By Julia Wuench
Forbes.com
June 2nd, 2020
Posting a “black out photo” on social media for #blackouttuesday can be a well-intended expression of solidarity with the black community. It may even be an important first step for some who have yet to speak out about racism in America. However, at its worst, it may make certain white people feel like they’ve “checked a box” and “done enough.” Not only that, overuse of the Black Lives Matter hashtag for black out photos results in “flooding the hashtag.” These posts overshadow those containing useful information such as attorney contact information, organizations to donate to, and more.
For white people in America, it is up to each of us to first listen. Then, we must seek greater knowledge about our country’s deeply rooted racism. It is an undue burden on our colleagues and friends of color to teach us about racism and do the mental work for us. For white people who are interested in getting more intentional about deepening anti-racism work, the below are a list of resources to help aid in that effort. This list is by no means exhaustive. Start by picking one book, one article, or one podcast. Pick a friend to talk to about it and hold you accountable.
And, instead of or after posting a blackout photo today, consider highlighting black artists, business people and change makers to use your platform to amplify black voices.
Books
- How to Be an Antiracist/Ibram X. Kendi/2019
- White Fragility/Robin J. Diangelo/June 26, 2018
- Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race/Beverley Daniel Tatum/2017
- White Rage/Carol Anderson/2017
- Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race/Renni Eddo-Lodge/2017
- Between the World and Me/Ta-Nehisi Coates/2015
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness/Michelle Alexander/2010
- The World That Made New Orleans/Ned Sublette/2008
- Black Feminist Thought/Patricia Hill Collins/2000
- Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower/Brittney Cooper/2018
- Heavy: An American Memoir/Kiese Laymon/2018
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings/Maya Angelou/1969
- Just Mercy/Bryan Stevenson/2014
- Me and White Supremacy/Layla F. Saad/2020
- Raising our Hands/Jenna Arnold/2020
- Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love, and So Much More/Janet Mock/2014
- Sister Outsider/Audrey Lord/1984
- So You Want to Talk About Race/Ijeoma Oluo/2018
- The Bluest Eye/Toni Morrison/1970
- The Fire Next Time/James Baldwin/1962
- The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century/Grace Lee Boggs, Scott Kurashige, and Danny Glover/2011
- The Warmth of Other Suns/Isabel Wilkerson/2010
- This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color/Roasrio Morales/1984
- Women, Race, and Class/Angela Davis/1981
- Are Prisons Obsolete?/Angela Davis/2003
- Black Marxism: The Making of Black Radical Tradition/Cedric Robinson/1983
- Wretched of the Earth/Frantz Fanon/1961
- Black Skin, White Masks/Frantz Fanon/1952
- Common Ground/J. Anthony Lukas/1985
- Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race/Debby Irving/2014
Resources for Children and Young Adults Most Popular In: ForbesWomen
- 5 Ways To Create Multiple Streams Of Income
- 3 Things You Should Not Say To Your Black Colleagues Right Now
- Here Are Black Female-Owned Businesses You Need To Know
- Coretta Scott King Book Award winners
- Your Kids Aren’t Too Young to To Talk About Race: Resource Roundup/Katrina Michie
PROMOTED Grads of Life BrandVoice | Paid Program We Need A Reset. Our Future Depends On It. Civic Nation BrandVoice | Paid Program Fighting For An Anti-Racist Future Together. UNICEF USA BrandVoice | Paid Program COVID-19 And The U.S. Crisis Of Care
Articles/PDFs
