A List of Resources to Better Understand Systemic Racism, Racial Justice, and Other Issues

Below is an ongoing selective list of resources for sparking conversations about systemic racism and racial justice. The resources are a combination of online articles, books, videos, campaigns, and more. Please use them as you continue to seek opportunities for solace, healing, and education. If there are any resources you would like to share, please email them to lucia.rodriguez@unsdsn.org.

READ

Articles:

• “‘I can’t breathe’: Man dies after pleading with officer attempting to detain him in Minneapolis” by Elisha Fieldstadt
• “We Stand in Solidarity: Response to Injustice in America” by Margot Elise
• “When black people are in pain, white people just join book clubs” by Tre Johnson
• “High-profile white film editors tried to shut down a search for Black creators in a private Facebook group” by Margot Harris
• “Doing good and being racist” by Corinne Gray
• “‘Wow, I’m racist’: In time of viral encounters, ‘white spaces’ are used to confront biases” by Erik Ortiz
• “You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument” by Caroline Randall Williams
• “Anti-Blackness In The Arab World And The Violence That Doesn’t Get A Hashtag” by Bahira Amin
• “EU declares ‘Black Lives Matter,’ condemns racism”
• “A Timeline of Events That Led to the 2020 ‘Fed Up’-rising” by Michael Harriot
• “America, This Is Your Chance” by Michelle Alexander
• “97 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice” by Corinne Shutack
• “From Juneteenth to the Tulsa massacre: What isn’t taught in classrooms has a profound impact” by Daniella Silva
• “#ChineseforBlackLives” by H Williams
• “The aid sector must do more to tackle its white supremacy problem”
• “Western philosophy is racist” by Bryan W Van Norden

Books:

• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
• Unthinkable Sins by Tiffani Quarles-Sanders

Racism and Health:

• Mental Health Issues Facing the Black Community by Sunshine Behavioral Health

Guides:

• Anti-racism resources by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein
• Black Lives Matter: Movies, TV shows and books on systemic racism by Abrar Al-Heeti
• The Schomburg Center’s Black Liberation Reading List by The New York Public Library
• 62 great books by Black authors, recommended by TED speakers by We Humans
• These local resources connect New Yorkers to black-owned businesses by Emma Orlow
• 17 Black-Owned Businesses You Can Support Online Right Now by Sarah Crow
• You can order today from these black-owned independent bookstores by Corinne Segal
• A Guide to Black-Owned Restaurants in NYC’s Five Boroughs by Noah Sheidlower
• 22 Individuals and Organizations Building Stronger Black Communities and Food Systems by Food Tank Lists
• 20 Social Justice Organizations to Support Right Now by The Editors
• 26 Ways To Be In The Struggle Beyond The Streets

STEM Readings:

• Science Has a Racism Problem by The Cell Editorial Team

WATCH

Short Films and Discussions:

• The Danger of a Single Story, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at TEDGlobal 2009 
• A Discussion About Inequity at Work, Judith Williams and Farren Roper
• Black Communities and COVID-19: Across the Diaspora, Karla Slocum and Mark Little
• Celebrating Juneteenth with the Solomon Sir Jones films, Yale’s Beinecke Library
• Systemic Racism Explained, act.tv
• Talks to help you understand racism in America, TED Talks
• How to be Anti-Racist in Aid, Stephanie Kimou, Marie-Rose Romain Murphy, Naomi Tulay-Solanke, and Arbie Baguios

TV Series:

• When They See Us, a Netflix miniseries from Ava DuVernay about the Central Park Five

Movies:

• Do the Right Thing, a film combining humor and drama with memorable characters while tracing the course of a single day on a block in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn
• Fruitvale Station, a film with Michael B. Jordan about the killing of Oscar Grant
• Selma, a film that chronicles the marches of the Civil Rights Movement
• I Am Not Your Negro, a documentary envisioning the book James Baldwin was never able to finish
• 13th, a Netflix documentary from Ava DuVernay exposing racial inequality within the criminal justice system
• The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, a film directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor based on the memoir and true story of William Kamkwamba
• The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, a film re-examining the 1992 death of transgender legend Marsha P. Johnson

EDUCATE

All Ages:

• Black History Month Library
• Racial Conflict and Economic Development
• Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus

For Kids:

• 20 Picture Books for 2020: Readings to Embrace Race, Provide Solace & Do Good

TAKE ACTION

Campaigns and Petitions:

• Justice for Breonna Taylor

Fund Movements:

• Black Lives Matter Global Network
• NAACP: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
• UNCF: United Negro College Fund
• The Global Resilience Fund

Organizations:

• The Anti-Racism.Club

OTHER RESOURCES

COVID-19:

• COVID-19 and the case for global development by Oldekop et al.

INEQUALITY:

• Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor by Virginia Eubanks
• Don’t Be Evil: How Big Tech Betrayed Its Founding Principles — and All of Us by Rana Foroohar
• Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O’Neil
• Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez