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Resources to understand racism

We have collected a list of different resources that can help
you understand more about racism.

Books

The Good Immigrant

By Nikesh Shukla

Bringing together 21 exciting black, Asian and minority ethnic voices emerging in Britain today, The Good Immigrant explores why immigrants come to the UK, why they stay and what it means to be ‘other’ in a country that doesn’t seem to want you, doesn’t truly accept you – however many generations you’ve been here – but still needs you for its diversity monitoring forms.

Inspired by discussion around why society appears to deem people of colour as bad immigrants – job stealers, benefit scroungers, undeserving refugees – until, by winning Olympic races or baking good cakes, or being conscientious doctors, they cross over and become good immigrants, editor Nikesh Shukla has compiled a collection of essays that are poignant, challenging, angry, humorous, heartbreaking, polemic, weary and – most importantly – real.

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race

By Reni Eddo-Lodge

The book that sparked a national conversation. Exploring everything from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race is the essential handbook for anyone who wants to understand race relations in Britain today.

Between the World and Me

By Ta-Nehisi Coates

In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of ‘race’ a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men’s bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire

By Akala

From the first time he was stopped and searched as a child, to the day he realised his mum was white, to his first encounters with racist teachers – race and class have shaped Akala’s life and outlook. In this unique book he takes his own experiences and widens them out to look at the social, historical and political factors that have left us where we are today.

Podcasts

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.

Listen to podcasts

Witness History: Witness Black History

Interviews with people who were there at key moments in black and civil rights history.

Listen on Spotify

Speaking of Racism

A podcast celebrating everyday activists who are disrupting, deconstructing, and dismantling racism.

Listen on Spotify

White Fragility

Let’s talk about race, baby, and what white people really mean when they say they don’t see it. Whether it’s willful ignorance about collective racial identity or an unexpectedly defensive flare-up from someone who claims to be progressive or an intersectional feminist, white fragility has serious consequences. We discuss its impact on people of color with Rachel Cargle, and explore ways for white people to break down internal barriers to growth with Robin DiAngelo.

Listen to podcast

Seeing White

Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen with an array of leading scholars and regular guest Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, in this fourteen-part documentary series, released between February and August 2017.

Listen to podcast

Videos

It’s Everywhere by Racheal Ofori

Post Traumatic Slave Disorder by Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary

Akala Deconstructs Race, Class and Britain’s Modern Myths

The School That Tried To End Racism
Watch series

TED TALK: Talks to help you understand racism in America
Watch series