- For Our White Friends Desiring to Be Allies/Courney Ariel/Aug. 16, 2017
- 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice/Corinne Shutack/Aug. 13, 2017
- How White Women’s Tears Threaten Black Existence/Cameron Glover/May 15, 2018
- When Feminism is White Supremacy in Heels/Rachel Cargle/Aug. 16, 2018
- The Souls of White Folk/Stephen Jamal Leeper/ Dec. 22, 2016
- What Do We Do With White Folks?/Anthony James Williams/Feb. 4, 2019
- White People Have No Culture/Lorena Wallace/Feb. 19, 2018
- Trump Defends White-Nationalist Protesters: ‘Some Very Fine People on Both Sides’/Rosie Gray/Aug 15, 2017
- Discourse and Debate: Is performative activism inherently bad?/Kayla Abrams, Jemima Fregene, and Lana Awadallah/Mar. 26, 2019
- Amy Cooper, White Spaces and the Political Projection of Whiteness/Lara Witt/May 26, 2020/
- Food Has Always Been Political/Adam Rapaport/May 31, 2020
- The White Space/Elijah Anderson/2015
- White Supremacy Culture, From Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change/Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun/2001
- Why White People Freak Out When They’re Called Out About Race/Sam Adler-Bell/Mar 10, 2015
- The Sugarcoated Language of White Fragility/Anna Kegler/Jul. 22, 2016
- My White Friend Asked Me to Explain White Privilege/Lori Lakin Hutcherson/Sep. 8, 2017
- Teaching Your Child About Black History Month/Nefertiti Austin/Feb. 15 2018
- The Coronavirus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying/Adam Serwer/May 8, 2020
- The 1619 Project (all articles)/New York Times Magazine
- The Combahee River Collective Statement
- The Intersectionality Wars/Jane Coaston/May 28, 2019
- Tips for Creating Effective White Caucus Groups/Craig Elliott PhD/2016
- Who Gets to Be Afraid in America/Ibram X. Kendi/May 12, 2020
- A Timeline of Events That Led to the 2020 ‘Fed Up’-rising/Michael Harriot/May 30, 2020
- “We are not okay. And you shouldn’t be either.”/Meg K. Guilford/May 31, 2020
- Remember, No One Is Coming to Save Us/Roxane Gay/May 30, 2020
- Op-Ed: Kareem Abdul Jabbar: Don’t understand the protests? What you’re seeing is people pushed to the edge/Kareem Abdul Jabbar/May 30, 2020
- How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change/Barack Obama/Jun. 1, 2020
- The Minneapolis Uprising in Context/Elizabeth Hinton/May 29, 2020
- Reckoning with white supremacy: Five fundamentals for white folks/Lovey Cooper/Jun. 1, 2020
- White People: This Is How To Check Your Privilege When Asking People Of Color For Their Labor/Sophia Stephens/July 30, 2018
- How Not To Be An Ally/Dr. Kim Case/April 19, 2019
- How To Be An Ally If You Are a Person With Privilege/Frances E. Kendall, Ph.D./2003
- White Anti-Racism: Living The Legacy/Flinn, Norman, Patel and Robles
YouTube Videos
- George Floyd, Minneapolis Protests, Ahmaud Arbery & Amy Cooper | The Daily Social Distancing Show/The Daily Show with Trevor Noah/May 29, 2020
- Why “I’m not racist” is only half the story/Robin Diangelo | Big Think/Oct. 1 2018
- Dr. Robin Diangelo discusses ‘White Fragility’/Seattle Channel/Jul. 3 2018
- Brené Brown on Empathy/The RSA/ Dec. 10 2013
- Courageous Conversations: Sharing Stories About Race and Pledging to Practice More/WHYY/May 23, 2017
- Black Feminism & the Movement for Black Lives: Barbara Smith, Reina Gossett, Charlene Caruthers/National LGBTQ Task Force/Jan. 23 2016
- “How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion”: Peggy Mcintosh at TedxTimberlaneSchools/Tedx Talks/Nov. 5, 2012
- The Inner Work of Racial Justice | Rhonda Magee/Wisdom 2.0/Mar. 23 2019
- A Mindful Approach to Race and Social Justice | Rhonda Magee, Jon Kabot-Zinn, Anderson Cooper/Wisdom 2.0/May 28, 2019
Movies and Documentaries
