's age changed from A Song of Ice and Fire to Game of Thrones, her storyline did not evolve accordingly. In the books, she is emerging as a strategic mastermind (yes, at 10 or 11 years old! I know!). On the show, little of that complexity is apparent.

Although Missandei is free, her story remains tied to Daenerys'.

She is the Black best friend...

Sort of.

3. In other people's fantasies, we are assumed to be sexual objects. We are also seen as incapable of the full range of human emotions, including love. The last glimpse we've had of Missandei in the books is when she aided Ser Barristan in taking control of the court of Meereen after Daenerys flew off on her dragon.

On the show, Missandei, as an adultified Black girl character, was sexualized. Of course.

Sexual stereotypes about Black girls, women, and femmes abound in our culture. I will not rehash them here. But the nature of the comments about Missandei and her Unsullied lover, Grey Worm, displayed peculiar anxieties around sex, race, love, and desire.

Martin's books were noted for being explicit long before they were adapted for the small screen, and Game of Thrones became notable for its use of "sexposition." But on a show that seemed to enjoy making even the most libertine viewers wince, Missandei and Grey Worm were one of its healthiest couples.

That didn't stop fans from joking about Grey Worm's genitalia, though.

As with many such characters, the range of human emotion afforded to Missandei and Grey Worm is limited. They love Daenerys because she freed them from enslavement. They are clearly in love with each other. However, we don't see Missandei cultivate any other close friendships. Grey Worm's bond with his Unsullied brothers is meant to be assumed, but he is their general, and is giving them orders.

Missandei's and Grey Worm's origin stories -- enslaved as young children -- mean that they do not have access to love from their families and communities. Although it can be argued that being part of Dany's retinue could be consider an alternate sort of family, that's not quite the same thing on a show where one's House -- quite literally, genetically related family-- means everything.

We do not hear either character express much desire to go home to Naath and the Summer Isles until Season 8. This desire was sparked by the racist treatment they experience at the hands of the Northern subjects of House Stark (the region and House we the viewers are supposed to be rooting for, mind),

It is yet unclear whether Game of Thrones understands that this, too, is tragedy.

4. We always die in other people's fantasies. (Other people seem to fantasize about Black death. Endlessly. Often needlessly.)
In the end, Missandei died.

(The Black girl always dies.)

Here's what I wrote about that in The Dark Fantastic...

In her introduction to her masterpiece,In the Wake: On Blackness and Being, Christina Sharpe asks:

What does it mean to defend the dead? To tend to the Black dead and dying, to tend to the Black person, to Black people, always living in the push toward our death...

It means work. It is work: hard emotional, physical, and intellectual work that demands vigilant attendance to the needs of the dying, to each their way, and also to the needs of the living.

This question is not limited to humans who have been labeled as Black in the past and present, both quick and dead, but extends to Black characters, and to the very idea of Blackness itself. As the title of Sharpe's book suggests, this is an ontological question that every Black child, woman, and man is confronted with throughout the course of a lifetime. It is a question that demands an answer.

The wake, according to Sharpe, is the path behind a ship, keeping watch with the dead, coming to consciousness, all at once. Throughout The Dark Fantastic, we have witnessed Black girl characters caught in the wake within the storied realms of the collective imagination...

I am by no means the only one who has observed the myriad ways that the fantastic, the speculative, and the collective imagination have rendered Black presence impossible and Black nonexistence compulsory. Most Black fans and other fans of color have thought quite a bit about our precarious state even within realms of supposedly infinite possibilities.

During a Twitter chat, an observer by the handle @relicUA noted that " I think poor nonwhite people are in a state of quantum super-position, such that they only exist when the narrative requires." Indeed, young Black women and girls exist in a state of quantum superposition in the fantastic. They cannot exist, and yet, they must: when it comes to the fantastic, Schrödinger's cat is a young Black girl...

(Schrödinger's cat is Missandei.)
In the wake of these shadows and echoes, it seems vital to examine the ways that Black writers, fans, and audiences are narrating the self into existence in the face of erasure-indeed, have always had to read ourselves into fantastic canons that excluded us. The traditional fantastic has historically assumed a White audience, and, in turn, those endarkened and Othered have had to read those stories to understand the cartographies of the imagination. In contrast to histories of fandom and audience that portray audiences for the speculative and the fantastic as predominantly White, new work from scholars like Rebecca Wanzo and André Carrington sheds light on the ways that Black fans and audiences have always interpreted fantastic media that does not always imagine us as part of the audience-a view that I share.

It is my hope that future scholars and researchers will extend Sharpe's call for wake work into the dark fantastic.

(Missandei, like us, lives in the wake.)
*

Surely, I said,
Now will the poets sing.
But they have raised no cry.
I wonder why.

--Countee Cullen, " Scottsboro, Too, Is Worth Its Song," 1934.

*

(Let others sing dirges for their fair dragon queen!
Missandei, too, is worth her song.)
(2019.)

This blog post is part of the #31DaysIBPOC Blog Challenge, a month-long movement to feature the voices of Indigenous and teachers of color as writers and scholars.
Please CLICK HERE to read yesterday's blog post by Dr. Debbie Reese titled "The I in #31DaysIBPOC is for Indigenous." (and be sure to check out the link at the end of each post to catch upon the rest of the blog circle).
You can read all of the blog posts this month here.

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NOTE: This post contains spoilers for the HBO TV series Game of Thrones, as well as George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels. -- Hello, everyone! Long time no blog! #31DaysIBPOC brought me back -- thanks, Dr. Kim Parker & Tricia Ebarvia, for the invitation!

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POC Protagonists in Fantasy & Science Fiction

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POC Protagonists in Fantasy & Science Fiction

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This list is basically a compilation of books I've read plus books I'm meaning to read at some point in the future. If you have a suggestion feel free to post in the comments section (and if you want even more books be sure to look at the comments!) Or if you've happened to come across any other articles, I would be happy to add them to the resources list.

Also, check the tag "Diversiverse" for books by authors of color.

I have not read all the titles on these lists. The ones I've reviewed are linked to.
Speculative Fiction with Asian Protagonists

Fantasy

by Fonda Lee is a fantasy novel with an East Asian culture and technology equivalent to the mid 1900's. Also, martial arts and mafia. #ownvoices

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang is a dark epic fantasy novel inspired by the Sino-Japanese War. #ownvoices

The Red Threads of Fortune by JY Yang is a queer, fantasy novella. #ownvoices

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho is a fantasy of manners set in Regency-era England. The female lead is Indian and mixed race. The sequel, The True Queen, follows a Malaysian witch and her sister. #ownvoices

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri is an epic fantasy novel inspired by Mughal India. #ownvoices

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit is a fantasy story which is set in Japan. After being a huge hit there, it has now been translated into English. #ownvoices

In the Vanishers' Palace by Aliette de Bodard is a f/f retelling of "The Beauty and the Beast" with a setting inspired by Vietnam. #ownvoices

The House of Shattered Wings by Aliette de Bodard is set among the magical ruins of Paris. One of the three POV characters is a Vietnamese man. #ownvoices

The Devouers by Indra Das is a literary fantasy novel about monstrous shapeshifters in India. #ownvoices

Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn is a light-hearted story about two Asian American superheroines. #ownvoices

The Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a retelling of the Mahabharat, focusing on Panchaali. #ownvoices

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo is a historical fantasy set in 1800s Malaya. #ownvoices

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo is a historical fantasy set in early 1900s Malaya. #ownvoices

Rupert Wong Cannibal Chef by Cassandra Khaw follows a Malaysian chef who cooks for cannibals and supernatural beings. #ownvoices

The Archer Who Shot Down Suns by Benjanun Sriduangkaew is a short story anthology of Chinese mythology retellings. #ownvoices

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu is an epic fantasy based on Chinese history. #ownvoices

The Goddess Chronicle by Natsuo Kirino is a retelling of Japanese mythology. #ownvoices

Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone has an Pacific Islander transwoman priestess and black teenage girl as its protagonists.

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett is a about a high ranking intelligence officer who is investigating the death of a historian. She has brown skin and is from a country that seems to be based of India. Also look at the sequel, City of Blades.

Range of Ghosts by Elizabeth Bear is the first in an epic fantasy series based around the fall of the Mongol empire. Both protagonists come from central Asian cultures.

Set in the same world, The Stone in the Skull by Elizabeth Bear takes place in a setting inspired by the Indian subcontinent.

The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson is a truly excellent novella in a setting based on Korea.

Daughter of the Sword by Steve Bein is an urban fantasy set in Tokyo.

Snake Agent by Liz Williams is an urban fantasy set in Singapore.

The Initiate Brother by Sean Russell is a fantasy novel in a culture based on Japan and China.

Fudoki by Kij Johnson is a fantasy set in ancient Japan.

Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay is a historical fantasy inspired by Tang dynasty China. There's also River of Stars, which is set in the same world but later in time and inspired by the Song dynasty.

When Fox is a Thousand by Larissa Lai is a literary fantasy novel with three different timelines drawing on Chinese mythology.

YA Fantasy

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan is a second world fantasy novel about a girl taken to be a concubine to the king of the demons. #ownvoices

Dragon Sword and Wind Child by Noriko Ogiwara is YA second world fantasy inspired by Japanese mythology. It was originally written in Japanese, but there is a translation available. #ownvoices

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao is a retelling of the backstory of the Evil Queen from "Snow White." #ownvoices

The Epic Crush of Genie Lo by F.C. Lee is a female-led YA book involving Chinese mythology in the modern world. #ownvoices

Empress of All Seasons by Emiko Jean is a Japanese influenced fantasy novel about a girl competing to become Empress. #ownvoices

by Traci Chee is a YA fantasy adventure in a world where reading is magic. #ownvoices

The Girl King by Mimi Yu is about two sisters competing for the throne of a country with East Asian cultural influences. #ownvoices

Serpentine by Cindy Pon is a YA fantasy story about a girl who discovers she's part demon. #ownvoices

Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon is a YA fantasy in an Chinese type setting with a female lead. #ownvoices

by Malinda Lo has two female leads and is in a setting based on China. #ownvoices

A Darkly Beating Heart by Lindsay Smith is a paranormal time travel story about a bisexual Japanese-American girl in Japan.

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore is a magical realism story where one of the two protagonists is a transboy of Pakistani descent.

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale is a fairy tale retelling in a setting based on Mongolia.

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi is a YA fantasy inspired by Hindu mythology.

Team Human by Sarah Rees Brennan and Justine Larbalestier is a YA story that satirizes vampires. The heroine is Chinese-American.

Science Fiction

An Excess Male by Maggie Shen King is a dystopian novel about China's One Child Policy. #ownvoices

Aliette de Bodard, On a Red Station Drifting is a science fiction set on a space station with Vietnamese influences. #ownvoices

The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard is a gender-flipped Sherlock Holmes retelling in space. The setting has Vietnamese influences. #ownvoices

Invisible Planets is an anthology of translated Chinese science fiction short stories. #ownvoices

China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh is a science fiction/dystopian story with a Chinese American man as the protagonist.

Company Town by Madeline Ashby is a science fiction thriller starring a mixed race Korean woman who works as a bodyguard.

by Genevieve Valentine is a near future thriller with a Korean hero.

The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin is a translated Chinese science fiction novel which I think has aliens.

YA Science Fiction

Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee is a superhero story with female protagonist who's Chinese and Vietnamese. #ownvoices

Rebel Seoul by Axie Oh is a novel set in Korea with teenagers piloting giant mechas. #ownvoices

A Spark of White Fire by Sangu Mandanna is a YA space fantasy novel that is inspired by Indian mythology. #ownvoices

The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna is a YA science fiction (dystopia?) with an Indian girl as the lead. #ownvoices

by Lydia Kang is a far-future science fiction story about a girl of Korean descent stranded on a dying bioship. #ownvoices

The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie has a Chinese heroine and genetically engineered sea monsters.

Extras by Scott Westerfeld is a sequel to his Uglies series. It is set in Japan.

Partials by Dan Wells is a YA dystopia. The main character is an Indian girl living in a small human settlement in the remains of New York City.

Resources:

Speculative Fiction with Black Protagonists

Fantasy:

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin is a apocalyptic fantasy novel with imaginative world building and a black woman as the lead. #ownvoices

The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin is the second book in the series but can be read independently and has a black woman as the protagonist. #ownvoices

Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord is a fantastical story based off a Senegalese folktale. #ownvoices

by Na'amen Gobert Tilahun is an urban fantasy novel where both the male and female protagonists are black. #ownvoices

The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark is a fantasy steampunk novel set in New Orleans. #ownvoices

by Nicky Drayden is a fantastical story with a setting that may be an alternate-world South Africa. #ownvoices

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson is a fantasy dystopian set in Canada with a Jamaican woman as the lead. #ownvoices

Will Do Magic for Small Change by Andrea Hairston is a novel that mixes science fiction and fantasy (aliens and ghosts!) to tell the story of an alien who arrived in West Africa and a black teenage girl in 1980's Philadelphia. #ownvoices

The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson is a fantasy novella in a setting based on ancient Africa. #ownvoices

The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez is about a black lesbian vampire. #ownvoices

Wheel of the Infinite by Martha Wells is a stand alone second-world fantasy novel.

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman could roughly be refereed to as urban fantasy. The major characters are black, and the story deals with West African mythology.

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone is about a necromancer who's been hired to revive the dead god of a city that depends on him. She also has to seek out the cause of his death. The main character is black.

Two of the four leads of London Falling by Paul Cornell are black. It's a really awesome urban fantasy/detective story set in London. I have a review of the sequel.

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch is a police procedural urban fantasy set in London with a mixed race narrator.

by Lauren Beuke is an urban fantasy mystery set in South Africa with a black heroine.

Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone has a Pacific Islander trans woman priestess and a black teenage girl as its protagonists.

The Innkeeper's Song by Peter Beagle is a very odd fantasy book that rotates between the POV of several principal characters, one of whom is a black woman.

The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin is an epic fantasy based on ancient Egypt.

YA Fantasy:

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi is an epic fantasy novel set in a fantasy Africa. #ownvoices

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor is a YA (or more likely middle grade) fantasy about an American-Nigerian albino girl who discovers that she has magical powers. It's set in Nigeria. #ownvoices

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older is an urban fantasy set in Brooklyn about a Puerto Rican girl of African descent. #ownvoices

by Dhonielle Clayton is a young adult fantasy dealing with body image. #ownvoices

Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen is a fantasy Western about a biracial (black and Native American), bisexual, transgender sixteen-year-old who kills monsters.

Science Fiction:

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon is a science fiction novel set aboard a generation ship who's social structure resembles the Antebellum South. #ownvoices

by Octavia Butler is about an African American woman who's kidnapped by aliens after nuclear bombs destroy the earth. #ownvoices

by Octavia Butler is about people with X-Men sort of powers. Anwanyu, the protagonist, is an immortal African woman. Octavia Butler has a lot more speculative fiction novels with black women as protagonists, so if neither of these appeal you should check the others out. #ownvoices

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler is a dystopian novel following teenage Lauren during the chaotic 2030's. #ownvoices

The Prey of Gods by Nicky Drayden is a science fiction novel set in future South Africa. One of the protagonists is a Zulu demi-goddess. #ownvoices

by Tenea D. Johnson is a queer black post-apocalyptic science fiction novel with a touch of fantasy. #ownvoices

by Tade Thompson is a science fiction story with aliens and psychics in a future version of Nigeria. #ownvoices

Buffalo Soldier by Maurice Broaddus is a steampunk novel with a Jamaican protagonist. #ownvoices

by Nnedi Okorafor is about aliens who make first contact with humans in Nigeria. #ownvoices

The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor is about a genetically engineered woman who brings about the end of the world. #ownvoices

Planetfall by Emma Newman is set in a human colony on an alien planet. The narrator is either black or biracial.

Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson is a dystopian with fantastical elements set in Canada with a Jamaican woman as the lead. #ownvoices

Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson is a dark science fiction story set on a Caribbean colonized planet. #ownvoices

False Hearts by Laura Lam is a science fiction thriller set in a future San Francisco. The protagonists are black and mixed race (also former conjoined twins who escaped a cult).

Clementine by Cherie Priest is a book in her Clockwork Century steampunk series with one of the two leads being a black man, Captain Croggon Beauregard Hainey, a pirate captain.

Earthrise by M.C.A. Hogarth is a space opera with a black woman as the lead.

The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad by Minister Faust is a hard to classify book brimming with pop culture references.

YA Science Fiction:

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland is an alternate history zombie novel. #ownvoices

by Sherri L. Smith is yet another YA dystopia. It's darker than normal for the genre, and features a society divided by blood types and an African American girl as the protagonist. #ownvoices

by Nnedi Okorafor is a novella about a girl traveling through space to university. #ownvoices

On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis is about a mixed race autistic girl during the apocalypse.

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer is a science fiction novel set in future Zimbabwe.

The True Meaning of Smek Day by Adam Rex is a hilarious YA or middle grade book about an alien invasion. The main character is half black and journeying across America with an alien hitchhiker to try and find her mother.

Tankborn by Karen Sandler is a YA dystopian novel with a female lead.

