History Makers and Other Databases
- HistoryMakers This link opens in a new windowThe nation's largest African American Video Oral History Collection. Includes over 93,139 stories from oral history interviews with 1,789 historically significant African Americans.
- African American Experience This link opens in a new window
The African American Experience is an authoritative research tool for African American history and culture, providing information from contributors who are experts in the field,. This vast and accessible database covers history, biographies, literature, arts, music, popular culture, folklore, business, slavery, the struggle for civil rights, politics, sports, education, science, and other themes. Contains primary documents, including slave narratives, speeches, court cases, quotations, advertisements, statistics, and other documentation from 1492 to the present. - African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
The Oxford African American Studies Center is the most comprehensive collection of scholarship available online to focus on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. The center ncludes articles from Oxford University Press reference sources, primary sources, images, maps, charts & tables, multimedia, timelines, and biographies. - Black Studies in Video This link opens in a new window
Black Studies in Video brings together seminal documentaries, powerful interviews, and previously unavailable archival footage surveying the black experience. At completion, the collection will contain 500 hours of film covering African American history, politics, art and culture, family structure, gender relationships, and social and economic issues. - Black Thought & Culture This link opens in a new windowContains 1,297 sources with 1,098 authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans. Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. Where possible the complete published non-fiction works are included, as well as interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamplets, letters and other fugitive material
- Ethnographic Video Online This link opens in a new windowStreaming video, written ethnographies, field notes, seminal texts, memoirs, and contemporary studies, covering human behavior the world over. Contains more than 1,800 documentary films and thousands of pages of previously unpublished material from major archives.
- Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS) This link opens in a new window
The Handbook is a bibliography on Latin America consisting of works selected and annotated by scholars. Edited by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress, the multidisciplinary Handbook alternates annually between the social sciences and the humanities. Each year, more than 130 academics from around the world choose over 5,000 works for inclusion in the Handbook. Continuously
published since 1936, the Handbook offers an essential guide to available resources. - Latino American Experience This link opens in a new window
Latino American Experience is the first-ever online resource dedicated to the history and culture of Latinos—the largest minority group in the United States. Featuring more than 200 volumes of unique content, the database includes hundreds of primary source documents like maps, images, audio clips, interviews, music files, speeches, documents, links to relevant websites and other material.
Recommended Films
Loving (Nichols, 2016) - Available on Netflix
A young couple's interracial marriage in 1958 sparks a case that leads to the Supreme Court. Based on the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving.
Hidden Figures (Melfi, 2016) - Available on Disney+
An incredible and inspiring untold true story about three women at NASA who were instrumental in one of histories greatest operations - the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit.
Accidental Courtesy (Ornstein, 2016) - Available on Kanopy
Musician Daryl likes to meet and befriend members of the Ku Klux Klan- something few black men can say.
In his travels, he's collected robes and other artifacts from friends affiliated with the Klan, building a collection piece by piece, story by story, and person by person in hopes of eventually opening a "Museum of the Klan", a testimony to what knowledge and respectful, personal communication can accomplish. In ACCIDENTAL COURTESY, Daryl's journey takes him to across the country, from old friends who have left the Klan, to friends still active in the organization, including a current Imperial Wizard of the KKK.
To Be Takei (Kroot, 2014) - Available on Kanopy
Oh my! This award winning documentary features Star Trek legend, marriage equality advocate, and spokesperson for racial justice; superstar George Takei. Best known for his groundbreaking role of Hikaru Sulu on a certain epic starship and its multi-ethnic crew, Takei is one of the most visible Asian-American actors of all time, inspiring generations of fans. Following his Star Trek run, George's baritone voice later earned him work in animated series like The Simpsons, Futurama, and The Super Hero Squad Show. These days, from signings at New York City's Midtown Comics to ComiCon!, George's husband, business manager, and co-pilot, Brad, excels at keeping George (and his hordes of fans) organized.
