ANTI-RACISM RESOURCES

This is by no means a definitive list and I will be adding to it constantly. I’ve tried to keep the focus mostly on the UK but there are also links to US based resources.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

(Credit to Georgetown University Library)

Antiracist: 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. (National Museum of African American History and Culture, Taking about Race)

BIPOC: Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, the term is used to highlight the unique relationship to whiteness that Indigenous and Black (African Americans) people have, which shapes the experiences of and relationship to white supremacy for all people of color within a U.S. context. (The BIPOC Movement)

In the UK the acronym BAME is currently more commonly used but there are some issues this these terms as detailed here.

Cultural Appropriation: Theft of cultural elements for one’s own use, commodification, or profit—including symbols, art, language, customs, etc.—often without understanding, acknowledgement, or respect for its value in the original culture. Results from the assumption of a dominant (i.e., white) culture’s right to take other cultural elements. (Colours of Resistance Archive)

Implicit Bias: Also known as unconscious or hidden bias, implicit biases are negative associations that people unknowingly hold. They are expressed automatically, without conscious awareness. Many studies have indicated that implicit biases affect individuals’ attitudes and actions, thus creating real-world implications, even though individuals may not even be aware that those biases exist within themselves. Notably, implicit biases have been shown to trump individuals’ stated commitments to equality and fairness, thereby producing behavior that diverges from the explicit attitudes that many people profess. (The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, Implicit Bas Review)

Individual Racism: Occurs between individuals. These are public expressions of racism, often involving slurs, biases, or hateful words or actions. (National Museum of African American History and Culture, Taking about Race)

Institutionalised Racism: Occurs in an organization. These are discriminatory treatments, unfair policies, or biased practices based on race that result in inequitable outcomes for whites over people of color and extend considerably beyond prejudice. These institutional policies often never mention any racial group, but the intent is to create advantages. Example: A school system where students of color are more frequently distributed into the most crowded classrooms and underfunded schools and out of the higher-resourced schools. (National Museum of African American History and Culture, Taking about Race)

Intersectionality: A prism to see the interactive effects of various forms of discrimination and disempowerment. It looks at the way that racism, many times, interacts with patriarchy, heterosexism, classism, xenophobia—seeing that the overlapping vulnerabilities created by these systems actually create specific kinds of challenges. (Critical race theorist Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw to them. magazine)

Microagression: Brief, commonplace, subtle, or blatant daily verbal, behavior, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color. (University of Washington Racial Equity Glossary)

WATCH: Nova Reid‘s TEDx talk

POC: People of Color, often the preferred collective term for referring to non-white racial groups, rather than “minorities.” Racial justice advocates have been using the term “people of color” (not to be confused with the pejorative “colored people”) since the late 1970s as an inclusive and unifying frame across different racial groups that are not white, to address racial inequities. While “people of color” can be a politically useful term, and describes people with their own attributes (as opposed to what they are not, eg: “non-white”), it is also important whenever possible to identify people through their own racial/ethnic group, as each has its own distinct experience and meaning and may be more appropriate. (Race Forward, “Race Reporting Guide”)

Structural Racism: The overarching system of racial bias across institutions and society. These systems give privileges to white people resulting in disadvantages to people of color. Example: Stereotypes of people of color as criminals in mainstream movies and media. (National Museum of African American History and Culture, Taking about Race)

WATCH: This powerful video by Kimberley Jones

White Fragility: A state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium. (White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo )

READ: Why We Need To Talk About White Fragility by Nova Reid

White Privilege: Refers to the unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits, and choices bestowed on people solely because they are white. Generally white people who experience such privilege do so without being conscious of it. (“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh)

READ: ”White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Knapsack Peggy McIntosh and What Is White Privilege, Really? by Cory Collins

White Supremacy: A form of racism centered upon the belief that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds and that whites should politically, economically, and socially dominate non-whites. While often associated with violence perpetrated by the KKK and other white supremacist groups, it also describes a political ideology and systemic oppression that perpetuates and maintains the social, political, historical, and/or industrial White domination. (Race Forward, “Race Reporting Guide”)

Also check out more extensive glossaries from The Anti-Racist Educator here and from Racial Equity Tools here

DONATE & SUPPORT

The first ACTION we can take is to actively support organisations tackling racial injustice by donating money.

UK CHARITIES

Stop Hate UK is one of the leading national organisations working to challenge all forms of Hate Crime and discrimination, based on any aspect of an individual’s identity. Stop Hate UK provides independent, confidential and accessible reporting and support for victims, witnesses and third parties.

SARI: Stand Against Racism – SARI provides support for victims of any type of hate crime including racist, faith-based, disablist, homophobic, transphobic, age-based or gender-based.

Runnymede Trust generate intelligence to challenge race inequality in Britain through research, network building, leading debate, and policy engagement.

Show Racism the Red Card provide educational workshops, training sessions, multimedia packages, and a whole host of other resources, all with the purpose of tackling racism in society.

Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust was founded on the premise that inequality must be tackled in all its forms. This includes inequality of access, and of opportunity, wherever it occurs.

US CHARITIES

Black Lives Matter whose aim is to end state-sanctioned violence, liberate black people, and end white supremacy forever

Follow this link here for petitions collated by Black Lives Matter including petitions for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others.

Split a donation between bail funds across the USA here.

IT STARTS WITH EDUCATION

The Black Curriculum is a social enterprise founded in 2019 by young people to address the lack of Black British history in the UK Curriculum. We believe that by delivering arts focused Black history programmes, providing teacher training.

Petition here to make white privilege and systemic racism a compulsory part of the British education course

Also write to your MP here about the making Black histories mandatory in the national curriculum, find a template here.

SUPPORT BLACK OWNED BUSINESSES

Read about why you should support Black owned businesses here

Join in on Black Pound Day! A solution-based approach set up to support the growth of the UK Black economy. The next one is 1st August 2020.

Starting with one day per month, Black Pound Day encourages everyone to spend money with local and online UK Black-owned businesses. Replacing your usual purchases with services and products from Black-owned businesses. The day is also an opportunity to find out how everyone can support Black businesses over the long-term.

Black Makers Matter: Instagram

Independent Black businesses: Instagram

Black Owned Business UK: Instagram

Janet’s List: Instagram

RIOT GEAR EXPORTS

Petition here to suspend UK export of tear gas, rubber bullets and riot shields to USA.

Write to your MP about sales of rubber bullets, tear gas, and riot shields to the US, condemning Trump and addressing BAME COVID deaths. You can write directly to your MP here: https://www.writetothem.com

You can find a template here (make sure you personalise it/vary the language so it’s not seen as spam)

LISTEN

1619 podcast from The New York Times (hosted by Nicole Hannah-Jones) tells the story of how slavery transformed America. It is part of the The 1619 Project, which is an ongoing initiative thats aims to “reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.”

About Race podcast by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Code Switch (NPR)

Intersectionality Matters! hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw

Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast

Pod For The Cause (from The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights)

Pod Save the People (Crooked Media)

Seeing White

Mixed Up podcast by Emma Slade Edmondson and Nicole Ocran

READ

It is our job (not the job of black people & POC) to educate ourselves on the history of systemic racism and white privilege.

NON-FICTION BOOKS

Even though some of these links go through to Amazon (boo hiss I know) If you’re buying books about anti-racism consider buying from a Black-owned bookshop such as Seveonoaks Bookshop, New Beacon Books, Jacaranda, Round Table Books and No Ordinary Bookshop

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of an Empire by Akala

This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell

How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi

Black and British by David Olusoga

White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad.

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, PhD

Millenial Black and Anti-Racist Ally by Sophie Williams

The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson