As part of Simpson’s ongoing efforts to support our staff, participants, and the community, we actively work to engage with ways to challenge racism and systemic injustices in order to best serve our mission and hold true to our values. Not only is this engagement crucial for our staff and leadership, but it is also critical for those who support us to take the initiative to better understand those who they are helping.
We invite volunteers and community supporters to explore the resources here to not only understand the many injustices that are at the root of Simpson’s work but to also gain a broader knowledge of the many aspects of the communities we serve.
Resources presented here include books, videos, and is not meant to be an all-inclusive list, but rather a jumping-off point into learning about each topic.
Racism, Racial Justice & the Black Experience
This is by no means an exhaustive or definitive list of resources. Rather, it is meant to simply act as a “jumping-off point” for those interested in learning more about anti-racist work and supporting the Black, Indigenous, and people of color in our community.
Books & Articles:
Note: To best support the authors and as a part of the fight against systemic racism, please consider purchasing these books directly from the author, the publisher, or from the list of Black independently owned bookstores with online stores listed here.
How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
“Ibram X. Kendi’s concept of antiracism reenergizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America–but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. Instead of working with the policies and system we have in place, Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.
In his memoir, Kendi weaves together an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science–including the story of his own awakening to antiracism–bringing it all together in a cogent, accessible form. He begins by helping us rethink our most deeply held, if implicit, beliefs and our most intimate personal relationships (including beliefs about race and IQ and interracial social relations) and reexamines the policies and larger social arrangements we support. How to Be an Antiracist promises to become an essential book for anyone who wants to go beyond an awareness of racism to the next step of contributing to the formation of a truly just and equitable society.”
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
“Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice. Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system.”
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
“The New Jim Crow is a stunning account of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States; one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement. e United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement.”
Between The World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
“Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it.”
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
“In this groundbreaking history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein, a leading authority on housing policy, explodes the myth that America’s cities came to be racially divided through de facto segregation―that is, through individual prejudices, income differences, or the actions of private institutions like banks and real estate agencies. Rather, The Color of Law incontrovertibly makes clear that it was de jure segregation―the laws and policy decisions passed by local, state, and federal governments―that actually promoted the discriminatory patterns that continue to this day.”
Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Joyce DeGruy, PhD.
“While African Americans managed to emerge from chattel slavery and the oppressive decades that followed with great strength and resiliency, they did not emerge unscathed. Slavery produced centuries of physical, psychological and spiritual injury. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing lays the groundwork for understanding how the past has influenced the present, and opens up the discussion of how we can use the strengths we have gained to heal.”
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Cullors and Asha Bandele
“Patrisse Cullors’ first book cowritten by ashe bandele, is a poetic memoir and reflection on humanity. A New York Times Best Seller – necessary and timely, Patrisse’s story asks us to remember that protest in the interest of the most vulnerable comes from love. Leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement have been called terrorists, a threat to America. But in truth, they are loving women whose life experiences have led them to seek justice for those victimized by the powerful. In this meaningful, empowering account of survival, strength, and resilience, Patrisse Cullors and asha bandele seek to change the culture that declares innocent black life expendable.”
Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
“Some Americans cling desperately to the myth that we are living in a post-racial society, that the election of the first Black president spelled the doom of racism. In fact, racist thought is alive and well in America – more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues in Stamped from the Beginning, if we have any hope of grappling with this stark reality, we must first understand how racist ideas were developed, disseminated, and enshrined in American society.
In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. Stamped from the Beginning uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to offer a window into the contentious debates between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and antiracists. From Puritan minister Cotton Mather to Thomas Jefferson, from fiery abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to brilliant scholar W.E.B. Du Bois to legendary anti-prison activist Angela Davis, Kendi shows how and why some of our leading proslavery and pro-civil rights thinkers have challenged or helped cement racist ideas in America.
