Anti-Racism Reading List October 2024

“How much the media demonizes nonwhite groups, for example, is as much about what the media doesn’t report as it is about what it does. From portraying white mass shooters as smart and quiet while citing neighbors and friends who say things like “we never would have thought he would do such a thing,” to demonizing nonwhite people, legacy media still has a major problem."

“despite years of progress - or the promise of it - advertising still struggles to tell diverse stories without missteps. As I reflect on the current outcry and compare it to similar incidents in the past, it begs the question: Are we really learning from these moments, or are brands still walking the same tightrope, balancing visibility with responsibility?”

“Set clear, measurable goals for increasing Black representation in leadership, recruitment, and retention. Create accountability frameworks to track progress and regularly review the effectiveness of your diversity and inclusion initiatives. Transparency is essential—publish reports on your efforts, engage Black professionals in the review process, and adjust your approach based on feedback.”

“If we take his guidance to heart, we must frequently critically analyze our individual and collective roles in perpetuating harm against other groups of people. This perspective is empowering because it suggests we can foster a society where someone’s identity never becomes a shield from critique.”

“almost all participants who identified as First Nations or CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) described having experienced racism in the workplace. Only one CALD participant said they had not experienced racism.”

“Most published research is not representative of the majority of populations because the human participant samples lack diversity. For example, behavioral genetic research heavily focuses on white people of European ancestry. Harden refers to these samples as WWEIRD in adding a W (White) to an acronym coined by Henrich, et al., where WEIRD stands for Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic.”

“White nationalists are now highly organized and emboldened. They represent a clear and present danger for Black people like me, and they can sway November’s election to Trump and his white supremacist friends, including tech bros like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. In the worst case scenario, we could go back to a situation like pre World War ll Germany where only Aryan folks were allowed and the rest of us who didn’t fit, who were too Black, Jewish, gay or disabled, where thrown out or massacred. It may sound far-fetched, but atrocities happen faster than you think. Sadly, as I write this, there are several horrific genocides taking place around the world.”

“Victoria's work is about using her experience and skills to raise awareness to the current divides and the systems that are built upon them. She also bridges these cultural gaps through authentic storytelling and encourages us to push past our labels and to see people for who they are rather than what they are. These labels are often complex and can impact people at multiple levels. "If the systems we build are not working and there are people getting hurt by them...it is time to imagine different ones.”

“Black America’s erasure and pain are always seen as conditions of Blackness and not a result of imperialism. Years and years of false narratives, propaganda, and straight-up lies have succeeded in making people assume that the issues affecting Black America are the result of Blackness alone and that American imperialism is somehow separate from their suffering.”

“Changing the terminology does not change their impact on Black, Brown, and mixed-race folks. A pig with lipstick on it is still a pig.”

“Along with arriving with excitement and hope, unbeknown to them at the time, the Windrush generation were ushering in intergenerational trauma. I think about the ‘barrel children’* like myself, who experienced disrupted attachment as a result of being separated from parents and left behind in the Caribbean, often under the age of one, with grandparents or aunties becoming the main caregivers. In my case and for many others, I thought they were my parents.”