Resources:

Speculative Fiction with Latino or Latina Protagonist

California Bones by Greg van Eekhout is an urban fantasy. The lead is Hispanic. #ownvoices

Labyrinth Lost Zoraida Córdova is a YA fantasy novel about a Latina girl who's a bruja and accidentally sends her entire family to another world. The book also contains a bisexual love triangle. #ownvoices

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a vampire story set in Mexico City. #ownvoices

Prime Meridian by Silvia Moreno-Garcia follows a woman in near-future Mexico City who wants to go to Mars. #ownvoices

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore is a magical realism story where one of the two protagonists is a Latina girl.

As I Descended by Robin Talley is a queer, paranormal YA retelling of Macbeth. The book's version of Macbeth is a high achieving Latina student.

Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey is about a lesbian or bisexual Latina girl with special powers facing the army and gangs which control her town.

The House of the Scorpion Nancy Farmer is a YA dystopian set in a drug kingdom located between Mexico and the United States. The main character is a Hispanic clone.

The Young Wizard series by Diane Duane (starts with So You Want to Be a Wizard) are YA books on the boundary between science fiction and fantasy. The male lead, Kit, is Hispanic. Later on in the series, his sister becomes an important character as well.

Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older is YA urban fantasy with a Puerto Rican heroine in New York City. #ownvoices

by Genevieve Valentine is a near future thriller where the heroine comes from a new country in the Amazon rain forest. #ownvoices

Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis is a YA fantasy where the male lead is Hispanic.

Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias is a science fiction novel where immigrants in the United States are made to get a bio metric tattoo. #ownvoices

Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald is a science fiction novel set on the moon that follows a Brazilian family.

Resources:

Speculative Fiction with Middle Eastern Protagonists

Fantasy:

The Ninety-Ninth Bride by Catherine Faris King is a retelling of the frame story of A Thousand and One Nights. #ownvoices

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty is a historical fantasy novel with djinn. The heroine is Egyptian.

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed is an epic fantasy in a setting based on the Middle East and North Africa. #ownvoices

by Sami Shah is an urban fantasy novel set in Pakistan. #ownvoices

Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn by Dantelle Ackley-McPail and Day Al-Mohamed is a steampunk retelling of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves." #ownvoices

The Bloodprint by Ausma Zehanat Khan is an epic fantasy novel with Middle Eastern cultural influences. #ownvoices

The Steel Seraglio by Linda, Louise and Mike Carey is a story about a group of women who form their own community.

A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston is a fairy tale like fantasy novel influenced by The Thousand and One Nights.

The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay is a historical fantasy set on the divided Iberian peninsula. As such, there are a number of Muslim characters and characters of Middle Eastern descent, Ammar ibn Khairan being the main one.

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker is the story of two fantastical immigrants to America around 1900. It's set primarily among Jewish and Syrian immigrants..

The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate by Ted Chiang is a time travel story set in medieval Baghdad.

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh is a YA retelling of the Arabian Nights stories.

Science Fiction:

Fool's War by Sarah Zettel is a space opera dealing with Artificial Intelligence. The main character Al-Shei, the chief engineer and owner of the spaceship, and her cousin Resit, ship's lawyer, are both Turkish Muslim women.

by Kameron Hurley is a military themed science fiction set on an Islamic planet. The major characters are likely Middle Eastern or North African in heritage - almost all of them have brown or black skin.

Resources:

Speculative Fiction with Native American Protagonists

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse is an adult urban fantasy/post-apocalyptic novel with a Najvo protagonist. #ownvoices

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline is a YA dystopian novel where the government is murdering Native people for their bone marrow. #ownvoices

Killer of Enemies by Joseph Bruchac is a YA dystopian with fantasy elements about an Apache girl who kills monsters. #ownvoices

Two Serpents Rise is in a city that's similar to Aztec culture, and the protagonist is of that background.

Servant of the Otherworld by Aliette de Bodard is a fantasy mystery set in the Aztec Empire.

Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen is a fantasy Western about a black Native American, bisexual, trans gender sixteen year old who kills monsters.

Tremontaine is a story that's available through Serial Box, which creates stories that have a format akin to television (one "episode" is released a week). One of the main cast members comes from a Mesoamerican inspired culture.

The Way of Thorn and Thunder by Daniel Heath Justice is the beginning to a queer Amerindian epic fantasy series by a Cherokee author.

The Jaguar Princess by Clare Bell is a fantasy story set in the Aztec Empire.

Six Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente is novella retelling the fairy tale Snow White with a mixed race Crow girl as the lead.

Bear Daughter by Judith Berman is set in a fantasy world based on the Pacific Northwest before colonization. Has issues with a white washed cover.

Time Trap by Micah Caida sounds like it's either science fiction or fantasy.It's definitely YA.

Science Fiction:
by Elizabeth Bear is a dystopian, hard science fiction story with a cyborg Native American woman as the lead.

Resources:

Speculative Fiction with Other POC Protagonists

by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith is a YA post-apocalyptic story that has five protagonists of various different races including black, Hispanic, and Japanese.

by Max Brooks is told through the form of interviews with a multicultural cast from all over the world.

Magic or Madness by Justine Larbalestier is a YA urban fantasy with a mixed race Aboriginal Australian girl as its lead.

The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina is a YA dystopian with a lead of Aboriginal Australian descent. #ownvoices

Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang has a superpowered heroine who's described as brown and looking sort of Middle Eastern.

The protagonist of A Wizard of Earthseas is described as having red skin and many of the other characters have brown or black skin.

The characters of The Mirror Empire don't match up to any real world cultures or ethnicities, but most are described as nonwhite.

The male protagonist of Perdido Street Station by China Miéville is described as having dark skin. The book's sort of a "grimdark," other world, urban fantasy. I had some trouble with the treatment of female characters in this one.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin is a secondary world story about a young woman who's named an heir to the ruler of the world. Yeine, the narrator and protagonist, is described as having brown skin.

by Intisar Khanani is a fantasy novella. Many of the characters are dark skinned and the setting is non-European. If I remember correctly, the heroine was mixed race with brown skin.

Sandry's Book by Tamora Pierce (YA fantasy, multicultural cast)

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir is a YA fantasy that I've heard qualifies. I don't know much about it besides that it's set in a desert city roughly based on the Roman Empire.

Because so many of the authors who get talked about the most are white, here's a list of books with some more diverse authors. I'm including both books I've read and books I haven't read.
Fantasy and Science Fiction Books by POC Authors

Adeyemi, Tomi - Children of Blood and Bone (YA fantasy)

Ahmed, Saladin - Throne of the Crescent Moon (sword and sorcery, Middle Eastern leads)

Al-Mohamed, Day (with Danielle Ackley-McPhail) - and the Clockwork Djin (steampunk fairy tale)

Blake, Kendare - Anna Dressed in Blood (paranormal, ghosts, YA)

Broaddus, Maurice - The Voices of Martyrs (short stories), Buffalo Soldier (steampunk)

Bruchac, Joseph - Killer of Enemies (YA dystopia, Apache heroine)

Chee, Traci. (YA fantasy)

Chiang, Ted - Stories of Your Life and Others (short stories)

Clarke, P. Djèlí - The Black God's Drums (fantasy, steampunk)

Clayton, Dhonielle - (YA fantasy)

Córdova, Zoraida - Labyrinth Lost (YA urban fantasy/portal fantasy)

Dao, Julie C. - Forest of a Thousand Lanterns (YA second world fantasy, fairy tale retelling)

Das, Indra - The Devourers (literary fantasy, shapeshifters)

Daud, Somaiya - young adult, space fantasy)

de Bodard, Aliette - Servant of the Otherworld (fantasy mystery, Aztec setting), On a Red Station Drifting (space opera, Vietnamese influences), The House of Shattered Wings (fantasy, post-apocalyptic, urban), In the Vanishers' Palace (fairy tale retelling), The Tea Master and the Detective (science fiction, Sherlock Holmes)

Dimaline, Cherie - The Marrow Thieves (YA dystopia)

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee - The Palace of Illusions (mythology)

Divya, S.B. - (sci-fi novella)

Drayden, Nicky. The Prey of Gods (science fiction),(fantasy)

Dyer, Thoraiya - Crossroads of Canopy (fantasy)

Ee, Susan - (YA dystopia/fantasy)

Gomez, Jewel L. - The Gilda Stories (lesbian vampire)

Hairston, Andrea. Will Do Magic for Small Change (fantasy, science fiction)

He, Joan. Descendant of the Crane (YA fantasy)

Heilig, Heidi. The Girl from Everywhere (YA fantasy)

Ireland, Justina - Dread Nation (YA zombies)

Ishiguro, Kazuo - Never Let Me Go (science fiction)

Jean, Emiko. - The Empress of All Seasons (YA fantasy)

Jemisin, N.K. - The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (high fantasy), The Fifth Season (apocalyptic fantasy), The Killing Moon (epic fantasy based on ancient Egypt)

Josey, Imani. The Blazing Star (YA fantasy)

Kang, Lydia. (YA science fiction)

Khan, Ausma Zehanat - The Bloodprint (epic fantasy)

Khaw, Cassandra - Rupert Wong Cannibal Chef (urban fantasy)

King, Catherine Faris - The Ninety-Ninth Bride (YA fantasy, retelling)

King, Joe (with Mark Gelineau) - Echos of the Ascended (fantasy novella series). I've read Faith and Moonlight.

King, Maggie Shen - An Excess Male (dystopia)

Kirino, Natsuo - The Goddess Chronicles (mythology retelling)

Kuang, R.F. The Poppy War (epic fantasy)

Kuhn, Sarah. Heroine Complex (superheros)

Kwaymullina, Ambelin - The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf (YA fantasy/dystopian)

Lee, C.B. - Not Your Sidekick (superheros, YA)

Lee, F.C. - The Epic Crush of Genie Lo (YA urban fantasy, mythology)

Lewis, L.D. A Ruin of Shadows (fantasy)

Lo, Malinda - (YA fantasy, Asian lesbian lead)

Lord, Karen - Redemption in Indigo (fantasy, fairy tale)

Lowachee, Karen - space opera/military science fiction)

Lu, Marie - (YA dystopia), The Young Elites (YA fantasy)

Machado, Carmen Maria - Her Body and Other Parties (short stories)

McLemore, Anna-Marie - When the Moon Was Ours (YA, magical realism)

Mehrotra, Rati - Markswoman (YA science fantasy)

Ng, Jeannette - Under the Pendulum Sun (historical fantasy, Gothic)

Ngan, Natasha - Girls of Paper and Fire (YA fantasy)

Ogiwara, Noriko - Dragon Sword and Wind Child (YA epic fantasy, Japanese influences)

Oh, Axie. Rebel Seoul (YA science fiction)

Okorafor, Nnedi - Akata Witch (YA/MG fantasy, Nigerian lead), (science fiction, aliens, Nigerian leads), (YA science fiction novella), The Book of Phoenix (science fiction)

Older, Daniel José - Shadowshaper (YA urban fantasy, Caribbean heroine)

Polk, C.L. - (fantasy)

Pon, Cindy - Silver Phoenix (YA fantasy, Chinese lead), Serpentine (YA fantasy)

Roanhorse, Rebecca - Trail of Lightning (urban fantasy, post-apocalyptic)

Saulter, Stephanie - (dystopia, social science fiction)

Shah, Sami - (urban fantasy)

Smith, Sherri L. - (YA dystopian, African American heroine)

Solomon, Rivers. An Unkindness of Ghosts (space opera),(serialized space opera)

Sriduangkaew, Benjanun - The Archer Who Shot Down Suns (short stories, Chinese mythology retellings)

Suri, Tasha. - Empire of Sand (epic fantasy)

Tahir, Sabaa - An Ember in the Ashes (YA fantasy)

Tilahun, Na'amen Gobert - (urban fantasy)

Uehashi, Nahoko - Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit (YA fantasy adventure)

Valentine, Genevieve - (science fiction)

Van Eekhout, Greg - California Bones (urban fantasy)

West, Michelle - (see Sagara, Michelle)

Wilson, Kai Ashante - The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps (fantasy)

Yu, Mimi. The Girl King (YA, fantasy)

Zhang, Kat - What's Left of Me (YA dystopian)

Justice, Daniel Heath. The Way of Thorn and Thunder (queer Native American epic fantasy)

Renee Ahdieh - The Wrath and the Dawn (YA retelling of the Arabian Nights)

Liu Cixin - The Three Body Problem (science fiction)

Wesley Chu - Time Salvager (science fiction, time travel)

Julie Kagawa - The Immortal Rules (YA vampires) and The Iron King (YA faeries)

Larissa Lai - When Fox is a Thousand (literary fantasy, Chinese mythology)

Sofia Samatar - A Stranger in Olondria (second world fantasy)

Nicole Givens Kurtz - Silenced (science fiction mystery, future)

Sabrina Vourvoulias - Ink (science fiction)

Minister Faust - The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad (science fiction/fantasy)

Ramez Naam - Nexus (science fiction, cyberpunk)

Roshani Chokshi - The Star-Touched Queen (YA, fantasy)

Louise Erdich - The Antelope Wife (magical realism)

Hiroshi Yamamoto - The Stories of Ibis (science fiction)

Jacqueline Koyanagi - Ascension (science fiction)

Resources

Other Resources:
On the writing side of things, this tumblr post has a whole load of interesting links.

Last update: October 13th, 2018.

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POC Protagonists in Fantasy and Science Fiction

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This list is basically a compilation of books I've read plus books I'm meaning to read at some point in the future. If you have a suggestion feel free to post in the comments section (and if you want even more books be sure to look at the comments!)

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Asian Pacific American Center (Smithsonian)

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Welcome to BookDragon, filled with titles for the multi-culti reader. BookDragon is a new media initiative of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC), and serves as a forum for those interested in learning more about the Asian Pacific American experience through literature.

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Cup of Jo has been running for 13 years (!) so we've decided that every week, we'll be highlighting one of the most popular posts from the past. Here's one that's more important than ever, originally published on October 3, 2016...
As a mother, I've always wanted my children be kind to everyone and accept people without biases or stereotypes. I figured that by being "colorblind," or not calling attention to race, I was showing them that everyone was equal. But then I read a Washington Post article that explained that a colorblind approach may actually do more harm than good. To further educate myself, I spoke to Lori Taliaferro Riddick and Sachi Feris from the fantastic site Raising Race-Conscious Children, and here's what they told me...

Lori identifies as black/biracial/multi-racial, and Sachi is a white Jewish woman of Russian, Polish, Lebanese, Syrian and Cuban descent. They each have two children.
ON NAMING RACE
Sachi: Parents can be so nervous of making a mistake that they avoid conversations about race. They make an assumption that the topic hasn't come up for their kids yet. But that's not true. It's easier to imagine that kids aren't seeing things we aren't comfortable with, versus that they're observing the world around them with a higher level of accuracy than we notice or want them to.

When reading a children's book, you might say, "I see a picture here and it has three little girls and one has pale skin, and we call that white, and we're white, too, and there's another little girl with brown skin." We're just saying the words, just like we're saying the sky is blue. Ultimately, before you can teach more higher level critical thinking, you have have this language in your toolbox.

Lori: With very young children we often point out the colors of buses, fire trucks and grass, as we teach them about the world. We're naming all these things, but we're not talking about people's colors. In some ways, it's really odd that there's this whole description that we're not addressing. It teaches kids that race is not okay to talk about. When parents are silent, children make up their own stories as to why.

Sachi: Parents often ask which words they should use to describe skin tones. We advocate for using both types of words - actual skin tones (like "brown" or "peach") is more descriptive and more accurate to what we actually see; but I use the words "white" and "black" even though it is a social construct just to break it down for my children. If I don't use those words, it's harder to talk in a larger way about race in our society.

Lori: Some parents will say, "I don't want to mention that someone's black," and I say, "Black people aren't upset that they're black." I think it's important to dispel that idea.
ON STARTING A LARGER CONVERSATION ABOUT RACE
Sachi: As a white woman, I had never heard the term "white privilege" until I got to college. I don't want my children to learn at 18 that white privilege exists and is very real. I want them to understand that as children. It's hard for them to understand they're little people who can make a difference in the world and their immediate lives if they don't have the awareness to talk about it.

We don't expect any family to have their first conversation on race or racial justice when another tragic media story comes up about the police and a black person. That's not the place that anyone can start if they haven't been building vocabulary and comfort and confidence before then.

Black Lives Matter was a tangible and easily accessible place to engage a young person. I might say to my children: "We live in a world that's unfair. People are not treated the same all the time, and that has to do with how we look sometimes. People who are white don't have to worry about this, but people who are black do sometimes. We're treated differently based on our skin tone; we don't want the world to be like that, and it's important to us to stand up to this. We don't want to live in a world where people who are black aren't safe." The concept of fairness and unfairness is a very tangible thing for a three- or four-year-old!

I'm organizing a small gathering with some neighbors to make Black Lives Matter shirts with fabric markers, and window signs, in honor of Wear Out the Silence. For me, this is a concrete way to get my children in dismantling white privilege in however so small a way.
ON CHILDREN'S BOOKS
Sachi: With books about race, there are two types: a diverse cast of characters that's sort of the point of the book [like Everywhere Babies], and our goal there is to name race. And then there are books that talk directly - Let's Talk about Race by Julius Lester or The Colors of Us by Karen Katz.

