Anti-Racism at EHS
“Racial oppression is a broad and cumulative force . . . And racial oppression will interact with many other privileges and disadvantages to produce a myriad of effects . . . But when it’s all tallied up the end result will still show, more often than not, measurably different outcomes for people depending on race. There are very few hardships out there that hit only people of color and not white people, but there are lots of hardships that hit people of color a lot more than white people. (17-18)”
-Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race
As a predominantly white school, with a predominantly white faculty and staff, in a system created to support whiteness, we need to address the needs and concerns and respond to our students of color and their families.
We are proud to have been a positive educational experience for so many students over the years, but we have work to do to be a school to provide that experience for each and every one of our EHS students.
So we deeply appreciate our community’s work so far in speaking and writing to us about how we can repair the damage, create a space for healing, and not only make our school less racist, but actively antiracist.
This section of the EHS website serves as public notification of the work we are doing, and will continue to do, to root out racist power and racial inequities at Eagan High School. Furthermore, it acts as a resource list so you can learn with us about the history and contemporary reality of racism in order to become antiracist. This is a living document that will grow and change with time.
Note on sources: A great deal of the language below is quoted from Ibram X. Kendi’s book How to be Antiracist (One World, 2019) and Ijeoma Oluo’s book So You Want to Talk About Race (Seal Press, 2019.)
Equity and Inclusion Department (District 196 Certified Family Advocates)
Anti-Racism at Eagan High School
- EHS Antiracist Vision and Goals
- What is Antiracism?
- The Work So Far and Looking Forward
- Equity and Inclusion Advisory Council Planning
- January 2021 Update
EHS Antiracist Vision and Goals
Eagan HS ANTIRACIST VISION AND GOALS
Our Vision
Eagan High School will become an antiracist school where our curriculum, relationships, culture, and policy work to dismantle racism in our school and empower students to dismantle racism after they leave our school.
EHS will value and build relationships with every one of our students, regardless of race, culture, sexuality, religion, gender identity, academic achievement, ability or ethnicity.
Our Goals
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EHS will increase the number of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) faculty and staff to reflect our students and community. Representation matters.
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EHS will organize and participate in equity training for faculty and staff through professional development in the areas of antiracism, implicit bias, and inclusion. This training will be ongoing and persistent.
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EHS will educate our students in order to create awareness of racist language and behavior among them.
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EHS will educate staff and faculty how to better respond to racist language and behavior.
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EHS will work with the District 196 curriculum leaders and our departments at Eagan HS in the process of auditing our curriculum for racist content and methods in every department.
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EHS will examine our discipline system and replace policies that produce racial disparities with alternate systems (e.g. restorative justice, relationship building).
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EHS will improve systems, structures, communications, and cultural expectations around access and enrollment in our honors and advanced classes for BIPOC and other underrepresented students.
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EHS will revise and enhance one-to-one services (i.e. individual student interactions with individual staff members in each and every school space) to equalize access, build relationships, and improve support for BIPOC and other underrepresented and disenfranchised students.
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EHS will communicate our antiracism goals and actions to our stakeholders.
What is Antiracism?
Why focus on race?
It should go without saying that each student is a unique individual who deserves to be treated as such. Our students' identities are formed at the intersection of their culture, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, families, languages, experiences, and race.
This antiracism work does not replace the work we need to do to better serve students who are marginalized in other ways. And it doesn't replace the work we've always done to best serve all our students. But to not name racism is to allow it to continue.
This is because racist power is intertwined with all aspects of American life, including public education. Consequently, we must confront it head on.
As Oluo explains, “Racism in America exists to exclude people of color from opportunity and progress so that there is more profit for others deemed superior. This profit itself is the greater promise for nonracialized people—you will get more because they exist to get less. That promise is durable, and unless attacked directly, it will outlive any attempts to address class as a whole” (12).
This is because racist power is intertwined with all aspects of American life, including public education. Consequently, we must confront it head on.
What is race?
Race, as we understand it in Western society, was constructed almost 600 years ago. It was constructed to justify slavery and to dehumanize people. It was not constructed as a way to name naturally occurring groups.
Or, as explained in the 2019 New York Times Op-Ed "How Italians Became White," "racial categories that people mistakenly view as matters of biology grow out of highly politicized myth making."
In other words, white people created race, placing themselves at the top of the racial hierarchy. These categories were created with no regard for the cultures, languages, experiences, or genetics of the racial groups that white people put lower on that hierarchy.
The tools of racist power are the same that created the idea of "race" - policy and ideas, politics and "academic" writing. Now, here we are, 600 years later, and racist power is very real and very present, an immensely dangerous and destructive force, both politically and culturally.
What is racism?
