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In the process of researching and writing this article, I read The Atlantic’s article by Ibram X. Kendi, titled “The American Nightmare.” From 1896, the same year the Supreme Court decision, Plessy v Ferguson, legalized segregation, Kendi discusses a racial text, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. Its author, Frederick Hoffman, provided statistical charts and data that he used to conclude that the “gradual extinction is only a question of time” for Black people. This statistical book launched Hoffman’s career into the international and national spotlight as the “dean” of American statisticians and became the fulfillment of his “American dream” at the turn of the 20th century. However, this text perpetuated the American nightmare for the Black community. This notion of “letting black die” fueled the racist beliefs that shaped, and sadly continue to shape, American society and policy today.
In the wake of the unjust and unlawful killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and most recently, Rayshard Brooks, the Black Lives Matter protests aim to bring awareness, education, and more importantly long-lasting change and the end of systemic racism for Black Americans. To quote our CEO, Hardeep Gulati, “PowerSchool stands by our Black and African American colleagues, teachers, students, school districts, and communities in the fight against racism and inequality.” In doing our part to help, the PowerSchool Customer Education team compiled these resources to provide parents and teachers tools to expand their own awareness and understanding of systemic racism, racial inequality, and discrimination, and to the help facilitate conversations and teach children.
It’s not meant to be an exhaustive list and is focused on the impact of systemic racism on Black and African American people throughout the history of the United States. At PowerSchool, we recognize systemic racism and discrimination can impact other indigenous people and people of color in the United States and around the world. In the end, we hope the Black Lives Matters movement will benefit those people too. Finally, as an organization, we are committed to address diversity, inclusion, and equality among our workforce and in our approach to our customers’ and their needs.
We would love feedback about these resources or other resources you’ve used to increase your awareness, understanding, and involvement in the fight to dismantle systemic racism, racial inequality, and discrimination. Feel free to leave a comment here or contribute to separate discussion through our General Distance Learning Forum.
Resources by Age/Grade Levels
Grade Pre-K
- CNN and Sesame Street Town Hall on Racism
- Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry
- Help Kids Rise – “I AM” Affirming Books – Amazon Book List
- Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña
- Talking About Race: Resources for Early Childhood Educators by Brooklyn Public Library
- The 2020 Ultimate List of Diverse Children’s Books by Here Wee Read
- The Araboolies of Liberty Street by Sam Swope
- The Color of Us by Karen Katz
- The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade by Justin Roberts
Grades K-3
- Help Kids Rise – Black Authors of Children and Teen Books – Amazon Book List
- Help Kids Rise – Civil Right/Activism – Amazon Book List
- Intersection Allies: We Make Room for All by Chelsea Johnson, LaToya Council, Carolyn Choi
- Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester
- Noni Speaks Up by Heather Hartt-Sussman
- Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters by Barack Obama
- Systemic Racism Explained – YouTube
- The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander
- The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist by Cynthia Levinson
- When a Bully is President: Truth and Creativity for Oppressive Times by Maya Gonzalez
Grades 4-6
- Help Kids Rise – Middle Grade Diverse Reads – Amazon Book List
- One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance by Nikki Grimes
- Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander
- This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work by Tiffany Jewell
Grades 7-8
- Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
- Help Kids Rise – YA/Upper MG Diverse Reads – Amazon Book List
- One Last Word by Nikki Grimes
- The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds
- The Skin I’m In by Sharon G. Flake
Grades 9-12
- All American Boys by Jason Reynolds
- Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat
- From Ferguson to Baton Rouge: Deaths of black men and women at the hands of police – LA Times
- How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon
- Just Mercy (book and movie)
- Monster by Walter Dean Myers
- Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi, Yusef Salaam
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X Kendi
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Teachers or Parents - Resources
- 10 Documentaries to Watch About Race Instead of Asking a Person of Colour to Explain Things for You
- 13th (Netflix movie)
- 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice
- 100 Race-Conscious Things You Can Say to Your Child to Advance Racial Justice
- 1619 Podcast by the NY Times
- ADL’s Anti-Bias Education Resources
- African American History: From Emancipation to Present by Professor Jonathan Holloway – Open Yale Courses
- American University’s Antiracist Research and Policy Center’s to Host 2nd Annual National Antiracist...
- An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
- Anti-Racism Library Curated by LeanIn.Org
- Anti-Racism Resources for White People
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Bias Isn’t Just a Police Problem, It’s A Preschool Problem by NPR
- Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin R. Banaji Anthony G Greenwald
- Brené Brown with Ibram X. Kendi on How to Be an Antiracist podcast
- Facing America’s History of Racial Violence by Facing History
- Get Started at Be the Bridge
- How Kids Learn Prejudice from the NY Times
- How to be an AntiRacist by Ibram K Kendi
- Holy Post – Race in America by Phil Vischer – YouTube video
- Helping Kids Rise – Understanding Race and Racism – Amazon Book List
- I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
- Introducing Kids to Race and Bias by Bekah Noble
- Ibram X. Kendi’s website
- Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University
- Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, Ronald Cotton, Erin Torneo
- Project Implicit by Harvard
- Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey, PhD
- So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X Kendi
- Talking Race with Young Children by NPR and Sesame Street
- Teaching Young Children to Understand and Accept Difference from Lesley University
- Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson
- The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michele Alexander
- The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
- Tips for Collaborating with Other Families for Educational Justice by Dr. Ann Ishimaru
- They’re Not Too Young to Talk about Race from The Children’s Community School in Philadelphia, PA
- Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, ... by Saidiya Hartman
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin DiAngelo and Michael Eric Dyson
- White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise
- Why the Diversity of Your Reading List Matters by Kelsey Yandura
Organizations with Resource Lists/Activities
- ADL Fighting Hate for Good
- Be the Bridge
- Black Lives Matter
- Books for Littles
- Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research
- Embrace Race
- Equal Justice Initiative
- Facing History and Ourselves
- Helping Kids Rise – Improving the Lives of Children with Books
- Lean In
- Mango & Marigold Press
- Showing Up for Racial Justice
- Showing Up for Racial Justice – Sacramento (SURJ)
- Love Our Girls
- Raising Race Conscious Children
- Rewire
- Teaching Tolerance: Diversity, Equity, and Justice
- White Allies in Training
Author: Cynthia Albrecht works as an instructional designer on the Customer Education team at PowerSchool. Cindy holds a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction, a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Colorado at Denver and CU at Boulder, respectively, and a professional concentration certificate in Website Design from University of California Davis Extension. She’s licensed to teach both social studies and English in secondary education classrooms in California and Colorado. She currently resides in Sacramento, California with her husband and two teenage daughters.