Lori: It's also important to have books that have characters of color and yet aren't about race - to normalize the idea that that's enough. [There was a great Slate post about this, too.] These stories of everyday people are worth telling. For example, Ezra Jack Keats books are wonderful. [Here are more children's books with characters of color.)

People Colors Crayons also allow students from different colors to represent themselves and others in their artwork in a way that traditional color schemes did not. They're useful in supporting students' exploration of race and color. Also having a diverse set of toys - both black and white dolls, for example.
ON EVERYDAY CONVERSATIONS
Sachi: My daughter knows she's white. I'm not sure when I knew I was white, not when I was four. It's not like it's this rigorous thing where you're doing something wrong if you don't talk about race every day, but the more experience I've gained as a parent, the more of a daily experience it is for me. If I walk by the basketball court by my house and see that most of the kids playing that day are brown-skinned boys, if I don't break it down and say some days we see a more interracial group and sometimes we see girls playing, then I am letting my child see that stereotype every day.
ON SEEKING OUT A DIVERSE COMMUNITY
Lori: Having a diverse friend group is important, as much as it's possible. Of course, we work with some folks who are just in homogenous neighborhoods and that makes it difficult. Interaction helps children, in particular, break down biases they would have otherwise believed. We might join a soccer leagues or swim team that is more diverse. Try to find a church with people who aren't the same color as you. There are opportunities to do things that are more integrated - there's value in seeking them out, if that's important to you.
More posts by Lori and Sachi:
* How to Ask Questions About Differences.

* "Is That Your Mom?"

* Why I Use the Words "Black" and "White" Versus "Brown" and "Peach"
More great articles:
* Children Are Not Colorblind

* How Silence Can Breed Prejudice (This quote jumped out at me: "Silence about race removes the opportunity for children to learn about diversity from their parents and puts it in the hands of media and misinformed peers. Television, movies and video games are full of stereotypes, and over time children pick up on these. They see blacks portrayed as criminals, Hispanics as uneducated service workers, Asians as unassimilated foreigners, and whites as powerful CEOs. Without discussion about the errors in these portrayals and a conscious effort to expose them to counter-stereotypical examples, children will unwittingly adopt these images as pieces of evidence of how the world is supposed to be, and these pieces become a breeding ground for prejudice.")
Lori and Sachi Thoughts? How do you talk about race with your children? Do you have any other ideas or suggestions? Thank you so much.
P.S. 5 books that teach kids kindness, and children's books with characters of color.

(Illustration by Erin Jang for Cup of Jo.)

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Raising Race-Conscious Children | A Cup of Jo

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Cup of Jo has been running for 13 years (!) so we've decided that every week, we'll be highlighting one of the most popular posts from the past. Here's one that's more important than ever, originally published on October 3, 2016...

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Children's Books By Brilliant Black Women

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Children's Books By Brilliant Black Women

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In this post: Gorgeous, captivating, and endearing children's picture books written and illustrated by Black women & nonbinary* authors & illustrators. This post is no longer updated - to find the latest #OwnVoices books written by Black women & femmes, check out our frequently updated list on Bookshop. -AR July 2021
Books For Littles(BFL) is free and accessible for readers who can't afford a paywall. Posts may contain affiliate links, which allow me to earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Check out the full affiliate disclosure along with the BFL statement of accountability. If you're pairing this advice with a trip to the library (please do!), you can also support BFL on Patreon.
Disclosure: I'm not Black. As a non-Black woman of color, raised in the US, I'm bound to miss some things. I've done my best to boost the voices of Black women, but feel free to comment below if/when I screw up. This is bound to be an imperfect (and incomplete) list. I'm human.

Also: In an earlier version of this post, I accidentally appropriated the term 'femme.' Whoops - sorry! Learn why that's not okay in the end of this post.

When White folks appropriate the identities of Black characters

Racism is so embedded in kidlit that we don't see when authors perpetuate stereotypes and reinforce white supremacist narratives.

When women of color & Indigenous women tell us how we're erasing them from the dominant narrative - listen to them. Even when it's hard. Even when they force us to confront the horrors of slavery, the prison industrial complex, and the ways we are complicit in their oppression.

No matter how uncomfortable it gets, no matter how much you want to shout "NOT ME! I'M NOT THE PROBLEM!" - Hush. Believe Black women. After a lifetime of living in this skin, they are the experts on their experience.

What we can't see through the white gaze

People of color are neither monolithic nor infallible - we grow up in the same racist society White folks do. Authors who write from lived experience can create problematic books - but these stories are more likely to humanize protagonists of color with dimension, agency, and cultural insight than authors without lived experience.

When a white author appropriates the identity of women of color, it's easy to feed into subtle racism and stereotypes without realizing it.

To illustrate this - Let's compare how athlete Althea Gibson is portrayed by a white author, with her treatment by a Black author.

Sue Stauffacher (a white author) feeds into the narrative of Gibson as a loud, angry Black girl in Nothing But Trouble. If you don't know why this is a problem - I suggest you google ' how the Angry Black Woman stereotype silences women. '

Compare Stauffacher's portrayal to Vashti Harrison's biography of Gibson in Little Leaders, (Harrison is a Black woman).

Harrison focuses on Gibson's accomplishments. Gibson's troublesome behavior isn't erased - but it's placed in context of her behavior as a child. Gibson isn't a one-dimensional, running stereotype, she's a woman who grows up and matures over a lifetime.

Through the white gaze, Gibson's nature is violent and out of control - it's something to be overcome, or rather, to be tamped and adjusted (by a man, of course.) The entire book reads like a letter of gratitude to this dude - it's centered on Gibson's mentor, rather than Gibson herself. Stauffacher erases the discipline and drive that Gibson must have had to become the first Black athlete to desegregate international tennis and get inducted to the Tennis and International Women's Sports Hall of Fame. You don't get that far when you're just a wild puppet on a string.

In Harrison's version, Gibson is self-driven to overcome her hurdles, she is self-motivated to mature and harness her strength and energy. We also see how she taps into the cultural wealth of her Black community. Growing up in a Black community is good for her, fighting against the trope of a troubled teen trying to escape a Black neighborhood.

Which book do you want your kids reading?

Or rather - what messages do you want your kids to take away from the books you read together? Are Black women complex, independent, autonomous individuals with power, strength, and vulnerability - or are they wild tools of aggression who need to be directed and saved by superior (re: white/male) forces?

Support Black Women & Nonbinary* Makers

White authors appropriate and profit off the identities of people of color. It's not enough to read books about Black women - we need to support Black women and nonbinary artists and authors. Be cautious and do your research when searching #Ownvoices authors - I've come across so many reading lists who include books featuring Black characters by white authors and claim they are written by Black authors. Be cautious and do your research when searching #Ownvoices authors. Below, find our favorite books that I've been able to confirm are written or illustrated by Black women.

I've made this super simple for you - start with just one book each month.

Don't wait until Black history month or Women's history month to read books by women of color. Pick up a couple of these once a month from the library.
Does your son's bookshelf pass the Uhura Test?
Originally from Nigeria, now living in the UK, Atinuke interweaves discussions of privilege, restorative justice, cultural wealth, wealth inequality, and normalizing multiracial families into endearing characters and adorable stories that leave me feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. She's got a collection of both board & picture books for toddlers and preschoolers as well as chapter book series for elementary-aged children. They are all amazing.

Badiel wrote this book in tandem with Verde & Reynolds, based on her childhood growing up in Burkina Faso.

Badiel, an activist and model, has used her pretty privilege (yes this is a thing) to advocate for access to potable water for villages in Burkina Faso - an issue that is deeply intertwined with climate change, environmental racism, colonialism, sexism, education rights, and wealth inequality. This book is a fantastic starter to scaffold later discussions.

Boston Weatherford's books are written for kids slightly above the BFL target age range (0-7), but her books on African American activists are wonderful. I will admit it's a struggle to get the Earthquakes to read them more than once a year, but they will enjoy them more when they're older. Her work is great for school book reports and library reference shelves, rather than bedtime stories.

Born & raised in Spain to a Chilean father & Afro-Brazilian mother, Bustos is the multiracial Latinx Black illustrator we've been begging for to represent smart girls of color in the comic book industry.

Coincidence that the chaotic, goofy illustrations of a complicated, smart-but-also-immature braniac is my 6-year-old's absolute favorite super hero? Probably not.

GIVE US MORE WOMEN OF COLOR IN MAINSTREAM COMICS, PLEASE.

Black children in kidlit are often forced to embody a single dimension of all-powerful, all-knowing, and invulnerable perfection to overcome negative stereotypes. In Clifton's books, however, they are allowed to be - to misunderstand, to be misunderstood, to learn, and to be little.

It's well done, and a must-read for kids growing up in the US.

Jaden Toussaint is the smart, gentle model of healthy young masculinity we need. He's funny, hard-working, innovative, and like the characters in Clifton's books - still little and learning.

This series of chapter books spanning Jaden's year in kindergarten is filled with pop-culture references that go over my 6-year-old's head. But the jokes also make this series re-readable, since it will give my kids more to glom as they get older.

There's also something very important in Jaden that I want to model for my kids - that it's cool to care about things. Jaden is enthusiastically nerdy, his feelings get hurt, he gets scared and frustrated. But he's cool and confident and not afraid to speak up and try and fail at things. I wish every little boy had the space to be his whole self the way Jaden does.

Elliott continues to work, and work hard at giving us complex, intersectional representation for kids of color with agency. It shows in her work - from picture books for preschoolers to chapter books and YA, Elliott has been pouring her heart and soul into creating mirrors for kids who are traditionally under-represented and erased from the dominant narrative.

What I love most about Elliott is her humility - she doesn't suggest that she knows all, or is doing things perfectly. She's worked tirelessly to reach out to people with the identities she's representing to make sure they are heard, to counter stereotypes and misunderstandings, and to keep growing and learning.

We need more stories like this!

Franklin's debut 2019 book - Not Quite Snow White, tackles racism head-on with scenes kids can engage and grapple with. This refreshing honesty is rare for picture books! Ashley is an African-American Muslim writer, mother, and professor.

Freeman has illustrated so many books I haven't even made a dent in her library. Her illustrations are dynamic and diverse - depicting a wide range of skin tones (including some multiracial characters) and lately, body sizes.
*Update: See the comments - some of Freeman's authored work looks problematic in stigmatizing type 4 hair.

This appears to be a first book by Thompkins-Bigelow and there are a bunch of new releases coming out this year by Glenn. I AM EXCITED ABOUT THESE.

There are a few stories destigmatizing & empowering stories for and about Muslim women who wear khimars (there are lots of different names and types of veils/hijabs worn by Muslim women depending on what language you're using), and this one was by far our favorite.

Countering the Islamaphobic nonsense that a khimar is a tool of oppression against women, Mommy's Khimar celebrates them as a symbol of joy, faith, warmth, and comfort. Wearing a khimar is choice, an honor, and a celebration.

I'll admit I'm still working on getting the Earthquakes to stop pointing and shouting "MOMMY, LOOK!" when they see a person wearing a khimar in public (yikes). BUT, when they do, they are eager to say hello, and tell these new friends how beautiful their khimar is.

A Shelter In Our Car was (for better or for worse) the Earthquake's first introduction to homelessness, the fact that police officers are not concerned with the well being of all children, some of the obstacles that many immigrants face, and a reality for many families who hit hard times.

It hit them like a punch in the gut - and that's a good thing. We shouldn't be okay with the fact that many children are homeless and struggling. It's not our job as parents to keep them from the pain of knowing this - it's our job to help them channel those big feelings into world-changing action.

I'm a sucker for childish characters who are given space to learn, grow, and do better. Harrington's stories are universal for all children, featuring characters of color in stories that aren't about race.

Harrison suddenly hit the kidlit sphere and now we've got spinoffs to Little Leaders, both in board book form, and to cover international women in history. Her illustrations are adorable, and the anthologies are accessible and well-written.

I'm just now recognizing a pattern of awesomeness in Holmes's work, between Voice of Freedom (pictured above, written by Carole Boston Weatherford), The Stuff of Stars & What Do You Do With A Voice Like That, in particular, struck a chord with my particularly loud kid who has trouble regulating the volume of his voice.

Jackson's work is sometimes credited as 'Brittany Jackson,' sometimes 'Bea Jackson,' and sometimes she's not credited at all. So if you want to keep up with her luminous work, it's best to check her website.

We don't often see history's heroes doing the tedious, unglamorous part of activism. We don't see them facing doubt, worry, and fear. We also don't see many books highlighting the power of teachers. But now we do. Yay!
"I've seen stories about us revised, rewritten, turned on its head, and sold back to us by people who I know have no intention in mind but 'selling a Black product to its intended buyers.'" Read more...

Okay so technically I haven't gotten my hands on this book yet since it hasn't come out, so I can't really tell you beyond all doubt that it is totally awesome. BUT. I looked closely at the book trailer and noticed it features a multiracial family without a white parent. If you're familiar with this website, you know this SO RARE.
"Racism was programmed into you without your consent. Be mad about that. You never agreed to carry it forward" Become a Patron! #OwnVoices was coined by author *I originally used 'femme' instead of 'women' in this post to include folks beyond a gender binary but a reader alerted me to the fact that I was misusing that word - 'femme' is a term for feminine people within the LGBTQiA2s+ community only. So I'll use 'women' until I can find a better umbrella term for women and feminine people who don't identify as women. Updated February 3, 2020: (added new makers, fixed broken images).
Corinne Duyvis
And then I started looking closer. It features trans boy preparing for the arrival of his new sibling. And and and and...it's illustrated by a Native Hawaiian/Black multiracial person who identifies as LGBQT+. I don't want to get my hopes up too high but OH GOSH MY HOPES, SO HIGH.

2020 Update: I read it, it's AMAZING. Everything I had hoped for, and more.

Oh. My. Goodness. This book - it's so good.

Latour's story touches on that uncomfortable liminal space that third-culture kids (TCK) inhabit, where we don't feel like we belong in any specific community. She introduces kids to the history of the Haitian Revolution against slavers and colonist oppressors. She touches on that hunger we all have to understand our family narratives, our cultural background, and how we find a place to belong in the world. GO READ THIS NOW.

I could write a book about the great things in this book. So coming soon, I've connected with Francie to feature her in a maker spotlight, so follow BFL on Patreon if you want a heads up when that comes out.

This book is lovely, and I'm excited for my kids to grow up a little so we can read it together.

From the story: "Me and my dad talk about important things. Things like truth and what it means to be free. Dad says books can help you. Not every book is true, he says, but the more you read, the easier it is to figure out for yourself what is true."

Nelson carries on her family's legacy as bibliophiles taking action for civil rights, particularly in this book about her great-uncle, activist Lewis H. Michaux. This book, in particular, highlights the whole reason why this Raising Luminaries and Books for Littles exists.

Miller did a spectacular job creating a book that validates microaggressions against kids with fantastic hair that also help kids without curly kinky hair understand why it's not okay to poke and prod.

I grew up with that straight black Asian hair that white people insisted on petting and tug, and this book was sat-is-fying to read. This book is adorable, hilarious, and accessible even for my boys, who learned why it's not okay to treat other people like animals in a petting zoo.

The Proudest Blue is one of the most spectacular books of 2019.

I could go on about this loving tribute to the author's sisters - but you're better off just reading it.

So lovely and powerful.

Nolen's storytelling is a bit long-winded and difficult for a read-aloud, but her heros are intelligent, vulnerable, complicated, and everything I want in a childhood hero. The plots to her stories are irreverent, modern folktales that I want to hold on to and read to my grandchildren.

Normally, when an actor tries their hand at writing a children's book, it's a condescending, miserable failure. So I was really nervous about this book.

But oh my gosh. OH MY GOSH. This book - it's full. It's got depth, it's gorgeous, it's just magic, affirming, validating, everything. SO AMAZING.

Peterson is a mixed-media collage artist who works with radical feminist authors to bring contemporary art into kidlit, creating sophisticated books with layers of meaning that are intended for adults just as much as for children. Her work is not for the fragile. I adore them.

Disclosure: The publisher sent me a free review copy of The Nightlife of Jacuzzi Gaskett, and we've got a maker spotlight on the author, Brontez Purnell, over here.

I'll admit these aren't exciting or sit-down-and-cuddle stories, my kids don't pick these up and ask me to read them over and over again. Pinkney's books lean toward didactic and do best in a school or library. But she's a prolific powerhouse who has led the way for many women authors of color, and it would just feel weird not to include her in this list.

Sadler passed away in 2013. This is an enormous loss for our children - she was just getting started illustrating children's books and Seeds of Change remains one of the most gorgeously illustrated biographies I've ever read.

The author of Seeds Of Change, Jen Cullerton Johnson, established the Sonia Lynn Salder Award for children's illustrators, and I'm looking forward to seeing how illustrators inspired by her work will continue her legacy.

Sometimes credited as Renee (without the accent mark), Watson's books can be hard to search for. They are worth it though. Her picture books have depth and layers, and her young-adult chapter books, good gosh. I can't keep up with her pace, we have so much more of her work to look forward to. Watch her rise. Seriously - there will be future generations of authors who will cite the legendary influence of her work.

I'm assuming you don't live under a rock, and have heard of Jacqueline Woodson by now - she's been at this for a while, and her craft and ability to connect with kids gets better with every book.

