How to Stop the Racist in You

Read the entire article here:  How to Stop the Racist in You

By Jeremy Adam Smith, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton | July 27, 2016 | 

The new science of bias suggests that we all carry prejudices within ourselves—and we all have the tools to keep them in check.

"...For many people, the very possibility that they too might get caught saying one thing but doing another is extremely threatening and aversive. That threat, in fact, has a name: aversive racism. It refers to the type of racism in which a person’s implicit biases are so out of line with their conscious values that social situations where they experience this conflict—such as interracial interactions—are something to fear and avoid..."

"...So what are the tricks that you can use to stop the racist in you? There are many, of course, but here are six to consider that follow from the scientific insights we describe.

• Consciously commit yourself to egalitarianism.
• But recognize that unconscious bias is no more “the real you” than your conscious values. You are both the unconscious and the conscious.
• Acknowledge differences, rather than pretend that you are ignoring them.
• Seek out friendship with people from different groups, in order to increase your brain’s familiarity with different people and expand your point of view.
• It’s natural to focus on how people are different from you, but try to consciously identify what qualities and goals you might have in common.
• When you encounter examples of unambiguous bias, speak out against them. Why? Because that helps create and reinforce a standard for yourself and the people around you, in addition to providing some help to those who are the targets of explicit and implicit prejudice.

Those are steps you can take right now, without waiting for the world to change..."

New York Times: A Conversation on Race

A Conversation with Asians on Race

A Conversation with Black Women on Race

A Conversation about Growing Up Black

A Conversation on Race A series of short films about identity in America.

The New York Times presents this series of videos featuring personal stories that reflect the breadth of experiences in the United States. 

When Whites Just Don't Get It OP-ED Series by Nicholas Kristof, New York Times

Is Everyone a Little Bit Racist?

When Whites Just Don't Get It, Part 2

When Whites Just Don't Get It, Part 3

When Whites Just Don't Get It, Part 4

When Whites Just Don't Get It, Part 5

When Whites Just Don’t Get It, Part 6 

"...So if we’re going to address systemic disadvantage of black children, we have to broaden the conversation to unequal education. There’s a lot of loose talk among whites about black boys making bad decisions, but we fail these kids before they fail us. That’s unconscionable when increasingly we have robust evidence about the kinds of initiatives (like home visitation, prekindergarten and “career academies”) that reduce disparities...

New York Times, A Conversation on Race 

A series of short films about identity in America.

White Privilege

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh

Teaching Tolerance: On Racism and White Privilege

Tim Wise on Racism

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo (Download and Read)

4 Ways to Push Back Against Your Privilege by Mia McKenzie

White Debt - Reckoning with what is owed — and what can never be repaid — for racial privilege. By EULA BISS

Some Aspects and Assumptions of White Culture in the United States by Judith H. Katz

Names We Call Home: Autobiography on Racial Identity by Becky Thompson (Editor), Sangeeta Tyagi (Editor)

Names We Call Home: Autobiography on Racial Identity  

by Becky Thompson  (Editor), Sangeeta Tyagi (Editor)

• 320 pages Publisher: Routledge (December 29, 1995)

This volume includes autobiographical essays, poetry and interviews to highlight the historical, social and cultural influences that inform racial identity and make possible resistance to myriad forms of injustice. Topics covered include: border politics and living; the legacy of post- colonialism; internal colonization; lesbian and gay identity; and the costs of acculturation and childhood trauma.

Read pages here.

Creating your Racial Autobiography

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum

 Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: 

And Other Conversations About Race 

294 pages Publisher: Basic Books; Revised edition (January 17, 2003) $16.95

Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see black youth seated together in the cafeteria. Of course, it's not just the black kids sitting together-the white, Latino, Asian Pacific, and, in some regions, American Indian youth are clustered in their own groups, too. The same phenomenon can be observed in college dining halls, faculty lounges, and corporate cafeterias. What is going on here? Is this self-segregation a problem we should try to fix, or a coping strategy we should support? How can we get past our reluctance to talk about racial issues to even discuss it? And what about all the other questions we and our children have about race? Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, asserts that we do not know how to talk about our racial differences: Whites are afraid of using the wrong words and being perceived as "racist" while parents of color are afraid of exposing their children to painful racial realities too soon. Using real-life examples and the latest research, Tatum presents strong evidence that straight talk about our racial identities-whatever they may be-is essential if we are serious about facilitating communication across racial and ethnic divides. We have waited far too long to begin our conversations about race. This remarkable book, infused with great wisdom and humanity, has already helped hundreds of thousands of readers figure out where to start.

            Read an Interview with Beverly Daniel Tatum here.

Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools by Glenn Singleton

 Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for 

Achieving Equity in Schools 

312 pages Publisher: Corwin; Second Edition (October 21, 2014) $36.95

Create a system wide plan for transforming the district office, schools, and classrooms into places that truly support ALL students achieving their highest levels!

This updated edition of the bestseller continues to explain the need for candid, courageous conversations about race so that educators may understand why achievement inequality persists and learn how they can develop a curriculum that promotes true educational equity and excellence.

