A Toolkit for Communities

As community organizations, it is important for Main Streets to stand against racism and bigotry. This toolkit is designed to give you an understanding of the history of our country, the key tenants of allyship, and the ways that your organization can help reduce injustice. 

Allyship

• 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice, Medium (article)
• 10 Steps to Non-Optical Allyship, Mireille C. Harper (Instagram slides)
• A Class Divided (documentary)
• Detour-Spotting for White Anti-Racists, Joan Olsson
• Prompt Uncomfortable Conversations, Jenny Dorsey (Instagram slides)
  
• White Anti-Racism: Living the Legacy, Teaching Tolerance (article)
• White People Facing Race: Uncovering the Myths Keeping Racism in Place, Peggy McIntosh, Ph.D. (article)
• White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntosh, Ph.D. (article)

Comprehensive Guides

• Anti-Racism Guide (article)
• Race: The Power of an Illusion (video series)
• Responding to Everyday Bigotry (article)

History

• The 1619 Project, New York Times Magazine (article + podcast)
• The History of American Slavery, Slate Magazine (article + podcast)
• Uncivil, Gimlet Media (podcast)
• What Were The Freedom Schools?, Stuff You Should Know (podcast)
• If You Don’t See Blackness, You Didn’t See Muhammad Ali, Kara Brown (article)
• A Timeline of Events That Led to the 2020 ​‘Fed-Up’-Rising, The Root (article)
• White Nationalism’s Deep American Roots, The Atlantic (article)

Modern American Culture/​Current Events/​Criminal Justice Reform

• The 13^th (documentary)
• Code Switch (podcast)
• How We Should Talk About Racial Disparities, Urban Institute
• Justice in America (podcast)

Organizational and Office Culture

• 7 Things You Can Do To Improve the Sad, Pathetic State of Board Diversity, Vu Le (article)
• 20 Ways Majority-White Non-Profits Can Build Authentic Partnerships with Organizations Led By Communities of Color, Vu Le (article)
• U.S. Business Must Take Meaningful Action Against Racism, Harvard Business Review (article)
• White Supremacy Culture in the Workplace, Tema Okun (article)
• Women of Color in the Workplace (article)
• Women of Color Get Asked to do More ​‘Office Housework’ (article)

Organizations

• Action Pac
• American Civil Liberties Union
• Americans for the Arts
• Assata’s Daughters
• Black Lives Matter
• Black Visions Collective
• BYP100
• Color of Change
• GoodKids MadCity
• The Innocence Project
• Migizi
• NAACP
• National Alliance Against Racist and Political Oppression
• Native American Rights Fund
• Policy Link
• Showing Up For Racial Justice
• Welcoming America

Psychology

• Intro to Unconscious Bias (video)

Public Health and Safety

• The Black Plague, New Yorker (article)
• COVID-19 Racial Health Disparities Highlight Why We Need to Address Structural Racism, Urban Institute (article)
• A Public Health Approach to Achieving Health Equity, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (article)

Public Places

• 4 Insights on Public Space and Health Equity, Center for Active Design
• Accessible Public Spaces, New Mobility (article)
• Belonging and Public Place, Othering and Belonging Institute (conference session video)
• The Curb-Cut Effect, Stanford Social Innovation Review (article)
• Hostile Architecture: How Public Spaces Keep the Public Out, Project for Public Spaces (article)
• What’s Behind the Uptick in Hostile Architecture?, Architectural Digest (article)

Books

Please consider borrowing from your local library or purchasing through your local bookstore.

• Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design by Bess Williamson
• Ain’t I a Woman by bell hooks
• American Lynching by Ashraf H.A. Rushdy
• Between the World and Me by Ta-nehisi Coates
• Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt, Ph.D.
• CHOKEHOLD: Policing Black Men by Paul Butler
• The Color of Law: The Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
• The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race by Jesmyn Ward
• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
• How to be an Antiracist by Ibrahim X. Kendi, cowritten with Jason Reynolds
  
• Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
• Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
• My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem
• Natives by Akala
• Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Dr. Joy Degruy
• Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Olou
• The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
• Racism Without Racists by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
• Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America by Melissa V. Harris-Perry
• Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibrahim X. Kendi
• The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
• The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
• This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewel
• White Fragility by Robin Divello
• White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise
• White Rage by Carol Anderson
• Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D.
• Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge