June 5, 2020, 9 a.m.
Volume 1, Resources 9: Absolutely Massive List of Anti-racist Resources for Black Lives Matter Allies
Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice
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Hi Friends. I hope you are all taking care of yourselves. This list is too giant to fully show up in your email so you may need to click through to view the entire thing.
Last week I suggested that you reach out to your Black friends. Like everything in this newsletter, this requires some thought and editing on your part. I am grateful for these two Twitter threads here and here.
As I promised last issue, I’m going to be offering a lot of resources for non-Black folks on how you can educate yourselves on being anti-racist and implement it every day. It is my hope that any non-white readers of this can then use this link as an evergreen response to people asking for education.
Note: Reading all the books on anti-racism in the world is worthless if you aren’t also using your voice.
Remember: It is a privilege to be able to learn about racism instead of experiencing it your whole life.
Another note: If you’re reading this, you’ll probably continue to make mistakes around race. That’s okay! It’s important that you try and that when you receive new information, you learn from it. As long as you continuously try and learn, you are not failing. You ARE failing, though, if you’re not trying and if you’re keeping silent.
Before you jump into any of the resources below, you need to first learn what it means to be anti-racist. I again quote Angela Davis:
“In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.”
The National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian has a wonderful, easy-to-understand page on being anti-racist.
The list of resources below are primarily links to round-ups of further resources. The majority of these resources are free. I highly encourage you to seek out if the creators have a place to give them tips (check their profiles) and then give them money for their work.
The resources are categorized by platform: Twitter, web link, Instagram. Some of them overlap or maybe say the same thing in a different way, but I respect that I have readers who learn better in one way vs another.
If you see asterisks *** it means I think the resource is a great place to start or also, I would otherwise like to call it out. If you see dollar signs ($) it means the resource includes a list of places that you can donate to (but the resource is not necessarily solely lists of places to donate).
It is up to YOU to click through the lists. It is up to YOU to do the homework. Like I said last week, ally is a verb.
Twitter Threads
At the time of this posting, all of these Tweets are public. Many of them are threads for you to click through and then scroll down. Since they are public, you should be able to view them even if you don’t have a Twitter account. Instead of embedding, I am linking directly to the Tweets. I take no credit for these posts and I am only curating the list.
100 Must-Read Children’s Books by African-American creators
($) Bail relief thread. Please make sure you research if the fund is still taking donations at this time. Some have a lot of capital for now and are redirecting funds to others.
Some research-based solutions to slowing police violence
This is going to be a hard truth for some of you
This thread by a history educator included so many things I didn’t know
Thread of Black-owned bookshops to support
A reading list for abolition (direct link to doc here)
This thread on police violence has some phenomenal links
White parents of white children! This is a thread of resources for you
Here’s a reading list where it looks like everything is maybe available to read online?
Thread of Black women scholars doing important work around race
Links Links Links
*** ($)Black Lives Matter The official Black Lives Matter (BLM) page. Includes a ton of excellent resources as well as links out to the official chapters. There are a lot of fake accounts out there.
*** Why you should stop saying “all lives matter,” explained in 9 different ways Very helpful link in responding to clowns saying “all lives matter” in response to “Black lives matter.” One of the examples that I don’t think is at this link but I appreciate is: if you are with a group of your friends and someone gets a cut on their leg, you give them a bandage. You don’t go around to every friend except the cut one and give them bandages and say, “All legs matter.”
*** Talking About Race from the NMAAHC This is where I got the anti-racist page I linked at the top of the newsletter. This is from the Smithsonian and has a user-friendly way of relating topics such as Bias, Race & Racial Identity, and Whiteness. Here is an article about this link
*** Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad is a book/workbook that I have heard wonderful things about from many, many people.
For Our White Friends Desiring to be Allies from Sojourners This resource list is written by someone who says they love Jesus, if that sort of thing matters to you (or if you want to avoid it). That being said, I think their tone is so much nicer than mine hahahaha so this is maybe a good resource for someone who wants just a tiny bit of coddling.
