Public libraries are places of inclusion and empowerment, dedicated to breaking down barriers to access and resisting inequality. Below are some resources that illuminate systems of race, privilege and power as well as how to enact change in ourselves and our institutions. We hope these resources help you recognize and challenge biases, navigate difficult conversations and create an inclusive, respectful space for learning, engagement and improvement.
Checkout these Materials from Calvert Library
eBooks & eAudiobooks Lists
Watch & Learn: Streaming Movies & Documentary Lists
- Social and Systemic Injustice Films
- Asian Americans – This series is a production of WETA Washington, DC and the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) for PBS focused on the lives of Asian Americans and their role in shaping the United States’ history. This site includes five one-hour episodes, in addition to videos and an interactive gallery on Asian Americans’ role in U.S. history.
Explore & Learn
- Equity in History: The Southern Maryland Equity in History Coalition’s objective is to elevate the history of Black, Indigenous, and Other People of Color across Southern Maryland, identify this history and make it accessible through a comprehensive easily searchable website. Without knowing this history, we cannot fully understand and address the causes of racism. If we promote an understanding of our own rich local history, it will humanize the stories and make this history more readily understood and impactful.
- Coming Together: Standing Up to Racism, a town hall for kids and families – CNN commentators team with Sesame Street and bring together politicians and characters from Sesame Street for q & a and stories
- Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture Talking About Race toolkit – Links to particular discussion guides based around race, privilege, antiracism, and self-care aimed at educators, parents and caregivers, or people committed to equity
- Asian American Racial Justice Toolkit – A product from the Chinese Progressive Association, this resource highlights people’s lived experiences to build structural awareness of why those experiences are happening and how they are tied to the oppression of others.
- A Different Asian American Timeline – This informational and detailed timeline covers nearly 600 years of history, starting with the early Atlantic slave trade in the 15th Century, tracing the rise of modern nation-states, and covering events that have affected people across racial boundaries.
- the Big Conversation: Partners in Dismantling Racism and White Privilege – This site is a resource for local anti-racism work in Southern Maryland
Podcasts:
- 1619 – From the New York Times, this narrative podcast tells the story that began in August 1619 when a ship of enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia.
- Be Antiracist with Ibram X. Kendi – Be Antiracist imagines what an antiracist society might look like and how we all can play an active role in building one. Dr. Kendi guides listeners on how they can identify and reject the racist systems hiding behind racial inequity and injustice.
- Brené with Ibram X. Kendi on How to Be an Antiracist – An episode of Brown’s podcast, Unlocking Us, during which she talks with Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to be an Anti-Racist.
- Brené with Emmanuel Acho on Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man – An episode of Brene Brown’s podcast, Unlocking Us, during which she talks with Acho about racism and uncomfortable dialogue.
- Code Switch – From NPR, Code Switch is a podcast that takes the topic of race and discusses how it influences every part of society – from politics and pop culture to history, sports and everything in between.
- Come Through with Rebecca Carroll – During this election year, these are 15 essential conversations about race for America.
- Floodlines – An eight-part podcast that uses interviews to tell the story of the tumultuous events surrounding Hurricane Katrina and its submerging of the city of New Orleans.
- Groundings – This podcast connects organizing, theory, and history with dialogue, experience, and storytelling. A form of communal education that invites listeners to sit, listen, talk, share, and learn.