Reading and listening to diverse narratives can help us gain knowledge about experiences, history, and culture and address misconceptions while increasing empathy for others from different backgrounds. We’ve thoughtfully curated the following six books to support you on your #IDEAJourney to better understand the various dimensions of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
This book is author Ta-Nehisi Coates’s letter to his adolescent son about the revelatory experiences that helped him realize the truth about his place in the world as a Black man. Coates interweaves personal narrative, reimagined history, and emotionally charged storytelling to present a powerful depiction of past and current race-related struggles as well as a vision for the future.
The Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activities to Help You Challenge Privilege, Confront Systemic Racism, and Engage in Collective Healing by Dr. Anneliese A. Singh
This handbook offers readers tools to help navigate racism experiences, challenge internalized negative messages and privileges, and manage stress and shame. In addition to developing a profound racial consciousness and conscientiousness, Singh shares with readers how they can heal from grief and trauma by learning how to create a community of healing in a world filled with racial microaggressions and discrimination.
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
When author Layla Saad launched an Instagram challenge called #MeAndWhiteSupremacy, which encouraged people to acknowledge and share their racist behaviors, she didn’t expect the response she received. Thousands participated on social media, and more than 90,000 people downloaded the workbook she created. Me and White Supremacy is an extension of this project. Through historical and cultural contexts, powerful storytelling, and definitions and examples, Saad teaches readers how to dismantle their internal privilege so they can stop inflicting damage on people of color and help other white people do the same.
Four Hundred Souls
Edited by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi (How to Be an Antiracist) and Dr. Keisha N. Blain (Set the World on Fire), Four Hundred Souls is a “community history” of the 400-year journey of African Americans in the United States from 1619 to present day. Ninety writers, each of whom takes on a five-year period, share their unique perspectives on themes of resistance, struggle, hope, and reinvention through historical essays, short stories, personal vignettes, and polemics.
White Fragility by Dr. Robin DiAngelo
This book explores the counterproductive and defensive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged. White fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt and by behaviors including argumentation and silence, which ultimately reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In addition to examining how white fragility develops and protects racial inequality, DiAngelo gives readers advice on how to engage more constructively.
How to Be an Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
Antiracism transforms and reenergizes the conversation about racism and helps us shape new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi introduces readers to various antiracist ideas to help them learn how to identify all forms of racism, understand their negative consequences, and actively work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves. This resource serves as the next step for those looking to go beyond increasing their awareness of racism and start contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.