- 13th/Ava Duvernay/2016 – Netflix
- American Son/Kenny Leon/2019 – Netflix
- Sorry To Bother You/Boots Riley/2018 – Hulu
- Get Out/Jordan Peele/2017
- Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975/Göran Olsson/2011
- Clemency/Chinonye Chukwu/2019
- Fruitvale Station/Ryan Coogler/2013
- I Am Not Your Negro/Raoul Peck/2017
- If Beale Street Could Talk/Barry Jenkins/2018 – Hulu
- Just Mercy/Destin Daniel Cretton/2019
- King In The Wilderness/Peter Kunhardt/2018 – HBO
- See You Yesterday/Stefon Bristol/2019 – Netflix
- Blackkklansman/Spike Lee/2018
- Selma/Ava Duvernay/2014
- The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution/Stanley Nelson Jr./2015
- The Hate U Give/George Tillman Jr./2018 – Hulu
- When They See Us/Ava Duvernay/2019
TV
- Dear White People/Justin Simien/2017 – Netflix
- When They See Us/Ava Duvernay/2019 – Netflix
Websites and blogsIbram X. KendiIbram X. KendiTheGriotheGrio – Breaking News, Latest News, Opinion, Analysis and VideoThe RootThe Root | The Blacker the Content the Sweeter the TruthRace ForwardRace Forwardrachel-cargleHome | rachel-cargleGOOD BLACK NEWSGOOD BLACK NEWSLAYLA F. SAADLAYLA F. SAADpyramidprojectHome | The Pyramid ProjectNational Museum of African American History and CultureTalking About RacedRworksBookdRworksBook
Podcasts/Specific Podcast Episodes
- Revisionist History Season 2 Episode 3, “Miss Buchanon’s Period of Adjustment”/Malcolm Gladwell
- Code Switch/NPR
- Intersectionality Matters/African American Policy Fund and Kimberle Krenshaw
- Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast/Race Forward
- Rants & Randomness with Luvvie Ajayi Episode 9, “Become the Right Thing with Glennon Doyle”
- Fare of the Free Child/Akilah S. Richards
- 1619/The New York Times
- Pod For The Cause/The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
- Pod Save the People/Deray Mckesson
- Seeing White/Scene on Radio
Organizations
- Color of Change
- Campaign Zero
- Anti-Racism Project
- NAACP
- UnidosUs
- ACLU
Who to Follow on Social Media
- Antiracism Center @antiracismctr (Twitter, Instagram)
- Audre Lorde Project @audrelorde (Twitter) @audrelordeproject (Instagram)
- Black Women’s Blueprint @BlackWomensBP (Twitter) @blackwomensblueprint (Instagram)
- Color of Change @colorofchange (Twitter and Instagram)
- Colorlines @colorlines (Twitter) @colorlinesnews (Instagram)
- The Conscious Kid @consciouskidlib (Twitter) @consciouskid (Instagram)
- Equal Justice Initiative @ejl_org (Twitter and Instagram)
- The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights @civilrightsorg (Twitter and Instagram)
- NAACP @naacp (Twitter and Instagram)
- Showing Up for Racial Justice @ShowUp4RJ (Twitter) @showingupforracialjustice (Instagram)
- Sistersong @sistersong_woc (Twitter and Instagram)
- United We Dream @unitedwedream (Twitter and Instagram)
- Rachel Cargle @rachel.cargle (Twitter and Instagram)
- Osheta Moore @oshetamoore (Instagram)
- Layla F. Saad @laylafsaad (Instagram)
Petitions, Donations, Protest Resources
Akilah S. Richards hosts Fare of the Free Child, a lifestyle and parenting podcast about the connection between liberation, learning, and parenting, particularly among BIPOC communities. Parents, educators, unschoolers and entrepreneurs tune in weekly to connect about unschooling, deschooling, conscious parenting, and self-directedness. Akilah is passionate about mindful partnerships and parenting and her voice and work have been featured on NPR, NBC TV, Good Morning America’s blog, and in several print and web-based publications. The TEDx Speaker, accomplished digital content writer, and sought-after facilitator is part of a nomadic family of four; she and her partner, Kris, are raising two self-directed teenagers.
