Racial Justice Resources - Places to Start

As we all navigate the path of our own racial biases, moving toward greater and greater levels of racial justice with the goal being peace and justice for all humans, I am finding the following resources helpful.

For parents and adults

This is an interview with Emma Redden, an educator and activist in Vermont who works with children and adults on educating about racial injustice. In it, she shares how adults can talk to young children about events that involve police brutality or conflict between individuals of different races.

This video explained systemic racism and implicit bias simply (these are quite complex issues) to get a basic idea of how racial injustice has a long history.

Jay Smooth speaks about how having conversations about racism can be difficult, nonetheless very important. His brilliant analogy of dental hygiene has stuck with me for many years.

Authors of note: Rachel Cargle (rachelcargle.com), Layla F. Saad (Me and White Supremacy), Ibram X. Kendi (How to Be an Anti-Racist), Robin DiAngelo (White Fragility), Austin Channing Brown (I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness), Ijeoma Oluo (So You Want To Talk About Race) and Michelle Alexander (The New Jim Crow).

Tara Brach has numerous excellent resources.

For children

The Conscious Kid is a phenomenal resource. I recommend consulting it on a regular basis. Here is a beautiful page with many children’s books written by Black authors for young children and teens. In addition, here are books that encourage and support race conversations.

For all

I believe that many conflicts (all?) emerge from two people who are not deeply listening to one another. Deeply listening means tuning into the other and hearing what she is truly saying, not what we are “listening for.” It requires asking questions for clarification, being mindful of our own perspective so it does not cloud the truth of what is being shared, and being aware of how we are responding internally. It seems that this form of listening is becoming more and more rare and difficult, yet more and more necessary. Some books that are about listening:

The Other Way to Listen by Byrd Baylor

Listen, Listen by Phillis Gershator and Alison Jay

How to Talk So Your Kids Will Listen and Listen So Your Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish

The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld