James Baldwin
Race & Ethnicity Books
Born Out of Struggle by
Demonstrates how critical race theory can be useful in real-world situations.Rooted in the initial struggle of community members who staged a successful hunger strike to secure a high school in their Chicago neighborhood, David Omotoso Stovall's Born Out of Struggle focuses on his first-hand participation in the process to help design the school. Offering important lessons about how to remain accountable to communities while designing a curriculum with a social justice agenda, Stovall explores the use of critical race theory to encourage its practitioners to spend less time with abstract theories and engage more with communities that make a concerted effort to change their conditions.
Call Number: ebookISBN: 9781438459134Publication Date: 2016-04-01
Inherently Unequal: The betrayal of equal rights by the Supreme Court, 1865-1903 by
Between 1865 and 1870, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the U.S., the 14th conferred citizenship and equal protection under the law to all Americans, white or black, and the 15th gave black American males the right to vote. In 1875 the far reaching Civil Rights Act granted all Americans regardless of color "the full and equal enjoyment" of public conveyances and places of amusement. Yet eight years later, in 1883, the Supreme Court, by an 8-1 vote, overturned the Civil Rights Act as unconstitutional, arguing Congress had overstepped its authority. As the author pointedly acknowledges, in the next 20 years despite "by the dawn of the 20th century the U.S. had become the nation of Jim Crow laws, quasi slavery, and precisely the same two tiered system of justice that had existed in the slave era." How and why this happened, and the ramifications and reverberations unto today, is the subject of this work.
Call Number: KF4757 .G655 2011 Peoria LibraryISBN: 9780802717924Publication Date: 2011-01-18
Letters of the Law: Race and the Fantasy of Colorblindness in American Law by
In Letters of the Law, Sora Y. Han argues that colorblindness is a foundational fantasy of law that not only informs individual and collective ideas of race, but also structures the imaginative capacities of American legal interpretation. Han develops a critique of colorblindness by deconstructing the law's central doctrines on due process, citizenship, equality, punishment and individual liberty, in order to expose how racial slavery and the ongoing struggle for abolition continue to haunt the law's reliance on the fantasy of colorblindness. Letters of the Law provides highly original readings of iconic Supreme Court cases on racial inequality--spanning Japanese internment to affirmative action, policing to prisoner rights, Jim Crow segregation to sexual freedom.
Call Number: ebookPublication Date: 2015-05-19
No BS (Bad Stats) by
What if everything you thought you knew about Black people generally, and educating Black children specifically, was based on BS (bad stats)? No BS uses robust analysis, meaningful anecdotes, and powerful commentary to dispel myths and challenge conventional beliefs about educating Black children.
Call Number: ebookISBN: 9789004397040Publication Date: 2019-02-01
Race, Ethnicity, and Policing by
This book includes both classic pieces and original essays that provide the reader with a comprehensive, even-handed sense of the theoretical underpinnings, methodological challenges, and existing research necessary to understand the problems associated with racial and ethnic profiling and police bias. The book guides readers through the complexity of these issues, making clear the ecological and political contexts that surround them, and laying the groundwork for future discussions.
Call Number: ebookISBN: 0814777481Publication Date: 2010-03-01
Rethinking Racial Justice by
"The racial injustice that continues to plague the United States couldn't be a clearer challenge to the country's idea of itself as a liberal and democratic society, where all citizens have a chance at a decent life. Moreover, it raises deep questions about the adequacy of our political ideas, particularly liberal political theory, to guide us out of the quagmire of inequality. So what does justice demand in response? What must a liberal society do to address the legacies of its past, and how should we aim to reconceive liberalism in order to do so? In this book, Andrew Valls considers two solutions, one posed from the political right and one from the left. From the right is the idea that norms of equal treatment require that race be treated as irrelevant--in other words, that public policy and political institutions be race-blind. From the left is the idea that race-conscious policies are temporary, and are justifiable insofar as they promote diversity. This book takes issue with both of these sets of views, and therefore with the constricted ways in which racial justice is debated in the United States today. Valls argues that liberal theory permits, and in some cases requires, race-conscious policies and institutional arrangements in the pursuit of racial equality. In doing so, he aims to do two things: first, to reorient the terms of racial justice and, secondly, to make liberal theory confront its tendency to ignore race in favor of an underspecified commitment to multiculturalism. He argues that the insistence that race-conscious policies be temporary is harmful to the cause of racial justice, defends black-dominated institutions and communities as a viable alternative to integration, and argues against the tendency to subsume claims for racial justice, particularly as they regard African Americans, under more general arguments for diversity." --
Call Number: E185.89.R45 V35 2018 Peoria LibraryISBN: 9780190860561Publication Date: 2018-09-20
Anti-Racism Books
Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by
"Based on the viral Instagram challenge that captivated participants worldwide, Me and White Supremacy takes readers on a 28-day journey, complete with journal prompts, to do the necessary and vital work that can ultimately lead to improving race relations. Updated and expanded from the original workbook (downloaded by nearly 100,000 people), this critical text helps you take the work deeper by adding more historical and cultural contexts, sharing moving stories and anecdotes, and including expanded definitions, examples, and further resources, giving you the language to understand racism, and to dismantle your own biases, whether you are using the book on your own, with a book club, or looking to start family activism in your own home."
