Resources on Equity and Anti-Racism

We are providing resources on equity and anti-racism to help broaden the understanding of race and racism including how racism and anti-blackness have manifested and are manifesting in people’s lives – personally, societally, systemically, and institutionally – and how to cultivate anti-racism and better support black, indigenous, people of color (BIPOC), including queer people of color. The list also includes sections pertaining to the intersecting processes of inequity and oppression. The list culminates in a selection of self-care resources and sources for connecting with community. The ultimate goal of these resources is to provide overall support in response to recent violent acts of racism, as well as to promote awareness, responsibility, and action for the past, present, and future.

This list of resources on equity and anti-racism should not be thought of as the official list, but as a compilation of offerings from members of The Coalition of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officers, who stand in solidarity to combat racism and to support the hearts of all those affected. Please continue to search beyond this list and explore the very rich and long history of anti-racism and scholarship that exists.

SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

With gratitude, we acknowledge the following members of The Coalition of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officers who provided resources on equity and anti-racism for this site:

Esther Calzada, Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion, Steve Hicks School of Social Work

Shavonne Henderson, Director of Student Equity and Inclusion, School of Law

Christine Julien, Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Cockrell School of Engineering

Samuel Moore, Director of Outreach and Diversity Programs, Jackson School of Geosciences

Shelley Payne, Advisor for Diversity and Inclusion, College of Natural Sciences

Monique Pikus, Director of Diversity and Organizational Climate, College of Liberal Arts

Richard Reddick, Associate Dean for Equity, Community Engagement, and Outreach, College of Education

Rene Salazar, Assistant Dean for Diversity, Dell Medical School

Ya’Ke Smith, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Moody College of Communication

Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, Director of Civic Engagement, LBJ School of Public Affairs

Raji Srinivasan, Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, McCombs School of Business

Skyller Walkes, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, College of Pharmacy

John Yancey, Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, College of Fine Arts

UNDERSTANDING RACE AND RACISM

Segregation and Economic Inequality

DISCUSSIONS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

CONTEXT FOR CURRENT DEMONSTRATIONS

HOW TO BETTER SUPPORT BLACK, INDIGENOUS, PEOPLE OF COLOR (BIPOC), INCLUDING QUEER PEOPLE OF COLOR THROUGH ANTI-RACISM AWARENESS AND ACTION

ANTI-RACISM WORK AND PRACTICING SOLIDARITY

ANTI-RACISM COURSES/TEACHINGS/TRAININGS

Training (Click here for more options)

