Anti-Racist Resources, History Lessons & More
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List of Readings/articles
Portland Public library has a list of books on racial and social justice
New York Times Released a similar list for children, These Books Can Help You Explain Racism and Protest to Your Kids
A List of Anti-Racist Readings from Good Housekeeping
Me and White Supremacy: a New York Times Bestseller
Education resources specifically on incarceration: includes subtopics such as the History of Incarceration, Mass Incarceration and Race, Immigration, US Imperialism, and Mass Incarceration, Gender, Sexuality, and Mass Incarceration, Youth Incarceration, Primary Sources/First-Person Accounts, Resistance to Mass Incarceration, & more.
Emptying the White Knapsack: Applying Privilege by Redistributing White-Hoarded Power and Resources. Tips on what you can do to become a better ally, and further, work to dismantle the white supremacist foundations through your everyday choices and actions.
Anti-Racist Resources from Greater Good
Educate Yourself: Online Racial Equity Workshops: workshops with registration fees waived (Eventbrite)
A family on Malaga Island
learn the truth about us history
Local
Learn about the dark history of Malaga Island: Malaga Island was once a thriving community of predominantly Black Mainers. Through the racist eugenics movement, community members were eventually removed from their home.
Why Is Maine So White? And What It Means To Ask The Question: “Maine was actually much more racially diverse in the 19th century than it was today,” says Kate McMahon, a historian at the Smithsonian of African American History in Washington D.C.
McMahon says a number of historic events influenced Maine’s development as one of “the whitest states in the U.S.”
First- the Civil War took a toll on black communities already established in Maine. That’s because during the war, ship-building transitioned from wooden construction to steel. This eliminated many of the jobs, including coopering, a line of work which had employed many African Americans who had settled in the state.
“All of those industries began to suffer,” says McMahon. “They were the most high-paying jobs, they were stable, and they were jobs African Americans could get.”
And McMahon says some struggled to find work in Maine’s textile, shoe, and rope factories.
“African Americans could not get employed in those jobs,” she says. “They were excluded because of their race, so there were not African Americans working there. They had - gave preference to white immigrants.”
In addition, Maine also enacted anti-miscegenation laws ensuring white and black people couldn’t marry.
And then, Macmahon says, there’s the story of Malaga Island, an interracial community off the coast of Phippsburg.
“In 1912, the state of Maine had decided that they didn’t want this colony of black people,” she says. “All of the homes on the island were removed and razed.”
Later, Macmahon, says the Ku Klux Klan established itself in Maine, and shaped the state’s political climate working to elect sympathetic government officials throughout the 1920s.
“So by the 1920’s you have all these economic circumstances that lead to a lot of African Americans leaving the state of Maine, but also a lot of social circumstances that were not conducive for people of color wanting to move to the state of Maine to settle,” Macmahon says. “So you have this economic exclusion and social exclusion.”
‘A missing piece:’ Maine’s connections to slavery are hidden in plain sight: Portland Press Herald tells the story of untold details of historical figures of Maine, namely how all of them owned slaves, a fact that is often omitted in the signs and recounts of such figures.
National
TED: Talks to help you understand racism in America: From passionate pleas for reform to poetic turns of phrase, these talks take an honest look at everyday realities of Black Americans and illuminate the way forward.
The Equal Justice Initiative’s YouTube channel has some excellent history lessons that forces us to face our history. We encourage you to specifically watch Terror Lynching In America.
What is systemic racism?: "What Is Systemic Racism?" is an 8-part video series that shows how racism shows up in our lives across institutions and society: Wealth Gap, Employment, Housing Discrimination, Government Surveillance, Incarceration, Drug Arrests, Immigration Arrests, Infant Mortality…
Facing History and Ourselves: Race in US History: learn more about the Reconstruction Era, Race & Eugenics, and the Civil Rights Movement.
Crossing Borders: Building Relationships Across Lines of Difference: a resource that guides participants through in-depth conversations about the demographic changes impacting communities and the underlying power dynamics that prevent people from developing meaningful relationships across lines of difference. It is designed for organizations and leaders seeking to build relationships between African Americans and immigrants.
Washington Post: Resources to understand America’s long history of injustice and inequality: allow the Post to take you on a journey through various time periods and topics that provide helpful context on raced-based violence and inequities that continue to exist in the US today. Learn how we have arrived at the monumental times we are currently living through.
The Classical Roots of White Supremacy: schools often stress the importance of learning about the Greeks and Romans, and many still offer Latin courses, despite it being a “dead” language. Why is this? Learn about how white supremacy has seeped into education.
Other resources & current events related to racism and inequality
Ten Tips for Putting Intersectionality into Practice: As explained by the Opportunity Agenda: “Intersectionality, a term coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, recognizes that certain individuals face multiple and intersecting forms of structural discrimination. In this political climate marked by division and anxiety, it’s important for us to work together to incorporate different communities’ experiences with culture, policies, and media.” Oppression is not linear, nor is it one dimensional. It is intricate, interwoven into many fabrics of society, affecting individuals and communities differently, often impacted simultaneously by one’s race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, religion, lived experiences, and more. Intersectionality takes into account that there are various forms of oppression that can be faced, impacting groups, communities, and individuals in a unique way.
One group’s oppression does not undermine, nor should it take the spotlight away from another’s. We must understand that each group faces its own unique challenges that outsiders may not understand or even be aware of, even if these outsiders too, face oppression. Taking into account these unique challenges allows us to be intersectional in our thinking and create change that is mindful of the intricacies of all forms of oppression.
Black-Owned Maine: Directory for Local, Maine-Based, Black-Owned Businesses
The Southern Poverty Law Center is an organization that tracks hate groups in the United States and fights inequalities, injustices, and racism in the US. We encourage you to explore the website and specifically check out these resources:
Hate & Extremism and the Hate Map
Protest safely:
Podcasts:
Come Through With Rebecca Carroll
Intersectionality Matters! hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw
Pod Save the People (Crooked Media)
Black Alliance for Just Immigration - resources for organizing and advocating for racial, economic, and social justice at the intersections of race and immigration. Check out some of their reports and tools like Crossing Boundaries, Connecting Communities: Alliance Building for Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice.
The White Ally Toolkit- an information hub of reports (some are free, some require payment), modules, videos, and articles on how to be a better ally if you are or identify as white.
Multilingual & muliticultural resources
BLM Translated: crowdsourced materials in Asian & Pacific Islander languages about how to safely participate in protests, inter-generational dialogue resources, and more (National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum)
Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative: raises awareness and trains Muslim communities on internalized, interpersonal, and institutional racism.
Spanish / English: resources on Latinx racism, anti-Blackness, and White supremacy in and outside of Latin America (Radio Caña Negra)
Building Solidarity & Strengthening Ties Between the Immigrant Rights and Black Lives Matter Movements: Full of helpful information, resources, calls-to-action, and readings to help mobilize efforts and demand change.