Talking about race
- Being AntiracistTo create an equal society, we must commit to making unbiased choices and being antiracist in all aspects of our lives.
- BiasOnce we know and accept we have bias, we can begin to recognize our own patterns of thinking. With awareness and a conscious effort, we have the power to change how we think and to challenge the negative or harmful biases within ourselves.
- Historical Foundations of RaceThe term “race,” used infrequently before the 1500s, was used to identify groups of people with a kinship or group connection. The modern-day use of the term “race” is a human invention.
- Race and Racial IdentityAlthough race has no genetic or scientific basis, the concept of race is important and consequential. Societies use race to establish and justify systems of power, privilege, disenfranchisement, and oppression.
- Social Identities and Systems of OppressionSystems of oppression are individual, institutional, and societal and their effects on people have a long history deeply rooted in American culture.
- "Children Are Not Colorblind: How Young Children Learn Race"By Erin N. Winkler, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Research clearly shows that children not only recognize race from a very young age, but also develop racial biases by ages three to five.
- Power & Privilege DefinitionsList of definitions relating to power and privilege from Vanderbilt University.
- Racial Healing Handbook-Being AntiracistThis handout is from the "Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activities to Help You Challenge Privilege, Confront Systemic Racism, and Engage in Collective Healing" by Anneliese A. Singh, Ph.D., LPC
- "Understanding Whiteness"To combat racism today, it is necessary to understand the history of the ideology of "race" in order to challenge whiteness as the foundation of racial categories and racism. Source: Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre, University of Calgary.
National Equity Project Articles
- Implicit Bias and Structural Racialization“Implicit biases come from culture. I think of them as the thumbprint of the culture on our minds. Human beings have the ability to learn to associate two things together very quickly—that is innate. What we teach ourselves, what we choose to associate is up to us.”
-Dr. Mahzarin R. Banaji - White Women: Our Role in Racial (In)JusticeTo my white sisters, with love and hope for a world that doesn’t yet exist, with more justice and more peace.
- Divided We Fall: Solving America’s Racism Problem By Facing It“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” — James Baldwin
Olin Library Resources
How to Be an Antiracist by
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning comes a "groundbreaking" (Time) approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society--and in ourselves. "The most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind."--The New York Times NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review * Time * NPR * The Washington Post * Shelf Awareness * Library Journal * Publishers Weekly * Kirkus Reviews 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. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas--from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities--that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves. Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society. Praise for How to Be an Antiracist "Ibram X. Kendi's new book, How to Be an Antiracist, couldn't come at a better time. . . . Kendi has gifted us with a book that is not only an essential instruction manual but also a memoir of the author's own path from anti-black racism to anti-white racism and, finally, to antiracism. . . . How to Be an Antiracist gives us a clear and compelling way to approach, as Kendi puts it in his introduction, 'the basic struggle we're all in, the struggle to be fully human and to see that others are fully human.' "--NPR "Kendi dissects why in a society where so few people consider themselves to be racist the divisions and inequalities of racism remain so prevalent. How to Be an Antiracist punctures the myths of a post-racial America, examining what racism really is--and what we should do about it."--Time
Call Number: E184.A1 K344 2019ISBN: 9780525509288Publication Date: 2019-08-13
Antiracist Baby Picture Book by
A #1 New York Times Bestseller! From the National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist comes a new full-sized picture book that empowers parents and children to uproot racism in our society and in ourselves, now with added discussion prompts to help readers recognize and reflect on bias in their daily lives. Take your first steps with Antiracist Baby! Or rather, follow Antiracist Baby's nine easy steps for building a more equitable world. With bold art and thoughtful yet playful text, Antiracist Baby introduces the youngest readers and the grown-ups in their lives to the concept and power of antiracism. Providing the language necessary to begin critical conversations at the earliest age, Antiracist Baby is the perfect gift for readers of all ages dedicated to forming a just society. Featured in its own episode in the Netflix original show Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices, Good Morning America, NPR's Morning Edition, CBS This Morning, and more!