Contrary to popular conceptions, racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. Instead, they were devised and honed by some of the most brilliant minds of each era. These intellectuals used their brilliance to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation’s racial disparities in everything from wealth to health. And while racist ideas are easily produced and easily consumed, they can also be discredited. In shedding much-needed light on the murky history of racist ideas, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose them—and in the process, gives us reason to hope.”
A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota edited by Sun Yung Shin
“In this provocative book, sixteen of Minnesota’s best writers provide a range of perspectives on what it is like to live as a person of color in Minnesota. They give readers a splendid gift: the gift of touching another human being’s inner reality, behind masks and veils and politeness. They bring us generously into experiences that we must understand if we are to come together in real relationships.
Minnesota communities struggle with some of the nation’s worst racial disparities. As its authors confront and consider the realities that lie beneath the numbers, this book provides an important tool to those who want to be part of closing those gaps.”
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isbael Wilkerson
“In a story of hope and longing, three young people set out from the American South during different decades of the 20th Century en route to the North and West in search of what the novelist Richard Wright called “the warmth of other suns.”
Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling and Robert Joseph Pershing Foster are among the six million African-Americans who fled the South during what would become known as the Great Migration, a watershed in American history. This book interweaves their stories and those of others who made the journey with the larger forces and inner motivations that compelled them to flee, and with the challenges they confronted upon arrival in the New World.”
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon
“In this groundbreaking historical expose, Douglas A. Blackmon brings to light one of the most shameful chapters in American history—an “Age of Neoslavery” that thrived from the aftermath of the Civil War through the dawn of World War II.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (for young adult audiences)
“Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.”
The 1619 Project from The New York Times “The 1619 Project is an ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative”
Black Lives Matter Instructional Library for children. Digital library of books about activism, history, and self-love for children. Books link to “read-aloud” versions on YouTube where you can follow along on screen with your child. Spanish versions of some titles available.
How Redlining’s Racist Effects Lasted for Decades by Emily Badger (New York Times)
What Happens When I Try to Talk About Race with White People, PBS Newshour
Whites Have Huge Wealth Edge Over Blacks (but Don’t Know It) By Emily Badger (New York Times)
The First White President by Ta-Nehisi Coates (The Atlantic)
Additional list of resources for anti-racism work led by Black authors and teachers.
Podcasts
Counter Stories: From Minnesota Public Radio
“We discuss race, identity, social justice and culture in a region grappling with demographic changes. Hosted by David Cazares.”
Code Switch by National Public Radio
Good Ancestor Podcast by Layla F. Saad
Movies/Videos/TED Talks
“We Need to Talk About an Injustice” by Bryan Stevenson
“How We Can Start to Heal the Pain of Racial Division” by Ruby Sales (TED Salon)
“No. You Cannot Touch My Hair!” by Mena Fombo (TEDxBristol)
Thirteenth, Documentary on Netflix from director Ava DuVernay
Jim Crow of the North, TPT
Race the Power of an Illusion video series from Facing History
-Episode One: The Difference Between Us
-Episode Two: The Story We Tell
-Episode Three: The House We Live In
Toolkits & Classes
Virtual Conversations on Systemic Racism from Anti-Racism Study Dialogue Circles
Good Ancestor Academy by Layla F. Saad
Racialized Trauma & White Body Supremacy by Resmaa Menakem (free e-course available at this link, it is a shortened version of a longer more in-depth course available on the website.)
Dismantling Racism Works Web Workbook – a site full of information, resources and explorations relating to racism and white supremacy.
Understanding and Confronting Racial Injustice from University of Minnesota Extension
ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Science and Racism – from ACEs Connection
Indigenous History & Perspectives
This is by no means an exhaustive or definitive list of resources. Rather, it is meant to simply act as a “jumping-off point” for those interested in learning more about anti-racist work and supporting the Black, Indigenous, and people of color in our community.
Books:
Note: To best support the authors and as a part of the fight against systemic racism, please consider purchasing these books directly from the author, the publisher, or from an independent bookstore.
Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians but Were Afraid to Ask by Anton Treuer
Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians but Were Afraid to Ask cuts through the emotion and builds a foundation for true understanding and positive action.
All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life by Winona LaDuke
This eagerly awaited non-fiction debut by acclaimed Native environmental activist Winona LaDuke is a thoughtful and in-depth account of Native resistance to environmental and cultural degradation. LaDuke’s unique understanding of Native ideas and people is born from long years of experience, and her analysis is deepened with inspiring testimonies by local Native activists sharing the struggle for survival.
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer
“An informed, moving, and kaleidoscopic portrait… Treuer’s powerful book suggests the need for soul-searching about the meanings of American history and the stories we tell ourselves about this nation’s past..” – New York Times Book Review, front page
Rez Life: An Indian’s Journey Through Reservation Life by David Treuer
With authoritative research and reportage, Treuer illuminates misunderstood contemporary issues of sovereignty, treaty rights, and natural-resource conservation. He traces the waves of public policy that have disenfranchised and exploited Native Americans, exposing the tension that has marked the historical relationship between the United States government and the Native American population. Through the eyes of students, teachers, government administrators, lawyers, and tribal court judges, he shows how casinos, tribal government, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have transformed the landscape of Native American life.
Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog
Lakota Woman was a national bestseller and winner of the American Book Award. It is a unique document, unparalleled in American Indian literature, a story of death, of determination against all odds, of the cruelties perpetrated against American Indians, and of the Native American struggle for rights.
Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940 by Brenda J. Child
A revealing look at the strong emotional history of Indian boarding school experiences in the first half of the twentieth century. At the heart of this book are the hundreds of letters written by parents, children, and school officials at Haskell Institute in Kansas and the Flandreau School in South Dakota. These revealing letters show how profoundly entire families were affected by their experiences. Children, who often attended schools at great distances from their communities, suffered from homesickness, and their parents from loneliness. Parents worried continually about the emotional and physical health and the academic progress of their children. Families clashed repeatedly with school officials over rampant illnesses and deplorable living conditions and devised strategies to circumvent severely limiting visitation rules. Family intimacy was threatened by the school’s suppression of traditional languages and Native cultural practices. Although boarding schools were a threat to family life, profound changes occurred in the boarding school experiences as families turned to these institutions for relief during the Depression, when poverty and the loss of traditional seasonal economics proved a greater threat. Boarding School Seasons provides a multifaceted look at the aspirations and struggles of real people. Brenda J. Child is an associate professor of American studies at the University of Minnesota.
Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community by Brenda J. Child
This work from Brenda J Child gives Native American women their due, detailing the many ways in which they have shaped Native American life. She illuminates the lives of women such as Madeleine Cadotte, who became a powerful mediator between her people and European fur traders, and Gertrude Buckanaga, whose postwar community activism in Minneapolis helped bring many Indian families out of poverty. Moving from the early days of trade with Europeans through the reservation era and beyond, Child offers a powerful tribute to the courageous women who sustained Native American communities through the darkest challenges of the past three centuries.
Night Flying Woman by Ignatia Broker
With the art of a practiced storyteller, Ignatia Broker recounts the life of her great-great-grandmother, Night Flying Woman, who was born in the mid-19th century and lived during a chaotic time of enormous change, uprootings, and loss for the Minnesota Ojibway. But this story also tells of her people’s great strength and continuity.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown
Immediately recognized as a revelatory and enormously controversial book since its first publication in 1971, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is universally recognized as one of those rare books that forever changes the way its subject is perceived. Now repackaged with a new introduction from bestselling author Hampton Sides to coincide with a major HBO dramatic film of the book, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown’s classic, eloquent, meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. A national bestseller in hardcover for more than a year after its initial publication, it has sold over four million copies in multiple editions and has been translated into seventeen languages.
Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown allows great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the series of battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them and their people demoralized and decimated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee changed forever our vision of how the West was won, and lost. It tells a story that should not be forgotten, and so must be retold from time to time.
Being Dakota: Tales and Traditions of the Sisseton and Wahpeton by Amos Oneroad and Alanson B. Skinner
At the beginning of the twentieth century, a few members of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota community in northeastern South Dakota, while living in the white world, quietly worked to preserve the customs and stories of their ancestors in the face of federal government suppression and the opposition of organized religion.
Amos E. Oneroad, a son of one of those families, was educated in the traditional ways and then sent east to obtain a college education, eventually becoming a Presbyterian minister. For most of his life, he moved in two worlds. By fortunate coincidence he met Alanson B. Skinner, a student of anthropology and kindred soul, in New York City. The two men formed a bond both personal and professional, collaborating on anthropological studies in various parts of the United States. The project closest to Oneroad’s heart was the collection and preservation of the stories and traditions of the Sisseton and Wahpeton. Oneroad wrote down the stories and gave them to Skinner. The men intended to polish the resulting manuscript and publish it, but Skinner’s untimely death in 1925 thwarted their plans.
Oneroad and Skinner collected descriptions of everyday life, including tribal organization, ceremonies that marked the individual’s passage from birth to death, and material culture. Several of the folk tales included relate the exploits of Iktomi, the trickster, while others tell of adventures of such figures as the Child of Love, Star Born, and the Mysterious Turtle.
Understanding and Confronting Racial Injustice from University of Minnesota Extension
White Fragility, White Supremacy, and Implicit Bias
This is by no means an exhaustive or definitive list of resources. Rather, it is meant to simply act as a “jumping-off point” for those interested in learning more about anti-racist work and supporting the Black, Indigenous, and people of color in our community.
Books & Articles:
Note: Note: To best support the authors and as a part of the fight against systemic racism, please consider purchasing these books directly from the author, the publisher, or from the list of Black independently owned bookstores with online stores listed here whenever possible.
White Fragility: Why it’s so Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
“White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress. Although white racial insulation is somewhat mediated by social class (with poor and working-class urban whites being generally less racially insulated than suburban or rural whites), the larger social environment insulates and protects whites as a group through institutions, cultural representations, media, school textbooks, movies, advertising, and dominant discourses. Racial stress results from an interruption to what is racially familiar. In turn, whites are often at a loss for how to respond in constructive ways., as we have not had to build the cognitive or affective skills or develop the stamina that that would allow for constructive engagement across racial divides. leading to what I refer to as White Fragility. White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium. This book explicates the dynamics of White Fragility and how we might build our capacity in the on-going work towards racial justice.”
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
“Me and White Supremacy: A 28-Day Challenge to Combat Racism, Change the World and Become a Good Ancestor leads readers through a journey of understanding their white privilege and participation in white supremacy so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on black, indigenous and people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too. The book goes beyond the original workbook by adding more historical and cultural contexts, sharing moving stories and anecdotes, and includes expanded definitions, examples, and further resources.”
White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise
“In this completely revised, “Remix” version of his highly-acclaimed memoir, White Like Me, Tim Wise explores how racial identity and whiteness influence the lives of white Americans, by examining how they have impacted his own life. Wise examines what it means to be white in a nation created for the benefit of those who are “white like him,” and how privilege seeps into every institutional arrangement, from education to employment to the justice system. Importantly, he also discusses the ways that white privilege can ultimately harm its recipients in the long run and make progressive social change less likely. Through personal storytelling and convincing analysis, Wise makes the case that racial inequity and white privilege are real and persistent threats to personal and collective well-being, but that resistance to white supremacy and racism is possible.”
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh
Identifying the many layers of white privilege in a short PDF.
Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Anthony Greenwald & Mahzarin Banaji
“In Blindspot, Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald explore hidden biases that we all carry from a lifetime of experiences with social groups – age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, social class, sexuality, disability status, or nationality. “Blindspot” is a metaphor to capture that portion of the mind that houses hidden biases. The authors use it to ask about the extent to which social groups – without our awareness or conscious control – shape our likes and dislikes, our judgments about people’s character, abilities, and potential.
In Blindspot, hidden biases are revealed through hands-on experience with the method that has revolutionized the way scientists are learning about the human mind, and that gives us a glimpse into what lies within the metaphoric blindspot – the Implicit Association Test. The title’s “good people” are the many people – the authors included – who strive to align their behavior with their good intentions. The aim of Blindspot is to explain the science in plain enough language to allow well-intentioned people to better achieve that alignment. Venturing into this book is an invitation to understand our own minds.”
How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
“Ibram X. Kendi’s concept of antiracism reenergizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America–but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. Instead of working with the policies and system we have in place, Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.
Additional list of resources for anti-racism work led by Black authors and teachers.
How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion by Peggy McIntosh (TEDxTimberlane Schools)
Seeing White by Scene On Radio
Peanut Butter, Jelly, and Racism, New York Times video
Understanding My Privilege by Sue Borrego (TEDxPasadena Women)
White fragility lecture by Robin DiAngelo
Deconstructing White Privilege with Dr. Robin DiAngelo
Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism, MPR News with Kerri Miller and Robin DiAngelo
White Fragility Self-Test by New England Yearly Meeting of Friends Quakers
White Privilege Checklist by Peggy McInstosh
Harvard Implicit Bias Test from Project Implicit
Scaffolded Anti-Racist Resources “This is a working document for scaffolding anti-racism resources. The goal is to facilitate growth for white folks to become allies, and eventually accomplices for anti-racist work. These resources have been ordered in an attempt to make them more accessible. We will continue to add resources.”
Dismantling Racism Works Web Workbook – a site full of information, resources and explorations relating to racism and white supremacy.
Understanding and Confronting Racial Injustice from University of Minnesota Extension
Homelessness, Housing, Economic Perspectives, and Harm Reduction
This is by no means an exhaustive or definitive list of resources. Rather, it is meant to simply act as a “jumping-off point” for those interested in learning more about homelessness and how it impacts our community.
Books & Articles:
Note: To best support the authors and as a part of the fight against systemic racism, please consider purchasing these books directly from the author, the publisher, or from the list of Black independently owned bookstores with online stores listed here whenever possible.
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
“In Evicted, Princeton sociologist and MacArthur “Genius” Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they each struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of twenty-first-century America’s most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.”
Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
“Millions of Americans work full time, year round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job — any job — can be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich left her home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find, and accepted whatever jobs she was offered. Moving from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, she worked as a waitress, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a nursing-home aide, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk. She lived in trailer parks and crumbling residential motels. Very quickly, she discovered that no job is truly “unskilled,” that even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and muscular effort. She also learned that one job is not enough; you need at least two if you int to live indoors.
Nickel and Dimed reveals low-rent America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity — a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate stratagems for survival. Read it for the smoldering clarity of Ehrenreich’s perspective and for a rare view of how “prosperity” looks from the bottom. You will never see anything — from a motel bathroom to a restaurant meal — in quite the same way again.”
$2 a Day by Kathryn Edin and H. Luke Shaefer
“After two decades of groundbreaking research on American poverty, Kathryn Edin noticed something she hadn’t seen before — households surviving on virtually no cash income. Edin, whose deep examination of her subjects’ lives has “turned sociology upside down” (Mother Jones), teamed with Luke Shaefer, an expert on surveys of the incomes of the poor. The two made a surprising discovery: the number of American families living on $2.00 per person, per day, has skyrocketed to one and a half million American households, including about three million children.
But the fuller story remained to be told. Where do these families live? How did they get so desperately poor? What do they do to survive? In search of answers, Edin and Shaefer traveled across the country to speak with families living in this extreme poverty. Through the book’s many compelling profiles, moving and startling answers emerge: a low-wage labor market that increasingly fails to deliver a living wage, and a growing but hidden landscape of survival strategies among America’s extreme poor. Not just a powerful exposé, $2.00 a Day delivers new evidence and new ideas to our national debate on income inequality.”
