We are watching, living, and participating in history in the making right now. It’s pretty clear to kids what’s going on, as our 10 year old saw the George Floyd video on TikTok (!) it was an easy opening to a deep dive into the tragedy of racism in America. “Well son, It all started when we stole this country from it’s indigenous people, and the disenfranchising hasn’t stopped yet!” But what about explaining beyond our pay grade, we must look to the literately lauded and go forth and READ! Consider ordering the books on this list from black owned bookstores. Here’s a list of black owned bookstores in the USA. We have linked to amazon just for convenience sake. We will be regularly adding to this list with new discoveries and releases.
Here are the recommendations we’ve compiled:
For The Kids
To purchase:
Free Readers
- Free Collection Of Books To Spark Conversations On Race – On Epic
- Young, Black & Lit, a Black-founded nonprofit, has an online bookstore featuring dozens of books with Black protagonists for ages pre-K through 8th grade.
- NewsELA Article This article is discusses reasons for protests and responses to them
- Talking Race With Young Children (NPR)
- Anti-Racism For Kids 101 Books For Littles
- A White Families’ Guide For Talking About Racism
- How to Talk to Kids About Race Books and Resources from Brightly
- Racism and Violence: How to Help Kids Handle the News
- Follow Raising Race Conscious Kids On Facebook
- EmbraceRace Facebook Page
- Be’chol Lashon Facebook Page
YouTube Links to Read Alouds
- Something Happened in our Town
- Say Something
- The Breaking News
- We March
- I am enough
- Sulwe
- The Undefeated
- Let’s Talk about Race
For The Young Adults/ Teens/ Mature Tweens
For The Adults
Ibram X. Kendi on books to help America transcend its racist heritage.
FILMS TO WATCH:
- American Son
- When They See Us
- If Beale Street Could Talk
- Fruitvale Station
- I Am Not Your Negro
- Just Mercy
- 13th
- Selma
- The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
We want to KEEP LEARNING, so please add YOUR favorite books, articles, and space that promote diversity and discuss racism/ being anti-racist in the comments below and we will continue to add to this list!