Office for Equity & Inclusion

North College, 3rd Floor

Middletown, CT 06459
1-860-685-2520

Resources for Antiracists

This list is for those who want to better understand the history of race and the impact of racism on our society.  It is not meant to be exhaustive.  We have included materials for different age groups. 
  • Podcasts and Webinars
    •  – Ted Radio Hour podcast, June 5, 2020
    •  with Resmaa Menakem – On Being podcast with Krista Tippett, June 4, 2020
    • , June 25 and 26 from 9 am – 1 pm (virtual)
    •  by Brenda B. Asare, President and CEO, The Alford Group
    •  (also )
    •  (H.R.7120/ S.3912)
    • A recent episode, is particularly relevant right now.
  • Nonfiction Reads

    How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi,

    The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Aleander

    Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race by Dr. Beverly Tatum,

    Can We Talk About Race? And Other Conversations About Race in an Era of School Resegregation,   by Dr. Beverly Tatum,

    White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin DiAngelo

    Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad.

    From Slavery To Freedom: A History of African-Americans by John Hope Franklin

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

    Raising White Kids by Jennifer Harvey

    So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

    The Black and the Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America's Law Enforcement by Matthew Horace and Ron Harris

    Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

    The Fire Net Time by James Baldwin

    Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

    They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, And A New Era In America’s Racial Justice Movement by Wesley Lowery

    Hood Feminism: Notes From The Women That The Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall

    Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks

    Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People by Ben Crump

    The Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement Is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and William Barber II

    Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

    Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

    by Reni Eddo-Lodge

    - Howard Zinn (There is a young people's version for elementary and middle school readers)

    - Austin Channing Brown

  • Impactful fiction from Black authors

    For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange

    The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

    Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

    Passing by Nella Larsen

    The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

    The Color Purple by Alice Walker

    White Teeth by Zadie Smith

    An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

    The Mothers by Brit Bennett

    Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

    The Known World: A Novel by Edward P Jones

  • Parenting and Explaining Race to Kids

     These two articles offer useful advice on how to talk to children about anti-Black racism, police violence, and the uprisings:

     with advice from acclaimed Black psychologist Dr. Beverly Tatum  

     – an article by White author Jennifer Harvey on raising white children for racial justice. 

    For preschool and elementary school-aged kids

    Something Happened in Our Town by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins and Ann Hazzard. 

     

    Best-selling stories to help younger kids: 

    The Colors of Us by Karen Katz

    Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester

    The Skin I’m In: A First Look at Racism by Pat Thomas

    Sesame Street's We're Different, We're the Same by Bobbi Jane Kates

    Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story about Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard

    I Am Enough by Grace Byers

    Happy in Our Skin by Fran Manushkin and Lauren Tobia

    Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford and Ekua Holmes

    Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey

    Daddy Why Am I Brown?: A healthy conversation about skin color and family by Bedford F. Palmer

    A Terrible Thing Happened by Margaret Holmes

    Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi

     First Look For Sameness  by Kristen Bell

     

    For teens: 

    The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

    Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson

    This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do The Work by Tiffany Jewell and Aurelia Durand

    Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

    Dear White People by Justin Simien

     

    Books by our honorary degree recipient and award winning author, Jacqueline Woodson,

    including The Other Side and Show Way.

     

    Additional Lists

     

  • Taking Action

    75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice 

    Anti-racism resources for white people 

    Resources for White People to learn and talk about race and racism

     

    Below are organizations you can support in continuing their work:

    • Black Lives Matter: Eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. 

    • Movement for Black Lives (M4BL): formed in December of 2014, was created as a space for Black organizations across the country to debate and discuss the current political conditions, develop shared assessments of what political interventions were necessary in order to achieve key policy, cultural and political wins, convene organizational leadership in order to debate and co-create a shared movement-wide strategy. 