According to Kendi, racism is “a marriage of racist policies and racist ideas that produces and normalizes racial inequities" (20). A racist policy is one that “produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups" (17), while “racist ideas suggest one racial group is inferior or superior to another racial group in any way" (20).
Or, to put it another way: “Racism was designed to support an economic and social system for those at the very top. This was never motivated by hatred of people of color, and the goal was never in and of itself simply the subjugation of people of color. The ultimate goal of racism was the profit and comfort of the white race” (Oluo, 32).
What is “antiracism?”
Antiracism is that idea that one racial group can be different from another in obvious manifestations of culture, but cannot be better or worse, right or wrong, relative to another racial group. All racial groups are equal in this way because they are comprised of individuals, and all individuals are equally human. This understanding leads to an inevitable conclusion that lies at the heart of all antiracist initiatives: that racist policies, not intrinsic qualities, are the causes of racial inequity. To do antiracist work, therefore, is to dedicate time and energy to identifying and dismantling racist policies. For example, looking at housing inequities between racial groups and understanding that the divergent percentages of home ownership between racial groups derive directly from policy decisions (legal and de facto) at the local, state, and federal levels.
Antiracism means that silence supports racist ideas and inaction supports racist policy. In other words, there is no middle ground between racism and antiracism. As Kendi explains, “There is no such thing as a non-racist or race-neutral policy. Every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups" (17-18).
Antiracism teaches us that all racial groups are equal and none require development. No racial group is the standard against which another racial group measures itself. No racial group requires instruction or integration. Antiracism rejects the entire concept of hierarchies (cultural, behavioral, biological, etc.) among racial groups.
Antiracism teaches us that to overthrow racism is to overthrow racist power: “The root problem . . . has always been the self-interest of racist power. Powerful economic, political, and cultural self-interest . . . has been behind racist policies" (Kendi, 42). The history of racism is the history of asserting and maintaining power. Race, a useful fiction, was created for this purpose. It continues to be used as such: to rationalize and secure unequal opportunity.
However, “when we look at [the issue of racism and racial oppression] in its entirety, it seems like too much, but understand that the system is invested in you seeing it that way. The truth is, we all pull levers of this white supremacist system every day. The way we vote, where we spend our money, what we do and do not call out—these are all pieces of the system. We cannot talk our way out of a racially oppressive system. We can talk our way into understanding, and we can then use that understanding to act. (234-235)”
This means that antiracism is a fundamentally hopeful perspective, one focused on concrete action, on policy change that creates equity.
What does that mean for us at EHS?
It means that we must be prepared to admit that Eagan High School creates, institutionalizes, and perpetuates racial inequities, whether they are academic, social, cultural, co-curricular, or otherwise. It means that we must acknowledge that students of color have been and continue to be marginalized in our classrooms and hallways, our stairwells, our gyms, our athletic fields, our offices, and our grounds. It means, ultimately, that we are ready to admit our failures, regardless of intention, and to continue the hard but necessary work of fixing them.
It means that we, as a school, must interrogate our culture, curriculum, and policies to identify and dismantle racist policies.
While this is a monumental task and “it is easy to think that the problem of racial oppression...is just too big.” We might ask ourselves, “How on earth can we be expected to dismantle a complex system that has been functioning for over four hundred years?” Well, Oluo’s answer, and the approach we are taking, is “piece by piece.”
The Work So Far and Looking Forward
*EHS has hired a full-time Student Support Specialist to work specifically with our students of color. Mr. Harry Sonie is a District 196 graduate who received his Bachelor's degree from Augsburg University, Mpls. in Communication Studies. He has worked as an Academic/Behavior Support Specialist at Falcon Ridge Middle School and as a basketball coach. His previous field was in job and career recruiting prior to that time. His position as a Student Support Specialist is a new position at EHS. His work will focus on building relationships with students of color as well as their parents/guardians. He will coordinate his work with our counselors, teachers, principals and coaches. He will also be working with the Cultural Family Advocates - Mr. Rick Stanton, Mr. Faisal Madar, Ms. Veronica Ramos and Ms. Lisa Turgeon. He will assist the students with academic and behavior support, problem solving and goal setting as a focus on achieving success and personal growth as they plan for the future. He is at Eagan HS every day and can be reached at harry.sonie@district196.org or by calling 651-683-6977.
*Professional Development Update:
-Beginning the second week of school, the faculty and staff will participate in weekly listening and discussion circles among small-group faculty cohorts (Click here for example video of these listening circles in action)
-Nov. 4: EHS Faculty and Staff will participate in Implicit Bias training with equity trainer Michael Walker of Minneapolis Public Schools. Michael Walker also worked with the EHS Principals’ Team mid-August. He will continue to work with the EHS Principals’ Team as well as the faculty and staff several more times.
