Books
Please note: this book list reflects titles currently available to the Harvard community in e-book or audiobook formats. Some e-book titles are limited to a few users at once. Please review notes in HOLLIS and contact us if you need support. Due to COVID-19 campus closure, print books are not accessible and have been omitted from this list for the time being.
An African American and Latinx history of the United States by Publication Date: 2018An intersectional history of the shared struggle for African American and Latinx civil rights
The Condemnation of Blackness by Publication Date: 2010Chronicling the emergence of deeply embedded notions of black people as a dangerous race of criminals by explicit contrast to working-class whites and European immigrants, this book reveals the influence such ideas have had on urban development and social policies.
The Condemnation of Blackness by Publication Date: 2010Chronicling the emergence of deeply embedded notions of black people as a dangerous race of criminals by explicit contrast to working-class whites and European immigrants, this fascinating book reveals the influence such ideas have had on urban development and social policies.
The End of Policing by Publication Date: 2017(Temporarily free e-book on the publisher's website.) The conversation about how to respond and improve policing has focused on accountability, diversity, training, and community relations. Unfortunately, these reforms alone will not produce results. The core of the problem must be addressed: the nature of modern policing itself.
How to Be an Antiracist by Publication Date: 2019In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it. In this book, Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science, bringing it all together with an engaging personal narrative of his own awakening to antiracism.
How to Be Less Stupid About Race : On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide by Publication Date: 2018"A primer that explores how our racist American society socializes us all to be racially stupid--and what we can do about it" - Provided by publisher.
The New Jim Crow (10th Anniversary Edition) by Publication Date: 2020This book directly challenges the notion that the election of Barack Obama signals a new era of colorblindness. With dazzling candor, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control - relegating millions to a permanent second-class status - even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness.
The Origin of Others by Publication Date: 2017Morrison looks at configurations of blackness, notions of racial purity, and the ways in which literature employs skin color to reveal character or drive narrative. Expanding the scope of her concern, she also addresses globalization and the mass movement of peoples in this century.
Progressive Dystopia by Publication Date: 2019Seeing San Francisco as a social laboratory for how Black communities survive the end of their worlds, Shange argues for abolition over revolution or progressive reform as the needed path toward Black freedom.
Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race by Publication Date: 2015Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence shares strategies for smoothing conversations about race in a productive manner. A guide for facilitating and participating in difficult dialogues, the author explores the characteristics, dynamics, and meaning behind discussions about race as well as the hidden "ground rules" that inhibit honest and productive dialogue.
Racism: A Short History by ISBN: 9780691167053Publication Date: 2015"This illuminating work is the first to treat racism across such a sweep of history and geography. It is distinguished not only by its original comparison of modern racism's two most significant varieties--white supremacy and antisemitism--but also by its eminent readability." - Publisher
Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States by Publication Date: 2018This book explores the belief that America is now a color-blind society. The fifth edition includes a new chapter addressing what readers can do to confront racism, new material on the racial climate post-Obama, new coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement, and more.
The Souls of Black Folk by Publication Date: 2018(150th anniversary edition.) Souls introduced a number of now-canonical terms into the American conversation about race, among them double-consciousness, and it sounded the ominous warning that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line."
Stamped from the Beginning by Publication Date: 2016(Temporarily available as a free audiobook on Spotify.) Award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues racist ideas have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit. In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history.
White Fragility by Publication Date: 2018The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Publication Date: 2003Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about enabling communication across racial and ethnic divides. These topics have only become more urgent as the national conversation about race is increasingly acrimonious.
Videos and Films
Harvard Library Videos and Films (Harvard Key required)
- I am Not Your Negro: James Baldwin and Race in America, directed by Raoul Peck, 2016.
- America to Me, directed by Steve James, 2018.
- Black Studies in Video Collection (Alexander Street Press)
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The HistoryMakers: African American video oral history
Free Videos and Films
- George Floyd, Minneapolis Protests, Ahmaud Arbery & Amy Cooper with Trevor Noah, The Daily Social Distancing Show on YouTube
- 13th by Ava DuVernay on YouTube/Netflix. Footage with testimony from activists and scholars, director Ava DuVernay's examination of the U.S. prison system looks at how the country's history of racial inequality drives the high rate of incarceration in America.
- What is Systemic Racism? series from Race Forward. An eight-part video series that illustrates the ways racism shows up in our lives across institutions and society.
- Black Feminism & the Movement for Black Lives panel interview with Barbara Smith, Reina Gossett, Charlene Carruthers, hosted by the National LGBTQ Task Force
- A Conversation on Race and Privilege with Angela Davis and Jane Elliott, hosted by the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work
Podcasts
- "Clint Smith Reflects On This Moment" from the TED Radio Hour
- “'You Can't Meditate This Away' (Race, Rage, and the Responsibilities of Meditators)" from Ten Percent Happier, Episode #252
- 1619 Podcast series from New York Times
- Also explore the full 1619 Project and the related article on "Why We Published the 1619 Project"
- Seeing White from Scene on Radio (suggested by Adriana Umana-Taylor, HGSE faculty member)
- The Very Best Of Code Switch, In 8 Episodes from NPR
- Intersectionality Matters series hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory.
Articles and Websites
- The Color of Coronavirus by APM
- A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement by Alicia Garza
- "How you can be a better coworker to your black colleagues right now" by Soo Youn, The Lily
- ‘To create lasting change, we must sustain this anti-racist work beyond the heat of the moment’ by Jennifer Rich, Hechinger Report
- "Are You Supporting White Supremacy?" by Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, Inside Higher Education