Precious Knowledge (Palos & McGinnis, 2011) - Available on Kanopy
Precious Knowledge reports from the frontlines of one of the most contentious battles in public education in recent memory, the fight over Mexican American studies programs in Arizona public schools. The film interweaves the stories of several students enrolled in the Mexican American Studies Program at Tucson High School with interviews with teachers, parents, school officials, and the lawmakers who wish to outlaw the classes.
Kiki (Jordanö, 2016) - Available on Prime
Revisiting the community featured in PARIS IS BURNING twenty-five years earlier, KIKI presents an intimate look at the ballroom and voguing culture of transgender communities of color in New York City. Director Sara Jordanö turns her lens on marginalized black and latino LGBTQ youth whose ballroom community serves as a surrogate family, and profiles several different teams of dancers—or “Houses”—as they prepare for their annual ballroom competition, featuring theatrical costumes and intricate dance routines. Kiki house leaders as young as 16 years old guide their teammate “children” to team pride, personal excellence, and most poignantly, self-acceptance.
More Than a Word (Little & Little, 2017) - Available on Kanopy
An exploration of Native American-based mascots, especially the Washington R_dskins, and their impact on real-life attitudes, issues, and policies. Through interviews with scholars, tribal leaders, lawyers, policy experts, activists, and Washington R_dskins fans, the film explores the history of the slanderous term "redskin," and delves into cultural stereotypes of Native Americans and their relationship to history. Ultimately, the film argues for representations that honor and celebrate the humanity of Indigenous people.
Walkout (Olmos, 2006) -Available on HBOMax
This HBO Films production details the stirring true story of a group of Mexican American students who staged a compelling 1968 walkout to protest the injustices of the public high-school system in East L.A. Alexa Vega stars as an idealistic honors student whose desire to fight the system's blatant discrimination leads her to coordinate a multi-school walkout of students.
American Revolutionary (Lee, 2013) - Available on Youtube
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY: THE EVOLUTION OF GRACE LEE BOGGS plunges us into Boggs’s lifetime of vital thinking and action, traversing the major U.S. social movements of the last century: from labor to civil rights, to Black Power, feminism, the Asian American and environmental justice movements and beyond. Boggs’s constantly evolving strategy – her willingness to re-evaluate and change tactics in relation to the world shifting around her – drives the story forward. Angela Davis, Bill Moyers, Bill Ayers, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, Danny Glover, Boggs’s late husband James and a host of Detroit comrades across three generations help shape this uniquely American story. As she wrestles with a Detroit in ongoing transition, contradictions of violence and non-violence, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, the 1967 rebellions, and non-linear notions of time and history, Boggs emerges with an approach that is radical in its simplicity and clarity: revolution is not an act of aggression or merely a protest. Revolution, Boggs says, is about something deeper within the human experience – the ability to transform oneself to transform the world. As it kinetically unfurls an evolving life, city, and philosophy, AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY takes the viewer on a journey into the power of ideas and the necessity of expansive, imaginative thinking, as well as ongoing dialectical conversation, to propel societal change.
The Hate U Give (Tillman, Jr., 2019)
In this powerful drama based on the best-selling novel, when a teenager witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood friend, she must find her voice and stand up for what's right.
Recommended Books
All American Boys by ISBN: 9781481463331Publication Date: 2015-09-29A 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor book, and recipient of the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children's Literature. In this Coretta Scott King Honor Award-winning novel, two teens--one black, one white--grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension. A bag of chips. That's all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad's pleadings that he's stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad's resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad's every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the concrete pavement? There were witnesses: Quinn Collins--a varsity basketball player and Rashad's classmate who has been raised by Paul since his own father died in Afghanistan--and a video camera. Soon the beating is all over the news and Paul is getting threatened with accusations of prejudice and racial brutality. Quinn refuses to believe that the man who has basically been his savior could possibly be guilty. But then Rashad is absent. And absent again. And again. And the basketball team--half of whom are Rashad's best friends--start to take sides. As does the school. And the town. Simmering tensions threaten to explode as Rashad and Quinn are forced to face decisions and consequences they had never considered before. Written in tandem by two award-winning authors, this four-starred reviews tour de force shares the alternating perspectives of Rashad and Quinn as the complications from that single violent moment, the type taken from the headlines, unfold and reverberate to highlight an unwelcome truth.