·    Revised Courageous Conversation Compass

·    Racial autobiographies

·    Case study on St. Paul Public Schools, which has stayed on track with the Courageous Conversation protocol and framework

·    Links to video segments of the author describing the work

·    Activities and checklists for school and district leaders

·    Action and implementation steps

Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School by Mica Pollack

           Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School

           389 pages Publisher: The New Press (June 1, 2008) $24.95 

Which acts by educators are "racist" and which are "antiracist"? How can an educator constructively discuss complex issues of race with students and colleagues? In Everyday Antiracism, leading educators deal with the most challenging questions about race in school, offering invaluable and effective advice.
Contributors including Beverly Daniel Tatum, Sonia Nieto, and Pedro Noguera describe concrete ways to analyze classroom interactions that may or may not be "racial," deal with racial inequality and "diversity," and teach to high standards across racial lines. Topics range from using racial incidents as teachable moments and responding to the "n-word" to valuing students' home worlds, dealing daily with achievement gaps, and helping parents fight ethnic and racial misconceptions about their children. Questions following each essay prompt readers to examine and discuss everyday issues of race and opportunity in their own classrooms and schools.
For educators and parents determined to move beyond frustrations about race, Everyday Antiracism is an essential tool.

The Heart of Whiteness by Robert Jensen

              The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege

124 pages Publisher: City Lights Publishers; September 1, 2005,12.95

In The Souls of Black Folks, W.E.B. DuBois wrote that the question whites wanted to ask him was: “How does it feel to be a problem?” In The Heart of Whiteness, Robert Jensen writes that it is time for white people in America to self-consciously reverse the direction of that question and to fully acknowledge that in the racial arena, they are the problem. While some whites would like to think that we have reached “the end of racism” in the United States, and others would like to celebrate diversity but are oblivious to the political, economic, and social consequences of a nation—and their sense of self—founded on a system of white supremacy, Jensen proposes a different approach. He sets his sights not only on the racism that can’t be hidden, but also on the liberal platitudes that sometimes conceal the depths of that racism in “polite society.”  The Heart of Whiteness offers an honest and rigorous exploration of what Jensen refers to as the depraved nature of whiteness in the United States. Mixing personal experience with data and theory, he faces down the difficult realities of -racism and white privilege. He argues that any system that denies non-whites their full humanity also keeps whites from fully accessing their own. This book is both a cautionary tale for those who believe that they have transcended racism, and also an expression of the hope for genuine transcendence. When white people fully understand and accept the painful reality that they are indeed “the problem,” it should lead toward serious attempts to change one’s own life and join with others to change society.

What Does It Mean to Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy by Robin DiAngelo

        

          What Does It Mean to Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy

          318 pages Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing Inc. (May 30, 2012) $41.95

What does it mean to be white in a society that proclaims race meaningless yet is deeply divided by race? In the face of pervasive racial inequality and segregation, most whites cannot answer that question. Robin DiAngelo argues that a number of factors make this question difficult for whites miseducation about what racism is; ideologies such as individualism and colorblindness; defensiveness; and a need to protect (rather than expand) our worldviews. These factors contribute to what she terms white racial illiteracy. Speaking as a white person to other white people, Dr. DiAngelo clearly and compellingly takes readers through an analysis of white socialization. She describes how race shapes the lives of white people, explains what makes racism so hard for whites to see, identifies common white racial patterns, and speaks back to popular white narratives that work to deny racism. Written as an accessible introduction to white identity from an anti-racist framework, What Does It Mean To Be White? is an invaluable resource for members of diversity and anti-racism programs and study groups and students of sociology, psychology, education, and other disciplines.

11 Ways White America Avoids Taking Responsibility for its Racism

Multiplication is for White People: Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children by Lisa Delpit

Multiplication is for White People: 

Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children 

256 pages Publisher: The New Press; Reprint edition (March 5, 2013) $17.95

Lisa Delpit’s Other People’s Children—which has sold more than a quarter-million copies to date—is a paradigm-shifting, highly acclaimed exploration of the cultural slippage between white teachers and students of color. In her long-awaited and now bestselling second book, "Multiplication Is for White People," the award-winning educator reflects on the last fifteen years of reform efforts—including No Child Left Behind, standardized testing, alternative teacher certification paths, and the charter school movement—that have left a generation of poor children of color feeling that higher educational achievement is not for them.
Hailed as "illuminating" (Publishers Weekly), "thought-provoking" (Harvard Educational Review), and a "much-needed review of the American educational system" (Kirkus Reviews), "Multiplication Is for White People" is a passionate reminder that there is no achievement gap at birth. Poor teaching, negative stereotypes, and a curriculum that does not adequately connect to poor children’s lives conspire against the prospects of poor children of color. From K-12 classrooms through the college years, Delpit brings the topic of educating other people’s children into the twenty-first century, outlining a blueprint for raising expectations based on a simple premise: that all aspects of advanced education are for everyone.

            Overview from Harvard Educational Review

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome : America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing by Joy Angela Degruy

     Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome 

     244 pages Publisher: Joy Degruy Publications Inc (2005) $19.95

While African Americans managed to emerge from chattel slavery and the oppressive decades that followed with great strength and resiliency, they did not emerge unscathed. Slavery produced centuries of physical, psychological and spiritual injury.  Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing lays the groundwork for understanding how the past has influenced the present, and opens up the discussion of how we can use the strengths we have gained to heal.

More information here.