Stay Curious & Stand Brave & Support Women of Color

Want more? Find our 2021 list of 50+#OwnVoices Black women & femme authors here.

At least 10% of my income goes back into #OwnVoices community advocacy organizations. Support my ongoing collaboration work on Patreon:

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Children's Books By Brilliant Black Women: #OwnVoices Authors & Illustrators - Raising Luminaries

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In this post: Gorgeous, captivating, and endearing children's picture books written and illustrated by Black women & nonbinary* authors & illustrators. This post is no longer updated - to find the latest #OwnVoices books written by Black women & femmes, check out our frequently updated list on Bookshop.

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Let's Talk: Discussing Race, Racism, and other Difficult Topics with Students

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Let's Talk: Discussing Race, Racism, and other Difficult Topics with Students

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Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Some of this feels new, but in truth it's an old story.

Why? Where did the notion of "whiteness" come from? What does it mean? What is whiteness for?

Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen took a deep dive into these questions, along with an array of leading scholars and regular guest Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, in this fourteen-part documentary series, released between February and August 2017. The series editor is Loretta Williams.

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Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Some of this feels ne

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subscribe to Parenting: Difficult Conversations podcast

subscribe to Parenting: Difficult Conversations podcast

Even babies notice differences like skin color, eye shape and hair texture. Here's how to handle conversations about race, racism, diversity and inclusion, even with very young children.
A few things to remember:

Don't shush or shut them down if they mention race.

Don't wait for kids to bring it up.

Be proactive, helping them build a positive awareness of diversity.

When a child experiences prejudice, grown-ups need to both address the feelings and fight the prejudices.

You don't have to avoid topics like slavery or the Holocaust. Instead, give the facts and focus on resistance and allies.

In addition to Jeanette Betancourt, senior vice president for Social Impact at Sesame Workshop, we spoke to Beverly Daniel Tatum: We recommend her TEDx talk as well as her book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race.
Additional Resources:

Babies begin to notice race at 6 months old - in fact, according to this pair of studies by Professor Kang Lee at the University of Toronto, they actually show signs of racial bias by this age.

One in 10 children is multiracial - according to Pew Research Center. This includes children with parents of two different races, plus those with at least one multiracial parent.

Watch the whole "I Love My Hair!" video from Sesame Street.

Thanks to Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton. Derrick Gay, and Jinnie Spiegler of the Anti-Defamation League, which has a wide range of resources for anti-bias education.

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Talking Race With Young Children : Parenting: Difficult Conversations

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subscribe to Parenting: Difficult Conversations podcast subscribe to Parenting: Difficult Conversations podcast Even babies notice differences like skin color, eye shape and hair texture. Here's how to handle conversations about race, racism, diversity and inclusion, even with very young children. A few things to remember: Don't shush or shut them down if they mention race.

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Anti-Racism for Kids 101: Starting to Talk About Race

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Anti-Racism for Kids 101: Starting to Talk About Race

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[Image description: Illustration from All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold & Suzanne Kaufman. Children of various races and faiths pointing to locations on a world map.] If you're nervous about talking about race with your kids, these books about racial diversity will give you an easy place to start destigmatizing difference & celebrating racial diversity. Bold and *marked books are written or illustrated by #OwnVoices makers of color. Raising Luminaries is free and accessible for readers who can't afford a paywall. Donate or shop using an affiliate link via| Paypal | Venmo | Ko-fi | Buy a t-shirt | Buy a book Anti-Racism For Beginners: Part 1 Acknowledging & Celebrating Racial Diversity Posts may contain affiliate links, which allow me to earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Check out the full affiliate disclosure along with my statement of accountability. If you're into supporting libraries (please do!) more than consumerism, you can also support my work directly:

...

" How do I teach my kids to be anti-racist when I'm still learning myself?"
- Anonymous, Books For Littles Facebook Group (archived)

...

It's normal to get flustered when when our children talk about race. But if we let nervousness keep us silent and still, our fear becomes a weapon.

Growing up, I was told that discrimination would magically disappear if we stop acknowledging racial difference. All people are the same. Skin color doesn't matter. Only bad people are racist. If we are all nice and well-behaved, racism will go away.

This is the fallacy of colorblind ideology. It's a tool to keep us complicit in white supremacy. Don't be a tool.

We must talk about race with young kids. Racism thrives in silence.

When we refuse to talk about race at an early age, children absorb our silence as shame. We're taught that if we have nothing nice to say - say nothing at all. Well - white folks are aggressively silent when it comes to race! Does that mean that being Brown or Black is something to be ashamed of?

Kids pick up when we refuse to acknowledge racial difference - and how we treat people of color. Why are we surprised then, to see nice, well-behaved children reflect unconscious bias against people of color, then grow into adults who blame people of color for violence and harm against them?
(It's your job to be that adult.)
Your child needs at least one adult to speak truth to BS about racial assumptions.

My White mother who openly talked about race from birth - and how society would perceive and treat me because of my multiracial heritage. She raised me to understand that discrimination against me was not my fault. Violence would happen to me because of my race, my gender, my class but it wasn't caused by me - it was caused by white supremacy.

The Mominator refused to let me internalize the idea that I deserved racism. To do that, she first needed to acknowledge my race and the fact that I would have obstacles in life that white kids didn't.

We can help our children understand racism - and empower them to work toward racial equality.

Raise kids of color to feel proud of their culture and their right to self-advocate.

Raise white kids to recognize their duty to stand up against injustice.

But first, you've gotta acknowledge that racial differences - even though they are an imaginary, human-imagined construct, exist as a real thing in our society, with real-life impact on real-life people.

Start by telling our kids that yes - we do see skin color and racial identities.

For folks who were never given space to talk about racism and discrimination as kids (or even racial diversity), it's scary to start. We don't want to say the wrong thing and mess it up.

No worries, we are going to start very gently with non-controversial, easygoing books that just show kids that racial diversity exists. In future collections, we'll get into more emotionally loaded topics - like racial discrimination, racial privilege, colorism, and the subtle tools that uphold white supremacy, such as white fragility and respectability politics.

And this diversity is glorious.

Acknowledge & Celebrating Racial Diversity

From two anonymous BFL members:

"My daughter came home saying she didn't like her brown skin and wanted white skin and 'bright' hair instead. I'm looking for books that reinforce pride in who she is."

"My white daughter said to me the other day, 'I don't like dark skin. ' I ran to the internet to research books like these."

Yikes.

Use these comments as learning opportunities. Read these books to discuss biases they've absorbed during a quiet time home together (story time!) Encourage kids to speak bias aloud so they can hear how ridiculous it sounds, think about where it comes from, and realize how it develops.

When children point out that they like particular skin tones, body shapes, or hair textures more than others - don't shout at them or insist they are wrong. Kids this age can't untangle feelings from fact. Shaming them for a gut reaction is just going to get them to clam up.

Instead, help them untangle bias from fact on their own. Ask why they feel this way. Use in an open, non-judgemental tone. Keep asking questions to unpack these assumptions. We're not here to tell them what to think, we're here to model critical thinking about racial bias moving forward.

Discuss how all bodies are good bodies - how we differ, and what we have in common.

All Are Welcome, *Lovely, We're Different, We're The Same

Acknowledge & Celebrate Cultural Diversity

When we over-simplify racism, we tell kids that racism is simply bias against people based on skin color - it's not.
How do we counter the entrenched dominant narrative's focus on whiteness?
(That's colorism, another problem we can tackle later.)

Racism expands beyond skin color - it's assumptions and discrimination against individuals and groups of people, based on racial identity. This includes not just skin color, but also cultural norms and behavior, language, and other markers of racial and ethnic identity.
*On The Day You Begin, *Where Are You From?, *Alma And How She Got Her Name
White supremacy is assuming that racism would be over if people of color just assimilated and acted more like white people, that assimilation is even a goal for people of color, and that non-white culture is deviant or inferior to whiteness.

Read stories that show how people of color are not monolithic - we're complex individuals who can't be reduced to the caricatures of mainstream media. Our ethnic heritage is something valuable worth exploring, and our ancestors traditions, achievements, and challenges have an impact on who we are today.

But our race and ethnicity is not the only thing that defines us. Show kids how we all have a right to pride in our heritage - just not at the expense of punching down another culture.

Not pictured: *Islandborn is another lovely book, which I recommend with reservations. In 2018, several survivors came forth about Junot Díaz's problematic behavior toward women. One of these reports has been shown to have been overblown - but I'm not comfortable with the way we're dismissing all survivors of his actions because of this. The book itself is great - so I'll let you decide how to move forward with all that on your own.

Explain How Diversity Makes Us Stronger

Having a broad range of experiences to draw from, mindsets to brainstorm, and abilities to solve the problems facing humanity is a very good thing. Human diversity is good for all of humanity and evolution and stuff. I am pretty sure this is SCIENCE.

The idea that winnowing humanity into one make-believe-super-race, or segregating us all into silos based on our racial identity sounds ABSURD. Right? RIGHT?!

Obviously some families are not absorbing the fact that genetic diversity is good for society and the fate of humanity, so we have to make this clear. That whole 'melting pot' assimilation thing our teachers celebrated 20 years ago turned out to be a bad idea.

What we need is more of a chunky stew, with folks proudly retaining and celebrating our individual racial and cultural identities while cognizant of the challenges and discrimination many groups face. These books help kids see how diversity makes us stronger.

Stay Curious, Stand Brave & Talk About Race

Don't stop here. Now that your kids understand that human skin, hair, and all of that stuff comes in a broad change of colors, shapes, and textures - help them see how all people deserve basic human rights, respect, and kindness.

Click here for part 2 of raising Anti-Racist Kids - Children's Books That Teach Kids About Social Power & Paternalism

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Anti-Racism For Kids 101: Starting To Talk About Race - Books For Littles by Raising Luminaries

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Books to help kids to unpack racial bias so they can hear how ridiculous it sounds, think about where it comes from, and realize how it develops.

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People have been protesting daily around the country and world since George Floyd was brutally murdered by four Minneapolis, MN, police.

The murder, which took place on Memorial Day 2020, was captured on cell phone video and went viral. It showed the world how George Floyd had the life squeezed out of him by three police who pinned him to the pavement, while a fourth stood by trying to keep eyewitnesses at bay. As eyewitnesses filmed, they told police to get off George Floyd and that they were killing him. But the officers didn't budge, even as George himself kept pleading with them: "Please, please, please. I can't breathe. Please man." The officers have since been arrested and charged.

But that hasn't stopped the outrage and protests over not only this murder, but those of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Dion Johnson, just in the past few months. Of course the history of violence perpetrated against Black bodies and Black communities goes back years, decades, and centuries, back to the founding of this country. Black, Brown, Asian and Native people have always been dehumanized, their labor exploited, to build the country in which we live today.

It is not just through murder that Black lives continue to be taken. It's important to look also at the systems of oppression, injustice, and racism that manifest as poverty, food and housing insecurity, lack of opportunity, illness, incarceration, and other ills that result in daily, and often unseen, violence against people of color. The disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on Black, Brown, Asian, and Native communities is a current, and tragic, case in point. We cannot underestimate the loss, stress and trauma that this has caused and continues to cause.

And so we see people out in the streets despite the Covid-19 pandemic, risking their lives, to protest what some are calling the racism pandemic.

This activity has students listen to and reflect on the voices of those who are out in the street. What brings them there? And what do students think and feel about it?

Marching in Washington, DC on June 6, 2020. Photo by Ted Eytan.

Opening Reflection

Invite one of your students to read the following Frederick Douglass quote out loud:

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

Next, ask your students to connect the quote to what's been happening around our country these past two weeks, following the brutal murder of George Floyd, captured on camera in Minneapolis, MN before it went viral.

Ask students what they know about the reasons why people are in the street, protesting in cities around the country and world.

Ask if they, or people they know, have been protesting. If so, incorporate their/those voices here and in the activity below.

Reasons Why People Are Protesting: Voices from the Protests

Either share this PDF with "voices from the protest" with students via email, or pull it up on the shared screen for students to see. The text is also below. (If time is short, you might select quotes that you think are most important for your students.)

Invite student volunteers to read the voices, one after the other, for all to hear. Alternatively, ask students to read the voices in silence by themselves. Then ask students to pick one that resonates with them to read out loud.

After reading the quotes aloud, ask some or all of the following questions for students to respond to.

How do you feel about hearing these voices?

How are the protesters feeling? Why?

What, if any voice stood out for you? What voice resonated and why?

What are some of the reasons that people are out in the street?

Do you seen any connections between the reasons why people are protesting?

How do these reasons connect back to this country's history, going back to its founding?

If you and your students want to explore the interconnected, historic nature of the reasons that brought people into the streets in protests over the past few weeks, begin an exploration. Some possible readings are at the bottom of this lesson.

Closing

To close the session, ask your students to share a one word statement about what we have discussed today. (This might be a message, a feeling, or a thought.)

Alternatively, read aloud the quote on hope by historian Howard Zinn below:

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places-and there are so many-where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

Then ask students: What, if anything, gives you hope today?

Possible Background Reading

BBC News : George Floyd: Five pieces of context to understand the protests: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52904593

European Sting: This is what has led to the George Floyd protests in the United States: https://europeansting.com/2020/06/05/this-is-what-has-led-to-the-george-floyd-protests-in-the-united-states/

NY Times: Destructive Power of Despair (Charles Blow commentary): https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/opinion/george-floyd-protests.html

Vox: The anger behind the protests, explained in 4 charts: https://www.vox.com/2020/5/31/21276004/anger-police-killing-george-floyd-protests

The Root: A Timeline of Events That Led to the 2020 'Fed Up'-rising (contains profanity): https://www.theroot.com/a-timeline-of-events-that-led-to-the-2020-fed-up-rising-1843780800

The Guardian: America must listen to its wounds (commentary by Reverend William Barber): https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/30/america-must-listen-to-its-wounds-george-floyd-they-will-tell-us-where-to-look-for-hope

Voices from the Protests

"I got tired of sitting at home feeling anxious and helpless. As an undocumented organizer, I recognize that now is the time to stand up for abolition and justice for all. Regardless of my status, the Black community is looking for support from everyone. I know that my freedom is tied to their freedom." Johana

"We can A) invest in communities and give people what they need. Or B) invest in prisons and police to brutalize people when they act out because they don't have what they need. I protested because America has chosen to do the latter." Richie

"Because I don't want to live in a country where the authorities murder with impunity. That is a more existential threat than Covid-19." Karine

"Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Current police brutality and murder. I'm protesting the illegitimate authority of the USA and the LAPD." Robert

"It's time to dismantle and reform 'police culture' in this country." Ashley

"Because police officers have abused their power and run rampant for too long. They have been viciously murdering people with impunity. It's systematic oppression upheld and reinforced by white supremacy."

"Because I could've been George Floyd." Joe

"I protest a system that knelt on the neck of a Black man until he died because it is the very same system that not only has killed countless other Black men and women, but has killed thousands of Americans of all races by failing to protect us effectively and successfully in a global pandemic. ... America is broken and has been broken for quite some time, and I couldn't live with myself if I told my future children that I did nothing at all to effect change." Janay

"Friday night ..., in front of my home, I exercised my First Amendment rights, feeling the same overwhelming anxiety and pain from another Black person being killed rush back. ... There has to be a change." Toni

"We have lost our way. We have lost our humanity. And we have definitely lost whatever pretense we had of a democratic society." V.H.

"When there is a police shooting, with the chaos that often is involved, I can understand there might be two sides to the story. But to see the video of a white police officer slowly and deliberately killing a Black man, suffocating the life out of him minute by minute and keeping up the pressure almost two minutes after the man has no pulse: There is no excuse. It is murder, plain and simple. The other officers stood and watched it happen. There is no excuse for their behavior, either. They were complicit."

"Because Black Lives Matter. ... We should be investing more in what people need to survive and thrive - housing, food, schools, jobs - not adding to our already bloated police budget." Victoria

"Being out on the streets today was so empowering and peaceful. People were looking out for each other because we knew things could take a turn for the worse in an instant. That is the reality that so many Black people have had to adapt to for centuries." Johana

"The right question to ask: Why are you not protesting? Unlike the previous generation who was able to turn a blind eye to police brutality and allow systemic racism to persist with little to no accountability, our generation - the most diverse generation in American history - is saying 'Enough!' We will not bear this oppressive and racist system we have inherited. We want change now, not later. We are not asking for it, we are demanding it!" Jorge

"Why isn't EVERYONE protesting? Six years after Ferguson and Eric Garner, law enforcement is still getting away with killing Black men on video. How is that acceptable to anyone?! I am proud to be one of many non-Black people marching with our Black brothers and sisters, chanting, 'Say his name: George Floyd,' 'Prosecute Killer Cops' and 'No Justice, No Peace,' especially because I am a Korean American who is aware of the L.A. riots in 1992. I saw people of all races [protesting] today. No, I cannot know what it is like to be a Black person in this country, always under threat of getting killed just for being Black, even while sleeping in my own bed or watching TV in my own living room, but I can try to understand and fight for them." Karen

"How the Covid-19 pandemic has been handled, leaving huge parts of society left without healthcare, due process, or a future points out the ZERO representation by any political party or leadership along the way." Dave

"In solidarity with Black Lives Matter. I'm white, and want to make my support visible in some way." Ian

"Because I'm sick and tired of hearing that the system is broken. It's not broken; it's doing exactly what it's meant to do - disenfranchise Black and Latino [people]."

