Antiracist Resources: Read, Learn, Act

What does it mean to be antiracist? How do I become an antiracist?

These are the questions we should be asking ourselves every single day until we know the answers and put those answers into action.

In Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist, he defines antiracism as the following:

To be antiracist is to think nothing is behaviorally wrong or right — inferior or superior — with any of the racial groups. Whenever the antiracist sees individuals behaving positively or negatively, the antiracist sees exactly that: individuals behaving positively or negatively, not representatives of whole races. To be antiracist is to deracialize behavior, to remove the tattooed stereotype from every racialized body. Behavior is something humans do, not races do.

So that’s the definition. But how do we, as human beings coexisting with one another in so many different ways, go about being antiracist?

Reading, watching, and listening are the first steps in educating yourself on how to be an antiracist. You have to remember that these steps are not finite, however. You will continue to read, watch, and listen all your life. You just have to start somewhere, and as soon as you start, you can begin to act.

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Reading

The following lists consist of books across all genres: fiction* to non-fiction, adult to children’s, and everything in between. While non-fiction will directly aim to educate you, fiction will put you in the shoes of those you may not identify with and give you insight into their lives. This is also by no means an exhaustive list. As you go on this reading journey, we encourage you to seek out more books to read that will help you on your way to being an antiracist.

*Remember that when it comes to fiction, these books aren’t just about the struggles of marginalized people. It’s important to read about joy as well. 

Board Books

Anti-Racist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi

Woke Baby by Mahogany L. Browne

Picture Books

The Arabic Quilt: An Immigrant Story by Aya Khalil

Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki

Between Us and Abuela: A Family Story from the Border by Mitali Perkins

A Boy Like You by Frank and Carla Murphy

Bunheads by Misty Copeland

Don’t Touch My Hair by Sharee Miller

Evelyn Del Rey is Moving Away by Meg Medina

A Girl Like You by Frank and Carla Murphy

Happy to Be Nappy by bell hooks

Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of ‘Poetry with a Beat’ edited by Nikki Giovanni

Ho’onani: Hula Warrior by Heather Gale

Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea by Meena Harris

The Many Colors of Harpreet Singh by Supriya Kelkar

Nappy Hair by Carolivia Herron

Ohana Means Family by Ilima Loomis

Ojiichan’s Gift by Chieri Uegaki

A Poem for Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of The Snowy Day by Andrea Davis Pinkney

Something Happened In Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzared

The Three Lucys by Hayan Charara

We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom

Middle Grade

Ahimsa by Supriya Kelkar

Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed

Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston

Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi

Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee

Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome

Front Desk by Kelly Yang

Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega

A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramee

Ikenga by Nnedi Okorafor

Indian No More by Charlene Willing McManis

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai

Once Upon an Eid edited by Aisha Saeed and S.K. Ali

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga

Paola Santiago and the River of Tears by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park

She Was the First!: The Trailblazing Life of Shirley Chisholm by Katheryn Russell-Brown

Silverworld by Diana Abu-Jaber

Stand Up, Yumi Chung! by Jessica Kim

The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes

Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina by Michaela DePrince

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia

Graphic Novels/Manga

Almost American Girl by Robin Ha

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Class Act by Jerry Craft

Displacement by Kiku Hughes

Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

New Kid by Jerry Craft

Nubia: Real One by L.L. McKinney

Sailor Moon vol. 1 by Naoko Takeuchi

Young Adult

All the Stars Denied by Guadalupe Garcia McCall

American Panda by Gloria Chao

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan

The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee

Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Fire Keeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

Internment by Samira Ahmed

The Never Tilting World by Rin Chupeco

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Rise of Kyoshi by F.C. Yee

Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali

Slay by Brittney Morris

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala

A Universe of Wishes: A We Need Diverse Books Anthology edited by Dhonielle Clayton

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Wings of Ebony by J. Elle

Young Adult Non-Fiction

Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card by Sara Saedi

The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir by Ta-Nehisi Coates

I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousfzai

Just Mercy: Adapted for Young Adults: A True Story of the Fight for Justice by Bryan Stevenson

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds

Adult Non-Fiction

Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston

Between the World and Me by Ta Nehisi Coates

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah

The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights by Gretchen Sullivan Sorin

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race edited by Jesmyn Ward

A Fool’s Errand: Creating the Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump by Lonnie G. Bunch

The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist

Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? by Mumia Abu-Jamal

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall

How to Be an Antiracist  by Ibram X. Kendi

How We Fight White Supremacy by Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom by Yeonmi Park

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Gunn

The Life of Langston Hughes by Arnold Rampersad

Love is the Way: Holding On to Hope in Troubled Times by Michael B. Curry

Minor Feelings: An Asian-American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History by Jeanne Theoharis

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope by Deray McKesson

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad

Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces by Radley Balko

Slavery By Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi

Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson

We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta Nehisi Coates

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum

Adult Fiction

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

Day of Tears by Julius Lester

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Freshwater by Akwaeki Emezi

Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Jade City by Fonda Lee

The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

There There by Tommy Orange

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

The Wolf of Oren-Yaro by K.S. Villoso

The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson

Poetry

An American Sunrise: Poems by Joy Harjo

The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou by Maya Angelou

Homegirls & Handgrenades by Sonia Sanchez

Nuyorican Poetry: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Words and Feelings edited by Miguel Algarín

Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems by Nikki Giovanni

The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur

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