Read
The following reading list was created based on Project Place staff suggestions. We also recommend looking into further resources that may be available at your local public library. For those in Boston, here is the link to the Boston Public Library on how to download Libby and get free anti-racist literature: https://bpl.overdrive.com/
Anti-Racist Literature
A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
Waking Up White: And Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Anthony Greenwald and Mahzarin Banaji
Caste Matters by Suraj Yengde
We Can’t Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival by Jabari Asim
Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Unequal Childhoods: Class Race and Family Life by Annette Lareau
Turn This World Inside Out: The Emergence of Nurturance Culture by Nora Samaran
Fumbling Towards Repair: A Workbook for Community Accountability Facilitators by Mariame Kaba and Shira Hassan
Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class by Ian Haney López
Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Y. Davis
The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence within Activist Communities by Ching-In Chen, Jai Dulani, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Anti-Racist Literature – Topic Specific
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (mass incarceration)
Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis (mass incarceration)
Voices of African American Women in Prison by Paula C. Johnson (mass incarceration)
From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America by Elizabeth Hinton (mass incarceration)
Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police and Punish the Poor by Virginia Eubanks (policing)
Evicted by Mathew Desmond (poverty, housing)
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen (education, colonialism, ahistoricism)
Nobody by Marc Lamont Hill (police violence, mass incarceration)
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (segregation, housing discrimination, redlining)
The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide by by Barbara Robles, Betsy Leondar-Wright, and Rose Brewer (racial wealth disparities)
Blackballed: The Black Vote and U.S. Democracy by Darryl Pinckney (voter suppression, black voting)
Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and Closing on Chicago’s South Side by Eve L. Ewing (education)
A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind by Harriet A. Washington (environmental racism, environmental justice)
Black Feminism
Women, Race & Class by Angela Y. Davis
Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that the Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens by Alice Walker
Sister Sister by Audre Lorde
Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins
Feminist Accountability: Disrupting Violence and Transforming Power by Ann Russo
Biographies, Non-Fiction Novels, Personal Narratives
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Black Is the Body: Stories from My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, and Mine by Emily Bernard
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
Children’s Literature
“Anti-racism Books for Kids” – New York Times
Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi
Articles – Homelessness & Racial Inequality
National Alliance to End Homelessness – Racial Inequality
The PEW Charitable Trusts – “’A Pileup of Inequalities’: Why People of Color Are Hit Hardest by Homelessness”
Listen
Code Switch (NPR)
1619 (The New York Times)
About Race
The Diversity Gap
Intersectionality Matters! Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw
Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast
Pod for the Cause (from the Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights)
Pod Save the People (Crooked Media)
Talking Race with Young Children (NPR)
The Color of Wealth: A Racial Money Divide on Maine Public Radio
Watch
PBS
PBS to Address Race and Racism in America Through Broadcast and Streaming Content – Info Here
Bestselling Author Ibram X. Kendi: How to be an Antiracist
Netflix
13th directed by Ava DuVernay
American Son directed by Kenney Leon
Dear White People directed by Justin Simien
See You Yesterday directed by Stefon Bristol
When They See Us directed by Ava Duvernay
Whose Streets directed by Sabaah Folayan
The Kalief Browder Story directed by Jenner Furst
Explained – Episode: The Racial Wealth Gap
Hulu
If Beale Street Could Talk directed by Barry Jenkins
The Hate U Give directed by George Tillman Jr.
Other Streaming Platforms
Fruitvale Station directed by Ryan Coogler
Just Mercy directed by Destin Daniel Cretton
Matter of Place by the Fair Housing Justice Center
Against All Odds: The Fight for a Black Middle Class by Bob Herbert
Housing Segregation in Everything – Code Switch by NPR
The Disturbing History of the Suburbs – Adam Ruins Everything
TED Talks
“We Need to Talk About Injustice”– Bryan Stevenson
“The Urgency of Intersectionality” – Kimberlé Crenshaw
“The Dangers of Whitewashing Black History” – David Ikard
“How to Deconstruct Racism, One Headline At A Time” – Baratunde Thurston
“Let’s Get to The Root of Racial Injustice” – Megan Ming Francis
“How America’s Public Schools Keep Children in Poverty” – Kandice Sumner
“The Symbols of Systemic Racism – And How to Take Away Their Power” – Paul Rucker
“How Can We Make Racism a Solvable Problem – And Improve Policing” – Dr. Philip Atiba Goff
“I Love Being A Police Officer, But We Need Reform” – Melvin Russel