INTERSECTIONALITY BETWEEN THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT AND HONORING PRIDE MONTH

RACIAL TRAUMA AND OTHER HEALTH-RELATED MATTERS AND RESOURCES

BOOKS/REPORTS/ARTICLES

Books/Reports

  • An African American and Latinx History of the United States – by Paul Ortiz
  • America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege and the Bridge to a New America – by Jim Wallis
  • Art and Culture in Communities: Systems of Support, Policy Brief No.3 of the Culture, Creativity, and Communities Program – by Maria-Rosario Jackson, Ph.D., Joaquin Herranz, Jr., and Florence Kabwasa-Green (2003),The Urban Institute, Washington DC The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther – by Jeffrey Haas
  • Beloved (1987) – by Toni Morrison
  • Between the World and Me, – by Ta-Nahesi Coates
  • Black Feminist Thought (1990) – by Patricia Hill Collins
  • Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected, African American Policy Forum (2015)
  • A Black Women’s History of the United States (2020), The University of Texas, Department of History – by Daina Berry and Kali Nicole Gross
  • Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People (2013) – by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald
  • The Bluest Eye (1970) – by Toni Morrison
  • Born A Crime by Trevor Noah: Noah’s book reads like an episode of his late night show which is to say it’s informative, compelling, and well researched. This is a must read for those looking to understand race and class.
  • Children of Blood and Bones – by Tomi Adeyemi: Science fiction is a powerful tool for exploring problems from the distance we normally aren’t afforded with day-to-day life. This first part of the electric new trilogy explores issues of fear, revenge, and what it takes to build a new future.
  • Citizen: An American Lyric (2014) – by Claudia Rankine
  • Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness (2015), The University of Texas at Austin, African and African Diaspora Studies – by Simone Browne
  • Don’t Call Us Dead (2017) – by Danez Smith
  • Diversity across the Curriculum: A Guide for Faculty in Higher Education (2007) – by Jerome Branche, John Mullennix, and Ellen Cohn
  • Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds – by Adrienne Maree Brown (2017)
  • Erasing Institutional Bias: How to Create Systemic Change for Organizational Inclusion – by Tiffany Jana and Ashley Diaz Mejias
  • Fatal Intervention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century – by Dorothy Roberts (2012)
  • The Fire Next Time (1963) – by James Baldwin
  • Free Cyntoia – by Cyntoia Brown-Long: Everyone from Rihanna to Kim Kardashian was tweeting about Cyntoia Brown-Long, the young woman incarcerated for defending herself against her abuser and a sexual predator. Cyntoia’s story is one that many women share—and this book sheds light on how systems set up to protect us, fail us time and time again.
  • Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement, – by Angela Y. Davis
  • Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? By Mumia Abu-Jamal
  • The Hate U Give, – by Angie Thomas
  • Hidden Figures (Young Reader’s Edition), – by Margo Lee Shetterly
  • How to be an Anti-Racist, – by Ibram Kendi
  • How We Fight for Our Lives – by Saeed Jones
  • An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
  • The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness – by Rhonda B. Magee (2019)
  • Just Mercy – by Bryan Stevenson: You’ve likely heard the story of someone who served decades in prison for a crime they didn’t commit. How does that happen and how do we ensure people don’t disappear behind the bars and into bureaucratic systems that value process more than justice?
  • King Me (2013) – by Roger Reeves, The University of Texas, Department of English
  • Lab Girl – by Hope Jahren
  • Lies My Teacher Told Me – by James W. Loewen
  • Maud Martha (1953, novel) – by Gwendolyn Brooks
  • Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor – by Llayla Saad
  • The Meaning of Freedom (2012) – by Angela Davis
  • Memoir of a Race Traitor (1994) – by Mab Segrest
  • Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward: America often equates Black to mean urban America when more of us live in “middle America” and the deep South than anywhere else. Ward is a literary artist who spins the stories of Black men in Mississippi with so much love and a deep desire to protect those she loves.
  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age of Colorblindness (2010) – by Michelle Alexander
  • People’s History of the United States – by Howard Zinn
  • Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing, – by Joy a Degruy
  • Race and Real Estate (Transgressing Boundaries: Studies in Black Politics and Black Communities) (2015) – by Adrienne Brown and Valerie Smith
  • Race in the College Classroom (2002) – by Bonnie TuSmith and Maureen T. Reddy
  • Race, Work, and Leadership: New Perspectives on the Black Experience – Laura Morgan Roberts, Anthony J. Mayo, and David A. Thomas
  • Racial Formation in the United States 3rd Edition (2020) – by Michael Omi and Howard Winant
  • The Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activities to Help You Challenge Privilege, Confront Systemic Racism, and Engage in Collective Healing – by Anneliese A. Singh (2019)
  • Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love, and Liberation (2016) – by Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Lama Rod Owens, and Jasmine Syedullah
  • Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women, African American Policy Forum (July 2015)
  • Seeing White – by Jean Halley/Amy Eshleman/Ramya Mahadevan Vijaya
  • Sister Outsider (1984) – by Audre Lorde
  • So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo: This book unpacks some of the biggest racial issues facing the United States today, including white privilege, microaggressions, police brutality, the Black Lives Matter movement, and so much more. Simple, straightforward, and razor-sharp, this book is an accessible and friendly user guide for anyone trying to understand identity, representation, and racism in modern day America.
  • Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson (1970) – by George Jackson
  • Stamped from the Beginning, – by Ibram Kendi (and the young adult version: Stamped, by Jason Reynolds and Ibram Kendi) The author uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to offer a window into the contentious debates between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and antiracists.
  • Unafraid of the Dark – by Rosemary L Bray: Racism feels like this big scary monster which can make some of us feel like we don’t know where to begin in dismantling it and others feel it’s not relevant to them at all. Bray sets the record straight with these vignettes and anecdotes about what racism looks like in practice but also how police interventions can work to alleviate the pressures.
  • When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir – by Patrisse Kahn-Cullors and Asha Bandele
  • Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What we Can Do, – by Claude M. Steele (a book to read to understand stereotype threat and implicit bias)
  • White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism – by Robin DiAngelo and Michael Eric Dyson: The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.
  • White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide – by Carol Anderson
  • White Trash: The 400 Year Untold History of Class in America – by Nancy Isenberg
  • Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? – by Beverly Daniel Tatum
  • A Young People’s History of the United States – by Howard Zinn

Other Suggested Books

Articles by author

Articles by title

Documentaries, Movies, Videos, Podcasts & Ted Talks

Documentaries (Click here for more options)

