How to Use these Resources
This page has four sections: Read, Watch, Listen, and Research. Each section has three sampled resources, but you can see more recommendations here.
We chose resources that represent the wide scope of subjects and materials on anti-racism available in the Northeastern Library Collection. Please note that due to Covid-19, print resources may be temporarily unavailable.
The resources listed here are not comprehensive, and they inevitably reflect the biases of the various creators. They are intended to provide guidance to a wide variety of general resources. This guide is by no means exhaustive and will be continuously updated. We welcome your feedback and suggestions.
Read
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Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson is the 2018-2019 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature A New York Times Bestseller and National Book Award Winner Jacqueline Woodson, the acclaimed author of Another Brooklyn, tells the moving story of her childhood in mesmerizing verse. Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child's soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson's eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become. A National Book Award Winner A Newbery Honor Book A Coretta Scott King Award Winner Praise for Jacqueline Woodson: Ms. Woodson writes with a sure understanding of the thoughts of young people, offering a poetic, eloquent narrative that is not simply a story . . . but a mature exploration of grown-up issues and self-discovery."--The New York Times Book ReviewISBN: 9780399252518Publication Date: 2014-08-28 -
Understanding Mass Incarceration by We all know that orange is the new black and mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow, but how much do we actually know about the structure, goals, and impact of our criminal justice system? Understanding Mass Incarceration offers the first comprehensive overview of the incarceration apparatus put in place by the world’s largest jailer: the United States. Drawing on a growing body of academic and professional work, Understanding Mass Incarceration describes in plain English the many competing theories of criminal justice--from rehabilitation to retribution, from restorative justice to justice reinvestment. In a lively and accessible style, author James Kilgore illuminates the difference between prisons and jails, probation and parole, laying out key concepts and policies such as the War on Drugs, broken windows policing, three-strikes sentencing, the school-to-prison pipeline, recidivism, and prison privatization. Informed by the crucial lenses of race and gender, he addresses issues typically omitted from the discussion: the rapidly increasing incarceration of women, Latinos, and transgender people; the growing imprisonment of immigrants; and the devastating impact of mass incarceration on communities. Both field guide and primer, Understanding Mass Incarceration will be an essential resource for those engaged in criminal justice activism as well as those new to the subject.ISBN: 9781620971222Publication Date: 2015 -
The Fire This Time by A surprise New York Times bestseller, these groundbreaking essays and poems about race--collected by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward and written by the most important voices of her generation--are "thoughtful, searing, and at times, hopeful. The Fire This Time is vivid proof that words are important, because of their power to both cleanse and to clarify" (USA TODAY). In light of recent tragedies and widespread protests across the nation, The Progressive magazine republished one of its most famous pieces: James Baldwin's 1962 "Letter to My Nephew," which was later published in his landmark book, The Fire Next Time. Addressing his fifteen-year-old namesake on the one hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Baldwin wrote: "You know and I know, that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon." Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward knows that Baldwin's words ring as true as ever today. In response, she has gathered short essays, memoir, and a few essential poems to engage the question of race in the United States. And she has turned to some of her generation's most original thinkers and writers to give voice to their concerns. The Fire This Time is divided into three parts that shine a light on the darkest corners of our history, wrestle with our current predicament, and envision a better future. Of the eighteen pieces, ten were written specifically for this volume. In the fifty-odd years since Baldwin's essay was published, entire generations have dared everything and made significant progress. But the idea that we are living in the post-Civil Rights era, that we are a "post-racial" society is an inaccurate and harmful reflection of a truth the country must confront. Baldwin's "fire next time" is now upon us, and it needs to be talked about. Contributors include Carol Anderson, Jericho Brown, Garnette Cadogan, Edwidge Danticat, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Mitchell S. Jackson, Honoree Jeffers, Kima Jones, Kiese Laymon, Daniel Jose Older, Emily Raboteau, Claudia Rankine, Clint Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Wendy S. Walters, Isabel Wilkerson, and Kevin Young.ISBN: 9781501126345Publication Date: 2016-08-02 -
