Resources: Understanding Racism

Understanding on Racism and Anti-Blackness

These resources will help you understand the historical and current roots of racism and anti-Blackness in the United States.

Recognizing Black Humanity: Pre-Slave Trade African Civilizations

American educational systems do not teach Black History prior to the slave trade, leaving room for people to believe culturally and biologically racist explanations for inequality.  These documentaries will provide background on the full humanity and possibility of the Black experience.

Comprehensive Discussions of Racial Oppression, Anti-Blackness, and White Supremacy

These sources provide comprehensive discussions of the nature and origins of White supremacy and racism in the US and western contexts.

Understanding Slavery in the US

Racism as we know it is a relatively modern phenomenon, and it is tied to market forces. These texts cover the origins or modern day racism and anti-blackness within the capitalist system. They also discuss the brutal realities of the middle passage and American slavery, and provide groundwork for the evolution of racial subordination in the US.

Reconstruction, American Terror, and the Evolution of Structural Racism

Under discussed is the progress African Americans made under reconstruction before the efforts were put down by political compromises, economic interests, and White American terrorism. These sources cover the rapid rise of Black social and political power after the civil war, as well as how it was cut down by racism, fear, terror, and economic interests.

20th Century Intentional Economic Oppression

Too many think that Black oppression ended with slavery, when it continued deliberately in economic spaces well into the 20th century. These sources cover those 20th century developments and the major contributions they made to the current racial hierarchy.

Racist Ideologies and Whiteness

Conceptualizations of Whiteness and colorblindness perpetuate racial oppression. These sources help us understand these thought processes and actions.

Anti-Blackness in the Media

The media has always been a tool to perpetuate racist structures in the US. These sources unpack those mechanisms.

Race, Wealth, and Intergenerational Economic Subordination

White America has a huge financial head start on other groups. These sources document the intergenerational transfers:

Race and Criminal Justice

Understanding how racist structures in the criminal justice system and their intergenerational effects on Black families, communities, and overall well-being.

Race and Policing specifically:

Race and Parenting

These sources provide information and resources on how to raise white children and children of color as responsible and affirmed people in a racialized society.

Raising Anti-Racist White children.

Raising, Supporting, Protecting Black Children and Other Children of Color as Parents/Caretakers

Race and Educational Inequities

These sources help us understand and disrupt the ways educational systems are both instruments of and a tools for perpetuating anti-Blackness and racial subordination.

Health, Mental Health, and Race

These sources examine the histories and nature of disparities in race and health and wellness outcomes.