Tell Them Who I Am by Elliot Leibow
“Unveiling the problems inherent in the current system of providing for the homeless is only part of the dynamic at work here. Tell Them Who I Am gives real voice to these women and their stories. They are clearly human beings, and Elliot does nothing to strip them of their dignity or humanity. If any criticism could be made I suppose it might be to suggest that Elliot is too close to his subjects. Perhaps this is an apt counter to most of the distancing, impartial-observer accounts of the homeless common to social science texts. There is no feeling of these women as bugs under a microscope. We see their world, as we should, through their eyes.”
Better Must Come by Matthew Marr
“In Better Must Come, Matthew D. Marr reveals how social contexts at various levels combine and interact to shape the experiences of transitional housing program users in two of the most prosperous cities of the global economy, Los Angeles and Tokyo. Marr, who has conducted fieldwork in U.S. and Japanese cities for over two decades, followed the experiences of thirty-four people as they made use of transitional housing services and after they left such programs. This comparative ethnography is groundbreaking in two ways—it is the first book to directly focus on exits from homelessness in American or Japanese cities, and it is the first targeted comparison of homelessness in two global cities.
Marr argues that homelessness should be understood primarily as a socially generated, traumatic, and stigmatizing predicament, rather than as a stable condition, identity, or culture. He pushes for movement away from the study of “homeless people” and “homeless culture” toward an understanding of homelessness as a condition that can be transcended at individual and societal levels. Better Must Come prescribes policy changes to end homelessness that include expanding subsidized housing to persons without disabilities and experiencing homelessness chronically, as well as taking broader measures to address vulnerabilities produced by labor markets and housing markets, as well as the rapid deterioration of social safety nets that often results from neoliberal globalization.”
The Soloist by Steve Lopez
“Journalist Steve Lopez discovered of Nathaniel Ayers, a former classical bass student at Julliard, playing his heart out on a two-string violin on Los Angeles’s Skid Row. Deeply affected by the beauty of Ayers’s music, Lopez took it upon himself to change the prodigy’s life—only to find that their relationship would have a profound change on his own.”
Project Homeless from the Seattle Times
Without a Home During COVID: A Crisis Within a Crisis from Dr. Sanjay Gupta
Busted: America’s Poverty Myths. “A series exploring how our understanding of poverty is shaped not by facts, but by private presumptions, media narratives, and the tales of the American Dream. The problem has been addressed countless times since the nation’s founding, but it persists, and for the poorest among us, it gets worse. America has not been able to find its way to a sustainable solution, because most of its citizens see the problem of poverty from a distance, through a distorted lens.”
We The Unhoused by Theo Henderson. “We The Unhoused is a podcast that lifts the voices and struggles of the unhoused in LA and beyond. Host Theo Henderson is currently unhoused and resides in Chinatown, Los Angeles. He tackles issues such as police brutality, harassment, policy, and the survival challenges of unhoused people. Through a series of interviews, we will discuss issues that are germane to unhoused people like the cost of living, gentrification, health struggles, harm reduction, and trauma-informed care. The revolution will be heard on this podcast. Tune in each week to be a part of it.”
The Illusion of Choice: Evictions and Profit in North Minneapolis by Dr. Brittany Lewis and the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA)
Under One Roof: Stories on Minnesota’s Housing Crisis – TPT Originals
MESH Homelessness 101 and 201 trainings and other trainings related to homelessness.
PlaySpent.org – Interactive tool to understand the causes and circumstances that sometimes create homelessness.
Understanding and Confronting Racial Injustice from University of Minnesota Extension
Immigration
This is by no means an exhaustive or definitive list of resources. Rather, it is meant to simply act as a “jumping-off point” for those interested in learning more about anti-racist work and supporting the Black, Indigenous, and people of color in our community.
Books & Articles:
Note: To best support the authors and as a part of the fight against systemic racism, please consider purchasing these books directly from the author, the publisher, or from an independent bookstore.
The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang
“In search of a place to call home, thousands of Hmong families made the journey from the war-torn jungles of Laos to the overcrowded refugee camps of Thailand and onward to America. But lacking a written language of their own, the Hmong experience has been primarily recorded by others. Driven to tell her family’s story after her grandmother’s death, The Latehomecomer is Kao Kalia Yang’s tribute to the remarkable woman whose spirit held them all together. It is also an eloquent, firsthand account of a people who have worked hard to make their voices heard.
Beginning in the 1970s, as the Hmong were being massacred for their collaboration with the United States during the Vietnam War, Yang recounts the harrowing story of her family’s captivity, the daring rescue undertaken by her father and uncles, and their narrow escape into Thailand where Yang was born in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp.
When she was six years old, Yang’s family immigrated to America, and she evocatively captures the challenges of adapting to a new place and a new language. Through her words, the dreams, wisdom, and traditions passed down from her grandmother and shared by an entire community have finally found a voice.
Together with her sister, Kao Kalia Yang is the founder of a company dedicated to helping immigrants with writing, translating, and business services. A graduate of Carleton College and Columbia University, Yang has recently screened The Place Where We Were Born , a film documenting the experiences of Hmong American refugees. Visit her website at www.kaokaliayang.com.”
Planting SEADS – Southeast Asian Diaspora Stories by Chanida Phaengdara Potter
“What are the stories Southeast Asians carry from the Mekong to the Mississippi? In Minnesota’s first Southeast Asian-authored anthology of stories, poetry and artwork, the Southeast Asian diaspora storytelling (SEADS) initiative aims to reclaim, honor and amplify the lived experiences of veterans, mothers, activists, scholars and other historically invisible narratives of Hmong, Khmer, Lao and Vi’t community members. From childhood sweethearts to memories of the CIA secret armies, to first winters in Minnesota these stories explore long-buried edges of war and grief, memories and the resilience to rebuild and reimagine the lives our elders believe we could have for ourselves. The high costs and the unexpected treasures. These stories leave the reader with a renewed sense of hope and an understanding of the urgency for everyone to learn from our shared history so that future generations do not have to repeat it. SEADS is a collaboration in partnership with The SEAD Project, ManForward, mk nguyen, and Narate Keys. To learn more, visit www.theseadproject.org.”
From Somalia to Snow: How Central Minnesota Became Home to Somalis by Hudda O. Ibrahim
“At a time when United States citizens are being told to fear their Muslim neighbors, where does the truth lie? In this book, Hudda Ibrahim unpacks the immigration narrative of Somali Americans and explains why nearly 20 percent have chosen to settle in Minnesota. From Somalia to Snow gives readers an invaluable insider’s look into the lives and culture of our Somali neighbors and the important challenges they face. Designed with a diverse audience in mind, this book is a must-read for students, health-care professionals, business owners, social service agencies, and anyone who wants to better understand Somali people in Minnesota.”
Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories From A Minneapolis High School by 30 Wellstone International High School students
“Green Card Youth Voices: Immigration Stories from a Minneapolis High School is a unique collection of thirty personal essays written by students from Wellstone International High School. Coming from thirteen different countries, these youth share stories of family, school, change, and dreams. The broad range of experiences and the honesty with which these young people tell their stories is captured here with inspiring clarity. Although their reasons for immigrating are vast, a common thread united them; despite tremendous tribulation, these young people continue to work toward the futures of which they dream. With the included study guide and glossary, Green Card Youth Voices is an exceptional resource for English and social science classes, adult learners, ESL classrooms, and book clubs.”–Page 4 of cover.