"Because as a white person I can no longer be silent! My complacency shows agreement, and that is not OK. Jesus stands for the disenfranchised. As a Christian, I need to stand for the disenfranchised." Carol

"Injustice, injustice, injustice. What has this great country become? A place where people are suffering more every day with unfair treatment and the bashing of basic civil liberties and human rights." Philippe

"Because I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe."

"I went because it was the right thing to do. For years I saw things in this country that made me angry and was too afraid to go to the streets, telling myself, 'What good will it do anyway?' So I made donations and wrote strongly written letters, but what good did any of that do? Clearly not much. So I needed to be there physically, in the community, not just showing support in the shadows, but proud and out loud." Quinn

"Hearing Mr. Floyd call out for his mother in his last moments of life broke me. I sat on my car bawling. I'm a mother of three sons. My sons look to me for comfort when they fall or are cold. They look for Mom to comfort and nurture them. Mr. Floyd called out for his mom to comfort him. That shook me. Enough is enough. Cops can't keep killing our sons, brothers and husbands and getting off with a slap on the wrist. It ends now. We've been asking for help for years. Do you hear us now?" Yesenia

"When the Rodney King video came out, I rejoiced thinking the world would finally see what we dealt with daily. I thought they just didn't know - I didn't realize they just didn't care. Then Latasha Harlins was killed, shot in the back of the head on video after paying for her purchases. Her murderer got the same sentence as a man who'd abused a dog. ... I've long since forgotten the names of the innocent Black people murdered. ... Those names got mingled with the ones my elders taught me about (Emmett Till, George Stinney, etc., etc., etc.), But worse, we keep adding to the list: It has grown longer than my memory. This is why I protest." Misty

"End of the police state. Return of civil liberties and constitutional right as a U.S. citizen and as a human being of this planet. End Trump's blatant corruption."

"I came out today to tell the cops I was coming after their jobs, not to riot. I came out today because this country has to have a moral reckoning. White people have to confront the system we've built that oppressed Black people in the country and dismantle it. I came to tell the mayor to spend less on police bonuses and overtime and more on mental health crisis teams, more on homelessness services and less on rubber bullets, like the ones that were shot at me today. This country MUST change."

"I am white and I am ashamed and outraged every time a Black citizen is killed by a white police officer. This has been going on for decades and enough is enough. Police officers are sworn to protect and to serve all citizens of the community. They do not have the right to kill these citizens, then make up a cover story about 'resisting arrest.'" Jodi

"I am protesting because I'm tired of all our actions being a powerless scream into the void. All the accumulated stress from each new horror story of inequity is like a wire holding my jaw shut. For the first time, it feels like people can listen. I hope this movement can be a light that makes it starkly clear what the world is like."

"The need for change to the police system. For the police union to remove itself and to set up a new system from the ground up."

"Police unions have for too long fought the changes needed to change policing. There is great injustice in how police ... treat minorities, people experiencing homelessness, and other disenfranchised groups. The city has cut services, but is giving police raises, and the so-called progressives on the City Council say nothing." Rick

"We cannot afford to be neutral in situations of injustice. Honestly, my heart is hurting - it's broken. Right now, it's in the news because the violence was filmed, but Black communities and my brown brothers and sisters see this day in and day out. The scars of colonization and white supremacy are burned into our DNA through generational trauma of rape, murder, and looting of our ancestors. [People of color] wear this pain every day, we carry it inside us always; we just can't suppress this trauma any longer." Natalie

"I'm protesting against the benefit of the doubt given to law enforcement in case of police terrorism against communities of color. ... Why aren't you protesting?" Absalom

"In the words of Fannie Lou Hamer, I'm plain ol' sick and tired of being sick and tired! For too long the police departments in OUR country have behaved like legal entities of the KKK. Yes, there was a lot of looting and property damage and that is wrong, but so was the looting of Africa of its people; so is the damage to the properties of humanity." Grant

"I am protesting our failure to reckon with history, and to make reparations in the wake of it. I am protesting because Black people being killed every day for things I do without fear, by the same forces that, at their roots, were founded in order to catch and return people escaping slavery. I am protesting because people I love live in fear of police every day, people I love are dying slowly in cages because they can't afford bail to get out, or because the systems that put them there are more focused on punishment and erasure than on healing and accountability. I am protesting because police don't make people safer, and incarceration does not serve the interests of justice. I am protesting because if I care about justice and liberation for all people, then I have to show up."

"Due to military-like response by police to peaceful protest. And now literally military response."

"There are millions of Chauvins in the so many police forces, turn them in. There are a million Amy Coopers in everyday corporate life. ... We protest being tired for having this target on our backs everyday, just for being BLACK. Tired that all the good white people, our friends, co-workers won't stand up. Tired. That's why we protest." Jacqueline

It's my only way of getting attention to the societal devastation caused by evictions, exploitative pay, and an inability to have healthcare or a comfortable retirement." Jason

"Because our work is unfinished, now more than ever. We are responsible for making our society just. No one else. By any means necessary, because we've already seen again and again that there is no alternative to direct action in the streets. Stop murdering Black people!!!"

"My reasoning is that it will be me next with the knee on the neck, or someone I love, with no recourse or remedy. What happened to the police internalizing their own motto: to protect and serve? When the entire population has been pushed to the brink with the lockdown ... and lack of factual information, leadership's only answer is do less." Dana

"BLACK LIVES MATTER" Bianca

"This is about ALL injustices. The Black innocent lives that are lost time and time again at the hands of police. Yet they unjustly get to walk away with their hands clean. Trump being in office and getting to stay in office is an injustice to the entire U.S. and we all know why. The rich getting richer off the poor, getting first access to everything, including Covid testing and treatment, is an injustice. Greedy corporations preying on innocent lives. THIS IS ABOUT ALL INJUSTICES."

"It could be my father, my brother, my uncle, my cousin, my friend, .... It makes me angry." Victoria

"In every city, there's a George Floyd." Michael

"I'm speaking for everybody, all my kinfolk, all my brothers and sisters who've gotten beaten up by police .... I don't condone the violence ... but at the end of the day, no 14-year-old should be beat up by police."

"If we don't fight for change we're not going to get it" Douglas

"I took six rubber bullets, but do you know what didn't happen to me? No one kneeled on my neck." Elizabeth

"We've been through Jamar Clark, we've been through Philando Castile, and there was no justice whatsoever. We're tired of it, we are very tired. My son, he's 16 and six feet tall, and I don't want him to be taken as somebody bad because he's a bigger Black man." Ashley

"On one hand, it's very scary, because I know a lot of really messed up stuff is happening, people are being hurt, property is being destroyed. But at the same time, something else is on the horizon." Chad

"I'd never been affected by another one like this. I watched a man die, that's why. I watched a man die." Erika

"I felt like I had no excuse but to be a part of it. I have nephews. I have the next generation that's looking up to me as a role model." Rashaad

"What hit me about this in particular is how incredibly blatant it was, like how clear and how incredibly unnecessary and completely undefendable it was." Damarra

"I've never seen nothing like that before. Ever. Ever." Kennetta

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People have been protesting daily around the country and world since George Floyd was brutally murdered by four Minneapolis, MN, police. The murder, which took place on Memorial Day 2020, was captured on cell phone video and went viral.

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Five Myths of Talking to Your Child About Race

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Five Myths of Talking to Your Child About Race

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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"Let's Talk About Race" by Julius Lester

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"Let's Talk About Race" by Julius Lester

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(read-aloud)

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"Something Happened In Our Town" by Saladin Allah

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"Something Happened In Our Town" by Saladin Allah

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(read-aloud)

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Animation Series: Something Happened In Our Town (#AtlantisBuild)

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Daniel Tiger

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Alike & Different | Daniel Tiger: Life's Little Lessons | PBS LearningMedia

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Certainly children don't have to like everyone. No one does. But with the help of loving grownups in their lives, they can learn to be "neighborly" -- respectful, courteous, and kind. In this set of resources, we will use video from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood to focus on how you can help children value and appreciate ways in which we are alike and ways in which we are different.

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Elmo & Abby

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Same/Different with Abby and Elmo | Sesame Street | PBS LearningMedia

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Abby and Elmo describe the ways in which they're the same and different. Abby has furry hair and ears, and since she's a fairy, she has wings! But they both have two arms, two hands, and two eyes! This resource teaches similarities and differences.

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Sesame Street

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Offering Comfort

In the face of challenges big and small, little ones need lots of help from caring adults to grow and thrive. Comforting, nurturing touch is actually necessary for healthy brain development!

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Community Violence | Sesame Street in Communities

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When children are exposed to traumatic events within their own neighborhoods, communities, or across the world, you can help them feel safer and more secure...and build hope for a more peaceful, kinder future.

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Talking with Children About Race, Racism, and Police Brutality

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Talking with Children About Race, Racism, and Police Brutality

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Talking With Kids About Racism, Police Brutality

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If we want to raise compassionate kids and responsible citizens in a democracy, we need to talk about these issues. Here’s an age by age guide for these talks.

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Lesson: Words Can Hurt | Education World

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This powerful activity illustrates how words can hurt -- or heal.

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National Museum of African American History and Culture

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Talking about race, although hard, is necessary. We are here to provide tools and guidance to empower your journey and inspire conversation.

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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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*Update 6/5/2020: After seeing tweets from several Black educators/ authors/ scholars about the need to promote Black voices first and foremost in any work right now, it made me reconsider this list. Upon reflecting on my initial process for adding titles I recognize that it was a mistake to put together a list like this at this time for this purpose without consideration of who created the book. Although I considered positive representation of the characters and families, I should also have considered the representation of the creators. I have removed the 21 books from the original list that were from non-Black authors/illustrators. I have replaced those titles with new selections from Black authors and/or illustrators with the same focus on joyful everyday experiences instead of oppression. I did leave books that have Black illustrators even if a non-Black author or a Black author with a non-Black illustrator. The additions begin after Hey, Black Child.

*Edited 6/4/2020 to include links to additional recommendation lists from Black librarians and other BIPOC created recommendation lists I saw after publishing mine. Though my original purpose in this list was to speak more directly to non-Black educators, I want to be sure to also amplify Black and BIPOC voices for you to follow. They appear before the start of my list.

When the news comes out about things in this country that shatters hearts, & we see Black people bleeding their pain onto the screen in the hope that it will get through to white folx, it shows that we white folx have so much more work yet to do. It is work that doesn't ever stop, but if you haven't even started yet... what the hell are you waiting for? Lives are at stake. And it's going to take all of us to do this work.
Because Black Lives Matter.
We have to stand next to our Black colleagues and those we learn from and bear witness to what they share. And then we have to act. We have to do the work, the internal work, to do and be better. Because standing by should not be an option. As Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi make clear in STAMPED: RACSIM, ANTI-RACISM, AND YOU, if you're not being anti-racist, by definition you are being racist. Read the book as your starting point and then share and discuss with the kids in your life.
Because Black Lives Matter.
White women especially, we have work to do. When we know that calling the police on a Black man can lead to his death, and when we hear stories like those that come out over and over and over and over and over and over and over again about the fear Black people in this country live with, sometimes it's hard to feel like you know what to do. But there is one thing we can always do - and that is consider how, in our role as educators, we can impact belief systems that start when kids are young.
Because Black Lives Matter.
What can we do as white educators? What can we do as educators to lean in to anti-racist practices? It starts with doing the internal work necessary to acknowledge & break down biases and stereotypes & catch ourselves heading into the kind of thinking that leads to Black people being killed. And Black children being killed. Consider how your actions in the school building might be perpetuating racism. Consider what Christina Torres reminds us of: we need to check our own biases or we are perpetuating systems of oppression.

We look at the systemic racism and oppression that leads to white people walking up to steps carrying weapons and allowed to peacefully protest having to stay at home while Black communities get tear gas and riot gear. If you're more concerned about Colin Kaepernick's knee than that police officer's, you have serious work to do on gaining a deeper understanding of systemic oppression. We can grow in our anti-racist practices and understanding of these systems through books & resources that educate us. This link intended for white parents, that also applies to white educators (shared by Brittany Packnett Cunningham on twitter), could be a good starting point. And this site, Opportunities for White People in the Fight for Racial Justice supports a deeper understanding of how to move from actor through ally to accomplice.
Because Black Lives Matter.
But what about in an elementary school? First, we have to understand that it starts young! And we need to reflect on how we act toward Black boys, in particular, as Dr. Kim Parker shared in this open letter, and the impact that has on developing beliefs about self and toward others. This is the time when kids are learning about others & growing opinions and developing their stances. We can't avoid it just because they are young - we have to start here.
Because Black Lives Matter.
And it starts with humanizing Black people. Edith Campbell shares scholarship around the history of depicting Black people as simians and what that does to perpetuate stereotypes. Something that embedded doesn't just stay in historical times. We have to read that research and listen to it and reflect on it and sharpen our own critical lenses and understand how it plays out in the books we share with kids at an impressionable age. We have to know it so we can see it and work to find stories that humanize Black people instead of perpetuating a view of them being less than human.
Because Black Lives Matter.
We have to know that if we only share stories about oppression & struggle, that is the singular story that kids begin to internalize about Black people (if you don't already know Chimamanda Adichie's TED Talk about the "Danger of a Single Story" you should). In 1990 Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop coined the theory of mirrors, windows, & sliding glass doors which you likely know. But have you really considered all of what she was saying?

"Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self- affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books."

It matters desperately for Black kids to see mirrors of themselves in books in positive, joyful ways. Bishop further points out, "When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read, or when the images they see are distorted, negative, or laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part." But do you also know and acknowledge this part of her piece?

"Children from dominant social groups have always found their mirrors in books, but they, too, have suffered from the lack of availability of books about others. They need the books as windows onto reality, not just on imaginary worlds. They need books that will help them understand the multicultural nature of the world they live in... In this country, where racism is still one of the major unresolved social problems... If they see only reflections of themselves, they will grow up with an exaggerated sense of their own importance and value in the world"

Because it's equally vital that white kids see windows into the lives, communities, & humanity of Black people.

So we are obligated to do more. We have to show Black Girl Magic & Black Boy Joy. We have to celebrate Black people (and not just in February). We have to show everyday stories of Black people. We have to show pride in Black peoples' stories. We have to show the joyfulness and strength in Black communities. We have to honor Black people and communities. We have to do this in our curriculum and through the books we choose to share.
Because Black Lives Matter.
Over the past days, my mind kept returning to how educators have the ability to use books in response to current events. To pull picture books off the shelf right now to read with kids to show love for Black students & for other students to see that love. Because as children's book author/illustrator Christian Robinson points out, "When children see themselves and their experiences reflected in books, they are being sent a message that their story matters and that they matter." And they need to be seen in all of wholeness of all of their humanity. So we need to reach for those books that will remind Black kids in our classrooms the beauty within their skin. Those books that will remind other kids of the wholeness of their humanity. Those books that can impact hearts & minds. It's one thing I know I can do. It's one thing you can do, too.
Because Black Lives Matter. And they have to matter to all of us.
*Before getting to my list, I want to give a shoutout to two Black librarians who I greatly admire who have shared their own lists of books (for all levels, not just picture books)!

Edith Campbell - Books for Black Children - Edi "selected titles that Black parents, caregivers and teachers can use to help Black children to feel safe, to embrace their blackness and become better able to talk about and confront racism."