    • Protest bail funds across the country: A collection of community resources for protests around the country.
    • Mutual AID funds for your community: Research what mutual aid is and look for folks to fund in your area. Here’s an example for South King County and Eastside:
    • Showing up for Racial Justice: SURJ’s role as part of a multi-racial movement is to undermine white support for white supremacy and to help build a racially just society.
    • Assata’s Daughters: (AD) is a Black women-led, young person-directed organization rooted in the Black Radical TraditionAD organizes young Black people in Chicago by providing them with political education, leadership development, mentorship, and revolutionary services.
    • Community Justice Exchange: develops, shares, and experiments with tactical interventions, strategic organizing practices, and innovative organizing tools to end all forms of criminalization, incarceration, surveillance, supervision, and detention.
    • The Bail Project™: National Revolving Bail Fund is a critical tool to prevent incarceration and combat racial and economic disparities in the bail system.
    • Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project: a group of transgender, gender variant and intersex people—inside and outside of prisons, jails and detention centers—creating a united family in the struggle for survival and freedom.

    • Moms for housing 
    • Dream defenders: No cages no violence no corporate greed 

    • The Association for Black Economic Power

    • Gays and Lesbians living in a Transgender Society: We approach the health and rights crises faced by transgender sex workers holistically using harm reduction, human rights principles, economic and social justice, along with a commitment to empowerment and pride in finding solutions from our own community.
    • COVID Bailout (NYC): 
    • ACLU:
    • Colorlines news: published by , a national organization that advances racial justice 

    • Black Voters Fund: Our goal is to increase power in our communities. Effective voting allows a community to determine its own destiny. 

    More resources can be found at

  • Existing Compilations of Resources

    No matter where you are in your plan to eradicate anti-Black racism, there is work you can learn from. Below are a number of existing compilations of resources on race.

    • as part of the #Strike4BlackLives
    • , compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker & Alyssa Klein
    • , by Prof. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
    • , a compilation about the Black experience in the US, co-curated by Brian Nord, Lauren Biron, Renée Hložek, & Lucianne Walkowicz. New content is added every year during Black History Month.
    • by Astrobetter 
    • , by Lauren M. Chambers
  • Additional Reading Suggestions
    • by Crystal M. Fleming
      • A discussion, based on critical race theory, about everything wrong with our current conversations about race.
    • by Angela Saini
      • Tells the history and present story of scientific racism, and how ideas about race having a biological origin continue to oppress Black people
    • by Cathy O’Neill
      • A data scientist explains how Big Data--the algorithms and models that, whether we know it or not, make decisions for us--can reinforce discrimination.
    • by Safiya Umoja Noble
      • Describes how search algorithms can be biased to privilege whiteness and discriminate against people of color, specifically women of color. 
    • by W.E.B. DuBois 
    • - Anders Walker
    • - Michelle Aleander
    • - Khalil Gibran Muhammad
    • - Ronald Takaki
    • - Heather Co Richardson
    • - Matthew Desmond
    • - Marc Lamont Hill
    • - James W Loewen
    • Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria - Berver Doniel Tatum, PhD
    • The Color of Law - Richard Rothstein
    • Blackballed - Darryl Pinkney
    • Lies My Teacher Told Me - James W. Loewen

    Anti-Racist Lit; Bios, Non-fiction, novels, personal narratives:

    • The Warmth of Other Suns - Isabel Wilkerson
    • The Fire Net time - James Baldwin
    • Malcolm X  - Ale Haley
    • Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates
    • Killing Rage Ending Racism - Bell Hooks
    • Becoming - Michelle Obama
    • An American By Marriage - Tayari Jones
    • A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota -
    • The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother - James McBride
    • Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption - Bryan Stevenson
    • The Myth Of Race - Robert Sussman

    Anti-Racist Lit - Black Feminism:

    • How we Get Free - Keeanga-Yamhtta Taylor
    • Black Feminists Thought - Patricia Hill Collins
    • Ain't I a Woman Black Women and Feminism - Bell Hooks
    • Bad Feminist - Roane Gay
    • Eloquent Rage - Brittney Cooper
    • In Search of Our Mothers Gardens - Alice Walker
    • Sister Outsider - Audre Lorde
    • Women Race & Class - Angela Y Davis
    • - Assata Shakur
    • - Akwugo Emejulu and Francesca Sobande