Equity and Inclusion Advisory Council Planning
Initially, the Equity and Inclusion Advisory Council would be a council of students, graduates, and parents who provide recommendations and feedback on school decisions and help shape the direction of antiracism efforts. This council will be an advisory group at EHS, with discussions focusing on the following:
- School culture
- School policies (attendance, discipline, etc.)
- Professional development efforts for faculty and staff
- Curriculum review (offering feedback on standards as applied to EHS)
The council will have no more than 15 members and will meet each month via Zoom in the evening. There will be EHS faculty/staff who are additional participants on this council.
January 2021 Update
Revised 2/21/21
The purpose of this message is to update our community on our work in making Eagan High School an antiracist and equitable school. We bring this forward as our hearts are heavy with the news and responses to the events of the past days. This blatant and horrific display of racism and attack on democratic ideals further emphasizes the need for this work. More than ever we know how important it is to reach out to our students, our community and within our faculty and staff to provide support and care.
-Our new Equity and Inclusion Advisory Council began meeting in December. The meetings with this group of parents, students, alumni, faculty, staff and CFA’s have been facilitated by Dr. Talaya Tolefree of Koinonia Leadership Academy. So far this group has agreed to put accountability and transparency first and foremost and committed to attend restorative practice and antiracism training in the next few months. Meetings will continue twice per month with this group into the new year.
-Since September 23rd, 2020 the full Eagan HS faculty and staff have been meeting weekly in professional development groups of 6-8 participants for focused discussions about racism. Guided by a purposeful set of questions and resources like articles, podcasts, videos and books. These conversations have been challenging, at times uncomfortable, and essential in furthering our work in improving our school for our students of color. Our goal here is to create space to, as author of our current text, So You Want to Talk About Race (2019), Ijeoma Oluo, says, “Talk. Please talk and talk and talk and talk some more” (230).
-For additional professional development, Michael Walker and Dena Luna from Critical Questioning Consulting, Minneapolis have been working as facilitators with the faculty members of Eagan HS. On November 4, 2020 the full afternoon workshop focused on defining racism, understanding and accepting our implicit bias and developing our efforts to address it. Together our teachers, counselors, principals, CFA’s and Student Support Specialists participated in this training and small group discussion.
-On January 13, 2021 the entire faculty will work together again with Critical Questioning Consulting for an afternoon under the leadership of Michael Walker and Dena Luna. The teaching and learning module in this training will be “Avoiding Marginalization of the Marginalized while Distance Learning.” The training will empower us to become more aware of the potential for our teaching strategies and lessons to further marginalize those who are already disenfranchised and understand the power of caring and relationships when we need to adapt and change as much as we have during this pandemic.
-Teachers within departments and teaching teams have been sharing and discussing teaching and assessment strategies and practices with the purpose of applying the lens of equity and inclusion. For example, teachers are revising their late work and testing window policies to accommodate for the challenges that students are facing in distance learning. Our focus here is to make our teaching more flexible and to reduce ways in which we might marginalize students.
-Discipline policies and practices have been reviewed and are under modifications for equity and access to learning. After examining In School Suspension (ISS) data from the past several years we have ended ISS at Eagan HS. Nearly all of the students assigned to ISS were determined to be students with attendance issues – missing classes without parent or school approval. ISS did not appear to be mitigating that behavior and, in fact, caused students to miss more class periods. When we return to in-person with students a restorative process of reflecting and renewing agreements for changed behavior will be implemented. Students will not be held out of classes but, instead, work with student advocates and counselors to develop strategies for renewed attendance and behavior for success. Time will be spent during study halls or advisory time for this effort.
-Restorative Practices training will continue under the leadership of consultants, including Dr. Tolefree. Our Equity Advisory Council of students, parents, faculty members and CFA’s will engage in this training over the coming weeks. The principals’ team will also engage in the training before both sharing it with faculty and staff as well as incorporating it into the discipline practices used at EHS.
-Together with other District 196 personnel, we are reviewing and editing the District 196 Student Rights and Responsibilities for changes to be made for the future. We are giving particular attention to language that describes harassment, and giving strong consideration to revising this language to explicitly identify racist language or actions as intolerable.
-Finally, we are gathering and analyzing data on student attendance, course credits and behavior. We are examining the data to inform our work in making our programming, grading and learning more equitable. This information was shared and reviewed with our faculty and staff for their further discussion and planning as we began school this year. Now that Fall Trimester data is available it will also be shared with the entire teaching staff in order to examine the successes and plan for addressing the needs of our learners with our practices. Distance Learning is difficult for everyone but we must continue to reach out to those who are struggling and provide needed support.