Alia Jones - Black Joy Booklist for Children and Young Adults - Alia " highlighted some books in our Library collection that affirm Black childhood and encourage Black youth to dream, speak up, and get started on the path towards liberation. "
*And also share more BIPOC-created recommendation lists:
by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James
M is for Melanin: A Celebration of the Black Child
written and illustrated by Tiffany Rose
Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut
by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James

by Matthew A. Cherry, illustrated by Vashti Harrison

by Lupita Nyong'o, illustrated by Vashti Harrison

by Nancy Amanda Redd, illustrated by Nneka Myers

by Angela Joy, illustrated by Ekua Holmes

by Denene Millner, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton

by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton

written and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton

by Tami Charles, illustrated by Jacqueline Alcántara

by Ashley Franklin, illustrated by Ebony Glenn

by Joshunda Sanders, illustrated by Charly Palmer

written and illustrated by Oge Mora

by Grace Byers, illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo

by Grace Byers, illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo

written and illustrated by Eric Velasquez

by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Rafael López

by Monique Fields, illustrated by Yesenia Moises

by Breanna J. McDaniel, illustrated by Shane W. Evans
What is Given from the Heart
by Patricia C. McKissack, illustrated by April Harrison

by Andrea J. Loney, illustrated by Rudy Gurierrez

by Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews, illustrated by Bryan Collier
Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
written and illustrated by Javaka Steptoe
When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc & the Creation of Hip Hop
by Laban Carrick Hill, illustrated by Theodore Taylor III
The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip-Hop
by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Frank Morrison

by Connie Schofield-Morrison, illustrated by Frank Morrison
I Got the Christmas Spirit
by Connie Schofield-Morrison, illustrated by Frank Morrison
The Quickest Kid in Clarksville
by Pat Zietlow Miller, illustrated by Frank Morrison

by Roda Ahmed, illustrated by Stasia Burrington

by Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Kadir Nelson

Our Children Can Soar: A Celebration of Rosa, Barack, and the Pioneers of Change

by Michelle Cook, illustrated by 14 Black Artists
Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions
by Chris Barton, illustrated by Don Tate

by Misty Copeland, illustrated by Christopher Myers

written and illustrated by Ken Wilson-Max

by Maxine Beneba Clarke, illustrated by Van Thanh Rudd
Don't Touch My Hair!
written and illustrated by Sharee Miller
I Can Be Anything! Don't Tell Me I Can't
written and illustrated by Diane Dillon

written and illustrated by Oge Mora

written and illustrated by Mechal Renee Roe

written and illustrated by Mechal Renee Roe
That Is My Dream!
by Langston Hughes, illustrated by Daniel Miyares

by Baptiste Paul, illustrated by Jacqueline Alcantara

by Timbaland, illustrated by Christopher Myers

written and illustrated by Christian Robinson

by Nathan Bryon, illustrated by Dapo Adeloa

by Latisha Redding, illustrated by Aaron Boyd

written and illustrated by Nilah Magruder

by Atinuke, illustrated by Angela Brooksbank

written and illustrated by Floyd Cooper

written and illustrated by Hope Anita Smith

by Alexs Pate, illustrated by Soud

written and illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera

by Nansubuga Isdahl, illustrated by Sandra Van Doorn

by Kimberly Derting & Shelli R. Johannes, illustrated by Vashti Harrison

written and illustrated by Sharee Miller
Be a King: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Dream and You
by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by James E. Ransome

by Pat Zietlow Miller, illustrated by Alea Marley
When Aidan Became a Brother
by Kyle Lukoff, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita
Magnificent Homespun Brown: A Celebration
by Samara Cole Doyon, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita

by Kelly Starling Lyons, illustrated by Daniel Minter

written and illustrated by Daria Peoples-Riley
Sing a Song: How "Lift Every Voice and Sing" Inspired Generations
by Kelly Starling Lyons, illustrated by Keith Mallett

by Zachariah Abdul-Razak, illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo
Game Changers: The Story of Venus and Serena Williams
by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illustrated by James E. Ransome
Brave Ballerina: The Story of Janet Collins
by Michelle Meadows, illustrated by Ebony Glenn
Dance Like Starlight: One Ballerina's Dream
by Kristy Dempsey, illustrated by Floyd Cooper

by Nikki Grimes, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon

written and illustrated by Andrea Pippins

by Tricia Elam Walker, illustrated by April Harrison

by Charlotte Watson Sherman, illustrated by Akem Akem

by Alice Faye Duncan, illustrated by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow

written and illustrated by Vashti Harrison

by Angela Johnson, illustrated by Nina Crews

written and illustrated by Christian Robinson

by Sarvinder Naberhaus, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Boy
by Tony Medina, illustrated by 13 Artists

written by Ebony Lewis, illustrated by Jasmine Grant

by Useni Eugene Perkins, illustrated by Bryan Collier

*The newly added titles to replace ones that were from non-Black authors/illustrators start here.

by Thelma Lynne Godin, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton

by Quvenzhane Wallis, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton

by bell hooks, illustrated by Shane W. Evans

by Tammi Sauer, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton

by Langston Hughes, illustrated by Charles R. Smith Jr.

by Parker & Jessica Curry, illustrated by Brittany Jackson
The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family
by Ibtihaj Muhammad & S.K. Ali, illustrated by Hatem Aly
Max and the Tag-Along Moon
written and illustrated by Floyd Cooper

by Edwidge Danticat, illustrated by Shannon Wright

by Atinuke, illustrated by Angela Brooksbank

Flying High: The Story of Gymnastics Champion Simone Biles

by Michelle Meadows, illustrated by Ebony Glenn

by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, illustrated by Ebony Glenn

My Story, My Dance: Robert Battle's Journey to Alvin Ailey

by Lesa Cline-Ransome, illustrated by James E. Ransome
Knock Knock: My Dad's Dream for Me
by Daniel Beaty, illustrated by Bryan Collier

by Diana Murray, illustrated by Bryan Collier
The Book Itch: Freedom, Truth & Harlem's Greatest Bookstore
by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by James E. Ransome

by Megan Dowd Lambert, illustrated by Nicole Tadgell

by Debbie Allen, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children
by Sandra L. Pinkney, illustrated by Myles C. Pinkney

by Theodore Taylor III, illustrated by Mahogany L. Browne

And a few bonus books to deepen understanding about why this list is necessary...

by Ibram X. Kendi, illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky

by bell hooks, illustrated by Chris Raschka

written and illustrated by Anastasia Higginbotham
Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship
by Irene Latham & Charles Waters, illustrated by Sean Qualls & Selina Alko

This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work

written by Tiffany Jewell, illustrated by Aurélia Durand

STAMPED: Racism, Antiracism, and You
A REMIX of the National Book Award winning STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING

written by Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi
Because Black Lives Matter.
*The books that were originally on the list that show positive, joyful representation of Black people, but removed during the edit to focus on Black creators, are listed below:
What is Hip Hop? Just Right: Searching for the Goldilocks Planet

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100 Picture Books Including Black People and Communities & Why You Need Them

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Update 6/5/2020: After seeing tweets from several Black educators/ authors/ scholars about the need to promote Black voices first and foremost in any work right now, it made me reconsider this list. Upon reflecting on my initial process for adding titles I recognize that it was a mistake to put together a list like this at this time for this purpose without consideration of who created the book.

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Beyond the Golden Rule: A Parent's Guide to Preventing and Responding to Prejudice

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Beyond the Golden Rule: A Parent's Guide to Preventing and Responding to Prejudice

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Having 'The Talk': Expert Guidance on Preparing Kids for Police Interactions

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Having 'The Talk': Expert Guidance on Preparing Kids for Police Interactions

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The 2014 killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald - the black teen shot 16 times by a white police officer - put a spotlight on the troubled relationship between the Chicago Police Department and the city's black communities.

The tension only amplified more than a year later when a dashcam video of that night was released, showing the teen walking away from police before the officer, Jason Van Dyke, began to fire. The video and conversations about that tragic event were everywhere - on TV, on social media and in homes across the country.

For questioner Mark Mesle, it inspired discussions about how kids should handle themselves when interacting with law enforcement and how parents of different races and backgrounds might prepare their children for those interactions. Mark noticed while his white friends didn't feel compelled to talk with their kids about such interactions, his black friends and coworkers saw this guidance as a necessary part of parenting.

So he asked Curious City if anybody has reported on the disparity between white and black conversations about handling yourself if the police stop you, or conducted a survey about how Chicagoans talk to their families about police based on race.

The answer to that question is no - there are no formal studies that quantify the differences in how these talks go among people with different racial backgrounds. But we know anecdotally (and through our own informal survey) that black parents are much more likely to have that discussion with their children, and that's because the stakes for those families are different. Black parents are more likely to fear for their kids' safety.

Here's what has been thoroughly documented: Black people, especially black males, are disproportionately affected by police shootings. Between 2010 and 2015, 80% of people shot by Chicago police were black, according to the most recent analysis by the Chicago Tribune - a group that constitutes about a third of the city's population.

That reality led Mark to wonder:
What should we say to our kids about how to interact with the police?
For that, we turned to a panel of experts: a child psychiatrist, a former public defender and a police officer - for their advice on how and when to have "the talk." And while the risk of a police interaction going wrong is significantly higher for black children, they told us it's information that all kids could benefit from knowing.

Adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Adrienne Clark says it's important for parents to be honest with their kids from an early age and to include more details as the child gets older.

She says that parents can start talking about these issues as early as age 6 when children start school.

"They're likely to hear about police incidents - they're on the news, and everyone is talking about these events when they happen," she says. "You want them to hear it from a trusted adult before hearing it from their peers and classmates."

For these younger children, Clark says books like Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story About Racial Injustice can help start the conversation. Published by the American Psychological Association, the story follows two families - one white and one black - as they discuss a police shooting of a black man in their community.

Here's more age-specific advice from Clark:
Talking about police by age School-Aged Children
Even if parents think their children are too young and innocent to be viewed as a threat, Clark says research from the American Psychological Association and others has shown that police are more likely to mistake black boys as young as 10 as older and less innocent, making them more likely to be face police violence if accused of a crime. That risk of a confrontation intensifies as kids mature into their teenage years and start to spend more time away from their families.

"So you might think, 'I'm 16; I'm playing around,'" Clark says. "But get them to understand: You might be perceived as an adult."

Teaching your children what they have the right to say - and not say - during a traffic stop can be key, says lawyer Patrice James. James is a former public defender and now works as the director of community justice at the Shriver Center on Poverty Law. She says it's fine for kids to give their names to an officer, but once the questions go beyond that, they should immediately ask for two things: a parent and a lawyer.

"It's when questions go beyond [their names] that there is reason to have concern," James says. "At that point, we are asking a child to decipher whether this is a safe question or not a safe question." And that, she says, is more than most kids should be responsible for.

But, James says, there's an easy and polite way to make that request that can help keep tensions from escalating.

"Say, 'I would feel more comfortable if my parents are here. I would like to call my parent, and I would like to have my lawyer present,'" James says. "Those two things should end the questioning."

But should your kids ask the officer if they, in fact, are under arrest? James says no, because they risk talking themselves into an arrest.

"It is so important to stop the questions as quickly as you can and as early in the questioning as you can," she says.

A Chicago police officer interviewed for this story suggests parents teach children to stay calm and cooperate with officers' requests. (Because he is a detective and often works undercover, we are refraining from using his name.)

Even if kids know they've done something wrong, he says, it is important for them to remain calm and compliant.

During a traffic stop, he also suggested teens (and others) follow these steps:

- Turn off the ignition.

- Roll down all of your windows - even if it's winter.

- Explain where your license, registration and insurance are before reaching for them.

The officer told us that, as a black father, he has had "the talk" with his own kids. And if they feel they are being treated unfairly, to deal with that later.

"What I tell my kids, and the children I teach, is just comply," he says. "If the police officer asks you to do something, roll down the window and give them whatever they ask. And if it's an unlawful order, there are systems set in place where that police officer will be held accountable for his actions."

If kids feel their rights were violated during a stop, he advises they take down the information they'll need to report them later.

"Every officer has a badge number, every car has a beat number," he says. "Even detective vehicles have license plates."

More about our questioner

Mark Mesle is a Chicagoan, a dad and outreach coordinator for the Midwest regional office of the National Parks Conservation Association. His question was inspired by a realization he had around the time of the release of the Laquan McDonald video.

"I've never had a conversation with other white parents about how to talk to our kids about how to handle themselves if they are pulled over by the police," he says. "But for my African American friends and colleagues, that is a part of their parenting experience, and for some of them, it was a part of the experience they had with their parents."

He said he hopes that a fuller understanding of the reasons behind this situation, and what black parents go through, will help create more empathy between Chicagoans.
Arionne Nettles is a lecturer at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and a former WBEZ digital producer. Follow her at Monica Eng is a reporter for Curious City. You can follow her Olivia Richardson, Jessica Pupovac and Mackenzie Crosson contributed to this story. . @arionnenettles.

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Having 'The Talk': Expert Guidance On Preparing Kids For Police Interactions

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The 2014 killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald - the black teen shot 16 times by a white police officer - put a spotlight on the troubled relationship between the Chicago Police Department and the city's black communities.

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Talking to Young Children About Race & Racism

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Talking to Young Children About Race & Racism

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Talking to Young Children About Race and Racism

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Here are tips, books, and resources to help you have meaningful conversations with young children about race, racism, and anti-racist behavior.

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Listening Circle on George Floyd & Protests

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Listening Circle on George Floyd & Protests

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Teacher Background

Discussing Upsetting Events with Young People

When upsetting events happen in the world, it can be helpful to give young people a chance to share their feelings and thoughts about them. While we adults may be tempted to avoid bringing up such news, if it is on students' minds, it's present in the classroom, whether we talk about it or not. When we create a safe, supportive space where students can share their thoughts and feelings about sensitive issues and events constructively, we can turn those events into powerful teachable moments, and foster a stronger sense of community among our students in the process.

Consider these guidelines for discussing difficult issues in your classroom: Teaching about Controversial or Difficult Issues.

Note: While all students are likely to be upset about this issue, students of color are carrying an extra emotional burden. Especially if Black and Brown students are in the minority in your class, you might consider facilitating an affinity circle for white students to process their feelings and increase their sensitivity on this issue before convening the whole group.

About the George Floyd Police Killing and Protests
George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed by police in Minneapolis on Monday May 25, 2020. Bystanders captured white police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, while three other police pinned him down, and bystanders pleaded with them to stop. In a video that circulated widely on social media, Floyd is heard repeatedly saying, "Please, please, please, I can't breathe," and "don't kill me." After being transported to a medical center, Floyd was pronounced dead.

The four police officers involved in the incident were fired. Five days after the killing, Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd's death. On June 3, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced that Chauvin would be charged with a more serious count of second-degree murder, and the three other officers would be charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

After George Floyd's killing, protests quickly erupted in Minneapolis, and have spread across the country. Protesters have decried the police's excessive use of force during Floyd's arrest - and the long history and pattern of police violence against unarmed Black men and women. They have demanded that all the officers involved be held accountable for the murder of Floyd.

Their calls for justice have been echoed by people across the country and the world. The UN's human rights chief condemned the killing, calling it the latest in "a long line of killings of unarmed African Americans by U.S. police officers and members of the public." Protests in the U.S. and elsewhere have called attention not only to the killing of George Floyd, but many other Black and Brown men and women. Most recently, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was killed when the police raided her apartment in Louisville in March. Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger, was shot and killed by two white men in Georgia on February 23.

Police in riot gear cracked down harshly on the protests in Minneapolis, using tear gas and rubber bullets. Many commentators compared this response to how law enforcement had reacted to protests in Michigan against the state's Covid-19 lockdown. In Michigan, white protesters, some of them armed, were allowed to flood the Capitol where a session was underway. Police stood quietly as protesters came within inches of them. At no point did they use force to push back the protesters or clear them from the space.

A few days after the killing of George Floyd, the protests escalated in Minneapolis, as some of the protesters set a police station ablaze, and other buildings as well. In a number of cities, protesters clashed with police.

Many of those protesting expressed not only rage, but exhaustion that after years of peaceful protests against police violence, Black men and women are still being targeted and killed. On May 28, an attorney for George Floyd's family, Benjamin Crump, issued a statement:

"I spoke with George Floyd's family this morning and they would like to thank all of the protesters for joining them in standing for JUSTICE. They know we're all hurting. They know that any decent human being who watches the video of the police killing their Gentle Giant by having his knee on his neck while he was handcuffed facedown will also feel a shortness of breath like George. They told me they want peace in Minneapolis, but they know that Black people want peace in their souls and that until we get #JusticeForFloyd there will be no peace. We also cannot sink to the level of our oppressors and we cannot endanger each other as we respond to the necessary urge to raise our voices in unison and in outrage. Looting and violence distract from the strength of our collective voice. To assuage this death and begin the community's healing, city and police leaders need to look at the culture they've created and ask the hard questions."

Before inviting students to share their reflections about the George Floyd killing and protests, familiarize yourself with the latest news. You might also invite students to read a particular article(s) about the events so that everyone has a common grounding.

Before the listening circle, come up with some prompts or questions you think would be appropriate for your particular students. Some possible prompts are below.

If the listening circle is helpful, consider facilitating more in the days to come.

Welcome students to the space, beginning with a check-in, if you haven't already connected.

Before you open up the topic, establish or review your class's guidelines for discussion or "community practices."

If the class is new to listening circles, explain the process: Listening circles give people (young people and adults) a chance to say what they are thinking and feeling, and can help engender mutual understanding and support. A listening circle allows time for participants to speak and to listen. It is not a time for discussion or dialogue. Rather, each person is invited to speak in response to a question or prompt. When a person is speaking, the others in the group should listen only and not interrupt.

For your virtual listening circle, post for all to see a list of the participants. People will have an opportunity to speak in that order.

Some guidelines for listening circles include:

It's okay to pass if you need more time to think or would rather not respond.

Speak from your own point of view.

Be your own barometer - share as much as you feel comfortable sharing.

Confidentiality is important. We need to agree that what we share among ourselves will stay private.

Next, provide an introduction to the issue. Say a little about the killing of Floyd George and the protests that have followed. Share that many of us have strong feelings about what has happened, as well as thoughts and reflections.
Listening
Invite each person in turn to share what they are thinking and feeling.

Give each person a few minutes to say whatever they want to say - or to pass. When one person is speaking, the others in the group should pay close attention but not comment. The circle is over after every person has had at least one chance to speak. Often going around the circle more than once allows those who pass on the first go-round to collect their thoughts and feelings so that they can share in the next round.

Possible prompts might be:

What thoughts might you want to share with George Floyd's friends and family right now?

What thoughts and feelings have you had about the police violence against George Floyd?

What thoughts and feelings have you had about the protests that have taken place?

What thoughts and feelings do you have about the police response to the protests?

What is one thing we could do - individually, as a group, or as a society - to show support for one another in the wake of these events?

