This list is by no means comprehensive, but it gives a launching point for those looking to educate themselves about the racism, anti-racism, and everything in between. Use it as a starting place, or a list of further resources, to guide your own discovery and research into the world around you and the prejudices, ignorance, and history that have shaped it.
Books
As you're finding resources to educate yourself, please make sure you're remembering to compensate the creators. If possible, purchase it from a black owned bookshop, but what ever you do make sure the creators are compensated for the labour!
How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X Kendi
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X Kendi
Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad
Inglorious Empire: What The British Did To India by Shashi Tharoor
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis
The Good Immigrant: 21 Writers Explore What It Means To Be Black, Asian, And Minority Ethnic In Britain Today edited by Nikesh Shukla
Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique W. Morris
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
They Can't Kill Us All by Wesley Lowery
The New Jim Crowe: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The End of Policing by Alex S Vitale (available for free through Verso)
The Condemnation of Blackness by Khalil Gibran Muhammad
Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
White Rage by Carol Anderson
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Biased by Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Black Feminist Thoughts by Patricia Hill Collins
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers her Superpower by Dr. Brittney Cooper
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Redefining Realness by Janet Mock
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color by Cherrie Moraga
Articles
The Death of George Floyd, In Context by Jelani Cobb
The racist roots of American policing: From slave patrols to traffic stops by Connie Hassett-Walker
Of Course There Are Protests. The State Is Failing Black People by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
You Shouldn't Need a Harvard Degree to Survive Birdwatching While Black by Samuel Getachew (Oakland, CA's 2019 Youth Poet Laureate)
How to Make This Moment The Turning Point for Real Change by Barack Obama
The Law Isn't Neutral by Dahlia Lithwick
Films and Television
Available on Netflix
American Son (2019) - Set in a Miami police station, it focuses on the relationship between the police and black citizens, police brutality, and manipulation of evidence.
13th (2016) - Its title a reference to the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, this documentary explores the perpetuation of forms of slavery since its legal abolition in the United States through mass incarceration, disenfranchisement of African Americans, the Jim Crow Laws, and other such means of suppression.
Fruitvale Station (2013) - A biographical drama film focusing on the events leading up to the 2009 killing of 22-year-old African American man Oscar Grant by a police officer in Oakland, California. (Also available through YouTube, Google Play, and Amazon Prime)
Dear White People (2017) - This Netflix-original series follows a group of students of color at Winchester University, a predominantly white Ivy League college. Through an absurdist lens, the series uses irony, self-deprecation, brutal honesty and humour to highlight issues that still plague today's"post-racial" society.
Available Elsewhere
I Am Not Your Negro (2016) - A documentary narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, it examines figures central to the Civil Rights Movement such as Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr., providing an insightful commentary on the history of racism in the United States. (Available on YouTube, Google Play, and Amazon Prime)
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-75 (2011) - Documentary film tracking the Black Power movement during the period 1967-75 through the eyes of Swedish journalists and filmmakers. (Available on Amazon Prime)
Selma (2014) - Historical drama, focusing on the events surrounding the Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches of 1965.
Hidden Figures (2016) - The untold story of three brilliant African-American women working at NASA, who served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit. (Available on Amazon Prime)
The Hate U Give (2018) - Drama film based on the book of the same name from 2017, by Angie Thomas. It follows the witnessing of a school shooting by a high school student, and explores issues surrounding police brutality. (Available through YouTube, Google Play, and Amazon Prime)
Just Mercy (2019) - . Legal drama, depicting the true story of Walter MacMillian, wrongfully convicted of and sentenced to death for murder, and defence attorney Bryan Stevenson, who helped to overturn MacMillian’s conviction. (Available through YouTube, Google Play, and Amazon Prime)
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) - Romantic drama based on James Baldwin’s 1974 novel, focusing on a young woman dedicated to clearing her lover’s name before their child is born. (Available through YouTube, Google Play, and Amazon Prime)
Podcasts
Intersectionality Matters!
Code Switch
Bold: Conversations Around Race
1619
About Race
The Diversity Gao
Here to Slay
Witness Black History
The Nod
Still Processing
Pod For the Cause
Small Doses with Amanda Seales
Seeing White
Slay in Your Lane
Cape Up: Voices of the Movement
Google Search Terms
"What is anti-racism?"
"What is white privilege? What is white supremacy?"
"White supremacy in law enforcement"
"What is anti-black racism?"
"What is structural racism? What is systemic racism? What is institutional racism?"
"School to prison pipeline"
"Redlining"
"Voter suppression"
If there are any terms or concepts you don't understand, look them up! Become familiar with the language and terminology you're reading. Pull up the resources and dig in.
This is a starting point. These resources are not the be all, end all of anti-racist reeducation. This is merely an introduction to the vast array of resources available to us all to help us fight ignorance, hate, and bigotry.
This is not an ending point. Do not consume these resources and consider your work finished, your mindset shifted. These are facilitators of transformation. You yourself must put in the work to identify not only societal shortcomings, but to observe and change your own biases and prejudices. Take these resources as an opportunity to learn, and as a starting point for further enlightenment. Find more resources that are impactful to you, follow accounts that post about anti-racism, seek out new materials. As any lover of literature knows, there is always more to learn and more to do.
Most importantly, take what you learn and apply it to the real world. Sign petitions, donate to groups doing important work, raise your voice, educate the ignorant, have difficult and uncomfortable conversations with people who don't agree with you.
You have many tools available to you, now is the time to use them to help those who do not share your same privilege. This is not a momentary conversation. Keep fighting and raising your voice for those who need it most, even after many voices have died out. Do what you can, and do as much as you can.
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