-Students who need access to the internet, a quiet place to do classes and some support are coming in 4 days per week and working at Eagan HS. We are providing this to address equity and inclusion for our students and families.
-As registration for next school year takes place in mid to late January, Eagan HS will continue barrier free registration in our Honors, Advanced Placement and Career Development programs. Although this has been District and high school’s policy and practice for a number of years, we are now reaching out to BIPOC students to encourage their choice to enroll in these course offerings. Those students coming in as ninth graders will be placed into the Honors level whenever possible, and especially if supported by grade 8 teachers to do so. New this year is the moving of students into the Honors level rather than waiting for them to choose to do so.
-On Wednesday, February 10 the entire faculty and some staff including our Cultural Family Advocates met in workshop session with Michael Walker and Dena Luna, Critical Questioning LLC. The theme was “History, Microaggressions and Culturally Relevant Strategies”.
All of this work is ongoing. We are learning and changing, an oftentimes painful but necessary process.
-Sincerely,
EHS Principals and Antiracism teacher leadership team on behalf of the faculty and staff.
Learn With Us (Resources)
LEARN WITH US
The resources in this section are here thanks to the work of Rosemount High School who has given us permission to share these incredible resources from their Racial Equity Resources.
Racism in Minnesota
Racism in Minnesota
This section offers articles, books, and videos that help build an understanding of why and how Minneapolis became a flashpoint for a global uprising against anti-Blackness and state violence.
By understanding the rich legacy of Black struggle in the Twin Cities, we can better understand the roots of what we are presently living through. Moreover, we can learn from the successes and setbacks of those that came before us as we struggle for the future we want to live in. If you wish to learn more, please check out Adam Bledsoe's Minneapolis Uprising Syllabus.
Minneapolis Police
“Enough is Enough: A 150 year performance review of the Minneapolis Police Department” – MPD 150
“A demand for justice and law enforcement”: a history of police and the near North Side – Kristen Delegard
Report of the Metro Gang Strike Force Review Panel – Andrew Luger and John Engelhof
“Drug Enforcement in Minority Communities: The Minneapolis Police Department” – Police Executive Research Forum/National Institute of Justice
Walking With the Devil: The Police Code of Silence – The Promise of Peer Intervention – Michael Quinn
History of Black Minnesota
“Why this started in Minneapolis” – Sarah Holder
Slavery’s Reach: Southern Slaveholders in the North Star State – Christopher Lehman
A Peculiar Imbalance: The Fall and Rise of Racial Equality in Minnesota, 1837–1869 – William Green
“Race and Segregation in St. Paul’s Public Schools, 1846-69” – William Green
“Minnesota’s Long Road to BLACK SUFFRAGE 1849-1868” – William Green
North Star: Minnesota’s Black Pioneers
“Eliza Winston and the Politics of Freedom in Minnesota, 1854-60” – William Green
“The Black Community in Territorial St. Anthony: A Memoir” – Emily O. Goodridge Grey and Patricia C. Harpole
The Children of Lincoln: White Paternalism and the Limits of Black Opportunity in Minnesota, 1860–1876 – William Green
Degrees of Freedom: The Origins of Civil Rights in Minnesota, 1865–1912 – William Green
The Negro in Minnesota – Earl Spangler
African Americans in Minnesota – David Vassar Taylor
Minneapolis in the Twentieth Century: The Growth of an American City – Iric Nathanson
“When the Klan Came to Minnesota” – Kay Johnson
Close to Home: Suburbanization, Residential Segregation, and Jewish-Black Relations, in St. Louis Park and North Minneapolis, MN – Russell Star-Lack
Overcoming: The Autobiography of W. Harry Davis – W. Harry Davis
“Old Southside Minneapolis and the 35W Dividing Line” – Denise Pike
Cornerstones: A History of North Minneapolis
A Fiery Unrest: Why Plymouth Avenue Burned
“Booker v. Special School District No. 1: A History of School Desegregation in Minneapolis, Minnesota” – Cheryl Heilman
The Scott Collection: Minnesota’s Black Community in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s – Walter Scott
Twin Cities Black Politics
“Phyllis Wheatley House: A History of the Minneapolis Black Settlement House, 1924 to 1940” – Howard Karger
“St. Paul’s Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 1925-1941” – Alisha Volante
“’A Greater Victory’: The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in St. Paul” – Arthur McWatt
Racial Uplift in a Jim Crow Local: Black Union Organizing in Minneapolis Hotels 1930-1940 – Luke Mielke
“Labor, Politics, and American Identity in Minneapolis, 1930-50” – Jennifer Delton
Making Minnesota Liberal: Civil Rights and the Transformation of the Democratic Party – Jennifer Delton
“The Way Opportunities Unlimited, Inc.”: A Movement for Black Equality in Minneapolis, MN 1966-1970 – Camille Maddox
Black Power And Neighborhood Organizing In Minneapolis, Minnesota: The Way Community Center, 1966-1971 – Sarah Jayne Paulsen
For a Moment We Had the Way – Rolland Robinson
“A Small Revolution”: The Role of a Black Power Revolt in Creating and Sustaining a Black Studies Department at the University of Minnesota – Jared Leighton
“Nerve Juice” and the Ivory Tower Confrontation in Minnesota: The True Story of the Morrill Hall Takeover (at the University of Minnesota) – Marie Braddock Williams, Rose Freeman Massey, Horace Huntley
Community and the Recognition of the Other: A Levinasian Examination of The City, Inc. 1987-1992 – Nicholas Saray
A crossroads year at a crossroads place: the City School, a Minneapolis alternative school 1992-93 – Jo Applegate Nelson
Somalis in Minnesota – Ahmed Yusuf
