Anti-Racist Resources
This post is to offer resources to those interested in receiving and sharing information that can serve to help the people of our country heal from centuries of racism. This is by no means a complete list, it’s just a beginning.
It is our hope that the groundswell of outrage will lead to change, but it will only happen if white people join in, work on their/our own racism (yes, liberal white folk, you/we also have plenty of work to do), educate ourselves so that we can be useful, and make way for a new America where whiteness is de-centralized.
The following RESOURCE LIST was compiled with help from RW Alves.
ORGANIZATIONS
People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond NW (Undoing Racism Workshops)
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) – Local chapter is called Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites (Seattle-based)
ONLINE ARTICLES
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
11 Common Ways White Folks Avoid Taking Responsibility for Racism in the US
What Privilege Really Means (And Doesn’t Mean) – To Clear Up Your Doubts Once and For All
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism
Digging Deep: Thinking About Privilege
Food for Thought: Privilege and the Seat of the Teacher
Why Intersectionality Can’t Wait
Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person
28 Common Racist Attitudes and Behaviors
On Racism and White Privilege from Teaching Tolerance: A Project of Southern Poverty Law Center
On Cultural Appropriation of Yoga
ONLINE RESOURCES
Curriculum for White Americans to Educate Themselves on Race and Racism–from Ferguson to Charleston
Colours of Resistance Archives (lots of articles and tools)
The Body is Not an Apology (articles on various topics)
Lion’s Roar Magazine (formerly Shambala Sun)
BOOKS & FILMS
What Writers of Color Say We Should Read Now – Star Tribune article
Books White People Need to Read – Goodreads List
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
The Way of Tenderness: Awakening through Race, Sexuality, and Gender by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel
Radical Dharma by Rev. angel Kyodo Williams, Lama Rod Owens , Jasmine Syedullah Ph.D.
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts by Resmaa Menakem
Witnessing Whiteness and Living in the Tension by Shelly Tochluk
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
Beyond Inclusion Beyond Empowerment by Leticia Nieto**
The Way of Tenderness: Awakening through Race, Sexuality, and Gender by
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Citizen by Claudia Rankine
Race: the Power of an Illusion (PBS series)
13th – documentary about the 13th Amendment by Ava DuVernay
When They See Us – documentary about the black men accused as the “Central Park Five” by Ava DuVernay
Selected Definitions of Race, Racism, & Systems of Power, Privilege, & Oppression
Definitions compiled from various online resources, especially: The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond and Intergroup Resources
Bias: Explicit bias consists of stated values which we use to direct our behavior deliberately. Implicit bias describes unconscious attitudes which direct our behavior.
Prejudice: A prejudice is a pre-judgment in favor of or against a person, a group, an event, an idea, or a thing. An action based on prejudgment is discrimination. A negative prejudgment is often called a stereotype. An action based on a stereotype is called bigotry. (Unlike in the cases of concepts like racism or oppression, there is no power relationship necessarily implied or expressed by the concepts “prejudice, “discrimination,” “stereotype” or “bigotry.”)
White: (as in “white people”): The term white, referring to people, was created by Virginia slave owners and colonial rulers in the 17th century. It replaced terms like Christian and “Englishman” to distinguish European colonists from Africans and indigenous peoples. European colonial powers established white as a legal concept after Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 during which indentured servants of European and African descent had united against the colonial elite. The legal distinction of white separated the servant class on the basis of skin color and continental origin. “The creation of ‘white’ meant giving privileges to some, while denying them to others with the justification of biological and social inferiority. (Margo Adair & Sharon Powell, The Subjective Side of Politics. SF: 1988. p.17.)
White Supremacy: An historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations and peoples of color by white peoples and nations of the European continent; for the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power and privilege. Centering whiteness as the “norm”.
Privilege: A privilege is an unearned right, favor, advantage, or immunity, specially granted to one individual or group, and withheld from another. Privilege is experienced along many different lines of identity (race, gender, sexuality, class, etc).
Race: A specious classification of human beings created by Europeans (whites) which assigns human worth and social status using ‘white’ as the model of humanity and the height of human achievement for the purpose of establishing and maintaining privilege and power. (Ronald Chisom and Michael Washington, Undoing Racism: A Philosophy of International Social Change. People’s Institute Press. People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. 1444 North Johnson Street. New Orleans, Louisiana, 70116. 1997. Second Edition. p. 30—31.)
Intersectionality: In the U.S., there are many forms of (often) interlocking oppressions: racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, anti-semitism, ableism, ageism, etc. Intersectionality is the acknowledgement of the interconnected nature of these social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, thus creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage that create a unique and specific experience of marginalization.
Oppression: the systematic mistreatment of people within a social identity group, supported and enforced by the society and its institutions, and backed by the power of those institutions and the cultural and historical framework of the society, solely based on the person’s membership in the social identity group.
Racism: A form of oppression based on the category of race. Racism is the power system established by race prejudice, bias, or discrimination plus institutional and systemic power.
Internalized Racism: Private manifestations of racism that reside inside the individual. Examples include prejudice, xenophobia, internalized oppression and privilege, and beliefs about race influenced by the dominant culture.
Internalized Racial Oppression manifests itself in two forms:
- Internalized Racial Inferiority: The acceptance of and acting out of an inferior definition of self, given by the oppressor, is rooted in the historical designation of one’s race. Over many generations, this process of disempowerment and disenfranchisement expresses itself in self-defeating behaviors.
- Internalized Racial Superiority: The acceptance of and acting out of a superior definition is rooted in the historical designation of one’s race. Over many generations, this process of empowerment and access expresses itself as unearned privileges, access to institutional power and invisible advantages based upon race.
Interpersonal Racism: Racism enacted between individuals. Once private beliefs come into interaction with others, the racism is now in the interpersonal realm. Includes individual acts & public expressions of racial prejudice, hate, bias and bigotry between individuals.
Institutional Racism: Discriminatory treatment, unfair policies and inequitable opportunities and impacts, based on race, produced and perpetuated by institutions (schools, mass media, courts, jails, hospitals, etc.). Individuals within institutions take on the power of the institution when they act in ways that advantage and disadvantage people, based on race.
Structural/ Systemic/Cultural/ Historical Racism: The normalization and legitimization of an array of dynamics – historical, cultural, institutional and interpersonal – that routinely advantage whites and create a system of hierarchy and inequity that provides whites with preferential treatment, privilege, and power while producing cumulative and chronic adverse outcomes for people of color. Structural Racism encompasses the entire system of white supremacy, diffused and infused in all aspects of society, including our history, culture, politics, economics and our entire social fabric. It encompasses: (1) history, which lies underneath the surface, providing the foundation for white supremacy in this country. (2) culture, which exists all around our everyday lives, providing the normalization and replication of racism and, (3) interconnected institutions and policies (such as the educational system, the criminal justice system, the prison industrial complex, the medical system, etc), the key relationships and rules across society providing the legitimacy and reinforcements to maintain and perpetuate racism. Examples include racist history, dominant cultural representations, popular myths, and compounded and chronic inequities, etc. The key indicators of structural racism are inequalities in power, access, opportunities, treatment, and policy impacts and outcomes, whether they are intentional or not. Structural racism is more difficult to locate in a particular institution because it involves the reinforcing effects of multiple institutions and cultural norms, past and present, continually producing new, and reproducing old forms of racism.
Posted by: 8 Limbs