Here’s what to read, listen to, and watch to better understand racism against Black people in the US by Aria Bracci June 6, 2020 Share Mastodon Facebook LinkedIn Twitter From left to right, #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice, The Alchemy of Race and Rights, Laying Claim: African American Cultural Memory and Southern Identity. Illustration by Northeastern University. Combatting racism and injustice against Black people requires both thought and action. To help inform changes in your own life, read, listen to, watch, and discuss the work of scholars, faculty, and students from the Northeastern community. Read #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice Moya Bailey, Brooke Foucault Welles, and Sarah J. Jackson This book, currently available free of charge via MIT Press, details how marginalized groups anticipate inaccurate rhetoric and publicize counternarratives through the diverse networks they assemble on social media. ‘Why don’t you get somebody new to do it?’ Race and cultural taxation in the academy Tiffany D. Joseph and Laura E. Hirshfield Joseph and Hirshfield criticize the outsized burden placed on non-white faculty, who not only experience racism but are taxed by tasks of representation, such as sitting on multiple committees and “serving as ‘departmental experts’ for their particular ethno-racial group.” Straight Outta Compton: The Rise of Criminal Justice Educations and The Policing of Urban Communities” Rod K. Brunson and Richard Wright In this article, written in the wake of the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, two criminologists inspect their field of study, which originated from a mandate for police officers: “It grew out of an optimistic assumption that providing officers with a criminal justice education somehow would help to improve police-minority relations and that in turn somehow would reduce social unrest.” The Alchemy of Race and Rights Patricia J. Williams In this autobiographical text, Williams inspects the intersection of race, class, and gender. There are no boundaries, she argues, with oppression in one area affecting one’s autonomy in others. “It’s Not the Spectacle of the Protests That Matters. It’s the Substance.” Milton Posner and Beza Zenebe As with critics of Colin Kaepernick’s choice to kneel during the national anthem in response to police violence, people who oppose the logistics of current protests obscure their purpose, write these students: “Once public focus shifts to the method of protest, the substance fades away.” Laying Claim: African American Cultural Memory and Southern Identity Patricia G. Davis Davis unravels the dominant beliefs about the Civil War, reinserting Black voices into the narrative of Southern life and, in doing so, emphasizing the deserved place of Black people in public and cultural memory. We the Students: Essays That Claim Our Marginalized Histories foreword by Nicole N. Aljoe Students of the John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science in Roxbury, Massachusetts, retell the dominant narratives of history and bring the voices and stories of oppressed people to the fore. “‘Kids Do Not So Much Make Trouble, They Are Trouble’: Police-Youth Relations,” Rod K. Brunson and Kashea Pegram Brunson and Pegram analyze how when police officers decide which young people to target, monitor, approach, and arrest, they hold and unleash the potential to perpetuate the damaging inequality of the justice system. Spiritual Citizenship: Transnational Pathways from Black Power to Ifá in Trinidad N. Fadeke Castor With almost 20 years of field work in Trinidad, Castor shows how modern religious practices on the island evolved not only in response to white imperialists’ forceful removal of Black people from Africa, but as a means to imagine a world without it. Listen What’s New Margaret Burnham, speaking with Dan Cohen, dean of Northeastern libraries, discusses restorative measures for Black people who were unjustly killed (“Seeking Justice for Hidden Deaths”), and in “Hashtag Activism”, Moya Bailey and Brooke Foucault Welles talk about their book of the same name, exploring how people have rallied collectively online to extend their action beyond the digital world. Watch Zoomin’ In On… Rahsaan Hall Rahsaan Hall, law school graduate and current director of the racial justice program for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, spoke with Mielle Marquis on June 5 about the parallels between recent and past killings of Black people, as well as what this says about racial inequity and the need for police reform. #BlackBoyJoy In response to harmful and false associations of violence and aggression with black men, graduate Brendan DeVoue created a social media campaign in 2018 to celebrate their successes, happiness, and versatility: “Those are things that aren’t usually shown when you’re talking about black men.” Explore these additional resources, recommended by deans of Northeastern colleges. You can find additional materials in the Northeastern libraries’ diversity guide. This guide will be updated on an ongoing basis with recommendations from students, faculty, and staff. Read Books Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment, Patricia Hill Collins Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, adrienne maree brown Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism, Derrick Bell How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor, Layla F. Saad My Life, My Love, My Legacy, Coretta Scott King Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, Audre Lorde So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, Richard Rothstein The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations, Toni Morrison Toward an Intellectual History of Black Women, Mia E. Bay, Farah J. Griffin, Martha S. Jones, and Barbara D. Savage White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo Women, Race, & Class, Angela Y. Davis Articles “6 Ways Asian Americans Can Tackle Anti-Black Racism in Their Families,” Kim Tran “11 Things To Do Besides Say ‘This Has To Stop’ In The Wake Of Police Brutality”, Brittany Wong “How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change”, Barack Obama “How to Tell the Difference Between Real Solidarity and ‘Ally Theater’”, Mia McKenzie “Talking to Kids About George Floyd”, Harold S. Koplewicz “The Case for Reparations”, Ta-Nehisi Coates Collections 21-Day Racial Equity and Social Justice Challenge, YWCA Greater Cleveland Anti-Racism Resources for White People, Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein Anti-Racist Pedagogy Guide, University of Southern California Watch 13th (Netflix), Ava DuVernay Freedom Riders (Amazon), Stanley Nelson “How we can make racism a solvable problem—and improve policing” (TED), Phillip Atiba Goff Just Mercy (YouTube), Destin Daniel Cretton “Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome: The Syndrome Passed on Through Generations”, Dr. Joy DeGruy When They See Us (Netflix), Ava DuVernay Listen #TellBlackStories 1619 Code Switch Hear to Slay It’s Been a Minute with Sam Sanders Jemele Hill is Unbothered “Robin DiAngelo on White Fragility” (episode from Good Ancestor) Small Doses with Amanda Seales Still Processing The Diversity Gap The Nod Turning the Lens: Seeing White (mini series from Scene on Radio) What A Day For media inquiries, please contact media@northeastern.edu.