The Hate U Give by ISBN: 9780062498533Publication Date: 2017-02-288 starred reviews ∙ Goodreads Choice Awards Best of the Best ∙ William C. Morris Award Winner ∙ National Book Award Longlist ∙ Printz Honor Book ∙ Coretta Scott King Honor Book ∙ #1 New York Times Bestseller! "Absolutely riveting!" --Jason Reynolds "Stunning." --John Green "This story is necessary. This story is important." --Kirkus (starred review) "Heartbreakingly topical." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) "A marvel of verisimilitude." --Booklist (starred review) "A powerful, in-your-face novel." --Horn Book (starred review) Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil's name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does--or does not--say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life. And don't miss On the Come Up, Angie Thomas's powerful follow-up to The Hate U Give.
March: Book One by ISBN: 9781603093002Publication Date: 2013-08-13Congressman John Lewis (GA-5) is an American icon, one of the key figures of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from receiving beatings from state troopers to receiving the Medal of Freedom from the first African-American president. Now, to share his remarkable story with new generations, Lewis presents March, a graphic novel trilogy, in collaboration with co-writer Andrew Aydin and New York Times best-selling artist Nate Powell (winner of the Eisner Award and LA Times Book Prize finalist for Swallow Me Whole). March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis' lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis' personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement. Book One spans John Lewis' youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a stunning climax on the steps of City Hall. Many years ago, John Lewis and other student activists drew inspiration from the 1958 comic book "Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story." Now, his own comics bring those days to life for a new audience, testifying to a movement whose echoes will be heard for generations. Coretta Scott King Author Honor Books selection- recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults- "March- Book One," written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell, and published by Top Shelf Productions.
The Freedom Writers Diary (20th Anniversary Edition) by ISBN: 9780385494229Publication Date: 1999-10-12As an idealistic twenty-three-year-old English teacher at Wilson High School in Long beach, California, Erin Gruwell confronted a room of "unteachable, at-risk" students. One day she intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature, and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust-only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students, using the treasured books Anne Frank- The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata's Diary- A Child's Life in Sarajevo as their guides, undertook a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding. They learned to see the parallels in these books to their own lives, recording their thoughts and feelings in diaries and dubbing themselves the "Freedom Writers" in homage to the civil rights activists "The Freedom Riders."
The New Jim Crow by Call Number: HV9950 .A437 2012ISBN: 1595586431Publication Date: 2012-01-16In a bold and innovative argument, a rising legal star shows readers how the mass incarceration of a disproportionate number of black men amounts to a devastating system of racial control. This is a terrifying reality that exists in the UK as much as in the US. Despite the triumphant dismantling of the Jim Crow laws, the system that once forced African-Americans into a segregated second-class citizenship still haunts and the criminal justice system still unfairly targets black men and deprives an entire segment of the population of their basic rights.
White Rage by ISBN: 9781632864130Publication Date: 2017-11-02Since 1865 and the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, every time African Americans have made advances towards full participation in our democracy, white reaction has fueled a deliberate and relentless rollback of their gains. The end of the Civil War and Reconstruction was greeted with the Black Codes and Jim Crow; the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was met with the shutting down of public schools throughout the South while taxpayer dollars financed segregated white private schools; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 triggered a coded but powerful response, the so-called Southern Strategy and the War on Drugs that disenfranchised millions of African Americans while propelling presidents Nixon and Reagan into the White House, and then the election of America's first black President, led to the expression of white rage that has been as relentless as it has been brutal. Carefully linking these and other historical flashpoints when social progress for African Americans was countered by deliberate and cleverly crafted opposition, Anderson pulls back the veil that has long covered actions made in the name of protecting democracy, fiscal responsibility, or protection against fraud, rendering visible the long lineage of white rage. Compelling and dramatic in the unimpeachable history it relates, White Rage will add an important new dimension to the national conversation about race in America.
