Diversity and Inclusion Seminars Are Dead: Educating Yourself on Racism and Human Rights Justice Because No One’s Going to Spoon-feed It To You Anymore.

Posted on by Eve Galanis

Self-Education for Revolutionary Action

We are at a threshold moment in history, where many of us are compelled to demand change of our institutions. The COVID-19 pandemic pulled back a veil, revealing our worst societal woes; healthcare, systemic poverty, over-incarceration and unsafe working conditions. And all the while, police continued with their murderous, oppressive tactics.

What can be said that hasn’t already been said? We need action; deliberative and restorative justice. Because we are plummeting into fascism. Hell, we’re already in it. What can I say, that hasn’t already been said? Which part of American history can I extract to explain why the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade and the thousands upon thousands of Black and Brown people that have been murdered by police over the last 5 years, matters? At this point, if you don’t get it, there’s no excuse. There are countless resources literally at your fingertips to access the truth of our nation’s shame.

I’ve had enough of diversity and inclusion training, where white educators meet the content and the facilitators with open hostility and standoffishness saying they “don’t believe in white privilege,” like it’s the damn tooth fairy. I’ve had enough of the Bob’s, Karen’s, Kyle’s and Hannah’s of the world, demanding someone explain to them the last 400 years of racism in a Facebook comment because they just “want to understand.” Here is a list of resources; articles, videos, archival lists, etc., so that you may better educate yourself on the topic.

This is not meant to be an exhaustive list because in almost every institution in America, you will find anti-Black racism. This article focuses on Connecticut history because that is my area of expertise, but every state has its own examples and I encourage you to do your own research. What this reveals, is that massive transformation is required in order to address and undo racism in the United States. History informs us of our present condition. What led us to where we are? We do not live in a vacuum, massive uprisings happen for a reason.

The first and most immediate thing we can do is identify our complicity in these systems, this is particularly vital for white people to examine. What do we do inadvertently, to uphold white supremacy? What thoughts and behaviors have been conditioned in me and normalized, that is actively oppressive to Black and Brown people? How does capitalism reinforce my complicity in these systems? It’s not easy work; you are attempting to undo a knot that has been tangling itself for 400 years. But we must do the work, and it begins with ourselves.

Resource Guide (By Subject): 

History of Slavery in America: 

Georgetown Slavery Archive Website is an archival source with documents, photographs, podcasts and ancestral data. Documents Georgetown University’s history of slavery, created by the Archives Subgroup of the Georgetown University Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation and aided by the history department. Could be a useful source for students to examine the way organizations with a slave-holding past confront their history. Also documents slavery in the Potomac region. 

Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database  Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a comprehensive and interactive archival source, rich with primary source data. Includes interactive maps, a 3D video of a slave ship, timelines, and timelapse of slave ship movement across the Atlantic. Website also includes three databases. 

  • Voyage database- lists ships, captains, cargo and status of completion of 90,000 voyages
  • Names database- lists close to 90,000 different known African names, demographic information of names and links to www.african-origins.org. 
  • Images database- manuscripts, maps, drawings of Atlantic slave trade.

Digital Library on American Slavery at UNC Greensboro Website divided into 5 archival sources: 

  • Race and Slavery Petitions Project:  Database offers information about those missing from the historical record of enslavement in the United States. Documents consist of 2,975 legislative petitions, 14,512 county court petitions, wills, inventories, deeds, bills of sale, depositions, court proceedings, amended petitions. 
  • North Carolina Runaway Slave Advertisements: 2,300 ads in newspapers from 1751-1840 of slave owners looking for their captives. Provides glimpse into the social, economic and cultural world of slaveholding states. 
  • People Not Property: Aggregate archive of bills of sale in North Carolina
  • Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
  • Slave-Era Insurance Registries: data regarding insurance companies offering policies on slave bodies. 

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture Virtual museum tour, digitized archival collections, video archives and blog. Great resource for material culture; over 36,000 artifacts. Useful for educators to do a virtual museum trip without having to travel.

Newsela Articles on Slavery:

 

PBS, Thirteen: Media with Impact Large resource site that provides links to a variety of archival and interactive primary resources from all over the web. Website contains links to 27 sources documenting the Antebellum, Civil War and Reconstruction periods. Sources include but not limited to: 

  • Freedmen’s Bureau Online, http://www.freedmensbureau.com 
    • Contains records on crimes, marriages, and labor from the Reconstruction period. 
  • National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, http://www.freedomcenter.org 
    • Comprehensive encyclopedia of people and places associated with the Underground Railroad. It also contains links to related sites useful for students and educators.
  • The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow 
    • Examines the institutionalization of segregation following emancipation. It includes essays on the history of “Jim Crow” laws, related stories, interactive maps, activities and teacher resources. 
  • Third Person, First Person, http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/slavery 
    • Documents that recount the experience of slavery in America during the late 18th and 19th centuries from the point of view of the enslaved. 