Read
Read
Articles
10 Ways Well-Meaning White Teachers Bring Racism Into Our Schools, by Jamie Utt
21 Racial Microaggressions You Hear on a Daily Basis, by Heben Nigatu
Climbing the White Escalator, by Betsy Leondar-Wright
Explaining White Privilege To A Broke White Person, by Gina Crosley-Corcoran
Guide to Allyship, Created by Amélie Lamont
For Our White Friends Desiring to Be Allies by Courtney Ariel
It’s Not Just the South: Here’s How Everyone Can Resist White Supremacy, by Sarah van Gelder
White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo
Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus A list of free articles on the context/history of institutionalized racism available through JSTOR
Making America White Again, by Toni Morrison
Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap, by Amy Traub, Laura Sullivan, Tatjana Mescheded, & Tom Shapiro
What White Children Need to Know About Race, by Ali Michael and Elenora Bartoli
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, by Peggy McIntosh
My President Was Black, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?, by Ibram X Kendi
The Injustice of This Moment Is not an ‘Aberration,’ Michelle Alexander
White mom to racists: ‘Don’t use my child to further your hate-filled ignorance,’ by Rev. Edith Love
People of colour have to ‘code-switch’ to fit in with white norms by Natalie Morris
The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates
On Being White and Other Lies by James Baldwin
“America’s Racial Contract Is Killing Us” by Adam Serwer
The 1619 Project (all the articles) The New York Times Magazine
The Combahee River Collective Statement Statement on the foundations of Black Feminism
Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement (Mentoring a New Generation of Activists)
“Black Male Writers For Our Time,” by Ayana Mathis
What's Race Got to Do With ______? a series of articles by Sojourners Magazine on the interconnectedness of humanity and the ways race converges with gender, eco-justice, sexuality, leadership, technology and more.
Articles specific to our current context:
“Where do I donate? Why is the uprising violent? Should I go protest?” by Courtney Martin (June 1, 2020)
“The Death of George Floyd, In Context,” by Jelani Cobb
“Of Course There Are Protests. The State Is Failing Black People,” by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
“This Is How Loved Ones Want Us To Remember George Floyd,” by Alisha Ebrahimji
“You shouldn’t need a Harvard degree to survive birdwatching while black,” by Samuel Getachew, a 17-year-old and the 2019 Oakland youth poet laureate
“It’s exhausting. How many hashtags will it take for all of America to see Black people as more than their skin color?” by Rita Omokha
“How to Make This Moment the Turning Point for Real Change,” by Barack Obama
Your Black Colleagues May Look Like They’re Okay — Chances Are They’re Not by Danielle Cadet
“I Was The Mayor Of Minneapolis And I Know Our Cops Have A Problem,” by R.T. Rybak
“Don’t understand the protests? What you’re seeing is people pushed to the edge,” by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Los Angeles Times
“I’m Black. My Mom is White. This Is The Talk We Had To Have About George Floyd’s Killing,” by Kimberly J. Miller
Defund the Police? Here’s what that really means. by Christy Lopez
Robin DiAngelo: How 'white fragility' supports racism and how whites can stop it interview with Sandee LaMotte
Books
How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
A Spectacular Secret: Lynching in American Life and Literature by Jacqueline Goldsby
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color by Cherríe Moraga
When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America by Ira Katznelson
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, PhD
Biased by Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt
Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy by David Zucchino
Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children In A Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey
Waking Up White by Debby Irving
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Brutal Imagination by Cornelius Eady
Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens The Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era by Jerry Mitchell
They Were Her Property by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by
Austin Channing Brown
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do by Claude M. Steele
Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century by Dorothy Roberts
West Indian Immigrants:: A Black Success Story? by Suzanne Model
The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America by Khalil Gibran Muhammad
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain by Langston Hughes
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland by Jonathan M. Metzl
How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective Edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves Edited by Glory Edim
Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
A Terrible Thing To Waste: Environmental Racism And Its Assault On The American Mind by Harriet A. Washington
From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America by Elizabeth Hinton
Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police and Punish the Poor by Virginia Eubanks
The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale
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 López
Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology by Deirdre Cooper Owens
Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination by Alondra Nelson
Chokehold: Policing Black Men by Paul Butler
The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby
Conversations in Black edited by Ed Gordon
Children’s Books
Alko, S. (2015). The case of the Lovings. New York, NY: Arthur A. Levine Books.