What do you want to say about what is happening at this moment? What's on your mind?

What would you like to do for our community or the world to address this issue?

To bring the session to a close, you might invite students to share a reflection on a quote that is appropriate for their group. Three possibilities:

"My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together." (Desmond Tutu)

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress." (Frederick Douglass)

"My response to racism is anger. That anger has eaten clefts into my living only when it remained unspoken, useless to anyone." (Audre Lorde)

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Discussing Upsetting Events with Young People When upsetting events happen in the world, it can be helpful to give young people a chance to share their feelings and thoughts about them. While we adults may be tempted to avoid bringing up such news, if it is on students' minds, it's present in the classroom, whether we talk about it or not.

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Kojo for Kids: Jason Reynolds Talks about Racism and the Protests

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Kojo for Kids: Jason Reynolds Talks about Racism and the Protests

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In Washington, D.C. and other American cities, people are protesting police violence against people of color. The protesters, and many others too, are upset that black people in particular continue to die in encounters with police.

Best-selling YA author Jason Reynolds has grappled with racism personally and in his writing. The National Ambassador for Young People's Literature also recently co-authored a book for young people on fighting racism: Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You.

We've asked Jason Reynolds to join Kojo For Kids to help us understand what has led to the tensions we've seen over the last week, and to talk about why racism persists and what we can do to build a less racist society.
This show is part of the "Kojo For Kids" series, a Kojo Nnamdi Show segment featuring guests of special interest to young listeners. Though Kojo has been on WAMU 88.5 for 20 years, this is the first time he has had the opportunity to reach out to an audience of kids, most of whom until recently had been in school during our live broadcast. We're excited to hear from our youngest listeners! Join us! Produced by Lauren Markoe

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Kojo For Kids: Jason Reynolds Talks About Racism And The Protests - The Kojo Nnamdi Show

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Let's talk about why people are angry and what can we do about racism.

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Recognizing white privilege begins with truly understanding the term itself.

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A Call to Action for White Educators Who Seek to be Antiracist

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A Call to Action for White Educators Who Seek to be Antiracist

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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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How to Teach Children about Cultural Awareness and Diversity

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How to Teach Children about Cultural Awareness and Diversity

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Cultural Awareness for Kids | Parenting Tips & Advice

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Help your child understand and respect differences among those in your community. Foster cultural awareness for kids with resources from PBS KIDS for Parents.

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Race Talk: Engaging Young People in Conversations about Race and Racism

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Race Talk: Engaging Young People in Conversations about Race and Racism

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Race Talk: Engaging Young People in Conversations about Race and Racism

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As a society, public conversations about race and racism have increased in volume and intensity. Here are some suggestions and strategies for having classroom conversations with young people about these issues.

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Why Teaching Black Lives Matter Matters, Part 1

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Why Teaching Black Lives Matter Matters, Part 1

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For Trinity Thompson, the decision of whether or not to address high-profile killings of black people with her second-graders was a no-brainer. She was teaching in Harlem soon after Eric Garner was killed by a police officer in a nearby New York City borough.

"How do I respond to this?" Thompson recalls asking herself. "And then from there, it was like, How do I respond to this- again?" Each time news reports covered another black person dying at the hands of police, her students-most of whom were black-asked more and more difficult questions. A career-long social justice educator, Thompson was committed to a response that focused not only on the problem, but also on how people were resisting it and seeking solutions.

And that meant teaching second-graders about Black Lives Matter (BLM).

She knew it was risky. When the Black Lives Matter movement comes up in conversation, it is often characterized in one of two ways: as the work of strategic activists drawing attention to and combating issues that harm black people, black communities and humanity at large, or as a movement marked by violent outbursts and driven by an exclusionary, racist, anti-police agenda.

This split gives some educators pause when it comes to teaching about BLM. Others embrace the topic, recognizing it as an opportunity to teach about collective action and to link past racial justice movements to the present. But all educators, by virtue of the fact that their students have either direct or mediated exposure to Black Lives Matter, should know the basic facts about the movement's central beliefs and practices.

Not all of us are like Thompson; the students who sit in front of us daily are not always directly affected by the killing of unarmed black people or any of the other injustices that plague our nation. But as teachers who function as caretakers, truth-seekers and advocates of justice, we can acknowledge how the threat of justice in one community is, to borrow from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a threat to justice in every community. We have a civic responsibility to be educated about Black Lives Matter and, as we learn, we must teach.

The Beginning and the Hashtag

The Black Lives Matter movement began with a commitment to ending police brutality and state-sanctioned violence and injustice against black people. It is also dedicated to affirming black people's "contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression," according to its founders. The movement was started by three black women-Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi-following the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman, a Florida man who had shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, the preceding year. Garza took to social media the night of that acquittal, stating in part, "Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter." A year later, Michael Brown, another unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri; the officer was not indicted. Shortly thereafter, the internet was filled with messages of outcry and support that included #BlackLivesMatter.

Since the Ferguson action in 2014, BLM has taken shape as a multichapter national organization; 37 chapters currently operate in the United States, one in Canada. Many BLM chapters and other organizations that embrace the movement mobilize people to demonstrate in communities where police shootings have occurred and to convene at large gatherings-such as political rallies-to bring awareness to police brutality. The website of the original group, blacklivesmatter.com, also lists other types of local and national events, such as teach-ins, panels and Twitter chats, and encourages organizers to submit their own events.

In an October 2016 interview with TEDWomen, Cullors explained what the movement means to her.

"Black Lives Matter is our call to action. It is a tool to a reimagined world where black people are free to exist, free to live. It is a tool for our allies to show up differently for us," she said. "I grew up in a neighborhood that was heavily policed. I witnessed my brothers and my siblings continuously stopped and frisked by law enforcement. I remember my home being raided. And one of the questions, as a child, I had was why? Why us? Black Lives Matter offers answers to the why."

Myths and Criticisms

People who don't follow Black Lives Matter usually become aware of the movement when news sites report on BLM actions or protests. What many people don't realize is that the leadership also embraces policy change and legislation as necessary elements to end oppression of black people-and that the work and the leadership are not limited to the Black Lives Matter network.

One common misconception about the BLM movement is that it is leaderless. But there isn't one leader; there are many. "BLM is composed of many local leaders and many local organizations including Black Youth Project 100, the Dream Defenders, the Organization for Black Struggle, Hands Up United, Millennial Activists United, and the Black Lives Matter national network," organizers explain on the website. "We demonstrate through this model that the movement is bigger than any one person."

Another misconception is that the movement is solely a mechanism for protest. In fact, the many people and organizations with agendas and goals that overlap and align with BLM have produced detailed policy demands and proposals for institutional reforms. Campaign Zero, for example, outlines a list of policy proposals largely focused on ending police brutality. It is a strategy for addressing one of the most visible, damaging and deadly symptoms of systemic racism. The Movement for Black Lives, a collective of more than 50 organizations, advances a platform covering six areas of domestic-policy reform, including economic justice and investment in equitable education and health care instead of criminalization and incarceration.

Many people, however, view the BLM movement as violent, seeking to "sow a racial divide" and intent on interrupting the work of police officers commissioned to protect and serve the public. For example, Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, said in a television interview that the movement is "inherently racist" and "divides us." He further stated, "They don't mean 'black lives matter'; they mean 'let's agitate against the police matters.'"

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Why Teaching Black Lives Matter Matters | Part I

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For Trinity Thompson, the decision of whether or not to address high-profile killings of black people with her second-graders was a no-brainer. She was teaching in Harlem soon after Eric Garner was killed by a police officer in a nearby New York City borough. "How do I respond to this?"

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Ed Leadership

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November 2016 | Volume 74 | Number 3
Disrupting Inequity Pages 16-22

Rick Wormeli

We all build our own version of the human story and our role in it. We proceed daily, sure that our truth is the truth, then someone commits a horrific act of inhumanity that shreds our careful constructs. Then, it happens again, and again-and again, just as it did this past year with the multiple deaths of black men after interactions with police-and then the deaths of police officers.

The normal tools of interpretation and comfort seem to be gone. Who would think that in a caring, thoughtful democracy, we needed a large political movement to remind police officers-and all citizens-of the simple truth that black lives matter? Who would think that when a police officer was asked why he shot an autistic man's caretaker-who was lying with his hands in the air asking officers not to shoot-he'd answer, "I don't know" (Rabin, 2016)?

The violence among U.S. residents of different colors, cultures, religions, and political groups has heated to new levels. Social media may have exacerbated the divisive rhetoric and fanned the flames of hatred more than in past decades, but the intense distrust and contempt, and the inability to resolve these feelings in a civil manner, didn't start with social media. They are the new normal for many.

Rather than give in to the helplessness we feel to stop racism and our collective, civic hemorrhage, every institution must examine its own role in perpetuating (inadvertently and advertently) racist thinking and policies. We can't truly create equal opportunities for all until our institutions take specific actions to end that thinking and those policies. And ground zero for an equitable, nonracist society is the K-12 classroom.

Before we consider recent examples of racism and how it affects all Americans, let's be clear: No one is born racist. Racism is learned. Just as important, racism is not insurmountable.

What We're Up Against

In response to a recent Pew Research Center report that showed white and black Americans aren't on the same page about issues of poverty and racism, blogger Rob Wile (2016) noted, "While most black people think that higher levels of poverty and lower levels of economic mobility in their communities are the fault of America's legacy of systematic racism and under-investment, more white people are content to blame black people themselves."

Five years ago, I was giving a day-long presentation to a group of teachers in the United States. During a morning break, I overheard one woman say to another, "When we get that darkie out of the White House, we'll get this country back the way it should be." The other woman replied, "You got that right."

Refusal to respect other cultures isn't confined to interactions between blacks and whites. On commercial flights, passengers dressed in Muslim clothing who are texting on their phones have been asked to leave the plane because they are making other passengers uncomfortable. And some of my Hispanic students have told me their parents have been shadowed by security personnel as they shop at stores.

Imagine if, at a dinner celebrating local Cub Scouts and their achievements, the adult leader asked everyone to bow his or her head for a word of prayer before the meal. Then he prayed into the microphone, "Praise and glory be to You, O Allah. There is no God but You. Praise be to God, Lord of the Universe, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful!" If this happened in most American Cub Scout packs, people of Christian, Jewish, and other faiths or no faiths would be offended that they were forced to bow their heads and listen to something foreign to their beliefs.

My family experienced something similar at a Cub Scout dinner. The pre-dinner prayer was full of Christian references like, "Through the one and only God, Jesus, our guiding savior, we are redeemed and made whole." This was in a diverse area near Washington, D.C., with a Scout pack full of Muslims, Jews, and people of other faiths as well as Christians. Imagine those non-Christian families' reactions to such a prayer.

I asked the leader if there might be a more inclusive prayer we could offer. She dismissed the concern. As I looked around the room at the faces of many parents and children, I saw the real lesson learned: You don't belong.

Not all disrespect and conflict is purely about race. Religious, cultural, and racial differences interweave. Stark differences result in fervent debate and divisiveness among Christians as well as among Muslims and Jews. Racism, however, is among the most insidious and deepest-running challenges of our time.

Moving Beyond Silence

Clearly, Americans must begin talking candidly together about race-starting now. We don't need to justify having focused conversations about racism in schools. I'm bothered by my own silence at times as I witness racism. After I overheard the comment about "that darkie [in] the White House," I didn't confront these women. It wasn't a proud moment; in my silence, there was tacit acceptance of racist thinking.

I'm upset at my silence about racist statements and behaviors by others that I've heard about but not witnessed personally. It might seem that because the incidents are second-hand, I'm absolved from speaking out against them. Yet, how do I reconcile that silence with my belief that each of us is free only if everyone is free? As Nelson Mandela (1995) wrote, "Freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them, the chains on all of my people were the chains on me. ... The oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed" (p. 624).

Besides the stunning cruelty of racism, letting it fester serves no one, not even the predominant group. We're in this together. It's ironic, then, that we focus on labeling differences among us, particularly whether those differences are negative or positive. For example, if a teacher looks at the students before her at the beginning of the school year, it's likely she will wonder who are going to be the easiest ones to teach. Isn't the one we assume to be easy to teach the student who most reflects our own culture, or the one who looks similar to a student from last year we enjoyed teaching? We're already sorting according to built-in biases. When we wonder who'll be the hardest to teach, we often guess the students who don't look like anyone we've taught before.

Humans have built-in "other"-isms in order to protect ourselves. We categorize people in terms of ourselves and, in many cases, interpret differences from us in a negative way. ( That music they play in their homes is annoying! Can't they eat less disgusting food?) We might even think, How sad. My neighbor who worships at a different church doesn't understand the higher truth. Or for easy identification, we might resort to caricatures, versions that emphasize one or two attributes we think a cultural group has. ( All Asians are gifted mathematicians. White people who live in trailers are alcoholics.)

Principles for Brave Conversations

I sometimes question whether white educators can accept that institutionalized racism exists and whether they can do so without succumbing to paralyzing guilt about their complicity in racism's growth or becoming so overwhelmed that they give up. I sometimes question whether black teachers and parents can embrace white teachers and parents who want to do right. Can they accept whites' sincere efforts to work together to end racist practices, even if they stumble or are unintentionally offensive?

But we have to try talking with one another, because biases and quick categorizations about people who are different from us are expressions of our limited experiences with them. Such categorizations are a slippery slope into classism and racism. With more experiences with others, we flesh people out in our minds and become comfortable with them. When we spend time with quadriplegics, for instance, we come to see them as individuals first, persons with paralyzed limbs a distant second. People with a hardened stance against LGBTQ rights soften when a member of their family reveals he is homosexual.

Yet talking about racism is uncomfortable. We avoid such conversations in schools because it could stir things up that we're unprepared to handle. We might lose friends or colleagues for a while-or longer. Or we're so afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing or appearing racist that we cripple constructive opportunities to talk about race and resolve conflicts. By approaching one another with good faith and caring, we can ease these fears. As Howard Stevenson (2014) writes,

Students, teachers, parents, and educators must expect, receive, and give affection (nurturing), protection (monitoring), and correction (accountability) while they take risks to become aware of and learn to resolve racial stress and conflict in daily social interactions. Without these ingredients, the risks of racial avoidance will be too great, and the improvement of race relations and racial climates within schools too arduous to complete.

Reviewing and agreeing on the principles below can help us have candid discussions about racism with our students-or among fellow educators.

▪ Assume that, at any given moment in the conversation, the other person is doing the best he or she can. Chances are, it's true.

▪ Forgive yourself and others for making mistakes, including inexact wording, muddled thinking, or unintended use of stereotypes.

▪ Suppress hidden agendas and the urge to preach or politicize.

▪ Remain nonaccusatory when you see things differently from another. Use phrases like, "It's been my experience that ___," "Tell me more about___," or "How did faculty at your last school respond to ___?"

▪ Seek first to understand, then to be understood (Covey, 2013).

▪ If you disagree with someone, paraphrase that person's point before responding. It helps him know that his comments were heard and considered.

▪ Avoid language that blames ("If it weren't for white people. ..." "They're always speaking Spanish together, so they must not want me around." "You're blind to white privilege.") Blaming thwarts honest conversation.

▪ Don't ask anyone to speak for a whole race if there's only one student or colleague in the group from a particular culture or race.

▪ Acknowledge that candid conversation makes us all vulnerable. Teachers' inner selves are on view daily by many constituencies-students, parents, administrators, and the general public. They are also subject to self-doubts and high expectations of professionalism. As a result, they may be hesitant to open those vulnerability gates too widely.

▪ Avoid associating the quality of a colleague's teaching with exploratory comments offered in conversation about racism. A peer can be a neophyte in such conversations, but effective in the classroom.

The questions in Figure 1 can help start robust conversations in school communities. As to how to launch these discussions, I don't recommend starting conversations on racism at a large faculty meeting. This often results in side conversations, cross-talking, and "knowing" glances passed among people, and personal buttons may be pushed. In large gatherings, many voices and perspectives don't get heard (in fact, a few teachers might hijack the conversation with their own agendas). A thoughtful exploration of issues involving racism in the school is better started in groups of no more than six. Build to a larger group experience after conversation skills have developed.

Figure 1. Questions to Start Faculty Discussions About Racism

Does racism exist in our schools? What does it sound or look like?

What would it take to create a truly race-neutral society? Do we want this?

Am I racist? Why, or why not? Am I open to others' critique when it comes to how I relate to other races?

Does the rise of certain groups' influence-Latino, Jewish, white, Muslim, or whatever-mean a decline in other groups' well-being? If people say yes, discuss whether this represent a "zero sum" mindset. Is this a mindset we want to communicate to students?

How can we counter negative stereotypes?

Are we responsible for teaching students and colleagues to recognize and confront racism?

What should we do when we inadvertently do or say something racist?

What do we communicate to the parents of our minority students about our expectations for their children?

How are we battling the student opinion that academic proficiency is inherently white?

Do we have a disproportionate number of administrative referrals for our minority students?

