Over the last week or so, I’ve noticed a commonality in many of the conversations I’ve had about the protests taking place across the United States and around the world. A question stands out: “But what can I do?” Some of us are taking actions, signing petitions, or finding ways to donate. Something we all can do is educate ourselves and our families about the issues being discussed right now.

These are challenging times, but I have come to realize they can challenge us in a good way. I believe the burden is on me to explore racism, white privilege, and other things that are lived experience. I can’t rely on others; it isn’t their job to educate me. And as a mom of two girls, it’s up to me to teach my kids about the privilege, inequity, and systemic, structural racism. That is part of my responsibility in making the world a better place.

I gathered the following resources from sources such as the New York Times, Common Sense Media, local organizations, and friends. I plan to continue to add to the list. 

If you are looking for anti-racism resources, the ones below will spur conversations with our families, and encourage us to look at ourselves, our biases, and our role in these issues.

~Wendy 

For Children

• Anti-Racism Books for Kids NYTimes, books listed by age
• BrainPOP Videos Videos, sorted by grade level, on topics such as civil rights and slavery

For Parents

• How White Parents Can Use Media to Raise Anti-Racist Kids by Common Sense Media
• How to Help Kids Process Violence, Trauma and Race Video from Common Sense Media 
• Conversation guides from EmbraceRace 
• Raising Race Conscious Children resources for talking to young children about race
• How to talk to kids about race and racism by ParentToolKit

Podcasts about the history of race in the United States

• “1619” by Nikole Hannah-Jones (also NYTimes articles)
•  “Seeing White” b y John Biewen and Chenjerai Kumanyika  

Articles

• “Unpacking White Privilege” by Peggy McIntosh
•  “Being Anti-Racist” by the National Museum of African American History & Culture
• Simple visual representation of how white supremacy manifests (5 minute read)

Books

• Waking Up White by Debby Irving
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
• How To Be an Anti-racist by Ibram X. Kendi
• List of other anti-racism books 

Videos

• George Floyd, Minneapolis Protests, Ahmaud Arbery & Amy Cooper by Trevor Noah, a 20 minute video
•  “How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion” by Peggy McIntosh, a 20 minute TedTalk

For more resources, click here.

Updated 6/6/2020