Fresh Fruit and Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States by Seth Holmes
“Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies provides an intimate examination of the everyday lives and suffering of Mexican migrants in our contemporary food system. An anthropologist and MD in the mold of Paul Farmer and Didier Fassin, Seth M. Holmes shows how market forces, anti-immigrant sentiment, and racism undermine health and health care. Holmes’s material is visceral and powerful. He trekked with his companions illegally through the desert into Arizona and was jailed with them before they were deported. He lived with indigenous families in the mountains of Oaxaca and in farm labor camps in the U.S., planted and harvested corn, picked strawberries, and accompanied sick workers to clinics and hospitals. This “embodied anthropology” deepens our theoretical understanding of the ways in which social inequalities and suffering come to be perceived as normal and natural in society and in health care.”
Unauthorized: Portraits of Latino Immigrants by Marisol Clark-Ibáñez and Richelle S. Swan
“Unauthorized: Portraits of Latino Immigrants takes readers inside the diverse contemporary worlds of undocumented Latino immigrants in the United States, exploring the myths and realities of education, health care, work, deportation, and more. This book aims to dispel common misconceptions while introducing readers to real people behind the headlines.
Chapters explore the myths and realities of topics including education, health care, work, deportation, and more. As immigration remains a controversial topic in the United States, this book aims to dispel common misconceptions about immigration while introducing readers to the real people behind the headlines.
The topic of undocumented immigration has received tremendous attention—from the debate on immigration reform to the Executive Actions of President Obama to the growing numbers of unaccompanied minors from Central America and more. In addition, the Syrian refugee crisis and the anti-immigrant discourse of presidential candidate Donald Trump have enraged many observers and emboldened others. This book provides factual information to readers who are interested in learning more about these issues and the people who are labeled “illegal.” Each chapter draws on both existing and original research to provide an accessible overview of key themes, and case studies bring issues to life.”
Unequal Outcomes: Most ICE Detainees Held In Rural Areas Where Deportation Risks Soar by Yuki Noguchi for NPR
Sanctuary City Hotline an OP-Doc by the New York Times. “ICE has triggered a perpetual state of fear among undocumented immigrants in the U.S. — even among those living in so-called sanctuary cities.”
The Chinese Exclusion Act from PBS. “Examine the origin, history and impact of the 1882 law that made it illegal for Chinese workers to come to America and for Chinese nationals already here ever to become U.S. citizens. The first in a long line of acts targeting the Chinese for exclusion, it remained in force for more than 60 years.”
Understanding and Confronting Racial Injustice from University of Minnesota Extension
Mentoring, Education System, and Tools for Interactions and Understanding
This is by no means an exhaustive or definitive list of resources. Rather, it is meant to simply act as a “jumping-off point” for those interested in learning more about education, mentoring and engagement.
Books & Articles:
Note: To best support the authors and as a part of the fight against systemic racism, please consider purchasing these books directly from the author, the publisher, or from the list of Black independently owned bookstores with online stores listed here whenever possible.
Critical Mentoring: A Practical Guide by Torie Weiston-Serdan with foreward by Bernadette Sanchez
“This book introduces the concept of critical mentoring, presenting its theoretical and empirical foundations, and providing telling examples of what it looks like in practice, and what it can achieve. Critical mentoring provides mentors with a new and essential transformational practice that challenges deficit-based notions of protégés, questions their forced adaptation to dominant ideology, counters the marginalization and minoritization of young people of color, and endows them with voice, power and choice to achieve in society while validating their culture and values.”
The View from Room 205: By Linda Lutton from Chicago public radio. “Can schools make the American Dream real for poor kids?”
The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (TED Talk)
3 Ways to Speak English by Jamila Lyiscott
5 Ways to Move from a Charity Mindset toward Justice Work from St Johns Episcopal, CT
Understanding and Confronting Racial Injustice from University of Minnesota Extension
21-Day Racial Justice Challenge, a powerful collection of resources created by the Student Diversity & Inclusion Services Office at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.