Research Guides: Anti-Racism and Medicine: Anti-Racism: A Foundation

Articles

Podcasts

Find these podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, or other streaming services.

"An audio series on how slavery has transformed America, connecting past and present through the oldest form of storytelling."
"Remember when folks used to talk about being "post-racial"? Well, we're definitely not that. We're a multi-racial, multi-generational team of journalists fascinated by the overlapping themes of race, ethnicity and culture, how they play out in our lives and communities, and how all of this is shifting. "
"Intersectionality Matters! is a podcast hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory."
"Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast features movement voices, stories, and strategies for racial justice. Co-hosts Chevon and Hiba give their unique takes on race and pop culture, and uplift narratives of hope, struggle, and joy, as we continue to build the momentum needed to advance racial justice in our policies, institutions, and culture. Build on your racial justice lens and get inspired to drive action by learning from organizational leaders and community activists."
"On Pod Save the People, DeRay Mckesson explores news, culture, social justice, and politics with Sam Sinyangwe, Kaya Henderson and De’Ara Balenger. They offer a unique take on the news, with a special focus on overlooked stories and topics that often impact people of color."
"The past is never past. Every headline has a history. Join us every week as we go back in time to understand the present. These are stories you can feel and sounds you can see from the moments that shaped our world."
"A show about the unfinished business of our history and its grip on our future."
Brené Brown talks with Ibram X. Kendi on the podcast Unlocking Us. Discussion topics include racial disparities, policy, and equality, but the main focus is on How to Be an Antiracist.

This page contains foundational anti-racism literature and resources, including books, articles, article collections, and multimedia. This is an introduction, not an exhaustive list, and more resources will be added in time.

Important Note

On this guide we have included some resources that we recommend, but are not available at MCPHS. For these resources, we have set up the links to redirect to the Boston Public Library, as many members of the MCPHS community are able to use their resources. If you are not able to use the Boston Public Library, feel free to find these resources at your own library!

Want to sign up for a Boston Public Library eCard? Learn to do so here. Not eligible for a Boston Public Library eCard? Find these items in your local library in WorldCat.

Books Available From the MCPHS Libraries

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

Books to Check Out From Your Local Library

An African American and Latinx History of the Unived States BPL

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States BPL

An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

Asian American Histories of the United States

Article Collections

Annual Reviews: Racial Justice, Policing, and Protest
Annual Reviews has curated a collection of articles that focus on understanding discrimination and its impact, and what must be done to end it. These articles focus on discriminatory policing of minorities, on bias in the criminal justice system, on inequalities in healthcare, and on other relevant issues and are freely available to download.
The Atlantic: How Did We Get Here? 163 Years of The Atlantic's Writing on Race and Racism in America
The Atlantic has created a collection of articles that spans from their founding in 1857 to the present day about race and racism in the United States.
Cambridge University Press: Race and Power Collection
Cambridge University Press has curated their Race and Power Collection. This is a quarterly updated assortment of book chapters and journal articles that explores the intertwining concepts of race and power, on a global scale, from an interdisciplinary perspective.
JSTOR: Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus
JSTOR Daily created this syllabus of freely accessible articles to help students understand George Floyd's death in the context of institutionalized racism. JSTOR will be updating the page with more articles and is working to acquire a bibliographic reading list about institutionalized racism in the future.
SAGE Journals: Structural Racism and Police Violence
"The work of social and behavioral scientists is crucial in helping to dismantle mechanisms of discrimination, oppression, and violence and create a radically improved society. This collection shares freely accessible articles to support researchers in future scholarship and amplify their critical work; educators as they discuss the impacts of systemic racism with students; and policymakers and advocates in their fight to make sweeping reform."

Streaming Videos From the MCPHS Libraries

Academic Video Online: Black Studies Channel
Explore films and interviews such as The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, John Lewis: Good Trouble, and more.
America after Ferguson
"This PBS town hall meeting, moderated by PBS NEWSHOUR co-anchor and managing editor Gwen Ifill, explores events following Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri. The program, recorded before an audience on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, will include national leaders and prominent thinkers in the areas of law enforcement, race and civil rights, as well as government officials, faith leaders and youth. "
American Experience: Eyes on the Prize
EYES ON THE PRIZE tells the definitive story of the civil rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, and embodied a struggle whose reverberations continue to be felt today.
Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise: Part 1, Out of the Shadows
Part 1 of 4 of the Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise series. Presented by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise: Part 2, Move On Up
Part 2 of 4 of the Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise series. Presented by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Black America Since MLK: Still I Rise: Part 3, Keep Your Head Up
Part 3 of 4 of the Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise series. Presented by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Black America Since MLK: Still I Rise: Part 4, Touch The Sky
Part 4 of 4 of the Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise series. Presented by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Videos Available Online

13th
Netflix has put the full version of 13th on YouTube for free. "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."
Bryan Stevenson: We Need To Talk About An Injustice (TED Talk)
"In an engaging and personal talk -- with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks -- human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America's justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country's black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America's unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness."
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story (TED Talk)
"Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding."
Kimberlé Crenshaw: The Urgency of Intersectionality (TED Talk)
"Now more than ever, it's important to look boldly at the reality of race and gender bias -- and understand how the two can combine to create even more harm. Kimberlé Crenshaw uses the term "intersectionality" to describe this phenomenon; as she says, if you're standing in the path of multiple forms of exclusion, you're likely to get hit by both. In this moving talk, she calls on us to bear witness to this reality and speak up for victims of prejudice."
PBS: Racism in America Video Collection
Freely available video collection from PBS. Includes Frontline special "Policing the Police 2020," "Freedom Riders," "Peace Officer," "Cooked: Survival by Zipcode," "The First Rainbow Coalition," and more.
Vernā Myers: How to Overcome our Biases? Walk Boldly Toward Them (TED Talk)
"Our biases can be dangerous, even deadly — as we've seen in the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner, in Staten Island, New York. Diversity advocate Vernā Myers looks closely at some of the subconscious attitudes we hold toward out-groups. She makes a plea to all people: Acknowledge your biases. Then move toward, not away from, the groups that make you uncomfortable. In a funny, impassioned, important talk, she shows us how."
What is Systemic Racism?
"'What Is Systemic Racism?' is an 8-part video series that shows how racism shows up in our lives across institutions and society: Wealth Gap, Employment, Housing Discrimination, Government Surveillance, Incarceration, Drug Arrests, Immigration Arrests, Infant Mortality… yes, systemic racism is really a thing."

Streaming Videos to Check Out from Your Local Library

bell hooks: Cultural Criticism and Transformation
"bell hooks is one of America's most engaging public intellectuals. In this richly illustrated two-part interview, hooks argues that we can acknowledge the impact of media without denying our own agency or the pleasure we derive from popular culture. Rather than ignoring or denying the power of representation, hooks advocates for critically confronting the influence of media in our lives."
I Am Not Your Negro
"Filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, Remember This House. It is a journey into Black history that connects the Civil Rights movement to #BlackLivesMatter. It questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond and examines the lives and assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr."
Whose Streets?
"Told by activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising and a powerful battle cry from a generation fighting, not for their civil rights, but for the right to live."