Call Number: Juv. EASY KendiISBN: 9780593110508Publication Date: 2020-07-14
Black, Brown, Bruised by
Drawing on narratives from hundreds of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous individuals, Ebony Omotola McGee examines the experiences of underrepresented racially minoritized students and faculty members who have succeeded in STEM. Based on this extensive research, McGee advocates for structural and institutional changes to address racial discrimination, stereotyping, and hostile environments in an effort to make the field more inclusive. Black, Brown, Bruised reveals the challenges that underrepresented racially minoritized students confront in order to succeed in these exclusive, usually all-White, academic and professional realms. The book provides searing accounts of racism inscribed on campus, in the lab, and on the job, and portrays learning and work environments as arenas rife with racial stereotyping, conscious and unconscious bias, and micro-aggressions. As a result, many students experience the effects of a racial battle fatigue-physical and mental exhaustion borne of their hostile learning and work environments-leading them to abandon STEM fields entirely. McGee offers policies and practices that must be implemented to ensure that STEM education and employment become more inclusive including internships, mentoring opportunities, and curricular offerings. Such structural changes are imperative if we are to reverse the negative effects of racialized STEM and unlock the potential of all students to drive technological innovation and power the economy.
Call Number: LC212.2 .M34 2020ISBN: 9781682535356Publication Date: 2020-10-30
What's Race Got to Do with It? by
Within critical discussions of school reform, researchers and activists are often of two camps. Some focus their analyses on neoliberal economic agendas, while others center on racial inequality. These analyses often happen in isolation, continuing to divide those concerned with educational justice into «It's race!» vs. «It's class!» camps. What's Race Got To Do With It? brings together these frameworks to investigate the role that race plays in hallmark policies of neoliberal school reforms such as school closings, high-stakes testing, and charter school proliferation. The group of scholar activist authors in this volume were selected because of their cutting-edge racial economic analysis, understanding of corporate reform, and involvement in grassroots social movements. Each author applies a racial economic framework to inform and complicate our analysis of how market-based reforms collectively increase wealth inequality and maintain White supremacy. In accessible language, contributors trace the historical context of a single reform, examine how that reform maintains and expands racial and economic inequality, and share grassroots stories of resistance to these reforms. By analyzing current reforms through this dual lens, those concerned with social justice are better equipped to struggle against this constellation of reforms in ways that unite rather than divide.
Call Number: LC212.2 .W44 2015ISBN: 9781433128844Publication Date: 2015-02-13
Accountability and White Anti-racist Organizing by
A growing number of white people are working for racial justice, but experienced organizers caution that to be effective, white activists need to develop accountable relationships with people of color. This is something easy to understand in concept, but sometimes more difficult to apply in practice.
In "Accountability and White Anti-racist Organizing," a select and dedicated group of white-identified anti-racist organizers from around the country tell personal stories and offer lessons from their everyday experiences that reveal how the notion of accountability informs their work. Eleven chapters offer a panorama of personal styles, perspectives, organizing traditions and approaches in a variety of settings and geographic locations.
Locations range from post-Katrina New Orleans, to the New York City school system, from a Washington, DC-based advocacy group, to a faith community in Seattle. Organizing approaches include anti-imperialist solidarity politics reminiscent of the 1960s through 1980s, contemporary hip hop, and a recent formulation of transformative alliance building. Perspectives emphasize personal, interpersonal, and institutional change.
The stories describe cutting edge work now available to a larger audience for the first time. Through the eyes of these seasoned activists, readers learn practical approaches and best practices, identify mistakes and pitfalls to avoid, and understand how they might participate in the multiracial movement for racial justice.
For the reader not yet inclined to join the work, the book documents a rising social phenomenon. Some white people are moving beyond limited and simplistic models of colorblindness, diversity and multiculturalism to developing accountable relationships with people of color.
Call Number: E185.615 .A24 2010ISBN: 9781934390320Publication Date: 2010-11-01
The Emperor Has No Clothes by
A volume in Educational Leadership for Social Justice Series Editor Jeffrey S. Brooks, University of Missouri-Columbia, Denise E. Armstrong, Brock University; Ira Bogotch, Florida Atlantic University; Sandra Harris, Lamar University; Whitney H. Sherman, Virginia Commonwealth University; George Theoharis, Syracuse University The Emperor Has No Clothes: Teaching About Race and Racism to People Who Don't Want to Know offers theoretical grounding and practical approaches for leaders and teachers interested in effectively addressing racism and other oppressive constructs. The book draws both on the author's extensive experience teaching about race and racism in classroom and community settings and from the theory and practice of a wide range of educators, activists, and researchers committed to social justice. The first chapter looks at the toxic consequences of our western cultural insistence on profit, binary thinking, and individualism to establish the theoretical framework for teaching about race and racism. Chapter two investigates privileged resistance, offering a psycho/social history of denial, particularly as a product of racist culture. Chapter three reviews the research on the construction and reconstruction of dominant culture both historically and now in order to establish sound strategic approaches that educators, teachers, facilitators, and activists can take as we work together to move from a culture of profit and fear to one of shared hope and love. Chapter four lays out the stages of a process that supports teaching about racist, white supremacy culture, explaining how students can be taken through an iterative process of relationshipbuilding, analysis, planning, action, and reflection. The final chapter borrows from the brilliant, brave, and incisive writer Dorothy Allison to discuss the things the author knows for sure about how to teach people to see that which we have been conditioned to fear knowing. The chapter concludes with how to encourage and support collective and collaborative action as a critical goal of the process.