Call Number: ebookISBN: 9781728209821Publication Date: 2020-01-28
The Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activities to Help You Challenge Privilege, Confront Systemic Racism, and Engage in Collective Healing by
"Racial Healing Handbook offers practical tools to help you navigate daily and past experiences of racism, challenge internalized negative messages and privileges, and handle feelings of stress and shame. You'll also learn to develop a profound racial consciousness and conscientiousness, and heal from grief and trauma. Most importantly, you'll discover the building blocks to creating a community of healing in a world still filled with racial microaggressions and discrimination. This book is not just about ending racial harm--it is about racial liberation."
Call Number: ebookPublication Date: 2019-08-01
Raising White Kids: Bringing up Children in a Racially Unjust America by
"...Raising White Kids is for families, churches, educators, and communities who want to equip their children to be active and able participants in a society that is becoming one of the most racially diverse in the world while remaining full of racial tensions. For white people who are committed to equity and justice, living in a nation that remains racially unjust and deeply segregated creates unique conundrums. These conundrums begin early in life and impact the racial development of white children in powerful ways."
Call Number: ebookPublication Date: 2018-01-16
White Fragility: Why it's so hard for white people to talk about racism by
In this groundbreaking and timely book, antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility. Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo explores how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively. --
Call Number: HT1521 .D486 2018 East Peoria LibraryISBN: 9780807047415Publication Date: 2018-06-26
What is Anti-racism?
"No one is born racist or antiracist; these result from the choices we make. Being antiracist results from a conscious decision to make frequent, consistent, equitable choices daily. These choices require ongoing self-awareness and self-reflection as we move through life. In the absence of making antiracist choices, we (un)consciously uphold aspects of white supremacy, white-dominant culture, and unequal institutions and society. Being racist or antiracist is not about who you are; it is about what you do."
Listen as Baratunde Thurston, writer, activist, and comedian, shows systematic racism through the titles of news stories. He challenges Americans to level up by changing the action to change the story.
Films
- White Like Me: Race, Racism and White Privilege in AmericaWhite Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the US through the lens of whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we've entered a post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with this legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality and race-driven political resentments today.
- The Uncomfortable Truth: the History of Racism in AmericaWhen the son of a Civil Rights Hero dives into the 400 year history of racism in America, he is confronted with the shocking reality that his family was involved from the very beginning. A comprehensive and insightful exploration of the origins and history of racism in America -- from slavery to Jim Crow era, from lynchings to protests -- told through a very personal and honest story.
- Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra BlandSay Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland examines this story in depth, revealing previously unknown details. The film follows the Bland family and legal team from the first weeks after her death as they try to find out what really happened in that jail cell in Texas. Embedded with the family and their lawyers, the filmmakers tracked the story for two years, drawing on key documents, jail footage and interviews with those closest to the events.
Organizations
- Color of Change"Color Of Change helps people respond effectively to injustice in the world around us. As a national online force driven by 1.7 million members, we move decision makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people, and all people. Until justice is real."
- The African American Policy Forum"Founded in 1996, The African American Policy Forum (AAPF) is an innovative think tank that connects academics, activists and policy-makers to promote efforts to dismantle structural inequality. We utilize new ideas and innovative perspectives to transform public discourse and policy. We promote frameworks and strategies that address a vision of racial justice that embraces the intersections of race, gender, class, and the array of barriers that disempower those who are marginalized in society. AAPF is dedicated to advancing and expanding racial justice, gender equality, and the indivisibility of all human rights, both in the U.S. and internationally."
- Black Lives Matter"#BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives."
Terms for Researching
Examples of key terms to use while researching:
- Critical race theory
- Race discrimination
- Civil rights movement
- Crime and race
- Ethnic Relations
- Population Statistics
- Race Relations
Research Resources
- Black Freedom Struggle in the United States"ProQuest’s openly available Black Freedom Struggle website features 2,000 expertly selected primary source documents – historical newspaper articles, pamphlets, diaries, correspondence and more – from pivotal eras in African American history. These reliable, easily discoverable materials are ideal for Black History Month projects, assignments and inspiration."
- Thurgood Marshall Institute"The Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multidisciplinary center within the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Launched in 2015, the Institute complements LDF’s traditional litigation strengths and brings critical capabilities to the fight for racial justice, including research and targeted advocacy campaigns. The Institute also houses LDF’s Archives—a collection of materials chronicling the legal history of the Civil Rights Movement."
- PEW Research Center - Hispanic TrendsA non-partisan research organization to improve understanding of the U.S. Hispanic population and to chronicle Latinos' growing impact on the United States. Downloadable datasets include the 2004 National Survey of Latinos: Politics and Civic Participation, the 2004 National Survey of Latinos: Education, and the 2002 National Survey of Latinos
- Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center"The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center brings history, art and culture to you through innovative museum experiences and digital initiatives."
- The National Archives and Records Administration: Research on Ethnic HeritageThe portals on this page offer suggestions on places to start when looking for resources about ethnic groups in the National Archives.
- New York Public Library:Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture"The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem is one of the world’s leading cultural institutions devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. As a research division of The New York Public Library, the Schomburg Center features diverse programming and collections spanning over 11 million items that illuminate the richness of global Black history, arts, and culture."
- Arab American National Museum: Collections & Research"The Arab American National Museum collects, documents and preserves art, three-dimensional artifacts, books, documents, personal papers and photographs that were created by, owned, primarily used by or that illustrate the Arab American experience. Almost all of the materials in the permanent collection have entered or will enter the collection through the generosity of individuals and communities, making the collection truly reflective of the diverse lives and histories of Arab Americans."