Anti-racism Resources

We have received many requests for an anti-racism reading list, and we are inspired by this growing interest. Below we list some resources that discuss issues of race, power, social hierarchy, and diversity. We acknowledge that this is not an exhaustive list. Further, we recognize that this list is not a solution but part of a lifelong journey and commitment to learning. But it is a good place to start.

We recommend the following books:

  • The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander
  • White Rage, by Carol Anderson
  • The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin
  • Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • Eloquent Rage, by Brittney Cooper
  • Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, by Beverly Daniel Tatum
  • Women, Race, and Class, by Angela Davis
  • White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo
  • The Souls of Black Folk, by W.E.B. DuBois
  • Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, by Reni Eddo-Lodge
  • Automating Inequality, by Virginia Eubanks
  • The Wretched of the Earth, by Frantz Fanon
  • Locking Up Our Own, by James Forman
  • The Mismeasure of Man, by Stephen Jay Gould
  • Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval, by Saidiya Hartman
  • Killing Rage: Ending Racism, by bell hooks
  • How the Irish Became White, by Noel Ignatiev
  • Antiracist Baby, by Ibram X. Kendi
  • How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi
  • Stamped from the Beginning, by Ibram X. Kendi
  • Dog Whistle Politics, by Ian Haney López
  • Sister Outsider, by Audre Lorde
  • Dying of Whiteness, by Jonathan M. Metzl
  • The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
  • The Condemnation of Blackness, by Khalil Gibran Muhammad
  • Body and Soul, by Alondra Nelson
  • So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo
  • Citizen, by Claudia Rankine
  • The Color of Law, by Richard Rothstein
  • Me and White Supremacy, by Layla F. Saad
  • Superior, by Angela Saini
  • Race for Profit, by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
  • Black Man in a White Coat, by Damon Tweedy
  • The Fire This Time, by Jesmyn Ward
  • A Terrible Thing To Waste, by Harriet A. Washington
  • Medical Apartheid, by Harriet A. Washington
  • Race Matters, by Cornel West
  • Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson
  • The Immortal Life of Henrieta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

You can find additional reading lists on the following web pages:

If you’re looking for a more academic approach, we suggest the following articles:

  • Adegbembo, AO, Tomar, SL, Logan, HL. Perception of racism explains the difference between Blacks’ and Whites’ level of healthcare trust. Ethn Dis 2006 16(4): 792-798
  • AlShebli, BK, Rahwan, T, Woon, WL. The preeminence of ethnic diversity in scientific collaboration. Nat Commun 2018 9(1), 5163. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-07634-8
  • Armstrong, K, Putt, M, Halbert, CH, Grande, D, Schwartz, JS, Liao, K. et.al. Prior experiences of racial discrimination and racial differences in health care system distrust. Med Care 2013 51(2): 144-150. doi:10.1097/MLR.0b013e31827310a1
  • Bor, J, Venkataramani, AS, Williams, DR, Tsai, AC. Police killings and their spillover effects on the mental health of black Americans: a population-based, quasi-experimental study. Lancet 2018 392(10144): 302-310. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31130-9
  • Burgess, DJ, Joseph, A, van Ryn, M, Carnes, M. Does stereotype threat affect women in academic medicine. Acad Med 2012 87(4): 506-512. doi:10.1097/ACM.0b013e318248f718
  • Came, H, Griffith, D. Tackling racism as a “wicked” public health problem: Enabling allies in anti-racism praxis Soc Sci Med 2018 199: 181-188. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.03.028
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report 2013
  • Clark, US, Hurd, YL. Addressing racism and disparities in the biomedical sciences. Nature Human Behaviour 2020 doi:10.1038/s41562-020-0917-7
  • Clark, US, Miller, ER, Hegde, RR. Experiences of discrimination are associated with greater resting amygdala activity and functional connectivity. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging 2018 3(4): 367-378. doi:10.1016/j.bpsc.2017.11.011
  • Coogan, P, Schon, K, Li, S, Cozier, Y, Bethea, T, Rosenberg, L. Experiences of racism and subjective cognitive function in African American women. Alzheimer’s and Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment and Disease Monitoring 2020 12(1), e12067. doi:10.1002/dad2.12067
  • Dasgupta, N, Desteno, D, Williams, LA, Hunsinger, M. Fanning the flames of prejudice: The influence of specific incidental emotions on implicit prejudice. Emotion 2009 9(4):585-591. doi:10.1037/a0015961
  • Estrada, M, Burnett, M, Campbell, AG, Campbell, PB, Denetclaw, WF, Gutierrez, CG, et. al. Improving underrepresented minority student persistence in STEM. CBE Life Sci Educ 2016 15(3). doi:10.1187/cbe.16-01-0038
  • Freeman, RB, Huang, W. Collaboration: Strength in diversity. Nature 2014 513(7518): 305. doi:10.1038/513305a
  • Ginther, DK, Kahn, S, Schaffer, WT. Gender, race/ethnicity, and National Institutes of Health R01 research awards: Is there evidence of a double bind for women of color? Acad. Med 2016 91(8): 1098-1107. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000001278
  • Ginther, DK, Schaffer, WT, Schnell, J, Masimore, B, Liu, F, Haak, LL, et. al. Race, ethnicity, and NIH research awards. Science 2011 333(6045), 1015-1019. doi:10.1126/science.1196783
  • Hofstra, B, Kulkarni, VV, Munoz-Najar Galvez, S, He, B, Jurafsky, D, McFarland, DA. The diversity-innovation paradox in science. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2020 117(17): 9284-9291. doi:10.1073/pnas.1915378117
  • Hoppe, TA, Litovitz, A, Willis, KA, Meseroll, RA, Perkins, MJ, Hutchins, BI, et. al. Topic choice contributes to the lower rate of NIH awards to African-American/black scientists. Sci. Adv 2019 5(10), eaaw7238. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaw7238
  • Houtrow, A. Becoming anti-racist for the benefit of our patients. J Pediatr Rehabil Med 2020 13(1): 1-2. doi:10.3233/PRM-200680
  • Hu, YY, Ellis, RJ, Hewitt, DB, Yang, AD, Cheung, EO, Moskowitz, JT, et. al. Discrimination, abuse, harassment, and burnout in surgical residency training. N. Engl. J. Med 2019 381(18): 1741-1752. doi:10.1056/NEJMsa1903759
  • Institute of Medicine. Unequal treatment: Confronting racial and ethnic disparities in health care 2003
  • Jones, CP. Confronting institutionalized racism. Phylon 2002 50(1/2): 7-22. doi:10.2307/4149999
  • Jones, CP. Toward the science and practice of anti-racism: Launching a national campaign against racism. Ethn. Dis 2018 28(Suppl 1), 231-234. doi:10.18865/ed.28.S1.231
  • Kmietowicz, Z. Are medical schools turning a blind eye to racism? BMJ 2020 368, m420. doi:10.1136/bmj.m420
  • Noy, S, Ray, R. Graduate students’ perceptions of their advisors: Is there systematic disadvantage in mentorship? The Journal of Higher Education 2012 83(6): 876-914. doi:10.1080/00221546.2012.11777273
  • Ozier, EM, Taylor, VJ, Murphy, MC. The cognitive effects of experiencing and observing subtle racial discrimination. Journal of Social Issues 2019 75(4): 1087-1115. doi:10.1111/josi.12349
  • Steele, CM. A threat in the air. How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. Am Psychol 1997 52(6): 613-629. doi:10.1037//0003-066x.52.6.613
  • Valantine, HA, Collins, F. National Institutes of Health progress toward inclusive excellence. Science 2020 367(6483): 1204. doi:10.1126/science.abb4619
  • Valantine, HA, Collins, FS. National Institutes of Health addresses the science of diversity. 2015 doi:10.1073/pnas.1515612112
  • Valantine, HA, Lund, PK, Gammie, AE. From the National Institutes of Health: A systems approach to increasing the diversity of the biomedical research workforce. CBE Life Sci Educ 2016 15(3). doi:10.1187/cbe.16-03-0138
  • Williams, DR, Cooper, LA. Reducing racial inequities in health: Using what we already know to take action. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019 16(4), 606. doi:10.3390/ijerph16040606

Films that address these topics include:

  • 13th (Netflix)
  • Fruitvale Station (Amazon Prime)
  • I Am Not Your Negro (Netflix)
  • Teach Us All (Netflix)
  • When They See Us (Netflix)
  • Just Mercy (Amazon Prime)

You might find these podcasts enlightening:

  • 1619 from The New York Times
  • Code Switch from NPR
  • Floodlines fromThe Atlantic
  • Intersectionality Matters! with Kimberle Crenshaw from The African American Policy Forum
  • Throughline from NPR

You can find additional information on these websites: