Minisode: Getting Started as a White Ally with Anna Hithersay

Today, Kaytee is chatting with online friend Anna Hithersay. Kaytee and Anna both got started on the road to racial justice multiple years ago, but we do not claim to be experts. We do have a few years of reading and listening under our belts and want to point you toward the resources we have found and the places we have learned. This episode is meant to point OUTWARD, to give our white listeners the starting places, the books, podcasts, and accounts, and the conversations to get started.

Tune in to hear about:

• How we each got started on the road to racial justice

• Anna’s “Do Better” book club and embracing the awkward

• Questions and Answers from our Currently Reading Bookish Friends

• A list of books and resources to get you started on your own journey

• And, of course, a book she wants to press into your hands.

Connect with Anna on Instagram: @ahithersay and @comehither_andstay

Minisode show notes are not timestamped, but this episode includes a huge list of resources. Here’s a comprehensive list of the books we mentioned (and the ones we skipped for time), the lists of Black bookstores and Black bookstagrammers you might want to start following, the podcasts and articles we talked about, and anything else I can link to that we mentioned. These show notes are meant to be a starting place, to hold information that you can come back to in order to continue this journey and find additional resources from our Black brothers and sisters who are lifting their voices. The work will not end anytime soon. Prepare for a long haul.

Primer Books

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi Me & White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad Be the Bridge by Latasha Morrison (Christian)

Memoir

You Can’t Touch My Hair and Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper Born A Crime by Trevor Noah Well-Read Black Girl by Glory Edim The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clementine Wamariya Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates Becoming by Michelle Obama The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Men We Reaped by Jesamyn Ward Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay

Fiction Starter Pack

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (YA) Roots by Alex Haley Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid The Underground Railroad or The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead Romance Authors of Color: Kennedy Ryan, Jasmine Guillory, Alisha Rai, Rebecca Weatherspoon, Talia Hibbert, Naleni Singh, Jackie Lao, Sonali Dev, Mariana Sabada An American Marriage by Tayari Jones Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson (YA) Sing, Unburied, Sing and Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo Kindred by Octavia Butler

Deeper Topics

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (mass incarceration) When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele (Black Lives Matter) Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (Death Penalty and Mass Incarceration) The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (history) Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi (history) How to Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi (action steps) We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates (history and personal essay) Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum Shalom Sistas by Osheta Moore (Christian)

Anti-Racist Kids

Middle Grade The Crossover by Kwame Alexander This Book is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell Ghost Boys (upper middle grade) by Jewell Parker Rhodes Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson Ghost (Track Series) by Jason Reynolds Blended by Sharon M Draper Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson Genesis Begins Again by Alicia D. Williams

Young Adult Dear Martin by Nic Stone Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds On the Come Up by Angie Thomas A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney (fantasy) I'm Not Dying with You Tonight by Kimberly Jones and Emily Segal Slay by Brittney Morris All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

Picture Books Hair Love by Matthew A Cherry The Colors of Us by Karen Katz The Skin You Live In by Michael Taylor and David Lee Csicsko People by Peter Spier Kadir Nelson's picture books Ezra Jack Keats' picture books

Podcasts

Episodes on race from The Liturgists: Racism in America, Anti-Racism 1619 Podcast Code Switch from NPR Yo, Is This Racist? Pod Save the People Sounds of Justice podcast (Christian) Seeing White On Ramp: Two Christians Talk About Race Ibram X Kendi with Brene Brown on Unlocking Us

Places that You Might Donate

NAACP ACLU Black Lives Matter National Bailout Fund

Other Resources

Sign Petitions Black Bookstagrammers - I shared a roundup, saved in my Anti-Racism story highlight Mockingbird history lessons on Patreon A list of Black-owned bookstores Anti-Racism Resources for White People Scraping Raisins: 70+ Race Resources for White People and 80+ MORE A Conversation with Ibram X Kendi about talking to Kids about race Be the Bridge courses - Whiteness 101, Talking to Kids about Race and Racism, Whiteness Intensive The 2020 Ultimate List of Diverse Children’s Books from Here Wee Read The Conscious Kid on Instagram Medium’s List of Anti-Racism Resources Common Sense Media - using media to raise anti-racist kids Vox’s List of Streaming Movies that are Anti-Racist