Combatting ignorance.

Releasing hate.

Acknowledging privilege.

Leveraging privilege.

Questioning bias.

Breaking status quo.

Challenging friends.

Challenging family.

When we acknowledge how little we actually know and understand, we open ourselves up to grow.

There are many other lists that are far more well-developed than this one, but it’s a start. The Skimm, which I’ve been reading since college, created their list of anti-racist resources; Elle developed an anti-racist reading list. There are countless others, but these alone will keep you busy!

We (myself included) will never stop learning - like, for instance, how claiming that you are “not racist” and working toward “anti-racist” are not the same. When it comes to racial literacy, there is no such thing as arriving at fluency. The resources in this post have been very helpful for me - I am baffled by how little I know, and how much more I have to learn - and I encourage you to do your own reading and searching as well. Friends, this only scratches the surface.

Read. Watch. Listen. Learn. Acknowledge your privilege as real; it’s not an insult, it’s a gift you can leverage. Acknowledge your ignorance as also real, but not inherent, and certainly not permanent.

By learning as much as we can about the realities we don’t understand, we equip ourselves. We become powerful. This power, real power that knowledge gives, is what we need to fight fear, ignorance, hatred, “othering” those we don’t understand. It starts here!

Before we begin, breaking down the diction to these issues are the building blocks to reach understanding. Here are helpful terms to shrink ignorance and equip us for productive thought and conversation.

No Justice. No Peace.

terms to know:

race (n) — a grouping of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into categories generally viewed as distinct by society; refers to a person's physical characteristics, such as bone structure and skin, hair, or eye color

ethnicity (n) —  a grouping of cultural factors, including nationality, regional culture, ancestry, and language

racism (n) — prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior

anti-racism (n) — the opposition of racism and promotion of racial tolerance

systemic (adj) — relating to a system, especially as opposed to a particular part

prejudice (n) — preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.

privilege (n) — a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group

defund (v) — prevent from continuing to receive funds; to withdraw funding from

• ex: Central to the idea [of defunding a police department] is redirecting those funds and responsibilities to social programs aimed at addressing the root of problems.

• Defunding has different means between communities and leaders, and their specific needs. To some, that’s decreasing funding, not cutting it. For some successful cases like Camden, New Jersey, that’s starting over: disbanding their PD, then rebuilding from the ground up.

• This is a very helpful breakdown of what that could look like in our country.

Read // Books

*Americanah. A Nigerian couple, upon leaving Lagos, each experience their own blackness for the first time.

*Such a Fun Age. A recent addition this year to Reese Witherspoon’s book club list of books to read, all of which feature a female lead. Get ready for a simultaneously tasty and cringe-y inside look on race…white people can be so weird, y’all…

Untamed. Also an item on Reese’s book list. Written by Glennon Doyle, wife to soccer star Abby Wambach. While it’s a story about a woman learning to live the truest life she can as a gay woman, there is a chapter on race, and perceiving it as white women. It’s important and challenging.

Read // Articles

Reform. This article Obama wrote identifying faults within our policing system, and calling us to action.

New Era of Public Safety. This toolkit outlining effective community policing: the reform we need and what we, as constituents and voters, can do to enact it.

Watch // Ted talks

Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice. Like the True Justice documentary, Stevenson discusses the issues that are his life’s passions on the micro (the work he does) and on the macro (racism, prejudice, and injustice in society).

Priya Vulchi and Winona Guo: What it takes to be racially literate. Two young women share stories and practical actions to helps us become more racially literate. Oh, and they just graduated high school…and they’re taking a gap year before starting college to travel across the country to collect even more stories on race and write a book about it, so we can better understand each other.

We. are. not. worthy.

Baratunde Thurston: How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time. Balances the tension of these discussions with a piquant sense of humor. Thurston is a masterful speaker.

Watch // Movies

*True Justice. Brian Stevenson, a black man and a Harvard lawyer, has dedicated his life to serving those rendered hopeless and voiceless in our broken justice system. This documentary dives deep into his nonprofit, the Equal Justice Initiative; his life’s work representing inmates on death row and facing life prison sentences; and, in the larger picture, the patterns in our nation’s history that have accumulated to make life significantly more challenging for people of color.

This I found to be incredibly moving and emotional. Watch with tissues and perhaps a notebook.

Normally only available on HBO, the EJI has offered both this documentary and the film Just Mercy available for free online to help educate viewers on systemic racism.

*Just Mercy. Like True Justice, it’s now available for free for the month of June. The film of Stevenson’s book.

The Hate U Give. A black teenager must decide whether to testify after her friend is shot by a white police officer.

*Get Out. Somehow hearing friends repeat for years how much of a mind F this movie is, my curiosity grew until I watched it one afternoon last week at four o’clock in the afternoon so I wouldn’t get jumpy in my own house at night (spoiler: didn’t work). The symbolism is rich, the acting superb. Directed by Jordan Peele, it’s a shocking satire of racial “othering”.

Salute. Ever wondered what this picture on the right means, the story behind it? Watch this documentary to find out.

Listen // Podcasts

1916. Highly acclaimed New York Times podcast.

Color Code. These episodes are hailed as their top eight.

Listen // Clips

*This eulogy from George Floyd’s funeral. ❤

(*Asterisks indicate personal favorites.)

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What else can you add to this list?