Resources for non-Black folks to self educate & practice direct action: a working list

TO READ*

• Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by Bell Hooks
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt 
• From Slavery To Freedom: A History of African-Americans by John Hope Franklin
• Hood Feminism: Notes From The Women That The Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall
• How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
• Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People by Ben Crump
• Raising White Kids by Jennifer Harvey 
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo 
• Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
• Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid
• The Black and the Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America’s Law Enforcement by Matthew Horace and Ron Harris 
• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America By Richard Rothstein 
• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
• The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
• The Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement Is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and William Barber II
• They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, And A New Era In America’s Racial Justice Movement by Wesley Lowery
• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin DiAngelo
• White Rage by Carol Anderson
• Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race By: Dr. Beverly Tatum
• Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni-Eddo Lodge
• You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain- Phoebe Robinson 

• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
• For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
• Passing by Nella Larsen
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• The Mothers by Brit Bennett
• The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
• White Teeth by Zadie Smith

• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
• Dear White People by Justin Simien
• Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
• This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do The Work by Tiffany Jewell and Aurelia Durand

• Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi
• A Terrible Thing Happened by Margaret Holmes
• Daddy Why Am I Brown?: A healthy conversation about skin color and family by Bedford F. Palmer
• Happy in Our Skin by Fran Manushkin and Lauren Tobia
• I Am Enough by Grace Byers
• Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester
• Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey
• Sesame Street’s “We’re Different, We’re the Same by Bobbi Jane Kates
• Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story about Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard
• The Colors of Us by Karen Katz
• The Skin I’m In: A First Look at Racism by Pat Thomas
• Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford and Ekua Holmes

*Reminder: Support small businesses. Please avoid purchasing these books from Amazon or large retailers. You can find a list of Black-owned bookstores here. 

 

• Dear White People, Your Black Colleagues Aren’t Okay 
• It looks like Amy Cooper, the white woman in the viral Central Park video, is a liberal. That’s important
• Remember, No One Is Coming to Save Us 
• The Case for Reparations
• ‘The Condition of Black Life Is One of Mourning’
• What Would a World Without Prisons Look Like?

You can find up-to-date articles and resources about justice by following these links also: 

• https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/prisons-and-prisoners,
• https://www.usnews.com/topics/subjects/prisons
• https://www.themarshallproject.org/
• https://www.innocenceproject.org/
• https://blacklivesmatter.com/

TO WATCH:

• 13th 
• American Experience
• American History X 
• American Son 
• Barry
• Dear White People 
• Hard Lessons
• Ken Burns: The Civil War
• Little Boxes
• Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
• Mudbound
• See You Yesterday 
• Seven Seconds
• The Black Jacket
• The Butler
• What Happened Miss Simone?
• When They See Us 
• Who Killed Malcolm X? 

• Detroit
• If Beale Street Could Talk by Barry Jenkins
• Roots directed by Marvin J. Chomsky, John Erman, David Greene, Gilbert Moses
• The Hate U Give by George Tillman Jr (with cinemax)

• 12 Years a Slave by Steve McQueen
• Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 by Goran Hugo Olsson 
• Clemency by Chinonye Chukwu
• Fruitvale Station by Ryan Coogler
• I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin
• Just Mercy by Destin Daniel Cretton
• Selma by Ava Duvernay
• The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution by Stanley Nelson

TO LISTEN TO:

• 1619
• About Race
• Code Switch 
• Internationality Matters 
• Nya’s Noise 
• Pod Save the People with Deray
• So What Do You Do Again 
• Still Processing 
• The Diversity Gap
• What Would a World Without Prisons Be Like? 

• How Forgiveness Can Create a More Just Legal System by Martha Minow
• We Need to Talk about an Injustice

• About prison
• About racism
• About justice 

ORGANIZATIONS TO EDUCATE YOURSELF ON:

• A New Way of Life Reentry Project
• Audre Lorde Project
• Black Women’s Blueprint
• Black Youth Project 100 
• Colorlines
• Color of Change
• Dream Defenders
• Equal Justice Initiative (EJI)
• Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM)
• NAACP
• National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls
• Planting Justice
• Prison Creative Arts Project
• Showing Up for Racial Justice
• Southern Poverty Law Center
• The Bail Project 
• The Innocence Project
• The Justice-in-Education Initiative 
• The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights
• The Petey Greene Program 
• The Sentencing Project
• UNCF 
• United We Dream

ORGANIZATIONS TO DONATE TO:

• Baile Project 
• Black Lives Matter
• Black Visions Collective
• Campaign Zero 
• George Floyd Memorial Fund
• Homeless Black Trans Women Fund 
• Justice For Breonna
• Minnesota Freedom Fund
• National Bail Fund Network 
• National Bail Out 
• North Star Health Collective
• Reclaim The Block 
• Run With Maud
• The Innocent Project
• Find a chapter of Black Lives Matter near you – your local community needs your support!

NUMBERS TO CALL / TEXT FOR ACTION:

• Call DA Mike Freeman in Minnesota (612-348-5550) and demand prosecution to
  • Derek Chauvin 
  • Tou Thoa
• Leave a message for Louisville Mayor and demand justice for Breonna Taylor at 502-574-2003
• Text ENOUGH to 55-165
• Text FLOYD to 55-156
• Text Justice to 66-8336

PETITIONS TO SIGN:

• Justice for George Floyd  – Change.org
• Colors of Change – #JusticeForFloyd
• Justice For Breonna Taylor  – Change.org
• Justice for Ahmaud Arbery – Change.org 
• 50A

OTHER WAYS TO HELP:

• Ways to support protests from home
• Helping beyond the frontlines

QUESTIONS TO REFLECT ON:

• As a non-black person, in what ways does my proximity to whiteness afford me privileges that are not extended to Black and Brown people?  See this PDF for more. 
• As a non-black person, in what ways have I been conditioned to believe in the authority of whiteness?
• As a non black person, in what ways have I engaged in rhetoric that promotes othering or stereotyping of Black people?
• As a non-black person, in what ways do I actually center myself in a dialogue when I’m unaware of the space I’m taking?
• As a non-black person, what can I do to better educate myself on the historical context of race in the country and community I exist in?