How to Raise an Anti-Racist: Parent Resource Guide Booklist

Created on June 8, 2020, 8:54 am

Last Updated December 27, 2020, 4:59 pm

“If you don't have an anti-racism plan, you plan to be racist.” -Catrice Jackson Due to recent tragic events, Arlington Public Library has created this resource guide to help you discuss race, racism, and white privilege with your children. All listed resources are either available through Arlington Public Library or free online. It is vital for your child to know how race, racism, and white privilege impacts them, as well as the lives of other white and non-white people in America. They must learn to actively engage in the fight against racism. Because those with the greatest privilege have the most power to make change, it is paramount that parents of white children equip them to be anti-racist. If this does not happen, racist events such as the killing of George Floyd will continue to plague American society.

21) Hey black child

Author

Perkins, Useni Eugene

Formats:

Book, Kids Read-A-Long

Description

"A lyrical, empowering poem that celebrates black children and seeks to inspire all young ones to dream big and achieve their goals"--

Author

Rhodes, Jewell Parker

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"After seventh-grader Jerome is shot by a white police officer, he observes the aftermath of his death and meets the ghosts of other fallen black boys including historical figure Emmett Till"--

23) On the playground: our first talk about prejudice

Author

Roberts, Jillian

Series

World around us

Formats:

Description

On the Playground: Our First Talk About Prejudice focuses on introducing children to the complex topic of prejudice. Crafted around a narrative between a grade-school-aged child and an adult, this inquiry-focused book will help children shape their understanding of diversity so they are better prepared to understand, and question, prejudice witnessed around them in their day-to-day lives and in the media. Dr. Jillian Roberts discusses types of discrimination...

24) The power book

Author

Saunders, Claire

Description

Takes a look at different types of power, what it means to have power, and what you can do with your own power to create positive change in the world, no matter who or how old you are.

25) Racism and intolerance

Author

Spilsbury, Louise

Series

Children in our world

Description

In Racism and Intolerance, children can get answers to questions like: "What does it mean to be a racist--or intolerant?" and "How can I help?" Children will begin to understand the way others struggle with these issues and become empowered to make a difference.

26) One person, no vote: how not all voters are treated equally

Author

Anderson, Carol

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

"In her New York Times bestseller White Rage, Carol Anderson laid bare an insidious history of policies that have systematically impeded black progress in America, from 1865 to our combustible present. With One Person, No Vote, she chronicles a related history: the rollbacks to African American participation in the vote since the 2013 Supreme Court decision that eviscerated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Known as the Shelby ruling, this decision effectively...

27) We are not yet equal: understanding our racial divide

Author

Anderson, Carol

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

When America makes progress toward racial equality, the systemic response is a backlash that rolls back those wins. This edition adapted from the author's White Rage especially for teens illuminates these dark moments of history. "This ... young adult adaptation brings her ideas to a new audience. When America achieves milestones of progress toward full and equal black participation in democracy, the systemic response is a consistent racist backlash...

28) Stolen justice: the struggle for African American voting rights

Author

Goldstone, Lawrence

Description

"Following the Civil War, the Reconstruction era raised a new question to those in power in the US: Should African Americans, so many of them former slaves, be granted the right to vote? In a bitter partisan fight over the legislature and Constitution, the answer eventually became yes, though only after two constitutional amendments, two Reconstruction Acts, two Civil Rights Acts, three Enforcement Acts, the impeachment of a president, and an army...

29) Unpunished murder: massacre at Colfax and the quest for justice

Author

Goldstone, Lawrence

Description

"On Easter Sunday of 1873, just eight years after the Civil War ended, a band of white supremacists marched into Grant Parish, Louisiana, and massacred over one hundred unarmed African Americans. The court case that followed would reach the highest court in the land. Yet, following one of the most ghastly and barbaric incidents of mass murder in American history, not a single person was convicted. The opinion issued by the Supreme Court in US v. Cruikshank...

30) Stamped: racism, antiracism, and you

Author

Reynolds, Jason

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"A history of racist and antiracist ideas in America, from their roots in Europe until today, adapted from the National Book Award winner Stamped from the Beginning"-- "The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. Racist ideas are woven into the fabric of this country, and the first step to building an antiracist America is acknowledging America's racist past and present. This book...

31) Stamped: racism, antiracism, and you

Author

Reynolds, Jason

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

"A history of racist and antiracist ideas in America, from their roots in Europe until today, adapted from the National Book Award winner Stamped from the Beginning"-- "The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. Racist ideas are woven into the fabric of this country, and the first step to building an antiracist America is acknowledging America's racist past and present. This book...

32) The hate u give

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Large Type

Description

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, Angie Thomas's searing debut about an ordinary girl in extraordinary circumstances addresses issues of racism and police violence with intelligence, heart, and unflinching honesty. Soon to be a major motion picture from Fox 2000/Temple Hill Productions. Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy...

33) Anger is a gift

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

Moss Jeffries is many things-considerate student, devoted son, loyal friend and affectionate boyfriend, enthusiastic nerd. But sometimes Moss still wishes he could be someone else-someone without panic attacks, someone whose father was still alive, someone who hadn't become a rallying point for a community because of one horrible night. And most of all, he wishes he didn't feel so stuck. Moss can't even escape at school-he and his friends are subject...

34) Who put this song on?

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook

Description

"17-year-old Morgan is a black teen triumphantly figuring out her identity when her conservative town deems depression as a lack of faith, and blackness as something to be politely ignored"-- Trapped in sunny, stifling, small-town suburbia, seventeen-year-old Morgan knows why she's in therapy. She can't count the number of times she's been the only non-white person at the sleepover, been teased for her "weird" outfits, and been told she's not "really"...

35) Just mercy: adapted for young people : a true story of the fight for justice

Author

Stevenson, Bryan

Description

"In this young adult adaptation of the acclaimed bestselling Just Mercy, which the New York Times calls "as compelling as To Kill a Mockingbird, and in some ways more so," Bryan Stevenson delves deep into the broken U.S. justice system, detailing from his personal experience his many challenges and efforts as a lawyer and social advocate, especially on behalf of America's most rejected and marginalized people. In this very personal work--proceeds...

36) If you come softly

Author

Woodson, Jacqueline

Description

After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is black and whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice abandoned her, fall in love and then try to cope with people's reactions.

37) If You Come Softly: Twentieth Anniversary Edition

Author

Woodson, Jacqueline

Description

A lyrical story of star-crossed love perfect for readers of The Hate U Give, by National Ambassador for Children’s Literature Jacqueline Woodson—now celebrating its twentieth anniversary, and including a new preface by the author
Jeremiah feels good inside his own skin. That is, when he's in his own Brooklyn neighborhood. But now he's going to be attending a fancy prep school in Manhattan, and black teenage boys don't exactly...