Asquith, R. (2013). It’s not fairy. Minneapolis, MN: Frances Lincoln Children’s Books.
Brown, M. (2011). Marisol Macdonald doesn’t match. New York, NY: Children's Book Press.
Celebration Press. (1985). The patchwork quilt. New York, NY: Dial Books.
Cole, H. (2012). Unspoken: A story from the Underground Railroad. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.
Cole, R. (2010). The story of Ruby Bridges. New York, NY: Scholastic Paperbacks Derolf, S. (2014). The crayon box that talked. New York, NY: Random House for Young Readers.
Evans, S. (2016). We march. New York, NY: Square Fish. Giovanni, N. (2007). Rosa. New York, NY: Square Fish.
Greenfield, E. (1986). Honey, I love and other love poems. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.
Greenfield, E. (1996). Grandpa’s face. New York, NY: Puffin Books.
Hart, G. (2014). DK eyewitness books: Ancient Egypt. New York, NY: DK Children.
Hassig, S.M. (1997). Cultures of the world: Somalia. New York, NY: Cavendish Square Publishing.
Isadora, R. (1994). At the crossroads. New York, NY: Greenwillow Books.
Knight, M.B. (2002). Africa is not a country. Minneapolis, MN: Millbrook Press.
Krebs, L. (2008). We’re sailing down the Nile. Cambridge, MA: Barefoot Books.
Kroll, V.L. (1993). Africa brothers and sisters. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.
Levine, E. (2007). Henry’s freedom box: A true story from the Underground Railroad. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.
Levy, D. (2013). We shall overcome: The story of a song. New York, NY: Jump At The Sun.
Mace, V. (2008). National Geographic Countries of the World: South Africa.
McQuinn, A. (2006). Lola at the library. Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge.
Miller, J.P. (2005). We all sing with the same voice. New York, NY: HarperCollins
Moore, J.R. (2002). The story of Martin Luther King Jr. Nashville, TN: Candy Cane Press.
Nelson, K. (2013). Mandela. New York, NY: Katherine Tegen Books.
O’Brien, A. (1994). My name is Johari. Northborough, MA: Newbridge Educational Pub
Otoshi,K. (2008). One. Mill Valley, CA: KO Kids Books.
Ramsey, C.A. & Strauss, G. (2010). Ruth and the green book. Minneapolis, MN: Carolrhoda Books.
Rappaport, D. (2007). Martin’s Big Words. New York, NY: Hyperion.
Ringgold, F. (2003). If a bus could talk: The story of Rosa Parks. New York, NY:Aladdin.=
Schermbrucker, R. (1991). Charlie’s house. New York, NY: Viking Juvenile.
Tonatiuh, D. (2014). Separate is never equal: Sylvia Mendez and her family’s fight for desegregation. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams
Winter, J. (1992). Follow the drinking gourd. New York, NY: Dragonfly Books. Woodson, J. (2012). Each kindness. New York, NY: Nancy Paulsen Books.
Ideas and Resources
75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice by Corinne Shutack
Anti-racism Resources (a google doc)
Scaffolded Anti-Racism Resources (a google doc)
Jenna Arnold’s resources (books and people to follow)
Rachel Ricketts’ anti-racism resources
Resources for White People to Learn and Talk About Race and Racism
Save the Tears: White Woman’s Guide by Tatiana Mac
Showing Up For Racial Justice’s educational toolkits
The [White] Shift on Instagram
“Why is this happening?” — an introduction to police brutality from 100 Year Hoodie
Watch and Listen
Watch/Listen
Podcasts
Code Switch, hosted by journalists Gene Demby and Shereen Marisol Meraji
Black Like Me, host Dr. Alex Gee
Scene on Radio – Seeing White Series, host John Biewen and collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika
TED Radio Hour – Mary Bassett: How Does Racism Affect Your Health? host Guy Raz speaks with Dr. Mary T. Bassett, Director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University
Here & Now – Without Slavery, Would The U.S. Be The Leading Economic Power? host Jeremy Hobson and author Edward Baptist
NPR Morning Edition – You Cannot Divorce Race From Immigration journalist Rachel Martin talks to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas
Pod Save the People, Activism. Social Justice. Culture. Politics. On Pod Save the People, organizer and activist DeRay Mckesson
Floodlines from The Atlantic. An audio documentary about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Floodlines is told from the perspective of four New Orleanians still living with the consequences of governmental neglect. As COVID-19 disproportionately infects and kills Americans of color, the story feels especially relevant. "As a person of color, you always have it in the back of your mind that the government really doesn't care about you," said self-described Katrina overcomer Alice Craft-Kerney.
