Let's Really Learn About Diversity, Equality, Inclusion ... and White Supremacy
Books, podcasts and sources to follow. This is a work in process. Submit suggestions to IndivisibleAkron@gmail.com
Books
Barracoon, The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’, a nonfiction book based on the author’s interviews with Oluale Kossola, the presumed last survivor of the Middle Passage. By Zora Neale Hurston
Beyond Respectability, “…charts the development of African American women as public intellectuals and the evolution of their thought from the end of the 1800s through the Black Power era of the 1970s. By Brittney Cooper
Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement," What is CRT and why is it under fire from the political right? This collection of essays puts it into perspective. Forward by Cornel West. Multiple authors
Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism, offers personal narratives, historical context and practical tips in short, easy-to-digest chapters. By Misasha Suzuki Graham and Sara Blanchard
Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century on the “joys and challenges of the modern disability experience.” By June Eric-Udorie and Ariel Henley
DO THE WORK! An Antiracist Activity Book for all the people overwhelmed by racial injustice and white supremacy in America, who’ve taken some action and know they can do more, but don’t always know what to do or how to do it. By W. Kamau Bell and Kate Schatz
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower Eloquent rage keeps us all honest and accountable. It reminds women that they don’t have to settle for less. When Cooper learned of her grandmother's eloquent rage about love, sex, and marriage in an epic and hilarious front-porch confrontation, her life was changed.
Faces at the Bottom of the Well, a classic work on American racism and the struggle for racial justice. By Derrick Bell
Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression. From Thrift Books: Hard Times is not only a gold mine of information but a fascinating interplay of memory and fact, revealing how the 1929 stock market crash and its repercussions radically changed the lives of a generation. By Studs Terkel
How to Be an Antiracist. From Thrift Books: “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.” By Ibram X. Kendi
How to Be Less Stupid About Race, an “irreverent take on everything that’s wrong with our ‘national conversation about race’ and what to do about it.” By Crystal Marie Fleming.
It’s Not About The Burqa: Muslim Women on Faith. From Thrift Books: “What does it mean, exactly, to be a Muslim woman in the West today? According to the media, it's all about the burqa. Here's what it's really about.” By Mariam Khan
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. The title says it all. By James W. Loewen.
Me And White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor, helps us understand how to recognize your privilege, combat racism and change the world. By Layla F. Saad.
Revisioning American History series. Includes “A Queer History of the United States,” “A Disability History of the United States,” “An Indigenous Peolples’ History of the United States,” “An African American and LatinX History of the United States,” and “A Black Women’s History of the United States.” By multiple authors
So You Want to Talk About Race, answers, “How do you talk about white privilege to your white, privileged friend?” By Ijeoma Oluo
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colroblindness, From Thrift Books: “Since it was first published in 2010, it has been cited in judicial decisions and has been adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads.” By Michelle Alexander
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. What is white fragility? It’s discomfort a white person experiences when confronted by information about racial inequality and injustice. The author explains how white fragility develops, how it perpetuates racial inequality and what we can do about it. By Robin DiAngelo
Podcasts
Code Switch: “What's CODE SWITCH? It's the fearless conversations about race that you've been waiting for. Hosted by journalists of color, our podcast tackles the subject of race with empathy and humor. We explore how race affects every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, food and everything in between.”
Historically Black: a nine-part series from 2016 that features short oral histories about objects that had been submitted to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and the “people’s museum.”
Pod Save The People: “On Pod Save the People, DeRay Mckesson explores news, culture, social justice, and politics with Kaya Henderson, and Myles Johnson. They offer a unique take on the news, with a special focus on overlooked stories and topics that often impact people of color.”
Nice White Parents, a five-part series by Serial Productions and The New York Times, “looks at the 60-year relationship between white parents and the public school down the block.”
Substacks
A More Beautiful Way by Bethaney Wilkinson
Streaming
You Can’t Ask That on Netflix is described as “inspiring, intimate and heartfelt.” People from marginalized (some applications are debatable, such as the episode on ex-politicians) communities answer questions about their identities and experience. Topics include domestic violence, ex politicians, deaf, disaster survivors, former cult members, drag, blindness, war veterans and suicide attempt survivors.