Racism Without Racists by ISBN: 9781442202184Publication Date: 2009-11-16She may have left prostitution, but can Mia face the demons of her past? Now working for a different kind of Agency, with a new set of rules and a new life. There is so much to learn in so little time. The world of espionage is not too far from the secret life of prostitution that she's trying to leave behind. Can she withstand the mental and physical training that's involved in becoming a secret agent? Agent Nick Davis is Mia's mentor. He's also all that she desires. He is everything she ever wanted in a man and he is the one person who understands and accepts her. She may have known him before but the more she learns about him now, the more she loves. Their love may grow stronger by the day but is it strong enough to survive her return to Tench?Her quest to find the truth about Sally may continue to lead her further into the dark life of crime boss Joe Tench. While at the same time, his obsession for her is developing into something sinister. Can she discover what evil he is orchestrating in time before he discovers the truth about her?
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by ISBN: 0316453692Publication Date: 2020-03-10A timely, crucial, and empowering exploration of racism--and antiracism--in America. This is NOT a history book. This is a book about the here and now. A book to help us better understand why we are where we are. A book about race. The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited. Through a gripping, fast-paced, and energizing narrative written by beloved award-winner Jason Reynolds, this book shines a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas--and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives.
The Color of Law by ISBN: 9781631492853Publication Date: 2017-05-02In this groundbreaking history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein, a leading authority on housing policy, explodes the myth that America's cities came to be racially divided through de facto segregation--that is, through individual prejudices, income differences, or the actions of private institutions like banks and real estate agencies. Rather, The Color of Law incontrovertibly makes clear that it was de jure segregation--the laws and policy decisions passed by local, state, and federal governments--that actually promoted the discriminatory patterns that continue to this day. Through extraordinary revelations and extensive research that Ta-Nehisi Coates has lauded as "brilliant" (The Atlantic), Rothstein comes to chronicle nothing less than an untold story that begins in the 1920s, showing how this process of de jure segregation began with explicit racial zoning, as millions of African Americans moved in a great historical migration from the south to the north. As Jane Jacobs established in her classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities, it was the deeply flawed urban planning of the 1950s that created many of the impoverished neighborhoods we know. Now, Rothstein expands our understanding of this history, showing how government policies led to the creation of officially segregated public housing and the demolition of previously integrated neighborhoods.
Just Mercy by ISBN: 9780812984965Publication Date: 2015-08-18Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn't commit. The case drew Bryan into a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship--and transformed his understanding of mercy and justice forever. Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer's coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.
Biased by Call Number: BF575.P9 E34 2019ISBN: 9780735224933Publication Date: 2019-03-26"This book should be required reading for everyone."--Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility "Poignant....important and illuminating."--The New York Times Book Review "Groundbreaking."--Bryan Stevenson, New York Times bestselling author of Just Mercy From one of the world's leading experts on unconscious racial bias come stories, science, and strategies to address one of the central controversies of our time How do we talk about bias? How do we address racial disparities and inequities? What role do our institutions play in creating, maintaining, and magnifying those inequities? What role do we play? With a perspective that is at once scientific, investigative, and informed by personal experience, Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt offers us the language and courage we need to face one of the biggest and most troubling issues of our time. She exposes racial bias at all levels of society--in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and criminal justice system. Yet she also offers us tools to address it. Eberhardt shows us how we can be vulnerable to bias but not doomed to live under its grip. Racial bias is a problem that we all have a role to play in solving.The Fire Next Time by
Call Number: Juvenile Collection 305.896 .B1936f 2000ISBN: 9780030554421Publication Date: 2000-01-01A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation, gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement—and still lights the way to understanding race in America today.- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by ISBN: 0316453692Publication Date: 2020-03-10A timely, crucial, and empowering exploration of racism--and antiracism--in America. This is NOT a history book. This is a book about the here and now. A book to help us better understand why we are where we are. A book about race. The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited. Through a gripping, fast-paced, and energizing narrative written by beloved award-winner Jason Reynolds, this book shines a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas--and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives.
