Minisode: Getting Started as a White Ally with Anna Hithersay
Anna Hithersay
Today, Kaytee is chatting with online friend Anna Hithersay. Kaytee and Anna both got started on the road to racial justice multiple years ago, but we do not claim to be experts. We do have a few years of reading and listening under our belts and want to point you toward the resources we have found and the places we have learned. This episode is meant to point OUTWARD, to give our white listeners the starting places, the books, podcasts, and accounts, and the conversations to get started.
Tune in to hear about:
How we each got started on the road to racial justice
Anna’s “Do Better” book club and embracing the awkward
Questions and Answers from our Currently Reading Bookish Friends
A list of books and resources to get you started on your own journey
And, of course, a book she wants to press into your hands.
Connect with Anna on Instagram: @ahithersay and @comehither_andstay
Minisode show notes are not timestamped, but this episode includes a huge list of resources. Here’s a comprehensive list of the books we mentioned (and the ones we skipped for time), the lists of Black bookstores and Black bookstagrammers you might want to start following, the podcasts and articles we talked about, and anything else I can link to that we mentioned. These show notes are meant to be a starting place, to hold information that you can come back to in order to continue this journey and find additional resources from our Black brothers and sisters who are lifting their voices. The work will not end anytime soon. Prepare for a long haul.
Primer Books
I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
Me & White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
Be the Bridge by Latasha Morrison (Christian)
Memoir
You Can’t Touch My Hair and Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson
Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper
Born A Crime by Trevor Noah
Well-Read Black Girl by Glory Edim
The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clementine Wamariya
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Becoming by Michelle Obama
The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Men We Reaped by Jesamyn Ward
Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay
Fiction Starter Pack
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (YA)
Roots by Alex Haley
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
The Underground Railroad or The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Romance Authors of Color: Kennedy Ryan, Jasmine Guillory, Alisha Rai, Rebecca Weatherspoon, Talia Hibbert, Naleni Singh, Jackie Lao, Sonali Dev, Mariana Sabada
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson (YA)
Sing, Unburied, Sing and Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Deeper Topics
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (mass incarceration)
When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele (Black Lives Matter)
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (Death Penalty and Mass Incarceration)
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (history)
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi (history)
How to Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi (action steps)
We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates (history and personal essay)
Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum
Shalom Sistas by Osheta Moore (Christian)
Anti-Racist Kids
Middle Grade
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell
Ghost Boys (upper middle grade) by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Ghost (Track Series) by Jason Reynolds
Blended by Sharon M Draper
Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams
Young Adult
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney (fantasy)
I'm Not Dying with You Tonight by Kimberly Jones and Emily Segal
Slay by Brittney Morris
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
Picture Books
Hair Love by Matthew A Cherry
The Colors of Us by Karen Katz
The Skin You Live In by Michael Taylor and David Lee Csicsko
People by Peter Spier
Kadir Nelson's picture books
Ezra Jack Keats' picture books
Podcasts
Episodes on race from The Liturgists: Racism in America, Anti-Racism
1619 Podcast
Code Switch from NPR
Yo, Is This Racist?
Pod Save the People
Sounds of Justice podcast (Christian)
Seeing White
On Ramp: Two Christians Talk About Race
Ibram X Kendi with Brene Brown on Unlocking Us
Places that You Might Donate
NAACP
ACLU
Black Lives Matter
National Bailout Fund
Other Resources
Sign Petitions
Black Bookstagrammers - I shared a roundup, saved in my Anti-Racism story highlight
Mockingbird history lessons on Patreon
A list of Black-owned bookstores
Anti-Racism Resources for White People
Scraping Raisins: 70+ Race Resources for White People and 80+ MORE
A Conversation with Ibram X Kendi about talking to Kids about race
Be the Bridge courses - Whiteness 101, Talking to Kids about Race and Racism, Whiteness Intensive
The 2020 Ultimate List of Diverse Children’s Books from Here Wee Read
The Conscious Kid on Instagram
Medium’s List of Anti-Racism Resources
Common Sense Media - using media to raise anti-racist kids
Vox’s List of Streaming Movies that are Anti-Racist