The Inner Work of Racial Justice by "Illuminates the very heart of social justice and how it might be approached and nurtured through mindfulness practices in community and through the discernment and new degrees of freedom these practices entrain." --from the foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn In a society where unconscious bias, microaggressions, institutionalized racism, and systemic injustices are so deeply ingrained, healing is an ongoing process. When conflict and division are everyday realities, our instincts tell us to close ranks, to find the safety of our own tribe, and to blame others. This book profoundly shows that in order to have the difficult conversations required for working toward racial justice, inner work is essential. Through the practice of embodied mindfulness--paying attention to our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations in an open, nonjudgmental way--we increase our emotional resilience, recognize our own biases, and become less reactive when triggered. As Sharon Salzberg, New York Times-bestselling author of Real Happiness writes, "Rhonda Magee is a significant new voice I've wanted to hear for a long time--a voice both unabashedly powerful and deeply loving in looking at race and racism." Magee shows that embodied mindfulness calms our fears and helps us to exercise self-compassion. These practices help us to slow down and reflect on microaggressions--to hold them with some objectivity and distance--rather than bury unpleasant experiences so they have a cumulative effect over time. Magee helps us develop the capacity to address the fears and anxieties that would otherwise lead us to re-create patterns of separation and division. It is only by healing from injustices and dissolving our personal barriers to connection that we develop the ability to view others with compassion and to live in community with people of vastly different backgrounds and viewpoints. Incorporating mindfulness exercises, research, and Magee's hard-won insights, The Inner Work of Racial Justice offers a road map to a more peaceful world.ISBN: 9780593083925Publication Date: 2019 -
The Diversity Bonus by How businesses and other organizations can improve their performance by tapping the power of differences in how people think What if workforce diversity is more than simply the right thing to do? What if it can also improve the bottom line? It can. The Diversity Bonus shows how and why. Scott Page, a leading thinker, writer, and speaker whose ideas and advice are sought after by corporations, nonprofits, universities, and governments, makes a clear and compelling practical case for diversity and inclusion. He presents overwhelming evidence that teams that include different kinds of thinkers outperform homogenous groups on complex tasks, producing what he calls "diversity bonuses." These bonuses include improved problem solving, increased innovation, and more accurate predictions--all of which lead to better results. Drawing on research in economics, psychology, computer science, and many other fields, The Diversity Bonus also tells the stories of businesses and organizations that have tapped the power of diversity to solve complex problems. The result changes the way we think about diversity at work--and far beyond.ISBN: 9780691193823Publication Date: 2019
Research in Northeastern's Archives and Special Collections
The Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections preserve and make accessible the historical records of Boston’s activism, social movements, infrastructure, and neighborhoods, as well as the history of Northeastern. Find records documenting activists organizing for racial justice among other many other causes.
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Boston Public School Desegregation Collection
A collection of over 4,500 archival resources from six area archives documenting school desegregation in Boston and the activists that organized against racial inequity and injustice in Boston's education system. -
Freedom House records
Records from Freedom House, whose goal was to centralize community activism in the fight for neighborhood improvement, education justice, and racial equity in Roxbury, MA. -
Black Activism at Northeastern University
An exhibit and collection of records documenting the activism on campus which led to the establishment of academic and community resources as well as the celebration of Black culture at Northeastern.
Watch
Listen
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1619 Podcast
This 5-part series traces the history and impact of slavery in America, starting from the first ship to arrive carrying enslaved Africans in 1619. -
Code Switch
Podcast series of conversations about race and its impact on all aspects of society, hosted by journalists of color. -
Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast
Features movement voices, stories, and strategies for racial justice from organizational leaders and community activists.
To discover more podcasts go here.
Research in databases and journals
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Ebony Magazine Archive (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowThe Ebony Magazine Archive covers civil rights, education, entrepreneurship and other social topics with an African-American focus, including more than 800 issues providing a broad view of African-American culture from its first issue in 1945 through 2014.
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Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new windowInterdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish) and comprehensive full text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. Designed to provide the "other side of the story," ENW titles offer additional viewpoints from those proffered by the mainstream press.
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Contemporary Justice ReviewContemporary Justice Review is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal for scholars, activists, and practitioners of social and restorative justice around the globe who seek to explore and design new models of justice that reflect just social arrangements at the local to the international level.
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Turning the TideAnti-Racist Action Los Angeles' (previously known as People Against Racist Terror) quarterly journal of inter-communal solidarity.
NEW!
- Anti-Racism Policy Journal a Harvard Kennedy School publication, launched in Spring 2022, follow them on facebook, instagram, twitter or LinkedIn.
To discover more databases and journals go here.