Choose faculty to lead these conversations who are good at making sure each voice is heard and valued. Give these leaders time to brainstorm constructive responses or strategies to diffuse any (intentionally and unintentionally) incendiary comments. If a point becomes particularly contentious, for instance, participants might record their thinking on index cards and pass them to the facilitator to read aloud. Dozens of books and websites on group facilitation provide helpful tips on small-group dynamics. For conversing on racism, I particularly recommend Ali Michael's Raising Race Questions: Whiteness and Inquiry in Education (Teachers College Press, 2014) and Howard Stevenson's Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools: Differences That Make a Difference (Teachers College Press, 2013).

Informing Our Conversations

To build a climate where such discussions bear fruit, we should immerse students and ourselves in learning experiences that will positively inform conversations about race. Lack of awareness about other races rarely helps a difficult conversation; it leads to misunderstandings, limited sharing, hurt feelings, and eventually, a discussion's demise. Experiences like these will help us sustain difficult interactions-and bring equal opportunity to students from nonmainstream cultures.

▪ Use fiction and nonfiction that will open students to different worlds, help them see situations from different perspectives, and build empathy.

▪ Try simulations and role-playing in which students can approximate the perspectives of others, but be sensitive to the fact that some of us can leave the role at the end of the learning experience. Anyone from a minority race or oppressed group can't slip out of the challenges at the end of the day: They live with them 24-7.

▪ Have your class regularly think about a contentious issue from one prevailing perspective, then give them 20 minutes to argue the same issue from the opposite perspective. Working with partners can help.

▪ Practice responses to scenarios involving racism. What should a teacher or student do if someone says something that might be perceived as racist? For instance, in a class discussion about the economy of the South during the Civil War, one student blurts out, "I wouldn't mind having slaves around to help me get a lot of work done!" (Stevenson, 2014). A thoughtful teacher might say something like, "Tobey, consider how someone coming from a culture severely traumatized by slave masters would hear your words just now. How would they feel about your comment about slavery? Would you like to rephrase your statement?" By rehearsing successful responses, we can create a picture of ourselves responding to an instance of racism, which increases the likelihood that we will respond.

▪ Hold students accountable immediately for racist statements and behaviors. You can do so in ways that let the student repair damage: "Terry, I know you're not naturally a racist thinker. Check your statement again: Is there anything there that could be construed as racist?" If a student consistently makes racially insensitive comments and needs a nonhumiliating boost in executive function skills-which is where much of the filtering of impulsive, inappropriate comments resides-you might videotape class discussions from time to time. In a private moment away from classmates, cue up the video to a place showing inappropriate comments from this student and ask him or her, "What did you say here? Look at the body language, faces, and responses from your classmates. Did you read the situation correctly? How could you have made a completely different comment that would demonstrate respect for people of color?"

▪ Talk to students about what you believe about race and equity. Successful teachers aren't afraid of teaching a community's values; they are not indifferent. It's important to model for students a vision of adults standing up for what they think is morally right. With racism, there is little ambiguity; intentional or unintentional discrimination against a person or group based on race or culture is against the law.

▪ Teach skills of debate and civil discourse, using materials from Teaching Tolerance, the National Speech and Debate Association, and the National Institute for Civil Discourse.

▪ Don't just skim information on the Civil Rights movement and its leaders, and don't limit its study to Black History Month. Give it full attention throughout the school year. Study more than just the struggles of black Americans. Civil Rights isn't just about equitable treatment for one group.

▪ Share news stories that surface racism in the local community and in national politics. Have students investigate school or community racism, if appropriate.

▪ Empower students to do something about racism in the media (and social media) when they see it, such as writing letters, making presentations, or analyzing a racist's arguments.

▪ Expose students to artworks and contributions by many different cultures and races and let them respond personally to those artifacts.

▪ Teach students and teachers to recognize and control micro-aggressions-the small, seemingly nonracist things people do, say, and think that are hurtful and may betray unconscious racism or bias. Examples include: avoiding eye contact with students outside our culture; telling a student her math work is excellent for a student who comes from such a poor background; demeaning service industry jobs or any job perceived as being done primarily by minorities ("If you don't study, you might wind up as a taxi driver"); and using language like saying black youths "rioted and turned violent," whereas white youths "protested unfair treatment."

▪ Have students write personal reflections about racial tension. Discuss how much people filter their language in trying to say it just the right way.

Securing a Nonracist Future

Part of our job as educators is to secure a nonracist future, so our response to racism in our schools must be clear and compassionate. Settling for indifference exacerbates the problem. And we can't afford to leave anyone out of this conversation. For instance, I'm a white male, so some people might think, How could he possibly understand this enough to be helpful? Some might even dismiss my ideas because of my race alone. Think about that idea-that because of my race, I have nothing of value to add to the community discussion on racism-and you'll see it's misguided. Every one of us is touched by racism. We all have a stake in positive race relations.

A conversation needs only two people. Let's each identify, today, one person on our faculty with whom we're willing to initiate a conversation on racism, regardless of the make-up of our student body or faculty. Whole futures are at stake-ours. Together, we are powerful.

▪ Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Spiegel & Grau, 2015)

▪ Raising Race Questions: Whiteness and Inquiry in Education by Ali Michael (Teachers College Press, 2014)

▪ Scarcity: The New Science of Having Less and How It Defines Our Lives by Sendhil Mullainathan (Picador, 2014)

▪ Dream Makers, Dream Breakers: The World of Justice Thurgood Marshall by Carl T. Rowan (Back Bay Books, 1993)

▪ What's Race Got to Do with It? How Current School Reform Policy Maintains Racial and Economic Inequity edited by Edwin Mayorga and Bree Picower (Peter Lang Publishers, 2015)

▪ Reading for Their Life: (Re)Building the Textual Lineages of African American Adolescent Males by Alfred W. Tatum (Heinemann, 2009)

References

Covey, S. (2013). Seven habits of highly effective people. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Mandela, N. (1995). Long walk to freedom: The autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Boston: Back Bay Books.

Rabin, C. (2016, July 20). Cop shoots caretaker of autistic man playing in the street with toy truck. Miami Herald. Retrieved from www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article90905442.html

Stevenson, H. (2014). Promoting racial literacy in schools: Differences that make a difference. New York: Teachers College Press.

Wile, R. (2016, June 27). White people don't blame racism for black people's struggles. They blame black people. [blog post] Retrieved from Fusion at www.fusion.net/story/319381/black-white-gap-on-black-struggle/

Rick Wormeli ( www.rickwormeli.com) is a long-time teacher, consultant, and author of The Collected Writings (So Far) of Rick Wormeli: Crazy, Good Stuff I Learned about Teaching Along the Way (2013) and Summarization in Any Subject (ASCD, 2004). Follow him on Twitter.

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November 2016 | Volume 74 | Number 3 Disrupting Inequity Pages 16-22 Rick Wormeli We all build our own version of the human story and our role in it. We proceed daily, sure that our truth is the truth, then someone commits a horrific act of inhumanity that shreds our careful constructs.

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Dena Simmons

As a social and emotional learning (SEL) practitioner-scholar, I am fortunate to get invitations to support schools and districts all over the United States. When schools and districts learn that I address SEL within the larger sociopolitical context, integrating culturally responsive and SEL practices to ensure equitable student outcomes, some are excited. Too many, however, insist that there is no need to discuss equity or culturally responsive practices; their school population is mostly white. The pushback at these schools reveals an underlying discomfort with talking about race, identity, and difference in our nation's classrooms. I worry about the marginalized students and educators in these schools who are either expected to do the brunt of the race and equity work or who are likely struggling silently.

We cannot afford to wallow in our discomfort regarding issues of race and equity. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported an overwhelming 3,265 incidents of hate or bias in schools throughout the nation in the fall of 2018 alone. I, too, have experienced racial trauma at many of the education institutions where I've worked or studied. Educators have an obligation to confront the harm of racism. That is why we must commit to becoming antiracist educators and to preparing our young people to be antiracist, too. I recommend five actions for teaching for an antiracist future.

1. Engage in Vigilant Self-Awareness

People who are white or perceived as white have more privilege and fewer barriers to resources than Black people and other people of color. If we do not know our power, we can abuse it unintentionally or fail to leverage it toward antiracism. Constant self-reflection enhances our ability to disrupt white privilege when we see or enact it. Some questions to ask yourself include

How does your identity provide or prevent access to necessary resources?

How does your power and privilege show up in your work with students, take up space, or silence others?

What single narratives are you telling yourself about students, and how does that affect grading, behavior management, and other interactions?

Do you and the academic materials you use uphold whiteness or lift up the voices and experiences of people of color?

Studies show that Eurocentric values and content dominate U.S. schooling, so these reflection questions are also relevant to educators of color who may have internalized negative messages about Black or Brown people.

2. Acknowledge Racism and the Ideology of White Supremacy

When we let our discomfort or ignorance shield us from recognizing our country's racist history and present, we are part of the problem. Failing to acknowledge racism not only erases histories, cultures, and identities, but also ignores ongoing differential treatment based on race. For example, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos ignored three decades of research showing students of color are disciplined more harshly than white students when she decided to rescind Obama-era guidelines aimed at discipline equity. In addition, schools and districts have spoon-fed lessons on grit to mostly students of color, suggesting that we must "fix" them by making them grittier so that they can adapt to-rather than disrupt-racism and inequality in schools.

Acknowledging the social construct of race and racism and the ideology of white supremacy recognizes the problem so that we are not harmful in our ignorance and so that, together, we can strive for solutions. For educators of color, the work means continuing to call out racism and recruiting white coconspirators to join in antiracist work.

3. Study and Teach Representative History

No matter what subject you teach, history (including African American history, which is U.S. history) is important. Knowing our country's whole history helps us make sense of how our current education system perpetuates inequity.

For too long, we have taught U.S. history devoid of a true depiction of Black excellence and have focused on erasing the truth of racial oppression and uplifting whiteness. Our curriculum superficially talks about slavery and civil rights (notably, textbook provider McGraw-Hill called enslaved Africans "immigrants" and "workers"), and teaching practices risk traumatizing Black students by enacting mock slave auctions, slave games, and underground railroad games. Alternately, resources such as Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s PBS documentary series on Reconstruction or The New York Times Magazine's 1619 Project provide a comprehensive opportunity to learn and discuss history and race with colleagues and students. The Zinn Education Project and Rethinking Schools also have teaching materials that explore topics like the Tulsa race riots and colonization.

4. Talk About Race with Students

The educators I work with are mostly white (which matches the lack of teacher diversity on a national level) and often share that they do not feel comfortable talking about race. But when we shy away from open conversations about race with young people, we sow the seeds of prejudice by inadvertently sending the message that something is wrong with people from another race.

To open up conversations with young people, use stories from history and literature as a starting point, and ask students to take on the perspective of a character about whom they are reading. Reading literature and role-playing enhance empathy and other social cognitive skills. Teaching Tolerance's resource, "Let's Talk: Discussing Race, Racism, and Other Difficult Topics," includes suggestions for working through discomfort. The Educational Leadership article " Helping Students Discuss Race Openly" also has a great list of steps to begin the conversation. (And the September 2019 issue of this newsletter includes guidance from educator Liz Kleinrock on how to lead students through challenging topics like race.)

5. When You See Racism, Do Something

We have to fight against racism-and other isms and phobias. All students deserve to live and learn in the comfort of their own skin. To combat racism, consider how the academic resources, policies, admissions, hiring, grading, and behavior management practices at your school might be racist. Whom do the practices and policies benefit and whom do they disadvantage? Are Black people and other people of color disproportionately affected negatively by disciplinary, pedagogical, and administrative practices? For example, what hours are family-teacher conferences held? Which families are excluded from these hours? Which students are most disciplined based on dress code or physical appearance? In 2018, a high school wrestler was forced to cut his locks because the referee argued that his hair was not compliant with regulations. Ask yourself whether a particular "rule" is applied to all people or just to some. Engage in vigilant awareness of your implicit bias to ensure that you are not part of the problem, too.

Most important, when we see racism-whether at the individual or policy level-we must have the courage to act. White Fragility author Robin DiAngelo provides guidance for engaging in gentle but firm conversations with offenders that prevents the defensiveness that race conversations inspire. Share data on specific practices and use stories to humanize the data. Build partnerships with racial-justice organizations in your communities to integrate their work in teaching and learning. Form a taskforce to assess data, policies, and practices with an antiracist lens to disrupt systemic decisions that historically have disenfranchised people of color. Be mindful that these efforts should not be carried solely by the people of color in your school, who are living and struggling with racism on a daily basis.

Shape an Antiracist Future

In his book How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi writes, "The opposite of racist isn't 'not racist.' It is 'anti-racist.' ... One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of 'not racist'" (p. 9). Teaching for an antiracist future starts with us, the educators. An antiracist educator actively works to dismantle the structures, policies, institutions, and systems that create barriers and perpetuate race-based inequities for people of color. Educating students to see and respect the humanity and dignity of all people should be a national imperative, especially if we want to heal-and have a future-as a nation.

Dena Simmons (@DenaSimmons) supports schools throughout the nation to build social and emotional learning, culturally responsive practices, and equity ( www.denasimmons.com). She is the author of the forthcoming book White Rules for Black People (St. Martin's Press). Her views are her own.

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Dena Simmons As a social and emotional learning (SEL) practitioner-scholar, I am fortunate to get invitations to support schools and districts all over the United States. When schools and districts learn that I address SEL within the larger sociopolitical context, integrating culturally responsive and SEL practices to ensure equitable student outcomes, some are excited.

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7 Reminders for White Parents Talking to their Kids about Police Killing Black People

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7 Reminders for White Parents Talking to their Kids about Police Killing Black People

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As a White parent of White kids, ignoring the police slayings of Black people and other people of color could be easy. However, as a halfway decent person who wants to raise kids who are not monsters, I believe that as White people, talking to kids about White privilege and what is happening in this country to people of color is essential. I know it can be difficult to know what to say to kids and how to talk to them about these events, but we must. Here are some tips that have worked with my kids, but of course all families and kids are different, so use what's useful and discard the rest.

1. Remember Your Privilege.

Many White parents are scared that talking about police killings will traumatize their children. I can relate to this fear, but it is important for White parents to remember that this conversation is nothing compared to the conversations Black families have to have. We need to prioritize creating White co-conspirators/allies and be constantly aware that other families are being torn apart by the police and the prison industrial complex. For us, parents of White kids, the stakes are really low and while we don't want to traumatize our kids on purpose, if we are really going to try to work for a more just world, it is a small price to pay.

2. Kids are Weirdos

Another note on being scared about traumatizing kids: Kids are little awesome weirdos, and they tend to be traumatized by things that you would never imagine and take other things in stride. For example, I watch tons of true crime shows and my kids have no issues with it, but if deer are in the backyard, my oldest son loses it. While, of course, talking about police killing Black folks indiscriminately should elicit some strong emotions in kids, having feelings about the horrible things happening in the world is not a bad thing, it's part of being human.

3. Don't Forget to Focus on Black Resistance

If you just focus only on the ways that Black people are being victimized you may leave kids with the feeling that White people need to "save" them, and that is obviously not what you want the takeaway to be. Black people have survived and fought against continuous threats to their survival in this country and continue to be the primary force working against racism and other injustices. The Black Lives Matter network and the Movement for Black Lives are great places to start, and you can also give kids some concrete ideas of things you can do together as a family to support Black-led movements. However, it's also important that you talk about the resistance movements of the past such as the fight against slavery, the civil rights movements, and the Black Power movement. Make sure you include the endless examples of Black resistance and resilience.

4. Kids Understand Unfairness

Thinking about having these conversations with young children may seem daunting, but you may be surprised at how quickly they understand. Kids are often more attuned to inequality and unfairness than adults. Children are naturally attuned to justice. If you ever doubt that, try giving siblings a different amount of candy. Though this is much more serious, it is also very simple: Black people are treated unfairly with consequences up to and including death.

5. Kids Also Know About Death

Kids at different ages have different understandings of death, but even at 3 or 4, they understand that death exists, though they may not understand it is permanent. Either way, talking about people being killed is something that kids will have some kid-type concept of already, and they will likely be able to fit this new information into what they already know.

6. Make Showing Up An Expectation

In our family, we have set the expectation that our kids should say something or do something to combat racism whenever possible. This can be complicated and nuanced as a White person of any age, and we all mess up sometimes, but they must understand that doing nothing in the face of injustice is not acceptable. Older kids will probably learn about bullying and not being someone who allows bullying to go on in their presence. This framework has given us an easy way to talk about what we expect from them, but we also talk about the importance of following the lead of the people most affected.

7. No Matter What-Keep Talking

White privilege, racism, and police brutality are not conversations you can have once and stop there. Unfortunately, you can use plenty of instances in the news as a jumping off point for these conversations. Even if conversations don't go quite as you planned, make sure to keep talking to your kids. They may not understand everything right now, but as they get older they will slowly get it.

It cannot be stressed enough how easy we, as White people, have it and how much racial privilege we have. I'm extremely open to hearing any critiques or comments about this list. As White parents, we are given an easy opportunity to help to make change. No one who cares about justice can afford to keep quiet.

This article was originally published by The Body Is Not An Apology. It has been edited for YES! Magazine.

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7 Reminders for White Parents Talking to Their Kids About Police Killing Black People - Yes! Magazine

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As a White parent of White kids, ignoring the police slayings of Black people and other people of color could be easy. However, as a halfway decent person who wants to raise kids who are not monsters, I believe that as White people, talking to kids about White privilege and what is happening in this country to people of color is essential.