Education

Where to start

This in-depth list of antiracism resources has a ton of recommendations for books grouped by category, plus essays, films and more.

What we're reading

This list is painfully short right now, but will grow as we educate ourselves further.

  • Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (read)
  • Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging by Afua Hirsch (reading)
  • How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (read)
  • The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (reading)
  • Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge (read)

If you're in the UK and trying to source any books, check out New Beacon Books, a Black-owned bookstore, first to see if they stock it.

Black British history

We're from the UK and we've realised our schooling was seriously lacking in Black British history. Regretfully, we've never taken it upon ourselves to fill in the gaps until now, but we've been finding the following sites useful in our early efforts to change this:

The Black Curriculum is an organisation working to make Black History mandatory in schools, and you can email the Education Secretary to put pressure on the government to make this change.

British Criminal Justice System

It's plain to see that the UK Criminal Justice System (CJS) is institutionally racist, despite many believing it's "not as bad as in the US". In addition to horrifying individual cases like that of Sarah Reed and Daniel Adowole, the figures paint a clear picture:

For instance:

  • Black people make up less than 4% of the UK population but 13% of the prison population.
  • White people make up 59% of the London population while Black people make up 12%. Yet the proportion of stop and searches is identical for both groups at 37%.
  • Black defendants receive an average custodial sentence of 28 months for indictable offences. The average for white defendants is 18.3 months (lower than all other ethnic groups).
  • The Metropolitan police officers enforcing the coronavirus lockdown are more than twice as likely to issue fines to Black people as to white people.

But the CJS is just one of many systems set up by white people in such a way as to benefit white people at the expense of non-white people. We want to learn why and how this happens, and how it can be reversed.

US Criminal Justice System

We have much to learn about this but we found Michelle Alexander's The future of race in America TEDx talk to be incredibly illuminating as a starting point. We're also reading her book, The New Jim Crow, which goes into more detail on the topic of mass incarceration.

Another voice to seek out on the topic is Angela Davis, in particular her lecture on Slavery and the Prison Industrial Complex.

For a super condensed overview that you can use as a jumping off point for research, this slideshow by @wastefreemarie is super helpful.

Racial wealth gap

We recently watched Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap on Netlfix and found it extremely eye-opening (and shocking that we had never previously heard about redlining, for instance). Although it focuses on American history and economics, it gives an insight into the devastating effects of years of racist policy. It's available in full on YouTube if you don't have Netflix.

Self-study

We recently joined Rachel Cargle's donation based learning platform on Patreon: The Great Unlearn. Each month she publishes a curated syllabus of things to read, watch and listen to at your own pace, plus exercises to work through, and live sessions you can join. We've found it a good way to provide some structure to our self-study, while also supporting a Black creator's work directly.

Educating others

Part of the work of becoming antiracist is to challenge racism wherever you see it, and this includes having uncomfortable conversations with people you know and love. Here are a few resources we've come across to help prepare for these conversations:

Further reading

Resources we're bookmarking to refer back to.