CCAE Staff Recommended Anti-Racism Resources

We stand with Black Americans and communities of color. We stand in opposition to white supremacy in all forms. Students from all backgrounds have learned together and challenged one another at CCAE for generations and it is imperative that we continue to do so in the face of present-day violence against the Black community.

Our staff compiled resources that we have engaged with and found helpful in our work in becoming anti-racist and combating racism. We hope they can serve as your starting point as well.

This list will be updated as we continue our work and we encourage you to use our Additional Resources for more extensive lists compiled by individuals and organizations.

Books

Anti-Racist Starter Kit

Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X Kendi & Jason Reynolds

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

White Fragility by Robin Diangelo

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

Additional Readings

Are Prisons Obsolete by Angela Davis

The End of Policing by Alex Vitale (Ebook)

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi

White Rage by Carol Anderson

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder

The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea by Robert Wald Sussman

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

In the Wake: On Blackness and Being by Christina Sharpe

We compiled a list of books by Black authors & poets on a variety of topics here.

When purchasing books we recommend reaching out to local bookstores that have online ordering, curbside pickups, or deliveries. We can recommend a few here:

• The COOP: https://store.thecoop.com/
• Harvard Bookstore: http://www.harvard.com/
• Frugal Books Roxbury (the only Black-owned bookstore in Boston): https://frugalbookstore.net/

We also always recommend using your local library!

Articles

"I Don't Want to Shoot You, Brother" by Joe Sexton: https://features.propublica.org/weirton/police-shooting-lethal-force-cop-fired-west-virginia/

"Whose Grief? Our Grief" by Saaed Jones: https://www.gq.com/story/saeed-jones-on-generations-of-protests

NYT Opinion: "You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument" by Caroline Randall Williams https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/opinion/confederate-monuments-racism.html

How to Support Protestors in Every City: https://www.papermag.com/where-to-donate-protests-minneapolis-2646128317.html

75 Things White People Can Do For Racial Justice: https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234

“Who Gets to Be Afraid in America” by Ibram X. Kendi https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/ahmaud-arbery/611539

“George Floyd’s Death Is a Failure of Generations of Leadership” by Elizabeth Hinton https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/02/opinion/george-floyd-protests-1960s.html

Podcasts

Code Switch: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/

Justice in America: https://theappeal.org/topics/justice-in-america/

1619 Podcast from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/podcasts/1619-podcast.html

Pod Save the People: https://crooked.com/podcast-series/pod-save-the-people/

Documentaries

13th directed by Ava DuVernay (Netflix)

I Am Not Your Negro. narrated by Samuel L. Jackson based on James Baldwin's unfinished manuscript Remember this House

Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice

Breaking the Huddle: The Integration of College Football (HBO)

Additional Resources

Abolition Can't Wait: A Teach-In with #8toAbolition with Haymarket Books

Prison Abolition: A Break Down with ACLU Mass (Instagram)

Justice in June: How to Get Started (Google Doc)

National Museum of African American History and Culture’s web portal: Talking About Race

An Anti-Racist Reading List: Ibram X. Kendi on books to help America transcend its racist heritage https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/books/review/antiracist-reading-list-ibram-x-kendi.html

10 Steps to Non-Optical Allyship from @mireillecharper (Instagram)

Anti-Racism Resources for White People (Google Doc)

Anti-Racism Allyship Starter Pack (Google Doc)

When asked at our WPCR 20th Anniversary panel, "what are the most important qualities white allies bring to anti-racist work?", Marcia Kimm-Jackson offered a six-pronged concept of trustworthiness in white allies:

- Recognize that we live in a racialized society.

- Make privilege visible: If you see instances of white privilege in your home, friendships, workplace, or public life, call that privilege out and offer ways to make other, less privileged voices heard.

- Work collaboratively with people of color, including working under the leadership of people of color and learning about the ways people of color have resisted racism throughout the years.

- Nurture truth-telling relationships, including challenging those in our lives to be more truthful.

- Work through your own shame and guilt, do not seek forgiveness from people of color.

- Do the work from a place of self-love, not expecting love from people of color, and to forge a new way to be white in this world.