Teaching Race by ISBN: 9781119374428Publication Date: 2018-11-20A real-world how-to manual for talking about race in the classroom Educators and activists frequently call for the need to address the lingering presence of racism in higher education. Yet few books offer specific suggestions and advice on how to introduce race to students who believe we live in a post-racial world where racism is no longer a real issue. In Teaching Race the authors offer practical tools and techniques for teaching and discussing racial issues at predominately White institutions of higher education. As current events highlight the dynamics surrounding race and racism on campus and the world beyond, this book provides teachers with essential training to facilitate productive discussion and raise racial awareness in the classroom.
Islamophobia and Radicalisation by ISBN: 9780190083410Publication Date: 2019-01-01Since the 1970s, there have been three challenges to traditional, homogeneous "national" identities across the Western world: political and socioeconomic inequality; neoliberal globalization; and more diverse, multicultural societies. As in the US and elsewhere in Western Europe, the declineof an old, masculinized national identity has now begun to open a new, dark era for Britain. Ever since the "war on terror" was added to the mix, "others" in Britain have been brutally demonized. Muslims, routinely presented as the source of society's ills, are subjected to both symbolic and actualviolence. Deep-seated and structurally racialized norms amplify the isolation and alienation impeding Muslim integration. Both these "left-behind" Muslims and white-British groups who perceive themselves as the true nation are under pressure from ongoing geopolitical concerns in the Muslim world, aswell as widening divisions at home. Tahir Abbas argues that, in this context, the symbiotic intersections between Islamophobia and radicalization intensify and expand. His book is a warning of the world that results: a rise in hate crime, the institutionalization of Islamophobia, and thenormalization of war and conflict.
Was the Cat in the Hat Black? by ISBN: 9780190635077Publication Date: 2017-08-07Racism is resilient, duplicitous, and endlessly adaptable, so it is no surprise that America is again in a period of civil rights activism. A significant reason racism endures is because it is structural: it's embedded in culture and in institutions. One of the places that racism hides-and thus perhaps the best place to oppose it-is books for young people. Was the Cat in the Hat Black? presents five serious critiques of the history and current state of children's literature tempestuous relationship with both implicit and explicit forms of racism. The book fearlessly examines topics both vivid-such as The Cat in the Hat's roots in blackface minstrelsy-and more opaque, like how the children's book industry can perpetuate structural racism via whitewashed covers even while making efforts to increase diversity. Rooted in research yet written with a lively, crackling touch, Nel delves into years of literary criticism and recent sociological data in order to show a better way forward. Though much of what is proposed here could be endlessly argued, the knowledge that what we learn in childhood imparts both subtle and explicit lessons about whose lives matter is not debatable. The text concludes with a short and stark proposal of actions everyone-reader, author, publisher, scholar, citizen- can take to fight the biases and prejudices that infect children's literature. While Was the Cat in the Hat Black? does not assume it has all the answers to such a deeply systemic problem, its audacity should stimulate discussion and activism.
Colorblind Racism by ISBN: 9781509524426Publication Date: 2018-12-03How can colorblindness - the idea that race does not matter - be racist? This illuminating book introduces the paradox of colorblind racism: how dismissing or downplaying the realities of race and racism can perpetuate inequality and violence. Drawing on a range of theoretical approaches and real-life examples, Meghan Burke reveals colorblind racism to be an insidious presence in many areas of institutional and everyday life in the United States. She explains what is meant by colorblind racism, uncovers its role in the history of racial discrimination, and explores its effects on how we talk about and treat race today. The book also engages with recent critiques of colorblind racism to show the limitations of this framework and how a deeper, more careful study of colorblindness is needed to understand the persistence of racism and how it may be challenged. This accessible book will be an invaluable overview of a key phenomenon for students across the social sciences, and its far-reaching insights will appeal to all interested in the social life of race and racism.
