Recommendations from Oxfam staff to support your journey toward racial awareness.
Have you been following or participating in the Black Lives Matter protests in all 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, and around the world following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery?
Racism is a political, economic, and social system on which our nation was built and still persists today. We believe in the power of people to make systemic changes and will continue to uphold justice for Black people by advocating against racist and abusive policies and practices. Standing in solidarity is about more than just showing up. It requires critical thinking to dismantle dominant and long-accepted ways of thinking. Let’s start by educating ourselves.
We’ve compiled a non-exhaustive list of books, podcasts, and other media by scholars and activists to help us learn more about systemic racism, the structures of white supremacy, and what action they believe is needed right now.
Books
From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
White Rage, by Carol Anderson
Whiteness as Property, by Cheryl I. Harris
Hood Feminism, by Mikki Kendall
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
How to be an Anti-racist and Anti-racist Baby, by Ibram X. Kendi
So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo
Freedom Dreams and Race Rebels, by Robin D. G. Kelley
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, by Reni Eddo-Lodge
The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin
Native Son, by Richard Wright
Women, Race, & Class, by Angela Davis
Sister Outsider, by Audre Lorde
The Color of Law, by Richard Rothstein
Golden Gulag, by Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Indigenous People’s History of the United States, by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
If you plan to purchase these books, please buy them from Black-owned bookstores.
Podcasts
1619 (The New York Times)
Still Processing (The New York Times)
Code Switch (NPR)
Africa World Now Project
Yo, Is This Racist? (EarWolf)
Intersectionality Matters with Kimberlé Crenshaw (African American Policy Forum)
Throughline (NPR)
The Intercepted (the Intercept)
The Nod (Gimlet)
Pod Save the People with Deray (Crooked Media)
Groundings
Bag Ladiez
Hoodrat to Headwrap
Documentaries
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (Amazon Prime)
13th (Netflix)
LA 92 (Netflix)
I Am Not Your Negro (Amazon Prime)
The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (Netflix)
Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story (Amazon Prime)
Whose Streets? (Hulu)
The Rape of Recy Taylor
The Prison in Twelve Landscapes
What Matters (Black Lives Matter docu-series)
Want more? Take a deeper dive
Resources for white communities
Communities of color aren’t exempt from perpetuating anti-Black attitudes and behaviors. Here are some resources for non-Black people of color:
Resources for Asian American communities
Resources for South Asian communities
Resources for non-Black Latinx communities
Resource for indigenous communities: Our History is the Future, by Nick Estes
Black Lives Matter.