Anti-Racism Reading and Viewing
Want to learn more about being anti-racist? This list offers reading & viewing suggestions.
4 Little Girls
Author(s):
Description:
When a bomb tears through the basement of a black Baptist church on a peaceful fall morning, it takes the lives of four young girls; Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins. This racially motivated crime, taking place at a time when the civil rights movement is burning with a new flame, could have doused that flame forever. Instead it fuels a nation's outrage and brings Birmingham, Alabama to the forefront of America's concern.
Format:
DVD
Call Number:
976.1781 Fou
Dear Martin
Author(s):
Description:
"Justyce McAllister is a good kid, an honor student, and always there to help a friend. Despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can't escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates. Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out. Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up—way up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it's Justyce who is under attack" --Amazon.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Sto
Do The Right Thing
Author(s):
Description:
Story of the racial tensions that surround a white-owned pizzeria in the Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn on the hottest day of the summer. One of the most controversial and thought-provoking films ever made. Bonus material includes commentary with Director Spike Lee and more.
Format:
DVD
Call Number:
Drama
Eloquent Rage : A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower
Author(s):
Description:
So what if it's true that Black women are mad as hell? They have the right to be. In the Black feminist tradition of Audre Lorde, Brittney Cooper reminds us that anger is a powerful source of energy that can give us the strength to keep on fighting.--From dust jacket flap.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
305.488 Coo
Friday Black
Author(s):
Description:
By placing ordinary characters in extraordinary situations, Adjei-Brenyah reveals the violence, injustice, and painful absurdities that black men and women contend with every day in this country. These stories tackle urgent instances of racism and cultural unrest, and explore the many ways we fight for humanity in an unforgiving world.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Adj
Fruitvale Station
Author(s):
Ryan Coogler
Michael B. Jordan
Description:
Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident, crosses paths with friends, enemies, family, and strangers on the last day of 2008. Based on a true story.
Format:
DVD
Call Number:
Drama
Get Out
Author(s):
Jordan Peele
Daniel Kaluuya
Description:
A young black man meets his white girlfriend's parents at their estate, only to find out that the situation is much more sinister than it appears.
Format:
DVD
Call Number:
Horror
God Help The Child
Author(s):
Description:
At the center: a young woman who calls herself Bride, whose stunning blue-black skin is only one element of her beauty, her boldness and confidence, her success in life, but which caused her light-skinned mother to deny her even the simplest forms of love. There is Booker, the man Bride loves, and loses to anger. Rain, the mysterious white child with whom she crosses paths. And finally, Bride's mother herself, Sweetness, who takes a lifetime to come to understand that "what you do to children matters. And they might never forget."
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Mor
Hair Love
Author(s):
Matthew A. Cherry
Vashti Harrison
Description:
"A little girl's daddy steps in to help her arrange her curly, coiling, wild hair into styles that allow her to be her natural, beautiful self." -- (Source of summary not specified)
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Che
Healing Racial Divides : Finding Strength In Our Diversity
Author(s):
Description:
Can the church help America emerge from its racist shadows to heal racial divides? Terrell Carter unpacks the deep roots of racism in America, examines how it continues to be perpetuated today, and gives practical strategies for racial reconciliation.-- From statement provided by publisher, back cover.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
277.3083 Car
Heavy : An American Memoir
Author(s):
Description:
"Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about the physical manifestations of violence, grief, trauma, and abuse on his own body. He writes of his own eating disorder and gambling addiction as well as similar issues that run throughout his family. Through self-exploration, storytelling, and honest conversation with family and friends, Heavy seeks to bring what has been hidden into the light and to reckon with all of its myriad sources, from the most intimate--a mother-child relationship--to the most universal--a society that has undervalued and abused black bodies for centuries"-- Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
305.896 Lay
Hood Feminism : Notes From The Women That A Movement Forgot
Author(s):
Description:
"A collection of essays taking aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement, arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women"-- Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
305.42 Ken
How To Be An Antiracist
Author(s):
Description:
"The only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it -- and then dismantle it." Ibram X. Kendi's concept of antiracism reenergizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America, pointing us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it. He weaves ethics, history, law, and science together with a personal narrative of his own awakening to antiracism.-- From statement provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
305.8 Ken
I Am Enough
Author(s):
Grace Byers
Keturah A. Bobo
Description:
Shares a story of loving who you are, respecting others and being kind to one another.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Bye
I'm Still Here : Black Dignity In A World Made For Whiteness
Author(s):
Description:
The author's first encounter with a racialized America came at age seven, when her parents told her they named her Austin to deceive future employers into thinking she was a white man. She grew up in majority-white schools, organizations, and churches, and has spent her life navigating America's racial divide as a writer, a speaker, and an expert helping organizations practice genuine inclusion. While so many institutions claim to value diversity in their mission statements, many fall short of matching actions to words. Brown highlights how white middle-class evangelicalism has participated in the rise of racial hostility, and encourages the reader to confront apathy and recognize God's ongoing work in the world.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
305.896 Bro
If Beale Street Could Talk
Author(s):
Barry Jenkins
Adele Romanski
Description:
A timeless love story set in early 1970s Harlem involving newly engaged nineteen-year- old Tish and her fiance Fonny who have a beautiful future ahead. But their plans are derailed when Fonny is arrested for a crime he did not commit. Now the pair and their families must fight for justice in the name of love and the promise of the American dream.
Format:
DVD
Call Number:
Drama
Just Us : An American Conversation
Author(s):
Description:
At home and in government, contemporary America finds itself riven by a culture war in which aggression and defensiveness alike are on the rise. It is not alone. In such partisan conditions, how can humans best approach one another across our differences? Taking the study of whiteness and white supremacy as a guiding light, Claudia Rankine explores a series of real encounters with friends and strangers--each disrupting the false comfort of spaces where our public and private lives intersect, like the airport, the theatre, the dinner party and the voting booth--and urges us to enter into the conversations which could offer the only humane pathways through this moment of division. This is an invitation to discover what it takes to stay in the room together, and to breach the silence, guilt and violence that surround whiteness. With essays, images and poems along with the voices and rebuttals of others, it counterpoints Rankine's own text with facing-page notes and commentary, and closes with a study of women confronting the political and cultural implications of dyeing their hair blonde.--From statement at publisher's description.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
305.896 Ran
Lakewood : A Novel
Author(s):
Description:
"A stunning debut novel that delves fearlessly into the taboo subject of modern-day medical experimentation on African Americans"-- Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
March. Book Three
Author(s):
John Lewis
Andrew Aydin
Nate Powell
Description:
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J 323.1 Lew Book 3
Me And White Supremacy : Combat Racism, Change The World, And Become A Good Ancestor
Author(s):
Description:
Layla Saad began an Instagram that became a cultural movement. She encouraged people to own up and share their racist behaviors, big and small. She was looking for truth, and she got it. Thousands of people participated in the challenge, and over 80,000 people downloaded the supporting work Me and White Supremacy. Updated and expanded from the original edition, this book teaches readers how to dismantle the privilege within themselves so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.-- From statement provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
305.8 Saa
Monster
Author(s):
Walter Dean Myers
Christopher Myers
Description:
While on trial as an accomplice to a murder, sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon records his experiences in prison and in the courtroom in the form of a film script as he tries to come to terms with the course his life has taken.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Mye
Open Season : Legalized Genocide Of Colored People
Author(s):
Description:
"[Ben Crump] shows that there is a persistent, prevailing, and destructive mindset regarding colored people that is rooted in our history as a slave-owning nation. This biased attitude has given rise to mass incarceration, voter disenfranchisement, unequal educational opportunities, disparate health care practices, job and housing discrimination, police brutality, and an unequal justice system... Open Season is more than Crump's incredible mission to preserve justice, it is a call to action for Americans to begin living up to the promise to protect the rights of its citizens equally and without question."-- Dust jacket flap.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
364.0973 Cru
Piecing Me Together
Author(s):
Description:
Tired of being singled out at her mostly-white private school as someone who needs support, high school junior Jade would rather participate in the school's amazing Study Abroad program than join Women to Women, a mentorship program for at-risk girls.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Wat
Rosa
Author(s):
Nikki Giovanni
Bryan Collier
Description:
Retells the story of Rosa Parks, an African American woman who became the center of the battle for civil rights in the 1950s.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
JB Par
Selma
Author(s):
Ava DuVernay
David Oyelowo
Description:
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s historical struggle to secure voting rights for all people. A dangerous and terrifying campaign that culminated with an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1964.