  • 13th (available on Netflix) – directed by Ava DuVernay. Many cite The New Jim Crow (book by Michelle Alexander) as what woke them up to the extreme injustice in our criminal justice system and arguably 13th would be the documentary version of that, exposing how deep-rooted institutionalized racism is in our society. 13th is an examination of the U.S. prison system and how the country’s history of racial inequity drives the high rate of incarceration in America. The documentary combines archival footage with testimony from activities and scholars.
  • Ethnic Notions (1987) Marion Riggs – a documentary of racial stereotypes in America. Covering more than one hundred years of United States history, traces the evolution of Black American caricatures and stereotypes that have fueled anti-Black prejudice. (Available in UT Austin’s College of Fine Arts Library.)
  • I Am Not Your Negro (available on Prime Video): James Baldwin has provided novels, personal essays, and prose to last many lifetimes. The film adaptation explores the extended history of racism through Baldwin’s recollections and personal observations.
  • King in The Wilderness (available on HBO): A portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. during the last years of his life, from his part in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to his assassination in 1968.
  • LA92 (available on Netflix): It’s important that we never lose sight of the legacy of police violence. To understand the righteous anger of the Black community, learn more about the LA riots following the Rodney King trial.
  • Overview of Juneteenth.
  • Race: The Power of an Illusion – A PBS 3-part series on Race
  • The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (available online until 7/4/2020): It is the first feature-length documentary to shed light on the Black Panther Party — and all its reviled, adored, misunderstood, and mythologized history.
  • The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975: The Black Liberation movement of the late 20th century is riddled with stereotypes and propaganda causing many to believe that the movement died following the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. This documentary sets the record straight from the source with powerful interviews and recollections.
  • The Kalief Browder Story (available on Netflix): For many of us, protesting is a right we take for granted. For those in the belly of our criminal justice system, advocating for yourself can be deadly. We must honor Kalief’s sacrifice by knowing his story and ending cash bail.
  • The Uncomfortable Truth (available on Prime Video): When the award-winning filmmaker of “An Ordinary Hero”, Loki Mulholland, dives into the 400 year history of institutional racism in America he is confronted with the shocking reality that his family helped start it all from the very beginning.
  • Thoughts on this Week’s Events from Trevor Noah
  • Understand the history of enslavement and its link to modern mass incarceration: for example, view the Peabody Award-winning documentary True Justice and the Michael B. Jordan movie Just Mercy, both available for free this month.
  • Werk Documentary – Experiences of Black women working in predominately white workspaces.
  • When I Rise – a documentary about the experiences of Barbara Smith Conrad, Precursor and opera superstar, regarding her removal from the College of Fine Arts’ annual opera.

Movies (Click here for more options)

  • American Son (Netflix)
  • The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011), Göran Olsson
  • Bless their Little Hearts (1983)
  • Blindspotting (available on Hulu): Blindspotting takes a hard look at race and gentrification. Bursting with energy, style, and humor, and infused with the spirit of rap, hip hop, and spoken word, Blindspotting is a provocative hometown love letter that glistens with humanity.
  • Bush Mama (1979), Haile Gerima.
  • Daughters of the Dust (1991), Julie Dash.
  • Do The Right Thing: Eric Garner and George Floyd have both drawn connections to a fiction character who preceded them both: Radio Raheem of Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing. The film masterfully highlights where unrest stems from and what leads to the rage felt in uprisings and rebellions.
  • Eyes on the Prize: American’s Civil Rights Era 1954-1965 (1987), Henry Hampton
  • Fruitvale Station (available on Netflix): When advocating around police brutality, we often lose touch with the humanity of those we fight for. In this masterful film, we see a glimpse of what is stolen from us each time police use excessive force.
  • The Hate U Give (Free rent on Youtube): The Hate U Give is Angie Thomas’s first novel about a teenage girl who grapples with racism, police brutality, and activism after witnessing her black friend murdered by the police.
  • Hidden Figures
  • If Beale Street Could Talk (available on Hulu): Activism can be very glorified by those privileged to be advocating from the abstract. This film—part love story, part drama—gives us a look into what is truly at stake for those facing wrongful incarceration head on.
  • The Innocence Files (Netflix)
  • Killer of Sheep (1978), Charles Burnett
  • Malcom X (1992), Spike Lee
  • Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise (2016)
  • Selma
  • When They See Us (Ava DuVernay) — Netflix.
  • Who Killed Malcolm X? (Netflix)
  • Within our Gates (1920), Oscar Micheaux

Videos

Podcasts (Click here for more options)