Library of Congress Digital Collections, Slavery in America  A wide variety of primary source materials related to slavery in the U.S, including photographs, documents, and sound recordings. Online collection contains but is not limited to: Abraham Lincoln Papers, African American Perspectives, Born in Slavery, Slave Narratives, Civil War Maps, Civil War Sheet Music, Frederick Douglass Papers, George Washington Papers, Music for the Nation, 1870-1885

National Geographic, A History of Slavery in the United States Interactive timeline for students to browse the history of slavery in the U.S. Website also links to National Geographic resource libraries. It also provides a link for students to create their own online timeline.

Resources on Anti-Racism and Social Justice:

Journal Article: “The White Space” by Elijah Anderson 

Smithsonian Museum, Talking About Race

Teaching Tolerance: Student-Level Primary Resources

James Baldwin Videos: 

Washington Post, Racism in America: Resources for Understanding Racism and Inequality in America 

New York Times, 1619 Project. The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.   The 1619 Project 

New York Times, Minneapolis Will Dismantle its Police Force, Council Members Pledge,  

New York Times, Other Protests Flare and Fade. Why This Movement Already Seems Different.

Angela Davis, Interview on Black Power and Systemic Violence, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2BIZy0HScM 

UCONN, Anti-Racism Resources for Students, Educators and Citizens, 

Racism in Infrastructure and Highway Construction: 

New York Times, How Segregation Caused Your Traffic Jam, 

The Racist Legacy of America’s Inner City Highways 

The Guardian, The Road to Nowhere: How Infrastructure Built on American Inequality,

Cooper Center, The Racial Dot Map, This racial dot map is an American snapshot; it provides an accessible visualization of geographic distribution, population density, and racial diversity of the American people in every neighborhood in the entire country. The map displays 308,745,538 dots, one for each person residing in the United States at the location they were counted during the 2010 Census. Each dot is color-coded by the individual’s race and ethnicity. The map is presented in both black and white and full color versions. In the color version, each dot is color-coded by race. 

Redlining and Racism in Connecticut: 

Middletown Press, Whites-Only Rules Still Surface in CT Property Records 

Connecticut History, The Effects of “Redlining” on the Hartford Metropolitan Region 

WNPR, What Redlining Did to Connecticut’s Impoverished Neighborhoods 

Connecticut Post, Redlining Was Banned 50 Years Ago. It’s Still Hurting Minorities Today

Smithsonian Magazine, Racism Kept Connecticut’s Beaches White Up Through the 1970s 

The Guardian, America’s Segregated Shores: Beaches Long History As A Racial Battleground

Connecticut History, Race Restrictive Covenants in Property Deeds

(UCONN) Map, Race Restrictive Covenants in Property Deeds

Policing and Mass Incarceration in the United States 

13th Documentary: Combining archival footage with testimony from activists and scholars, director Ava DuVernay’s examination of the U.S. prison system looks at how the country’s history of racial inequality drives the high rate of incarceration in America. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8&t=293s 

Michelle Alexander (Author of The New Jim Crow), TEDTalks, The Future of Race in America,  https://youtu.be/SQ6H-Mz6hgw 

Eastern Kentucky University, The History of Policing in the United States 

BBC Video, Early American Policing- Runaway Slave Patrols

NPR, The History of Police in Creating Social Order in the U.S

SAGE Publications, The History of Police

Encyclopedia Britannica, Early Police in the United States

The Racist Roots of American Policing: From Slave Patrols to Traffic Stops

Racism in Education System

Sheff v. O’Neill: Justice Deferred, This documentary tells the story of the Connecticut school desegregation lawsuit Sheff v. O’Neill.

ACLU Archive, Legal Documents, Sheff v. O’Neill

NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Background, Summary and Impact of Sheff v. O’Neill

American Bar Association, Human Rights Magazine,  De Facto Racial Isolation or De Jure Racial Segregation?  

Economic Policy Institute, Modern Segregation, Education Policy is Housing Policy

Case Western Reserve Law Review, De Facto School Segregation: An Examination of the Legal and Constitutional Questions Presented

Children’s Defense Fund, “The Cradle to Prison Pipeline: America’s New Apartheid” 

Vox, The School-to-Prison Pipeline Explained

Museums and Public History 

Architectural Digest, When Architecture and Racial Justice Intersect 

Art Museum Teaching: A MOMENT FOR ACCOUNTABILITY, TRANSFORMATION & REAL QUESTIONS

Museums Are Not Neutral: Expose the myth of museum neutrality and demand equity-based transformation across institutions. 

Indian Colonial and Research Center databases, The John Mason Statue

Hartford Courant, John Mason Statue Has a Homecoming

USA Today, Confederates Toppled, Columbus Beheaded: Protesters Are Ripping Down Controversial Statues 

New York Times, George Floyd Protests Reignite Debate Over Confederate Statues

Employment and Wages

American Bar Association, Human Rights Magazine, The Impact of Structural Racism in Employment and Wages on Minority Women’s Health

Business Insider, Glassdoor: 42% of US employees have experienced or seen racism at work. It’s the latest example of how diversity efforts are falling short, especially in America.

Time, “It’s The Legacy of Slavery”: Here’s the Troubling History Behind Tipping Practices in the U.S.  

Politico Magazine, Rev. William Barber, The Racist History of Tipping