*** ($) Anti-racism Resources List I had this tab open and unfortunately, I don’t remember how I came across it. Twitter, maybe? Anyway, it’s pretty good. Nice variety. Easy layout (it’s a Google doc)
National Resource List which is also available as a spreadsheet. The person who created the doc describes it as, “This Google document contains links to community bail funds, memorial funds, political education resources, organizations to put on your radar as well as general advice/tips for people attending protests or using social media as an organizing tool.”
Resource list from UK-based site It’s Nice That It’s a mix of charities, things to read, things to watch, people & orgs to follow.
($) Collection of resources from Great Big Story More resources on being an ally to the Black lives matter movement
A list of resources curated by Katie Couric Yeah, I’m stunned too.
Anti-racist resource collection This collection is aimed at people wanting to dig in academically
31 Children's books to support conversations on race, racism and resistance I love this list! And it’s not only focused on books with Black characters. There are other races represented as well.
Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus from JSTOR. This is phenomenal. For those of you who like homework, this one’s for you.
*** whiteaccomplices.org Helps teach how to move from Actor to Ally to Accomplice. Well-organized site that is clear to understand.
($) Alive & Free A nonprofit I am very, personally familiar with that keeps young people out of prison and gets them into college
($) Anti-Police Terror Project “Anti Police-Terror Project is building a replicable and sustainable model to end state-sanctioned murder and violence against Black, Brown, and poor people. “
($) Black Visions Collective “Black Visions Collective (BLVC) believes in a future where all Black people have autonomy, safety is community-led, and we are in right relationship within our ecosystems.”
($) Campaign Zero Focuses on creating policies and road maps for ending police violence in America
($) Reclaim the Block (Reclaim the Block has put together a list of more places to donate in Reclaim the Block: fund our broader movement)
($) Ella Baker Center for Human Rights “Named after civil rights hero Ella Baker, we organize with Black, Brown, and low-income people to build power and prosperity in our communities.”
*** Antiracist Resources and Reads: Lists for All Ages From the Evanston Public Library. Well-organized and well-curated, of course. And I love that it categorizes things by age. And there aren’t just books on this list!
Critical Racial & Social Justice Education Resources from Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility. While I can’t say I wholeheartedly recommend her book (maybe half-heartedly), the resource page is pretty great.
Understanding and Dismantling Racism: A Booklist for White Readers from Charis Books. This list looks like a mixed bag. There are some titles that I agree with, many titles with which I am unfamiliar, and many titles that center whiteness which, pro tip: don’t. Don’t do that.
Anti-racism Resources from Rachel Ricketts. I am not yet familiar with her work, but her resources look legit.
Rachel Cargle’s The Great Unlearn This resource is not free, nor should it be. I just subscribed. If you can afford to, you should as well. She does phenomenal work.
Anti-racist Books & Resources from Penguin Random House. Books & more. Some of these I’ve read and some are on my TBR.
Anti-racism Resources for All Ages from Nicole the Librarian aka Dr. Nicole A. Cooke at the University of South Carolina. The page is visually overwhelming but there are some excellent resources.
So You Want to Be Woke: A Reading Guide for White People on Book Riot. This is from 2018 and there are many more books, but I appreciate this list from my colleague Mya Nunnally.
*** Anti-racist Reading List by Ibram X. Kendi. If that first list is annoying (it’s the New York Times), the lovely librarians at the Chicago Public Library made a much more user-friendly version of this same list.
Anti-racist Book List from Loyalty Booksellers. It’s on Bookshop.org where I recommend you buy all books, unless they’re audiobooks and in that case, use libro.fm. I am not getting any sort of advert money from them. They just support indie bookshops and you should too.
Another anti-racist Book List from Brain Lair Books, also on Bookshop.org
Decolonize Your Mind Book List from Duende District, also on Bookshop.org
Your Kids Aren’t Too Young to Talk About Race from Pretty Good Design. There’s a graphic from them below in the Instagram resources section. Children as young as 2 use race to reason about people’s behaviors.
This white supremacy pyramid is useful: by Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence (2005) and adapted by Ellen Tuzzolo (2016)
Instagram Images and Slides
Many (but not all) of these are slideshows and require clicking through to see each panel of information
