For those looking to educate themselves on multifaceted issues concerning diversity, equity, equality and inclusion, this virtual library houses books, movies, podcasts, trainings and other resources to assist in the process. Check out the sections below to learn more! You can learn more about how we’re empowering professionals from underrepresented communities here.
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Inspired by the life and work of artist Keith Knight, comedy series WOKE takes an absurdly irreverent look at identity and culture as it follows Keef, an African-American cartoonist finally on the verge of mainstream success when an unexpected incident changes everything. With a fresh outlook on the world around him, Keef must now navigate the new voices and ideas that confront and challenge him, all without setting aflame everything he’s already built.
Rated TV – MA. Available on Hulu.
Former Marine Louanne Johnson (Michelle Pfeiffer) lands a gig teaching in a pilot program for bright but underachieving teens at a notorious inner-city high school. After having a terrible first day, she decides she must throw decorum to the wind. When Johnson returns to the classroom, she does so armed with a no-nonsense attitude informed by her military training and a fearless determination to better the lives of her students—no matter what the cost.
Rated R. Available on Hulu.
An abused, illiterate, overweight and pregnant teen is offered a glimmer of hope to change her life by a teacher at an alternative school. Winner of two Oscars, this powerful drama stars Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz and Gabourey Sidibe.
Rated R. Available on HBO Max.
The story behind a courageous band of civil rights activists called the Freedom Riders who in 1961 creatively challenged a segregated interstate travel system in the American South.
Rated 13+. Available on Amazon Prime Video.
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation’s prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans.
Rated TV-MA. Available on Netflix.
The Morales cousins scramble to save their grandfather’s taco shop–and pursue their own dreams–as gentrification shakes up their LA neighborhood.
Rated TV-MA. Available on Netflix.
Dre Johnson (Anthony Anderson) has it all—a great job, beautiful wife Rainbow (Tracee Ellis Ross), four kids and a big home in a classy neighbourhood—but as a black man, he begins to question whether all his success has brought too much cultural assimilation for his family. With the help of his father (Laurence Fishburne), Dre begins to try to create a sense of ethnic identity for the members of his family that will allow them to honor their background while preparing them to embrace the future.
Rated PG. Available on ABC and Hulu.
In this intimate yet epic love story filmed over two decades, indomitable matriarch Fox Rich strives to raise her six sons and keep her family together as she fights for her husband’s release from the Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly known as Angola.
Rated PG-13. Available on Amazon Prime Video.
Salvatore “Sal” Fragione (Danny Aiello) is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin’ Out (Giancarlo Esposito), becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria’s Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin’ Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin’ Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.
Rated R.
An account of the Ferguson uprising as told by the people who lived it. The filmmakers look at how the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown inspired a community to fight back and sparked a global movement.
The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America by Khalil Gibran Muhammed
How did we come to think of race as synonymous with crime? A brilliant and deeply disturbing biography of the idea of black criminality in the making of modern urban America, The Condemnation of Blackness reveals the influence this pernicious myth, rooted in crime statistics, has had on our society and our sense of self. In the age of Black Lives Matter and Donald Trump, under the shadow of Ferguson and Baltimore, no questions could be more urgent.
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear and guilt and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, anti-racist educator Robin DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality and what can be done to engage more constructively.
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
“Girl, Woman, Other is described as a polyphonic novel about the intersections of identity. It’s told from the point of view of 12 British women of color who range in age from 19 to 93. The women represent a diversity of classes, cultures and sexual identities.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR Review
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Hochschild
Strangers in Their Own Land goes beyond the commonplace liberal idea that these are people who have been duped into voting against their own interests. Instead, Hochschild finds lives ripped apart by stagnant wages, a loss of home, an elusive American dream and political choices and views that make sense in the context of their lives. Hochschild draws on her expert knowledge of the sociology of emotion to help us understand what it feels like to live in red America. Along the way she finds answers to one of the crucial questions of contemporary American politics: why do the people who would seem to benefit most from liberal government intervention abhor the very idea?
Racism: A Short History by George Fredrickson
Are antisemitism and white supremacy manifestations of a general phenomenon? Why didn’t racism appear in Europe before the fourteenth century, and why did it flourish as never before in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? Why did the twentieth century see institutionalized racism in its most extreme forms? Why are egalitarian societies particularly susceptible to virulent racism? What do apartheid South Africa, Nazi Germany and the American South under Jim Crow have in common? How did the Holocaust advance civil rights in the United States? With a rare blend of learning, economy and cutting insight, George Fredrickson surveys the history of Western racism from its emergence in the late Middle Ages to the present.
The Origin of Others by Toni Morrison
America’s foremost novelist reflects on the themes that preoccupy her work and increasingly dominate national and world politics: race, fear, borders, the mass movement of peoples, the desire for belonging. What is race and why does it matter? What motivates the human tendency to construct Others? Why does the presence of Others make us so afraid?
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
Baldwin’s haunting and controversial second novel is his most sustained treatment of sexuality and a classic of gay literature. In a 1950s Paris swarming with expatriates and characterized by dangerous liaisons and hidden violence, an American finds himself unable to repress his impulses, despite his determination to live the conventional life he envisions for himself. After meeting and proposing to a young woman, he falls into a lengthy affair with an Italian bartender and is confounded and tortured by his sexual identity as he oscillates between the two.
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Widespread reporting on aspects of white supremacy—from police brutality to the mass incarceration of Black Americans—has put a media spotlight on racism in our society. Still, it is a difficult subject to talk about. How do you tell your roommate her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law take umbrage when you asked to touch her hair—and how do you make it right? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend?
In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to “model minorities” in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life.
How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy and the Racial Divide by Crystal Fleming
“I wrote the book to help people understand the historical roots of white supremacy and to be able to draw connections between past and present racism. The last chapter includes 10 concrete steps that everyone can take to help dismantle systemic racism.” —Crystal Fleming
Code of the Street by Elijah Anderson
Inner-city black America is often stereotyped as a place of random violence, but in fact, violence in the inner city is regulated through an informal but well-known code of the street. This unwritten set of rules—based largely on an individual’s ability to command respect—is a powerful and pervasive form of etiquette, governing the way in which people learn to negotiate public spaces. Elijah Anderson’s incisive book delineates the code and examines it as a response to the lack of jobs that pay a living wage, to the stigma of race, to rampant drug use, to alienation and lack of hope.
Hosted by journalists of color, “Code Switch” tackles the subject of race with empathy and humor, exploring how race affects every part of society. “Code Switch” was named Apple Podcasts’ first-ever Show of the Year in 2020.
This enlightening podcast by New York Times links the past and present by addressing the impact of slavery on society today. Linked here is a listening guide that walks through critical concepts within each episode.
The past is never past. Every headline has a history. Join us every week as we go back in time to understand the present. These are stories you can feel and sounds you can see from the moments that shaped our world.
Where did the notion of “whiteness” come from? What does it mean? What is whiteness for? Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen took a deep dive into these questions, along with an array of leading scholars and regular guest Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika.
Latino USA offers insight into the lived experiences of Latino communities and provides a window into the current and merging cultural, political and social ideas impacting Latinos and the nation.
New York Times
Harvard Business Review
W. K. Kellogg Foundation
The Killing of George Floyd: The Aftermath and Reflections with Colorado African-American Leaders
IMAGINE 2020 Speaker Series: Equity, Diversity and Inclusion 101
IMAGINE 2020 Speaker Series: How to be an Anti-Racist Organization
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