The heartbeat of racism itself has always been denial. The sound of that heartbeat is “I am not racist.” There is no such thing as “not racist.” As author and historian Ibram X. Kendi explains in one of the TED Talks included here There is no such thing as “not racist.” We are either racist or anti-racist. In each moment, one or the other. We either support policies that lead to injustice and inequity, or we are supporting policies that are leading to justice and equality.
NewStories is learning and unlearning our own way here. While we are blessed with powerful People of Color on our Board and Core Team, NewStories was founded by and has been led by white people. Whiteness, and blindness to blindness of systemic racism is in our DNA. Time to shift that. We know we are embarking on a profoundly messy, humbling, imploding, intense learning journey… layer, by layer, by layer, seeing how whiteness lives through us. Many behaviors, perspectives, unconscious scripts that run our minds, and that live in our very cells must die.
As we have started to add anti-racist materials to our Essential Knowledge collection, we have been struck by how much is out there. In many cases we are offering collections of resources created by others and sharing them in their context. We invite you to unlearn and learn with us. Don’t gorge yourself on information and knowledge here. Listen and read enough to find your next steps.
If you have recommendations for resources to include here, please email anti-racism@newstories.org
Our friends at Sunshine Behavioral Health have put together this thoughtful review of both the mental health challenges present in the black community and the sources of those challenges....
This 2018 publication from the NAACP describes how environmental justice and climate justice are civil and human rights issues. They started the Environmental and Climate Justice Program in 2009, after decades of civil rights advocacy, ...
We know American public schools do not guarantee each child an equal education. Two decades of school reform initiatives have not changed that. But when Chana Joffe-Walt, a reporter, looked at inequality in education, she saw that most r...
Organized in Snohomish County every year for the last five years, the 2020 Step Up Conference is entirely virtual. It’s inexpensive and can is even available for free, if you ask. They’ve created a pretty remarkable learning event for th...
Bearing witness to Black life only when it ends in a death is a white tradition. It is lynching, but now it is digital. White people, statistically less likely to be in diverse friend groups and more likely to know only other white...
When you look at the coronavirus world, it is entirely shaped by the structure of the before world. All of the racial inequities that were in the before world, they are naturally being reproduced in the coronavirus world because the...
These recommendations come to us from Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr. For 21 days, do one action to further your understanding of power, privilege, supremacy, oppression, and equity. Here are suggestions for readings, podcasts, videos, observation...
So you're white. Maybe you were out there on the streets in the 60s and the 70s and helped to start some of the progressive work of the last 50 years. You think of yourself as a progressive and now you are feeling hammered. Perhaps you...
McGhee describes how the election of Barack Obama resulted in both a racial backlash and the illusion that we were suddenly living in a post-racial society. She also shares a hopeful story that demonstrates a pathway towards healing...
Please listen to this clear, kind, compassionate message and invitation from Nicole Walters she shares with those of us white her everyday, common, non-political experience as Black. And invites us to do better. Some of what we’ve shar...
Kimberly Jones, co-author of I’m Not Dying With You Tonight offers powerful commentary in this video. She says there are protestors, rioters, and looters out in the demonstrations of June, 2020 and the tendency is to focus on the what, ...
Tommy Orange’s wondrous and shattering novel follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize. Among them is Jacquie Red Feather,...
An article from Ola Caracola, first published on Medium on June 5, 2020 My newsfeed turned into a sea of black squares over the last couple of days, as I’m sure is the case for many of you, reading this. Initially, this warmed my heart...
I truly thank you for wanting to understand what you are having a hard time understanding. Coincidentally, over the last few days I have been thinking about sharing some of the incidents of prejudice/racism I’ve experienced in my...
Strangers in Their Own Land in an insightful book by Arlie Russell Hochschild from several years ago gives a glimpse of some of the experiences in our wider culture which sustain racism in the United States. When Donald Trump won the 20...
From Michelle Weber’s blog Perhaps you have noticed that America is on fire. Perhaps you have noticed that people of color are disproportionately dying of Covid-19. Perhaps you are starting to realize that America has been heaping violen...
Shareable does incredible work which brings forth stories we must learn from. This Podcast is one of these stories On June 14, 2017, a fire started in a 24-story public housing apartment in West London called Grenfell Tower. The fire rag...
Coursera at the University of Illinois has created this 11 hour, do at your own speed online course. And it is free! Learners will deepen their understanding and appreciation of ways in which race, ethnicity and cultural diversity hav...
These are some of the characteristics of white supremacy culture which show up in our organizations. Culture is powerful precisely because it is so present and at the same time so very difficult to name or identify. The characteristics...
Frieda Nixdorf and the Weavers and Coordinators of the Work That Reconnects Network stand in solidarity with Black, Brown, and Indigenous Communities in the United States, Canada, and everywhere else in the world as uprisings gain str...
This book is just one of the powerful ones written by Ta-Nehishi Coates. It is available on his website as well as on Amazon In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate...
Before we can share our own big news with you below: Wow. What a time in history this is. Hundreds of thousands of people are courageously rising up in defense of black lives, and police are showing off their brutality in cities all...
By Dax-Devlon Ross in the June 5th NonProfit Quarterly On Friday afternoon I got a call with a buddy I hadn’t spoken to in a couple of years. We met when we were 10 years old playing boys club basketball in Washington, D.C. Back then,...
From the Washington Post By Tre Johnson I am 10 and watching my grandfather’s back stiffen and shrink as an officer pulls us over on the way home from the mall. I am 16, facedown on the hood of a cruiser in Ewing, N.J. I am 22 and si...
White Fragility is a vital, necessary and beautiful book, a bracing call to white folk everywhere to see their whiteness for what it is and to seize the opportunity to make things better now. DiAngelo joins the front ranks of white...
The social justice issues being addressed in our world at this turbulent time are mammoth, reflecting long-standing structural and systemic racism. Privileged straight white males have been guardians of such systems, purveyors of it,...
My Grandmother's HandsResmaa Menakem points out that one of two things will happen now. Ideally, America will grow up and out of white-body supremacy; Americans will begin healing their long-held trauma around race; and whiteness will...
Courtney Martin, in this recent blog gets right to the point. We’re waking up because our attention is finally available, because COVID has taught us about interdependence and because Trump’s blatant immorality and ineptitude has force...
White guilt doesn't change anything. In fact it becomes just another thing for people of color to put up with as white folks work through their stuff. This short story brings that reality home....
Racism and xenophobia are not new. And yet, this time, something feels different. We seem to have crossed a tipping point, one where enough of us, of all colors, nationalities, religions, occupations, and even political parties are...
Originally from WebMD. June 10, 2020 African Americans were already disproportionately affected by COVID-19, the disease that has swept across the globe in just months. Then George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis. Even amid ...
Many of us are working to discover what we can do right now to end systemic racism. One thing is to put our financial resources to use in supporting those, like Lead to Life. Please read this call to action in full. They will be gratefu...
Daily Good offer this compilation of resources as a starting point with the recognition that the work extends far beyond what’s included here and happens over the course of a lifetime. They share these resources as an invitation to...
The heartbeat of racism itself has always been denial. The sound of that heartbeat is "I am not racist." There is no such thing as "not racist." We are either racist or anti-racist. In each moment, one or the other. We either support...
Mindfulness meditation may hold the key to grappling with interpersonal racism, says Rhonda Magee, because it helps people tolerate the discomfort that comes with deeper discussions about race. And it can help cultivate a sense of...