    Anti Racist List Black LGBTQ+:

    • - James Baldwin
    • - Audre Lorde
    • - Brandon Taylor
    • - Charlene A Carruthers
    • - E. Patrick Johnson
    • - Brontez Purnell
    • - Staceyann Chin
    • - Darnell L. Moore
    • - Mia McKenzie
    • - John Howard Griffin
    • - Eli Saslow
    • - C. Riley Snorton
  • More Listening Suggestions
      • A bi-weekly podcast, discussing the acknowledgment of Black women’s ideas and intellectual contributions both inside and outside academia.
      • Hosts Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings deplore different facets of Black life in the US and abroad. Check out their most recent episode about recent events,
      • The Stoop shares stories from across the Black diaspora. Hosts Leila Day and Hana Baba start conversations about what it means to be black and how we talk about blackness.
      • Code-switching is the practice of shifting between languages or forms of depression in different contets. Hosted by journalists of color, Code Switch deplores race and how it impacts every part of society. The most recent episode, is particularly relevant right now.
      • How do we talk (and not talk) about race and everything it entails? The long title of this podcast, which aims to address this question, is Our National Conversation About Conversations About Race.
    •  
      • Host Kimberlé Crenshaw (a leading scholar of critical race theory) deplores different topics through an intersectional lens. The most recent episodes are part of a series about COVID-19, titled Under the Blacklight.
      • Learn from the people at the frontlines of the racial justice movement--organizational leaders and community activists--with hosts Chevon and Hiba.
    •  
      • A podcast by The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights. Do you want to effect change and restore our democracy? Listen on!
      • This weekly podcast, hosted by organizer and activist DeRay Mckesson with one-on-one interviews with special guests, focuses on news, culture, social justice, and politics that impact people of color. 
      • What does it mean to be white? What is the meaning of whiteness? John Biewen grapples with these questions.
  • Building Bridges
    • : Intergroup contact can help bridge divides, under certain conditions.
    • :Sometimes, empathy isn’t enough. New research reveals how taking and giving perspectives can help us to bridge our differences.
    • : It’s not easy, but we can find common ground in difficult conversations.
    • : In a Science of Happinesspodcast, comedian W. Kamau Bell discusses the challenges of finding common ground, even with people in your own family.
    • :Here are some core insights from the GGSC’s virtual summit on dialogue and understanding across our differences.
  • Resources for Parents
    • : Allison Briscoe-Smith explains how kids learn about race—and how their parents can help them make sense of difference.
    • : Trump is creating fear and confusion in children, especially kids of color. Here are three suggestions for talking with kids about race and racism in the media.
    • : Should parents ignore or excise racist imagery in children’s books? Jeremy Adam Smith offers another way, guided by research.
    • : A new study suggests preschoolers can catch prejudice from grown-ups through nonverbal behavior—and it hints at solutions.
    • : How do we combat racial prejudice? New research reveals how parents influence the formation of bias in children.
    • : How can we avoid feeding hate and distrust in our children?
    • , from Common Sense: A conversation with Drs. Allison Briscoe-Smith, Jacqueline Dougé, and Nathan Chomilo.
  • Resources for Educators
    • : Dena Simmons deplores how educators can inadvertently harm students of color—and what we can do to bring out their best.
    • : A study shows that teachers of all races are more likely to punish black students. Fortunately, research also points to solutions.
    • : We’re all subject to bias. Here are tips to help teachers treat all of their students with dignity and care.
    • : New studies point the way toward a more connected and egalitarian society, starting with friendships between kids.
    • : Educators can foster belonging and inclusion for all students, even online.
    • : Books, articles, practices and more from the GGSC education team.
    • , from ASCD: Social and emotional learning practitioner-scholar Dena Simmons recommends five actions for teaching for an anti-racist future.