1619 from The New York Times."In August of 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. America was not yet America, but this was the moment it began." Hosted by recent Pulitzer Prize winner Nikole Hannah-Jones, the 1619 audio series chronicles how black people have been central to building American democracy, music, wealth and more.
Intersectionality Matters! from The African American Policy Forum. Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a leading critical race theorist who coined the term "intersectionality," this podcast brings the academic term to life. Each episode brings together lively political organizers, journalists and writers. This recent episode on COVID-19 in prisons and other areas of confinement is a must-listen.
Throughline from NPR. Every week at Throughline, our pals Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei "go back in time to understand the present." To understand the history of systemic racism in America, we recommend "American Police," "Mass Incarceration" and "Milliken v. Bradley."
Still Processing, a New York Times culture podcast with Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morrison
Jemele Hill is Unbothered, a podcast with award-winning journalist Jemele Hill
Hear To Slay, “the black feminist podcast of your dreams,” with Roxane Gay and Tressie McMillan Cottom
The Appeal, a podcast on criminal justice reform hosted by Adam Johnson
Justice In America, a podcast by Josie Duffy Rice and Clint Smith on criminal justice reform
Brené Brown with Ibram X. Kendi, a podcast episode on antiracism
Talking like Brothers about Race: A conversation with Joseph Harris
Coffee Break
This is Us, Dr. Eddie Glaude explains why blaming current racial tensions on Donald Trump misses the point. (3 minutes)
Racism is Real, A split-screen video depicting the differential in the white and black lived experience. (3 minutes)
Confronting ‘intergroup anxiety’: Can you try too hard to be fair? Explores why we may get tongue tied and blunder when we encounter people from groups unfamiliar to us. (5 minutes)
CBS News Analysis: 50 states, 50 different ways of teaching America’s past, Ibram X. Kendi reviews current history curriculum production and use across the U.S. (5 minutes)
The Disturbing History of the Suburbs, An “Adam Ruins Everything” episode that quickly and humorously educates how redlining came to be. (6 minutes)
What Kind of Asian Are You? Humorous two minute YouTube video that illustrates the utter silliness of the way many white Americans interact with Asian Americans. (2 minutes)
White Bred, Excellent quick intro to how white supremacy shapes white lives and perception. (5 minutes)
What Would You Do: Bicycle Thief Episode? ABC’s popular show explores the impact of racial and gender bias and prejudice at a family friendly park. Before this video, would you have anticipated this differential treatment?
Tyler Merrit Project: Before You Call (3 minutes)
I Didn't Tell You, Ever wonder what a day in the life of a person of color is like? Listen to this poem, written and spoken by Norma Johnson. (7 minutes)
New York Times Op-Docs on Race, Multiple videos with a range of racial and ethnic perspectives on the lived experience of racism in the US. (each video about 6 minutes)
"10 Rules of Survival If Stopped by the Police”
https://www.raceforward.org/videos/systemic-racism Short videos on what systemic racism is
Getting Real about Education: A Conversation Short videos of conversations with Black parents, teachers, and students around discipline, parent involvement, and representation.
