Anti-Racism Resources

The New Jim Crow
by Michelle Alexander

The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community—and all of us—to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America.

Black Like Me
by John Howard Griffin

In the Deep South of the 1950’s, a color line was etched in blood across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Journalist John Howard Griffin decided to cross that line. Using medication that darkened his skin to deep brown, he exchanged his privileged life as a Southern white man for the disenfranchised world of an unemployed black man.

Policing the Black Man
by Angela Davis

Policing the Black Man explores and critiques the many ways the criminal justice system impacts the lives of African American boys and men at every stage of the criminal process, from arrest through sentencing.

Rise of the Warrior Cop
by Radley Balko

The last days of colonialism taught America’s revolutionaries that soldiers in the streets bring conflict and tyranny. As a result, our country has generally worked to keep the military out of law enforcement. But according to investigative reporter Radley Balko, over the last several decades, America’s cops have increasingly come to resemble ground troops. The consequences have been dire: the home is no longer a place of sanctuary, the Fourth Amendment has been gutted, and police today have been conditioned to see the citizens they serve as an other-an enemy.

Who Do You Serve, Who Do you Protect
by Maya Schenwar

What is the reality of policing in the United States? Do the police keep anyone safe and secure other than the very wealthy? How do recent police killings of young black people in the United States fit into the historical and global context of anti-blackness?

They Can’t Kill Us All
by Wesley Lowery

A deeply reported book that brings alive the quest for justice in the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray, offering both unparalleled insight into the reality of police violence in America and an intimate, moving portrait of those working to end it.

White Fragility
by Robin Diangelo

Exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.

White Rage
by Carol Anderson

As Ferguson, Missouri, erupted in August 2014, and media commentators across the ideological spectrum referred to the angry response of African Americans as ‘black rage’, historian Carol Anderson wrote a remarkable op-ed in the Washington Post showing that this was, instead, ‘white rage at work. With so much attention on the flames,’ she wrote, ‘everyone had ignored the kindling.’

Just Mercy
by Bryan Stevenson

Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever.

Rising Out of Hatred
by Eli Saslow

Rising Out of Hatred tells the story of how white-supremacist ideas migrated from the far-right fringe to the White House through the intensely personal saga of one man who eventually disavowed everything he was taught to believe, at tremendous personal cost.

Black Stats
by Monique Morris

Black Stats—a comprehensive guide filled with contemporary facts and figures on African Americans—is an essential reference for anyone attempting to fathom the complex state of our nation.

The Central Park Five
by Sarah Burns

On April 20th, 1989, two passersby discovered the body of the “Central Park jogger” crumpled in a ravine. She’d been raped and severely beaten. Within days five black and Latino teenagers were apprehended, all five confessing to the crime. The staggering torrent of media coverage that ensued, coupled with fierce public outcry, exposed the deep-seated race and class divisions in New York City at the time. The minors were tried and convicted as adults despite no evidence linking them to the victim. Over a decade later, when DNA tests connected serial rapist Matias Reyes to the crime, the government, law enforcement, social institutions and media of New York were exposed as having undermined the individuals they were designed to protect.

White Like Me
by Tim Wise

this deeply personal polemic reveals how racial privilege shapes the daily lives of white Americans in every realm: employment, education, housing, criminal justice, and elsewhere.

Fire Shut Up In My Bones
by Charles Blow

Charles M. Blow’s mother was a fiercely driven woman with five sons, brass knuckles in her glove box, and a job plucking poultry at a factory near their segregated Louisiana town, where slavery’s legacy felt close. When her philandering husband finally pushed her over the edge, she fired a pistol at his fleeing back, missing every shot, thanks to “love that blurred her vision and bent the barrel.” Charles was the baby of the family, fiercely attached to his “do-right” mother. Until one day that divided his life into Before and After—the day an older cousin took advantage of the young boy. The story of how Charles escaped that world to become one of America’s most innovative and respected public figures is a stirring, redemptive journey that works its way into the deepest chambers of the heart.

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racism
by Ibram X. Kendi

The National Book Award-winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society.

How to be an AntiRacist
by Ibram X. Kendi

Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism—and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other.

Me and White Supremacy
by Layla Saad

A 28-Day Challenge to Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor leads readers through a journey of understanding their white privilege and participation in white supremacy so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on black, indigenous and people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou

The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Songs and an Unlikely Road to Manhood
by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Fire Next Time
by James Baldwin

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele

High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America
by Dr. Jessica B. Harris

The Cooking Gene: A Journey through African American Culinary History in the Old South 
by Michael Twitty

The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks
by Toni Tipton-Martin

Black Food Geographies: Race, Self-Reliance, and Food Access in Washington, D.C. 
by Ashanté M. Reese

Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement 
by Monica M. White

An African American and Latinx History of the United States 
by Paul Oritz

Blackballed: The Black Vote and U.S. Democracy 
by Darryl Pinckney

Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class 
by Ian Haney Lópe

So You Want to Talk About Race 
by Ijeoma Oluo

The Emotion Politics of Racism: How Feelings Trump Facts in an Era of Colorblindness 
by Paula Ioanide

