ANTI-RACISM AND WHITE PRIVILEGE
For white people living in North America, learning to be anti-racist is a re-education process. We must unlearn the thorough racist conditioning to re-educate and re-condition ourselves as an anti-racist. We need knowledge, guidance, and experience to avoid the detours and traps waiting for ourselves on this journey.
Common Detours White People Use to Perpetuate White Supremacy:
- I’m Colorblind “People are just people; I don’t see color; we’re all just ”
- Reverse Racism “People of color are just as racist as white ”
- Blame the Victim “If only they worked harder and applied ”
- Innocence by Association “I am not racist because my boyfriend is ”
- Teach Me, or Help Me, I’m Stuck “I want to stop acting racist, so please tell me when I do something you think is racist.” (Spoken to a person of color)
- Reality Check or Consequence “White people often assume that they can learn about racism only from people of color. We can’t assume or act as though people of color should be grateful for our attempts at anti-racism, that they will be willing to guide us whenever we are ready to be
- Silence “Our silence may be a product of our guilt or fear of making people of color angry with us or disappointed in us. Each time we are silent we miss an opportunity to interrupt racism, or to act as an ally or to interact genuinely with people of color or other white people. No anti-racist action is taken as long as we are silent.”
FURTHER READING, VIEWING AND LISTENING
DOCUMENTARIES:
- A Road Home (2015)
- We Shall Remain (5-part series) (2009)
- 13th (2016)
- Paper Tigers (2015)
- Mala Mala (2014)
- Kumu Hina (2014)
- We Were Here (2010)
- I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
- Paris Is Burning (2011)
- Pariah (1990)
- The House Where I Live (2012)
- Call Me Kuchu (2012)
- The Black Power Mixtape (2011)
- Small Town Gay Bar (2006)
- Two Spirits (2009)
- The Class Divide (2015)
- The Life and Death of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)
- Disclosure (2020)
BOOKS
General
- “A People’s History of the United States” – Howard Zinn
Intersectional LGTBQ+ Voices
- “Gay Voices of the Harlem Renaissnace (Blacks in the Diaspora): A History of Bisexuality” – Steven Angelides
- “Asegi Stories: Cherokee Queer and Two-Spirit Memory” – Qwo-li Driskill
- “Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity” – Riley Snorton
- “Borderlands/La Frontera” – Gloria Anzaldua
- “A Queer History of the United States (ReVisioning American History for Young People)” – Michael Bronski
- “Sister Outsider” – Audre Lorde
- “Transgender Warriors” – Leslie Feinberg
- “And the Band Played On” – Randy Shilts
- “Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality” – Sarah McBride
- The Celluloid Closet” – Vito Russ
- “Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation” – Eli Clare
- “Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love, and so Much More” – Janet Mock
- “Transgender 101: A Simple Guide to a Complex Issue” – Nicholas Teich
- “Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States” – Joey L. Mogul
Housing, Economic, and Poverty
- “The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of how our Government Segregated America” – Richard Rothstein
- “Not a Crime to be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America” – Peter Edelman
- “How to Kill an American City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood” – Peter Moskowitz
- “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” – Matthew Desmond
- “Not in my Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City” – Antero Pietila
- “Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World” – Annie Lowrey
- “The Case for Reparations”, The Atlantic – Ta-Nehisi Coates
White Supremacy, Colonialism, and Structural Oppression
- “From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation” – Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
- “Between the World and Me” – Ta-Nehisi Coates
- “Racism without Racists: Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America” – Eduardo Bonilla Silva
- “Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America” – Ibram X. Kendi
- “Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law” – James Q. Whitman
- “White Fragility: Why it’s so Hard for White People to Talk about Racism” – Robin J. DiAngelo
- “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of our Racial Divide” – Carol Anderson, Ph.D.
- “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” – Paolo Freire
- “An Indigenous People’s History of the United States” – Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
- “The New Jim Crow” – Michelle Alexander
- “Freedom is a Constant Struggle – Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement” – Angela Y. Davis
- “So You Want to Talk about Race?” – Ijeoma Oluo
- “Citizen: An American Lyric” – Claudia Rankine
- “Don’t Call Us Dead: Poems” – Danez Smith
- “The Fire Next Time” – James Baldwin
- “The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race” – Jesmyn Ward
- “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” – Bryan Stevenson
- “The History of White People” – Nell Irvin Painter
- “Heavy: An American Memoir” – Kiese Layman
- “The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide” – Meizhu Lui, Rebecca Robles, Betsy Leondar-Wright, Rose Brewer, Rebecca Adamson
- “Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption” – Jane Jeong Trenka, Julia Chiuyere Oparah, Sun Yung Shin
- “Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools” – Monique Morris
- “How to Be An Anti-Racist?” Ibram X. Kendi
Allyship and Resilience
- “Trans Allyship Workbook: Building Skills to Support Trans People in our Lives” – Davey Shlasko
- “The Queer and Transgender Resilience Workbook: Skills for Navigating Sexual Orientation and Gender Expression” – Anneliese A. Singh
- “The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias” – Dolly Chugh
Intersectionality of Youth Homelessness and LGTBQ+
- “Kicked Out” – Sassafras Lowrey
- “No House to Call My Home” – Ryan Berg
For Younger Readers
- “The Hate U Give” – Angie Thomas
- “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You” – Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
- “Antiracist Baby” – Ibram X. Kendi
PODCASTS:
- Code Switch – Shereen Marisol Meraji and Gene Demby (NPR)
- 1619 – Nikole Hannah-Jones (The New York Times)
- Pod Save the People with DeRay Mckesson
- The Read – Kid Fury and Crissle West
- Never Before – Janet Mock
- The BiCast – Elizabeth M. Mechem, Amy Leibowitz Mitchell, and Mick Collins
- LGBTQ&A – Jeffrey Master
- Black Girl Dangerous – Raquel Willis
- Café Con Chisme – Sebatian and Yasmin Ferrada
- Umbrella – Various hosts/panelists
- How to be a Girl – Marlo Mack
- The Nod – Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings
- Still Processing – Jenna Worthan and Wesley M
