Diversity and Racism
Anti-Racism and Anti-Bias Resources
Book Recommendations for Adults
* Available in the HHS library or from Sue McHugh
- Waking Up White by Debby Irving *
- White Fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism by Robin DiAngelo
- 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 *
- An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz
- The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origin of the Model Minority by Ellen D. Wu
- This Muslim-American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror by Moustafa Bayoumi
- The Hidden Rules of Race: Barriers to an Inclusive Economy by Andrea Flynn, Susuan R. Holmberg, Dorian T. Warren, and Felicia J. Wong
- Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum *
- Algorithms of Oppression: how search engines reinforce racism by Safiya Umoja Noble
- The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the making of American capitalism by Edward E. Baptist
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Additional Titles
- Anti-Racist Reading List from Ibram X. Kendi - Chicago Public Library
- Understanding and Dismantling Racism: A Booklist for White Readers
- Libraries: The Criminalization and Incarceration of the Black Body: The Criminalization of the Black Body and Incarceration
Resources for Teaching
- Zinn Education Project - history resource that focuses on stories/voices of the marginalized who are often left out of textbooks
- Anti-Racist Education from Teaching Tolerance
- How to be an Anti-Racist Educator
- Teaching While White Podcast
Sampling of Anti-racism/Anti-bias Books in the HHS Library
This list is far from exhaustive. To find more, search the library catalog
Fiction
Historical Fiction (African-American)
- The Underground Railroad, Nickel Boys and John Henry Days by Colson Whitehead
- Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman
- The Water Dancer by Ta-Nahesi Coates
- Copper Sun by Sharon Draper
- Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
- Fire from the Rock by Sharon Draper
Current Race/Ethnicity Issues
- The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas
- All-American Boys by Jason Reynolds
- Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
- Internment by Samira Ahmed
- The Lines We Cross by Randa Abdel-Fattah
LGBTQ issues
- Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala
- Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher
- And She Was by Jessica Verdi
- Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli
- Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg
- The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junuada Petrus
Diverse characters (not necessarily “issue” books)
- Monday’s not Coming by Tiffany Jackson
- With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo (also, Poet X)
- On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
- Dread Nation by Justina Ireland (sci fi)
- After the Shot Drops by Randy Ribay
Nonfiction
Racism/Civil Rights
- When They Call You a Terrorist: a Black Lives Matters memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors
- Port Chicago 50: disaster, mutiny and the fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin
- The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis
- She Came to Slay: the life and times of Harriet Tubman by Erica Dunbar Armstrong
- Was the Cat in the Hat Black? Hidden racism of children’s literature by Philip Nel
- The Race Beat: the press, the Civil Rights struggle and the awakening of a nation by Gene Roberts
- Hidden Figures: the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race by Margot Shetterly Lee
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
- A More Beautiful and Terrible History: the uses and misuses of Civil Rights history by Jeanne Theoharis
- Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
- Barracoon: the story of the last black cargo
- March by John Lewis (3 books)
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nahesi Coates
- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
- Warriors Don't Cry: The Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High by Melba Beals
LGBTQ
- The Letter Q: queer writers’ notes to their younger selves
- At the Broken Places: a mother and trans son pick up the pieces
- Real Queer in America
- Sissy: a coming-of-gender story
- Some Assembly Required: the not-so-secret life of a transgender teen
- She He They Me
Refugee/Immigrant
- Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives
- Solita/Solito: Crossing Borders with youth refugees from Central America
- The Newcomers: finding refuge, friendship and hope in an American Classroom by Helen Thorpe
- In the Country We Love: a family divided by Diane Guerrero
- Illegal: Reflections of an Undocumented Immigrant
- Enchanted Air: two cultures, two wings: a memoir
Learning Differences
- Autism in Heels: the untold story of female life on the spectrum
- Same but different: teen life on the autism express