  • About Race
  • Cite Black Women Collective Podcast A bi-weekly podcast, discussing the acknowledgment of Black women’s ideas and intellectual contributions both inside and outside academia.
  • Code Switch Hosted by journalists of color, the podcast tackles the subject of race head-on. It explores how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and everything in between. This podcast makes ALL OF US part of the conversation — because we’re all part of the story.
  • Fare of the Free Child Fare of the Free Child is a weekly-published podcast community centering Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color in liberatory living and learning practices. With a particular interest in unschooling and the Self-Directed Education movement, Akilah S. Richards and guests discuss the fears and the fares (costs) of raising free black and brown children in a world that tends to diminish, dehumanize, and disappear them.
  • Intersectionality Matters!  Host Kimberlé Crenshaw (a leading scholar of critical race theory) explores different topics through an intersectional lens. The most recent episodes are part of a series about COVID-19, titled “Under the Blacklight.”
  • Joy, Pain and Juneteenth – an New York Times interview with Daina Berry, UT Austin, Department of History
  • Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast Learn from the people at the frontlines of the racial justice movement–organizational leaders and community activists–with hosts Chevon and Hiba.
  • Our National Conversation About Conversations About Race Co-discussants Anna Holmes, Baratunde Thurston, Raquel Cepeda and Tanner Colby host a lively multiracial, interracial conversation about the ways we can’t talk, don’t talk, would rather not talk, but intermittently, fitfully, embarrassingly do talk about culture, identity, politics, power, and privilege in our pre-post-yet-still-very-racial America. This show is “About Race.”
  • Pod Save the People
  • Seeing White Scene on Radio is a podcast that tells stories exploring human experience and American society. Produced and hosted by John Biewen, Scene on Radio comes from the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke

University and is distributed by PRX. Season 2, the Peabody-nominate Seeing White, Biewen and collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika explored solutions and responses to America’s deep history of white supremacy.

TED Talks (Click here for a more complete playlist)

  • Eve Abrams’s The Human Stories Beyond Mass Incarceration: The United States locks up more people than any other country in the world and somewhere between one and four percent of those in prison are likely innocent. That’s 87,000 brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers — predominantly African American. Abrams shares touching stories of those impacted by mass incarceration and calls on us all to take a stand and ensure that the justice system works for everyone.
  • Kimberle Crenshaw on The Urgency of Intersectionality: Following 2016, ‘intersectionality’ became quite the buzzword, yet gets used out of context often by both the Right and Left alike. Hear from the black woman who coined the term in the ’80s as to how we use intersectionality to defend Black women.
  • T. Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison on The Trauma of Systemic Racism is Killing Black Women: Racism is traumatic. Oftentimes we are focused so much on legislative changes and urgent calls to action, that we neglect the emotional well-being of Black people everywhere facing PTSD from this cyclical violence. Dive more into self-care as radical preservation with this joint TED talk.
  • Rayna Gordon’s Don’t Be A Savior, Be An Ally: Sometimes with the best intentions we still fall short. Hear from Rayna about thoughtful allyship that seeks to uplift and support not take over or “save.”
  • Heather McGhee’s Racism Has A Cost for Everyone: My liberation is bound in yours. This is not a feel good statement but a reality when it comes to how racism impacts policy, budgets, and prevents us from achieving a society that works for us all
  • Verna Meyers on How To Overcome Our Biases? Walk Towards Them:  #AllLivesMatter is the new color blind and both terms are proof that people fear being accused of biases more than they feel committed to addressing them. Let’s lose the shame and take bold steps deeper into your allyship.
  • Bryan Stevenson’s We Need To Talk About An Injustice: Bryan Stevenson is one of the leading racial justice advocates, working with people incarcerated on death row. If anyone can diagnose recent injustices and understand the steps forward it would be him.
  • Beverly Daniel Tatum’s Is My Skin Brown Because I Drank Chocolate Milk?: We can trace the difficulty many adults have in talking about racism to the silencing of their questions in childhood. You can’t solve the problem of racism in our society without talking about it. Age-appropriate conversations with young children are one way parents and teachers can begin to interrupt the cycle of racism.
  • Baratunde Thurston on How To Deconstruct Racism, One Headline At A Time: Racism isn’t funny, but in this TED talk you’ll learn about the pervasive nature of racism and laugh out loud way more times than you’ll be able to count.

SELF-CARE RESOURCES

We each bring our own beliefs, experiences, and feelings to our anti-racist work – a work that is difficult and demanding. Our ongoing commitment to actively think about and take action against racism, combined with a sense of urgency and deep caring, adds pressure and stress to our daily lives. The emotional impact of this work is real, therefore it is vital that we all practice “self-care” to benefit our overall health and quality of life.

CONNECTING WITH COMMUNITY

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