Resources to Learn about Institutional Racism in America

For anyone seeking to learn more about institutional racism in America, we've curated a collection of film, videos, articles, books and courses to aid in understanding the topic.

Documentary Films

Race: The Power of an Illusion, a three-part documentary series produced by California Newsreel that investigates the idea of race in society, science and history. Sign in with your library card on Kanopy to watch the film.

Episode 1: "The Difference Between Us" examines the contemporary science - including genetics - that challenges our common sense assumptions that human beings can be bundled into three or four fundamentally different groups according to their physical traits.

Episode 2: "The Story We Tell" uncovers the roots of the race concept in North America, the 19th century science that legitimated it, and how it came to be held so fiercely in the Western imagination. The episode is an eye-opening tale of how race served to rationalize, even justify, American social inequalities as "natural."

Episode 3: "The House We Live In" asks, If race is not biology, what is it? This episode uncovers how race resides not in nature but in politics, economics and culture. It reveals how our social institutions "make" race by disproportionately channeling resources, power, status and wealth to white people.

A Conversation with My Black Son, a short documentary by New York Times

In this short documentary, parents reveal their struggles with telling their black sons that they may be targets of racial profiling by the police.

Newspaper and Journal Articles

Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus by daily.jstor.org 

The United States has seen escalating protests over the past week, following the death of George Floyd while in custody of the Minneapolis police. Educators everywhere are asking how can we help students understand that this was not an isolated, tragic incident perpetrated by a few bad individuals, but part of a broader pattern of institutionalized racism. Read more at https://tinyurl.com/ybw82sjs

Staff Picks: Books on Race Matters

Consult these print, e-book and audiobook titles to help you understand and respond to racism. Recommended by Jen, June 2020. Click here to reserve your copy today.

Free Courses by Coursera

Learn about race, inequality, and social justice. All courses are free to audit.

The resources were evaluated and complied by Ping, a librarian. Email Ping with any questions.