A compiled list of resources to help you decolonize your mind.
This list is by no means exhaustive, and we are adding to it regularly. We want to stress the importance of educating yourself with a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, we must educate ourselves on the history of race in America and how racism is malleable and has transformed throughout the ages. The other, equally important, factor is to immerse ourselves in Black culture. Read books by Black people, listen to Black music etc. This double-sided approach is imperative to changing your own worldview and politics to affect change in yourself and the world around you.
C.R.E.A.M.: Links to Donate
Bail Funds across the country -- before you choose to give, please cross reference their website, many funds are asking to give to other organizations as they have been flooded by contributions.
BOOKS[1]
Just Mercy - Bryan Stevenson
The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander
Freedom is a Constant Struggle - Angela Davis
Trouble in Mind - Leon Litwack
The History of White People - Nell Irvin
How To Be An Anti-Racist - Ibram X. Kendi
Heavy - Kiese Laymon
If They Come in the Morning...Voices of Resistance - Angela Davis, Ruchell Magee, the Soledad Brothers and Other Political Prisoners
Citizen: An American Lyric - Claudia Rankie
Invisible Man - Ralph Elison
The End of Policing - Alex S. Vitale (also available as a free ebook from Verso Books, Verso is asking the cost of the book be donated to an anti-racism org.)
White Fragility - Robin DiAngelo
The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X and Alex Haley
So You Want to Talk About Race - Ijeoma Oluo
White Rage - Carol Anderson
Bad Feminist - Roxane Gay (Specifically, the series of essays under “Race & Entertainment”)
How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America: Problems in Race, Political Economy, and Society - Manning Marable and Leith Mullings
The Fire Next Time - James Baldwin
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love - Kathleen Collins (A collection of short stories)
This is What I Know About Art - Kimberly Drew
If Beale Street Could Talk - James Baldwin
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
The Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler
Blood in My Eye - George Jackson
The Ways of White Folks - Langston Hughes (a collection of short stories)
Assata - Assata Shakur and Angela Davis
As Black as Resistance - William Andersonand Mariam Kaba
Sister Outsider - Audre Lorde
Magical Negro - Morgan Parker
The Wretched of the Earth - Frantz Fanon
In the Wake: On Blackness and Being - Christina Sharpe
Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi
Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid
Red at the Bone - Jacqueline Woodson
Kindred - Octavia Butler
Bloodchild and Other Stories - Octavia Butler
PODCASTS
Dissect Lemonade - Cole Cuchna and Titi Shodiva. While Lemonade is known as the album in which Beyoncé spoke about her husband’s infidelity, it is also a story of a woman’s journey to understand how generational trauma of Black folx in America creates cycles of pain within our community and personal lives.
Intersectionality Matters - Kimberlé Crenshaw
MUSIC
When Do I Get To Be Called A Man - Big Bill Broonzy
Mississippi Goddam - Nina Simone
The Times They Are A Changin’ - Bob Dylan
Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing - Rosamond Johnson and James Weldon Johnson
I Wish I knew How it Would Feel to Be Free - Nina Simone
Why? (The King of Love is Dead) - Nina Simone
A Change is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke
Meditate - EarthGang ft. J.I.D. (warning: explicit and violent images)
Uncle Sam Goddamn - Brother Ali (warning: explicit)
Comment #1 - Gil-Scott Heron (warning: explicit)
Redemption Song - Bob Marley & the Wailers
Alright - Kendrick Lamar (warning: explicit)
Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud - James Brown
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - Gil Scott-Heron
Shadow Man - Noname feat. Saba, Smino and Phoelix
Casket Pretty - Noname (warning: explicit)
Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood - Nina Simone
Strange Fruit - Nina Simone
To Be Young, Gifted and Black - Nina Simone
JOURNALS/ARTICLES
The 1619 Project - Nikole Hannah Jones[2]
The Double Standard of the American Riot - Kellie Carter Jackson
The Case for Reparations - Ta-Nehisi Coates
Why I Am No Longer Talking to White People About Race - Reno Eddo
Network News and Racial Beliefs Exploring the Connection Between National Television News Exposure and Stereotypical Perceptions of African Americans - Travis L. Dixon[3]
Black Americans and Mental Health Status: Complexities and New Developments - Tara R. Earl and David R. Williams[4]
A Multidimensional Conceptualization of Racism-Related Stress: Implications for the Well-Being of People of Color - Shelly P. Harrell, PhD.[5]
Racialized Politics: The Debate About Racism in America[6]
A Letter to My Nephew - James Baldwin
What is Common, What Is Rare: Why Extraordinary Events Cannot Eclipse Everyday Racism - Patrice Gopo
America’s Racial Contract is Killing Us - Adam Serwer, The Atlantic
When Black Women Go From Office Pet to Office Threat - Erika Stallings
LISTS OF RESOURCES FROM OTHERS
An Anti-Racist Reading List - by Ibram X. Kendi
Anti-Racism Resources for White People - compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker, Alyssa Klein in May 2020[7]
List of Black Owned Businesses - author unclear
Letters for Black Lives[8] (new letter + translations for 2020 coming soon)
POETRY
I, Too, Sing America - Langston Hughes
Coal - Audre Lorde
Rosa Parks - Nikki Giovanni
Book of Hours - Kevin Young (a collection of poems)
No More Love Poems - Ntozake Shange, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf
Caged Bird - Maya Angelou
A Small Needful Fact - Ross Gay
Your God - Rudy Francisco (warning: explicit)
The Cosmic Matter of Black Lives - Cherise Morris
Don’t Call Us Dead - Danez Smith
VIDEOS
Racial Wealth Gap - Vox and Netflix, Explained
The Myth of Race, Debunked in 3 Minutes - Vox
The Fractured Politics of a Browning America - Vox
Mass Incarceration, Visualized - The Atlantic
What Racism Is - Toni Morrison
An Introduction To Michelle Alexander’s the New Jim Crow - MACAT
Malcolm X Debate with James Baldwin September 5, 1963
Notes of A Native Son: The World According to James Baldwin - Ted-Ed
Who Was Malcom X? - TRT World
DOCUMENTARIES
The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther
Reconstruction: America After the Civil War - PBS
MOVIES
Fruitvale Station (available on Netflix)
If Beale Street Could Talk (Available on Hulu)
[1] Each book is linked via indiebound, where you can buy from a local independent bookstore
[2] CB and LS have physical copies and are willing to send photos of articles that are not available online to anyone interested.
[3] Email CB for a copy.
[4] Email CB for a copy.
[5] Email CB for a copy.
[6] Email CB for a copy.
[7] Has resources for parents.
[8] A set of crowdsourced, multilingual, and culturally-aware resources aimed at creating a space for open and honest conversations about racial justice, police violence, and anti-Blackness in our families and communities.