Format:
DVD
Call Number:
Drama
Sing, Unburied, Sing : A Novel
Author(s):
Description:
"Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, and the occasional presence of their drug-addicted mother, Leonie, on a farm on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Leonie is simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she's high; Mam is dying of cancer; and quiet, steady Pop tries to run the household and teach Jojo how to be a man. When the white father of Leonie's children is released from prison, she packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out across the state for Parchman farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary, on a journey rife with danger and promise."-- Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC War
So You Want To Talk About Race
Author(s):
Description:
A current, constructive, and actionable exploration of today's racial landscape, offering straightforward clarity that readers of all races need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide. Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the "N" word. Positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions readers don't dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans.-- From statement provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
305.8 Olu
Stamped : Racism, Antiracism, And You
Author(s):
Description:
"The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. Racist ideas are woven into the fabric of this country, and the first step to building an antiracist America is acknowledging America's racist past and present. This book takes you on that journey, showing how racist ideas started and were spread, and how they can be discredited"--Dust jacket flap.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA 305.8 Rey
Tears We Cannot Stop : A Sermon To White America
Author(s):
Description:
Fifty years ago, Malcolm X told a white woman who asked what she could do for the cause, 'Nothing.' Michael Eric Dyson believes he was wrong. Now he responds to that question. If society is to make real racial progress, people must face difficult truths, including being honest about how Black grievance has been ignored, dismissed, or discounted.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
305.8 Dys
The Black And The Blue : A Cop Reveals The Crimes, Racism, And Injustice In America's Law Enforcement
Author(s):
Matthew Horace
Ron Harris
Description:
Matthew Horace was an officer at the federal, state, and local level for 28 years working in every state in the country. Yet it was after seven years of service when Horace found himself face-down on the ground with a gun pointed at his head by a white fellow officer, that he fully understood the racism seething within America's police departments. Using gut-wrenching reportage, on-the-ground research, and personal accounts garnered by interviews with police and government officials around the country, Horace presents an insider's examination of police tactics, which he concludes is an "archaic system" built on "toxic brotherhood." Horace dissects some of the nation's most highly publicized police shootings and communities highlighted in the Black Lives Matter movement and beyond to explain how these systems and tactics have had detrimental outcomes to the people they serve. Horace provides fresh analysis on communities experiencing the high killing and imprisonment rates due to racist policing such as Ferguson, New Orleans, Baltimore, and Chicago from a law enforcement point of view and uncovers what has sown the seeds of violence. Timely and provocative, The Black and The Blue sheds light on what truly goes on behind the blue line.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
363.2092 Hor
The Fire Next Time
Author(s):
Description:
Contains a letter to Baldwin's nephew on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Also describes his childhood, views on Black Muslims, and his visions.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
305.8 Bal
The Fire This Time : A New Generation Speaks About Race
Author(s):
Description:
Jesmyn Ward takes James Baldwin's 1963 examination of race in America, The Fire Next Time, as a jumping off point for this collection of essays and poems about race from the most important voices of her generation and our time. In light of recent tragedies and widespread protests across the nation, The Progressive magazine republished one of its most famous pieces: James Baldwin's 1962 "Letter to My Nephew," which was later published in his landmark book, The Fire Next Time. Ward has gathered short essays, memoir, and a few essential poems to engage the question of race in the United States. And she has turned to some of her generation's most original thinkers and writers to give voice to their concerns. The Fire This Time is divided into three parts that shine a light on the darkest corners of our history, wrestle with our current predicament, and envision a better future. Of the eighteen pieces, ten were written specifically for this volume. Contributors include Carol Anderson, Jericho Brown, Garnette Cadogan, Edwidge Danticat, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Mitchell S. Jackson, Honoree Jeffers, Kima Jones, Kiese Laymon, Daniel Jose Older, Emily Raboteau, Claudia Rankine, Clint Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Wendy S. Walters, Isabel Wilkerson, and Kevin Young.--From statement provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
305.8 Fir
The Hate U Give
Author(s):
Description:
After witnessing her friend's death at the hands of a police officer, Starr Carter's life is complicated when the police and a local drug lord try to intimidate her in an effort to learn what happened the night Kahlil died.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Tho
The Other Side
Author(s):
Jacqueline Woodson
Earl B. Lewis
Description:
Two girls, one white and one black, gradually get to know each other as they sit on the fence that divides their town.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Woo
The Rock And The River
Author(s):
Description:
In 1968 Chicago, fourteen-year-old Sam Childs is caught in a conflict between his father's nonviolent approach to seeking civil rights for African Americans and his older brother, who has joined the Black Panther Party.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Mag