How to Be an Antiracist by ISBN: 0525509283Publication Date: 2019-08-13Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism--and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas--from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities--that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves. Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society. Praise for How to Be an Antiracist "Ibram X. Kendi's new book, How to Be an Antiracist, couldn't come at a better time. . . . Kendi has gifted us with a book that is not only an essential instruction manual but also a memoir of the author's own path from anti-black racism to anti-white racism and, finally, to antiracism. . . .How to Be an Antiracist gives us a clear and compelling way to approach, as Kendi puts it in his introduction, 'the basic struggle we're all in, the struggle to be fully human and to see that others are fully human.' "--NPR "Kendi dissects why in a society where so few people consider themselves to be racist the divisions and inequalities of racism remain so prevalent. How to Be an Antiracist punctures the myths of a post-racial America, examining what racism really is--and what we should do about it."--Time
Redlined by ISBN: 9781631523205Publication Date: 2018-04-03Set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, Redlined exposes the racist lending rules that refuse mortgages to anyone in areas with even one black resident. As blacks move deeper into Chicago's West Side during the 1960s, whites flee by the thousands. But Linda Gartz's parents, Fred and Lil choose to stay in their integrating neighborhood, overcoming previous prejudices as they meet and form friendships with their African American neighbors. The community sinks into increasing poverty and crime after two race riots destroy its once vibrant business district, but Fred and Lil continue to nurture their three apartment buildings and tenants for the next twenty years in a devastated landscape--even as their own relationship cracks and withers. After her parents' deaths, Gartz discovers long-hidden letters, diaries, documents, and photos stashed in the attic of her former home. Determined to learn what forces shattered her parents' marriage and undermined her community, she searches through the family archives and immerses herself in books on racial change in American neighborhoods. Told through the lens of Gartz's discoveries of the personal and political, Redlined delivers a riveting story of a community fractured by racial turmoil, an unraveling and conflicted marriage, a daughter's fight for sexual independence, and an up-close, intimate view of the racial and social upheavals of the 1960s.
To Shape a New World by ISBN: 9780674980754Publication Date: 2018-02-19Martin Luther King, Jr., may be America's most revered political figure, commemorated in statues, celebrations, and street names around the world. On the fiftieth anniversary of King's assassination, the man and his activism are as close to public consciousness as ever. But despite his stature, the significance of King's writings and political thought remains underappreciated. In To Shape a New World, Tommie Shelby and Brandon Terry write that the marginalization of King's ideas reflects a romantic, consensus history that renders the civil rights movement inherently conservative?an effort not at radical reform but at ?living up to? enduring ideals laid down by the nation's founders. On this view, King marshaled lofty rhetoric to help redeem the ideas of universal (white) heroes, but produced little original thought. This failure to engage deeply and honestly with King's writings allows him to be conscripted into political projects he would not endorse, including the pernicious form of ?color blindness? that insists, amid glaring race-based injustice, that racism has been overcome. Cornel West, Danielle Allen, Martha Nussbaum, Robert Gooding-Williams, and other authors join Shelby and Terry in careful, critical engagement with King's understudied writings on labor and welfare rights, voting rights, racism, civil disobedience, nonviolence, economic inequality, poverty, love, just-war theory, virtue ethics, political theology, imperialism, nationalism, reparations, and social justice. In King's exciting and learned work, the authors find an array of compelling challenges to some of the most pressing political dilemmas of our present, and rethink the legacy of this towering figure.
White Fragility by ISBN: 9780807047422Publication Date: 2018-06-26The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality. In this "vital, necessary, and beautiful book" (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and "allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to 'bad people' (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.