Call Number: HT1506 .O48 2010ISBN: 9781617351051Publication Date: 2010-08-01
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An urgent primer on race and racism, from the host of the viral hit video series "Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man" "You cannot fix a problem you do not know you have." So begins Emmanuel Acho in his essential guide to the truths Americans need to know to address the systemic racism that has recently electrified protests in all fifty states. "There is a fix," Acho says. "But in order to access it, we're going to have to have some uncomfortable conversations." In Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid to ask--yet which all Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With the same open-hearted generosity that has made his video series a phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and "reverse racism." In his own words, he provides a space of compassion and understanding in a discussion that can lack both. He asks only for the reader's curiosity--but along the way, he will galvanize all of us to join the antiracist fight.
Call Number: E185.615 .A25 2020ISBN: 9781250800466Publication Date: 2020-11-10
What Does It Mean to Be White? by
What does it mean to be white in a society that proclaims race meaningless, yet is deeply divided by race? In the face of pervasive racial inequality and segregation, most white people cannot answer that question. In the second edition of this seminal text, Robin DiAngelo reveals the factors that make this question so difficult: mis-education about what racism is; ideologies such as individualism and colorblindness; segregation; and the belief that to be complicit in racism is to be an immoral person. These factors contribute to what she terms white racial illiteracy. Speaking as a white person to other white people, DiAngelo clearly and compellingly takes readers through an analysis of white socialization. Weaving research, analysis, stories, images, and familiar examples, she provides the framework needed to develop white racial literacy. She describes how race shapes the lives of white people, explains what makes racism so hard to see, identifies common white racial patterns, and speaks back to popular narratives that work to deny racism. Written as an accessible overview on white identity from an anti-racist framework, What Does It Mean to Be White?is an invaluable resource for members of diversity and anti-racism programs and study groups, and students of sociology, psychology, education, and other disciplines. This revised edition features two new chapters, including one on DiAngelo's influential concept of white fragility. Written to be accessible both within and without academia, this revised edition also features discussion questions, an index, and a glossary.
Call Number: HT1575 .D53 2016ISBN: 9781433131103Publication Date: 2016-06-15
The Black Friend: on Being a Better White Person by
The instant New York Times bestseller! Writing from the perspective of a friend, Frederick Joseph offers candid reflections on his own experiences with racism and conversations with prominent artists and activists about theirs--creating an essential read for white people who are committed anti-racists and those newly come to the cause of racial justice. "We don't see color." "I didn't know Black people liked Star Wars!" "What hood are you from?" For Frederick Joseph, life as a transfer student in a largely white high school was full of wince-worthy moments that he often simply let go. As he grew older, however, he saw these as missed opportunities not only to stand up for himself, but to spread awareness to those white people who didn't see the negative impact they were having. Speaking directly to the reader, The Black Friend calls up race-related anecdotes from the author's past, weaving in his thoughts on why they were hurtful and how he might handle things differently now. Each chapter features the voice of at least one artist or activist, including Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give; April Reign, creator of #OscarsSoWhite; Jemele Hill, sports journalist and podcast host; and eleven others. Touching on everything from cultural appropriation to power dynamics, "reverse racism" to white privilege, microaggressions to the tragic results of overt racism, this book serves as conversation starter, tool kit, and invaluable window into the life of a former "token Black kid" who now presents himself as the friend many readers need. Backmatter includes an encyclopedia of racism, providing details on relevant historical events, terminology, and more.
Call Number: E184.A1 J664 2020ISBN: 9781536217018Publication Date: 2020-12-01
This book is anti-racist by
For the 14 year old who sees injustice at school and isn't able to understand the role racism plays in separating them from their friends. For the kid who spends years trying to fit into the dominant culture and loses themselves for a little while. It's for all of the Black and Brown children who have been harmed (physically and emotionally) because no one stood up for them or they couldn't stand up for themselves; because the colour of their skin, the texture of their hair, their names made white folx feel scared and threatened. It is written so children and young adults will feel empowered to stand up to the adults who continue to close doors in their faces. This book will give them the language and ability to understand racism and a drive to undo it. In short, it is for everyone.
Call Number: EBOOKISBN: 0711251665Publication Date: 2020