Lunch Break
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Discussing Race, TEDx talk by Jay Smooth that suggests a new way to think about receiving feedback on our racial blindspots. (12 minutes)
Finding Myself in the Story of Race a TEDx talk by Debby Irving, the author of Waking Up White, about her journey in understanding race and racism. (15 minutes)
What Being Hispanic and Latinx Means in the United States, Fernanda Ponce shares what she’s learning about the misunderstanding and related mistreatment of the incredibly diverse ethnic category people in U.S. call Hispanic. (12 minutes)
Indigenous People React to Indigenous Representation in Film And TV, Conversation with a diverse range of Indigenous people by FBE about media depictions of Indigenous people, Columbus day, and Indigenous identity. (15 minutes)
How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time, TED Talk by Baratunde Thurston that explores patterns revealing our racist framing, language, and behaviors. (10 minutes)
The urgency of intersectionality, TED Talk by Kimberlé Crenshaw that asks us to see the ways Black women have been invisibilized in the law and in media. (19 minutes)
The danger of a single story, TED Talk by Chimamanda Adiche, offers insight to the phenomenon of using small bits of information to imagine who a person is. (18 minutes)
Racism Has A Cost for Everyone: TED Talk by Heather McGhee, looks at the notion that my liberation is bound in yours. This is not a feel good statement but a reality when it comes to how racism impacts policy, budgets, and prevents us from achieving a society that works for us all
How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them, TED Talk by Vernā Myers, encourages work vigorously to counter balance bias by connecting with and learning about and from the groups we fear. (19 minutes)
Hip hop, grit, and academic success, TEDx Talk by Dr. Bettina Love, explains how students steeped in Hip Hop culture, often seen as deficient, actually bring the very characteristics deemed necessary for 21st century success. (15 minutes)
Sit on the Couch
Just Mercy Free to watch for the month of June, this 2019 film about Bryan Stevenson and the work of the Equal Justice Initiative portrays racism in our society and the justice system.
When They See Us, Four-part Netflix series by Ava DuVernay about the wrongful incarceration and ultimate exoneration of the “Central Park Five.” (four 1+ hour episodes)
13th, Netflix documentary by Ava DuVernay about the connection between US Slavery and the present day mass incarceration system. (1 hour 40 minutes)
The Hate U Give, a film based on the YA novel by Angie Thomas offering an intimate portrait of race in America (2 hours 13 minutes)
Fruitvale Station, a film with Michael B. Jordan about the killing of Oscar Grant (1 hour 25 minutes)
I Am Not Your Negro Narrated by the words of James Baldwin with the voice of Samuel L. Jackson, I Am Not Your Negro connects the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter. Although Baldwin died nearly 30 years before the film's release, his observations about racial conflict are as incisive today as they were when he made them. (1 hour 33 minutes)
Whose Streets? The 2014 killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Mo. was one of the deaths that sparked the Black Lives Matter movement. Frustrated by media coverage of unrest in Ferguson, co-directors Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis documented how locals felt about police in riot gear filling their neighborhoods with tear gas. As one resident says, "They don't tell you the fact that the police showed up to a peaceful candlelight vigil...and boxed them in, and forced them onto a QuikTrip lot." (1 hour 42 minutes)
LA 92 LA 92 is about the Los Angeles riots that occurred in response to the police beating of Rodney King. The film is entirely comprised of archival footage — no talking heads needed. It's chilling to watch the unrest of nearly 30 years ago, as young people still take to the streets and shout, "No justice, no peace." (1 hour 54 minutes)
Teach Us All Over 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education, American schools are still segregated. Teach Us All explains why that is — school choice, residential segregation, biased admissions processes — and talks to advocates working for change. Interspersing interviews from two Little Rock Nine members, the documentary asks how far we've really come. (1 hour 20 minutes)
Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise In this two-part series, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. chronicles the last 50 years of black history through a personal lens. Released days after the 2016 election, some themes of the documentary took on a deeper meaning amid Donald Trump's win. "Think of the civil rights movement to the present as a second Reconstruction — a 50-year Reconstruction — that ended last night," Gates said in an interview with Salon. (4 episodes, 1 hour each)
Slavery by Another name, 90 minutes PBS documentary challenges the idea that slavery ended with the emancipation proclamation. (90 minutes)
Unnatural Causes, Seven part documentary by California Newsreel that explores the impact of racism on health and US healthcare. (4 hours total, episodes have variable lengths)
Birth of a White Nation, Keynote speech by legal scholar Jacqueline Battalora, offers a blow-by-blow description of the moment the idea of, and word for, "white" people entered U.S. legal code. (36 minutes)
In The White Man's Image PBS documentary about the Native American boarding school movement designed to “kill the Indian and save the man.” (56 minutes)
Race: The Power of an Illusion, Three-part, three-hour film by California Newsreel exploring the biology of skin color, the concept of assimilation, and the history of institutional racism. (three 1 hour episodes)
Jim Crow of the North - Full-Length Documentary Roots of racial disparities are seen through a new lens in this film that explores the origins of housing segregation in the Minneapolis area. But the story also illustrates how African-American families and leaders resisted this insidious practice, and how Black people built community — within and despite — the red lines that these restrictive covenants created. (58 minutes)
The Kalief Browder Story: This documentary recounts the story of Kalief Browder, a Bronx high school student who was imprisoned for three years, two of them in solitary confinement on Rikers Island, without being convicted of a crime. He was accused at 16 of stealing a backpack, and his family was unable to afford his bail, set at $3,000. (Netflix) (6 episodes, 45 minutes each)