The Story Of Ruby Bridges
Author(s):
Description:
For months six-year-old Ruby Bridges must confront the hostility of white parents when she becomes the first African American girl to integrate William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in 1960.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
JB Bri
This Book Is Anti-racist : 20 Lessons On How To Wake Up, Take Action, And Do The Work
Author(s):
Tiffany Jewell
Aurélia Durand
Description:
This book is written for the young person who doesn't know how to speak up to the racist adults in their life. 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 color 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.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA 305.8 Jew
We Cast A Shadow : A Novel
Author(s):
Description:
"In a near-future Southern city, everyone is talking about a new experimental medical procedure that boasts unprecedented success rates. In a society plagued by racism, segregation, and private prisons, this operation saves lives with a controversial method--by turning people white. Like any father, our unnamed narrator just wants the best for his son Nigel, a biracial boy whose black birthmark is getting bigger by the day. But in order to afford Nigel's whiteness operation, our narrator must make partner as one of the few black associates at his law firm, jumping through a series of increasingly absurd hoops--from diversity committees to plantation tours to equality activist groups--in a tragicomic quest to protect his son. This electrifying, suspenseful novel is, at once, a razor-sharp satire of surviving racism in America and a profoundly moving family story. In the tradition of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, We Cast a Shadow fearlessly shines a light on the violence we inherit, and on the desperate things we do for the ones we love"-- Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Ruf
We Live For The We : The Political Power Of Black Motherhood
Author(s):
Description:
Black mothering is an inherently political act. Black women are more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than women of any other race; black mothers must stand before television cameras reminding the world that their slain children were human beings. The author explores how to ensure her daughter lives with dignity and joy, learning how to parent boldly in uncertain times and cope with the anxieties that sometimes threaten to consume her. McClain spoke with mothers on the frontlines of movements for social, political and cultural change who are grappling with the same questions.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
306.8743 McC
We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices
Author(s):
Wade Hudson
Cheryl Willis Hudson
Ashley Bryan
Description:
What do we tell our children when the world seems bleak, and prejudice and racism run rampant? With 96 lavishly designed pages of original art and prose, fifty diverse creators lend voice to young activists.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J 305.8 We
White Fragility : Why It's So Hard To Talk To White People About Racism
Author(s):
Description:
Educator Robin DiAngelo illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility. Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. DiAngelo explores how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively-- From publisher's description.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
305.8 DiA
White Rage : The Unspoken Truth Of Our Racial Divide
Author(s):
Description:
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 an op-ed in the Washington Post showing that this was, instead, 'white rage at work. With so much attention on the flames,' she writes, 'everyone had ignored the kindling.' Since 1865 and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, every time African Americans have made advances towards full participation in our democracy, white reaction has fueled a deliberate and relentless rollback of their gains. The end of the Civil War and Reconstruction was greeted with the Black Codes and Jim Crow; the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was met with the shutting down of public schools throughout the South while taxpayer dollars financed segregated white private schools; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 triggered a coded but powerful response, the so-called Southern Strategy and the War on Drugs that disenfranchised millions of African Americans while propelling presidents Nixon and Reagan into the White House. Carefully linking these and other historical flashpoints when social progress for African Americans was countered by deliberate and cleverly crafted opposition, Anderson pulls back the veil that has long covered actions made in the name of protecting democracy, fiscal responsibility, or protection against fraud, rendering visible the long lineage of white rage.--From statement provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
305.8 And
White Too Long : The Legacy Of White Supremacy In American Christianity
Author(s):
Robert P. (Robert Patrick) Jones
Description:
"WHITE TOO LONG draws on history, statistics, and memoir to urge that white Christians reckon with the racism of the past and the amnesia of the present to restore a Christian identity free of the taint of white supremacy"-- Provided by publisher.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
277.3 Jon
Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race
Author(s):
Description:
In 2014, award-winning journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote on her blog about her frustration with the way that discussions of race and racism in Britain were being led by those who weren't affected by it. Her words hit a nerve. The post went viral and comments flooded in from others desperate to speak up about their own experiences. Galvanised, she decided to dig into the source of these feelings. Exploring issues from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Reni Eddo-Lodge has written a searing, illuminating, absolutely necessary examination of what it is to be a person of colour in Britain today.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
305.8 Edd
