No one becomes “not racist,” despite a tendency by Americans to identify themselves that way. We can only strive to be “antiracist” on a daily basis, to continually rededicate ourselves to the lifelong task of overcoming our country’s racist heritage.
— Ibram X. Kendi
The work of overcoming internalized racism is a day-to-day, moment-to-moment process, full of leaps forward, steps back, corrections, experiments, workshops, collective actions, apologies, forbearance, listening to and believing the experiences of others, having hard conversations, and, according to Kendi, reading books.
The website
EmbraceRace: Raising a Brave Generation
suggests that "Books are one of the most effective and practical tools for initiating these critical conversations; and they can also be used to model what it means to resist and dismantle oppression." This is true for people of all ages, and the earlier the better: by the age of five, strong bias is already baked in.
We hope to see you Sunday but, in the meantime—and beyond—here are two reading lists for antiracist practice, one for adults (prepared by Kendi) and, importantly, one for children:
