So Let’s Do Some Unlearning
If this year has taught us anything, it would have to be the importance of decolonising our minds. 2020 has critiqued us all. It has pointed out our inaction and kept us accountable towards things we can do better. The process of unlearning is tricky and sometimes even confronting. Often we learn along the way the mistakes we’ve made or how our allyship has been performative or optical at points. But we must not let this prevent us from engaging with and supporting anti-racist work. We offer this compilation below as a resource to assist in the journey towards unlearning. As Nova Reid, a Black anti-racist activist puts it, racism is a form of trauma. Asking friends who have been impacted by racism to ‘teach you’ about racism can be counterproductive (if they choose to, that’s different). This is your work to do, not theirs.
How To Be An Antiracist
Ibram X. Kendi
How to Be an Antiracist is part how-to and part memoir. Author Ibram X. Kendi, like many of us, grew up in a racist society and internalized many of its ideas. Throughout much of his life, he was racist, and in How to Be an Antiracist, he describes how he changed his thoughts and actions—and how you can change yours—to become antiracist.
Citizen: An American Lyric
Claudia Rankine
In this moving, critical and fiercely intelligent collection of prose poems, Claudia Rankine examines the experience of race and racism in Western society through sharp vignettes of everyday discrimination and prejudice, and longer meditations on the violence - whether linguistic or physical - that has impacted the lives of Serena Williams, Zinedine Zidane, Mark Duggan and others.
Me and White Supremacy
Layla Sadd
Me and White Supremacy challenges you to do the essential work of unpacking your biases, and helps white people take action and dismantle the privilege within themselves so that you can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of colour, and in turn, help other white people do better.
About Race with Reni Eddo-Lodge
From the author behind the bestselling Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, comes a podcast that takes the conversation a step further. Featuring key voices from the last few decades of anti-racist activism, About Race with Reni Eddo-Lodge looks at the recent history that lead to the politics of today.
Conversations with Nova Reid
Conversations with Nova Reid are raw, unedited conversations about race, identity, allyship and everything in-between as we navigate this funny thing called life. Brought to you by Tedx Speaker and Anti Racism Campaigner Nova Reid.
13th (Documentary Film, 2016) - Netflix
When the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in 1865, former slaves expected freedom for the rest of their lives, as it ruled slavery of any kind unlawful. However, Ava Duvernay explores a loophole, which deems a form of slavery acceptable in the legal form of criminal punishment. Duvernay's documentary 13th takes a well-informed look at this loophole and administers a researched look at the American incarceration system and how it contributes to systemic racism today.