Welcome

Welcome to Antiracism: A Resource Guide.

This guide is a collaboration between the Library and other campus departments and organizations in a joint commitment to racial equity and justice.

Thousands in Bay Area protest George Floyd killing. June 2, 2020. The Mercury News.

Photo: Karl Mondon, Bay Area News Group

The impetus for this guide was our collective response to the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. A group of faculty recognized the need to educate ourselves and our community on the complex topic of racism against Black people in America and to show solidarity with those in our community--especially students and staff--who have been harmed by racist ideas, policies and practices. They drafted a letter and began to compile educational resources.

This guide includes these and other free, high quality resources across a broad spectrum of topics and a variety of viewpoints and formats. While this guide is primarily a resource for our students conducting research on racism and antiracism, it's also for everyone who wants to learn, engage and take action on their own journey toward being an antiracist.

This guide is a starting point, a work in progress and is in no way comprehensive. Sadly, Floyd's death was not the first in racism's long history in this country and it won't be the last as we've seen shootings continue. We hope you'll check back often and we invite you, the Skyline College Community, to suggest additional resources for inclusion. And be sure to check our our Events and Organizations pages for ways for you to engage and stay involved.

Philonise Floyd and attorney Ben Crump, from left, react after a guilty verdict was announced at the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for the 2020 death of George Floyd, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Minneapolis, Minn. Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of Floyd. Photo credit: Julio Cortez/Associated Press.

Inspiration from John Lewis

Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation
"Though I am gone, I urge you to
answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe." By John Lewis
Mr. Lewis, the civil rights leader who died on July 17, wrote this essay shortly before his death, to be published in The New York Times upon the day of his funeral.
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See much more on Representative John Lewis on the Primary Sources page in this guide.
AUGUST 18, 2020: John Lewis Tribute by Professor Danielle Powell Professor Danielle Powell delivered a heartfelt tribute to Rep. John Lewis as part of Skyline College's Opening Day activities for the Fall 2020 semester. Professor Powell also highlighted the work of the Women's Mentoring and Leadership Academy.
SEPTEMBER 21, 2020: John Lewis, Good Trouble: An Online Panel Discussion Celebrate an icon who spent his life getting into Good Trouble! Remember the life and legacy of Representative John Lewis – Freedom Rider and Congressman, Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree and the conscience of a nation – who served the cause of social justice for decades, both as an elected representative and as an activist whose fervent belief in getting into “good trouble, necessary trouble” for the cause of racial equality changed our nation. Watch a live virtual panel on the documentary "John Lewis: Good Trouble," featuring the film’s director and civil rights advocates as they talk about Lewis’s legacy of fearless protest and how we can keep his campaign for justice alive. The panel discussion includes director Dawn Porter, Ras J. Baraka, Mayor of Newark, NJ, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Professor of History, Race and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and Director of the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project, and Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, to talk about Lewis’s legacy of fearless protest and how we can keep his campaign for justice alive. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker provides opening remarks.
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The documentary is available on Hoopla. Login through your public library.

Featured Book: How to Be an Antiracist

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning comes a "groundbreaking" (Time) approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society--and in ourselves. "The most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind."--The New York Times NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review * Time * NPR * The Washington Post * Shelf Awareness * Library Journal * Publishers Weekly * Kirkus Reviews Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism--and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas--from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities--that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves. Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society. Praise for How to Be an Antiracist "Ibram X. Kendi's new book, How to Be an Antiracist, couldn't come at a better time. . . . Kendi has gifted us with a book that is not only an essential instruction manual but also a memoir of the author's own path from anti-black racism to anti-white racism and, finally, to antiracism. . . .  How to Be an Antiracist gives us a clear and compelling way to approach, as Kendi puts it in his introduction, 'the basic struggle we're all in, the struggle to be fully human and to see that others are fully human.' "--NPR "Kendi dissects why in a society where so few people consider themselves to be racist the divisions and inequalities of racism remain so prevalent. How to Be an Antiracist punctures the myths of a post-racial America, examining what racism really is--and what we should do about it."--Time
Call Number: E-Book
ISBN: 9780525509288
Publication Date: 2019

The opposite of "racist" isn’t "not racist." It is "antiracist." — Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist

Featured Topic

See our Special Topics page "Racism Against Asian Americans During the Pandemic" and our new guide "Anti-Asian/Asian American Racism: A Resource Guide" for more information.

Acknowledgements

A special thanks to the Sophia Academy whose Anti-Racism resources were incorporated into this guide. - The Skyline College Library staff.