Introductions and Primers

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell, September 2019
Statistical narrative and revisionist history concerning intersecting interpersonal communications topics grounded in the story of Sandra Bland and Former Officer Brian Encinia.

Pre Post Racial America: Spiritual Stories from the Front Lines by Sandhya Rani Jha, February 2018
Statistical narrative entwined with personal anecdotes concerning intersectional topics associated with race and history of racism in America  

Introduction to Systemic Oppression

David and Goliath:Underdogs,Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell, October 2013
Statistical narrative and revisionist history concerning oppressive systems utilizing the example of the biblical story, David and Goliath.

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, June 2018

Statistical narrative outlining white people difficulty in addressing racism due to the advantage of a such a system staying in place by lack of conversation and acknowledgment.

Criminal Justice

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Brian Stevenson 2014
Statistical narrative interlaced with anecdotes from the case of lawyer Brian Stevenson during his time as Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI)

The New Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander 2012/2020
Statistical narrative outlining the evolution of systemic oppression from slavery, Jim Crow, legalized slavery through the criminalizing black persons. 2020 edition of the book contains an updated foreward

Ghettoside:  a True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy    2015
Statistical narrative and personal stories of homicide detectives working homicide in the South LA City  

Housing

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein  2017
Statistical narrative detailing how federal, state and municipal legislation enables banks to discriminate against people of color by “redlining” communities that had a threshold of people of color, preventing people living in those communities from getting federally secured loans and thus locking them out of the American Dream during one of the countries most economically fertile periods. 

Education

Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert Putnam      2015
Statistical Narrative of how educational system has been historically disparately unequal

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell  2008
Statistical narrative illustrating the fallacy of the “Bootstrap narrative”

Interracial Relationships

Loving: Interracial Intimacy in America and the Threat to White Supremacy by Sheryll Cashin 2017
Historical legal narrative illustrating the history of inter-racial marriage and the laws that meant to prevent it

Addressing Trauma

My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies by Reshama Menakem 2017
Illustration of race based trauma and steps to take in order to heal and maintain resilience 

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van der Kolk 2014
Illustration of trauma and how it manifests in the body, mind and behavior. (Not specific to racism but essential to understanding the reactions to such trauma)

Law Enforcement/Military

Black Klansmen:Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime by Ron Stallworth 2018
Memoir of the first black police officer on the Colorado Springs Police Department.

Once a Cop:The Street, The Law, Two Worlds, One Man by Corey Puegues 2017
Memoir of a Black Police Executive in the NYPD, who used to be a drug dealer prior to joining the police department

Can't Hurt Me: Master your Mind, Defy the Odds by David Goggins 2019
Memoir of a black man who went from being 300lbs to transforming himself into an ultra athlete and Navy Seal

Biography/Autobiography

Always Running by Luis J. Rodriguez 2011
Memoir of a Latino man who grow up in East LA

Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish 2017
Memoir of a black comedian who came up in Southern California

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah 2016
Memoir of a South African Comedian who came during the transition through apartied

Life in Motion by Misty Copeland 2014
Memoir of the first black woman to become a principal dancer in a premier dance company despite her last start in formal training.

The Greatest by Muhammad Ali 2016
Memoir of a heavyweight Champion

Freeway Rick Ross by Rick Ross 2015
Memoir of a one America's most prolific drug dealers

Gifted Hands, the Ben Carson Story by Ben Carson 1996
Memoir of a black man who went on to become a brain surgeon

Bearing the Cross by David Garrow 1986
Biographical account of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and how the Civil Rights Movement formed around him.

Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandala 2011
Memoir of the Nelson Mandala

Self-Inflicted Wounds by Aisha Tyler 2013
Memoir of a black comedian

Roots by Alex Haley 1974
Historical Fiction based on the verbal narratives of the stories passed down by the authors ancestors

Israel/Palestine

Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan 2008

Historical narrative of a Palestian Man and Jewish Woman who occupy that same house, detailing the history of European Jewish migration to Israel and the subsequent displacement of Palestians from their land

Podcast

Codeswitch  https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/ NPR
Details current events and structures involving life as a person of color

1619 Podcast  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/podcasts/1619-podcast.html New York Times
A function of the 1619 project commemorating the beginning of African slavery in the land that would become the United States

Revisionist History  http://revisionisthistory.com/ by Malcolm Gladwell
A review of facts often overlooked in the telling of history, often from the marginalized prospective.
Below are the episodes relevant to the discussion of Racism/Anti-Racism

Carlos doesn't Remember  http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/04-carlos-doesnt-remember
Carlos is a brilliant student from South Los Angeles. He attends an exclusive private school on an academic scholarship. He is the kind of person the American meritocracy is supposed to reward. But in the hidden details of his life lies a cautionary tale about how hard it is to rise from the bottom to the top—and why the American school system, despite its best efforts, continues to leave an extraordinary amount of talent on the table.

Miss Buchanans Period of Adjustment http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/13-miss-buchanans-period-of-adjustment
Brown v Board of Education might be the most well-known Supreme Court decision, a major victory in the fight for civil rights. But in Topeka, the city where the case began, the ruling has left a bittersweet legacy. RH hears from the Browns, the family behind the story.

The Footsoldier of Birmingham http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/14-the-foot-soldier-of-birmingham
Birmingham, 1963. The image of a police dog viciously attacking a young black protester shocks the nation. The picture, taken in the midst of one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s most famous marches, might be the most iconic photograph of the civil rights movement. But few have ever bothered to ask the people in the famous photograph what they think happened that day. It’s more complicated than it looks.

General Chapman Last Stand http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/25-general-chapman's-last-stand
General Leonard Chapman guided the Marines Corp through some of the most difficult years in its history. He was brilliant, organized, decisive and indefatigable. Then he turned his attention to the America’s immigration crisis. You think you want effective leadership? Be careful what you wish for

The Hug Heard Around the World http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/26-the-hug-heard-round-the-world
Sammy Davis Junior was one of the world’s greatest entertainers for the better part of half a century. He was black. But he thought the best way to succeed in the world was to act as if he wasn’t. Did we judge him too harshly?

On Being  https://onbeing.org/ by Krista Tippett

Interview with Resmaa Menakem  https://onbeing.org/programs/resmaa-menakem-notice-the-rage-notice-the-silenc
The best laws and diversity training have not gotten us anywhere near where we want to go. Therapist and trauma specialist Resmaa Menakem is working with old wisdom and very new science about our bodies and nervous systems, and all we condense into the word “race.” Krista sat down with him in Minneapolis, where they both live and work, before the pandemic lockdown began. In this heartbreaking moment, after the killing of George Floyd and the history it carries, Resmaa Menakem’s practices offer us the beginning to change at a cellular level.

Interview with Resmaa Menakem and Robin DiAngelo https://onbeing.org/programs/robin-diangelo-and-resmaa-menakem-in-conversation/
The show we released with Minneapolis-based trauma specialist Resmaa Menakem in the weeks after George Floyd’s killing has become one of our most popular episodes, and has touched listeners and galvanized personal searching. So we said yes when Resmaa proposed that he join On Being again, this time together with Robin DiAngelo, the author of White Fragility. Hearing the two of them together is electric — the deepest of dives into the calling of our lifetimes.