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race 
by Jesmyn Ward

The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics 
by George Lipsitz

A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind 
by Harriet A. Washington

Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors 
by Carolyn Finney

Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage 
by Dianne D. Glave

The Adventure Gap: Changing the Face of the Outdoors 
by James Edward Mills

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

The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection 
by Dorceta Taylor

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

Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape 
by Lauret Savoy

Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism 
by Bell Hooks

Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment 
by Patricia Hill Collins

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower 
by Brittney Cooper

Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity 
by Chandra Talpade Mohanty

Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement 
by Angela Davis

From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation 
by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot 
by Mikki Kendall

Sister Outsider 
by Audre Lorde

We Should All Be Feminists 
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Women, Race, and Class 
by Angela Davis

• 13th (Netflix)
• Dear White People (Netflix)
• I Am Not Your Negro (Netflix)
• Just Mercy
• LA 92 (Netflix)
• Moonlight (Netflix)
• Pose
• Self Made
• Shut Up & Dribble (Showtime)
• Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement (BET)
• Teach Us All
• The Hate U Give
• When They See Us (Netflix)
• Whose Streets?

There Is No Neutral’: ‘Nice White People’ Can Still Be Racist 
Written by: Ari Shapiro
NPR | June 9, 2020

For Our White Friends Desiring to Be Allies
Written by Courtney Ariel
Sojourners | April 16, 2017

May 31, 1921: Tulsa Massacre
TheZinn Education Project

An Essential Anti-Racist Reading List 
Written by Hayley Maitland
Vogue | May 31, 2020

COVID-19 and Racial/Ethnic Disparities
Written by Monica Webb Hooper; Anna María Nápoles; Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable
JAMMA Network | May 11, 2020

Breaking the Chain: Healing Racial Trauma in the Body: An Interview with Resmaa Menakem
Written by Kristin Moe
Medium | May 14, 2020

Thinking in a Pandemic
Written by Lorgia Garcia-Pena and Mordecai Lyon
Boston Review | June 2, 2020

75 Things White People Can do For Racial Injustice 
Written by Corinne Shutack
Medium | Aug 13, 2017

Your Bookshelf May Be Part Of The Problem
Written by Juan Vidal
NPR | June 6, 2020

Beyond Protests: 5 More Ways To Channel Anger Into Action To Fight Racism
Written by Allison Aubrey
Medium | Aug 13, 2017

White people: this is what you need to do
Written by Olive Pometsey
GQ | June 3, 2020

What I Hear When Someone Says “I Don’t See Color”
Written by Kiara Goodwin
The Everygirl Media Group | June 1, 2020

White Privilege:Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
Written by: Peggy McIntosh | Department of Psychology
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Anti-Racism Resources For White People
Written by: Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein
May 2020

Your Kids Aren’t Too Young to Talk About Race: Resource Roundup
Written by: Katrina Michie
Pretty Good | Oct 13

26 Ways to be in the Struggle Beyond the Streets
Issuu | December 17, 2014

Balanced Black Girl
“Balanced Black Girl is a podcast dedicated to helping you feel your best. Tune in for approachable health, self-care, personal development, and well-being advice from Black women wellness experts.”

Brown Girl Self-Care
“Join Bre, aka The Self-Care Pusher from Southern California, as she shares life experiences, weighs in on current events, amps up her wellness/health habits and finds clean(ish) products to try all for the sake of taking her physical, spiritual and emotional well-being to the next level and (hopefully) inspiring other women of color to do so as well. It’s time to become obsessed with our self-care!”

Code Switch
“What’s CODE SWITCH? It’s the fearless conversations about race that you’ve been waiting for! Hosted by journalists of color, our podcast tackles the subject of race head-on. We explore how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and everything in between. This podcast makes ALL OF US part of the conversation — because we’re all part of the story”

hey, girl.
“hey, girl. is a podcast that unites the voices of phenomenal women near and far. Created with sisterhood and storytelling in mind, author Alex Elle sits down with people who inspire her. From friends to family members and strangers, the hey, girl. guests give us a peek into their stories through candid and intimate conversations.”

Intersectionality Matters!
“Intersectionality Matters! is a podcast hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory.”

Pod Save the People
“On Pod Save the People, organizer and activist DeRay Mckesson explores news, culture, social justice, and politics with fellow activists Brittany Packnett Cunningham and Sam Sinyangwe, and writer Dr. Clint Smith. They offer a unique take on the news, with a special focus on overlooked stories and topics that often impact people of color.”

Therapy for Black Girls
“The Therapy for Black Girls Podcast is a weekly chat about all things mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves. Join your host, Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed Psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia, as she offers practical tips and strategies to improve your mental health, discusses the latest news and trends in mental health, pulls back the curtain on what happens in therapy sessions, and answers your listener questions.”

• TED Talks to help you understand racism in America (Playlist)
• Black Lives Matter: Anti-Racism Resources Streaming for Free – Vanity Fair: June 3, 2020 – Written By Christopher Rosen