I’m Not Racist… Am I? Follow-up Resources

Learning about racism – and determining the role you will play in addressing it – is an ongoing process. Watching and talking about I’m Not Racist… Am I? can be part of that process, but the information available to learn more about these issues is endless.

This resources below include ways to learn more about the students in the film and the workshops they participated in, suggestions for how to talk with kids about race, and a list for further viewing and reading. We are always building upon this list so if you have a suggestion for something we should add, please send us a message!

——– I Wish I Were Black Educational Video ——–

I Wish I Were Black Video and Discussion Guide

You may recall the moment in I’m Not Racist… Am I? when Martha says, “Personally, I’d rather be Spanish or be black or something.” No one spoke up to challenge that statement, but by the end of the film, Martha realized that must have been an “ouch” moment for others in the room.

This video and accompanying lessons (see PDF downloads on left) use that scene – plus footage that didn’t make the film’s final cut – as a starting point to discuss the concepts of cultural appropriation, privilege, assimilation, and white identity.

Purchase this video for download through Vimeo for $24.99 and download the Level I and Level II discussion guides at left.

——– Students In The Film ——–

In the film, we get to know five of the teens – Kahleek, Martha, Sacha, Anna, and Abby – and look more closely at what they are learning in the workshops and how it affects their daily lives and relationships. But all 12 of the students had important stories to tell and perspectives to share. Find out more about them in these 12 videos featuring footage that didn’t make the film’s final cut.

——– Workshops & Experts In The Film ——–

The 90-minute film shows some of the most powerful moments from the workshops the teens participated in. But nothing can replace the experience of actually participating in those workshops. To learn more about the organizations and experts featured in the film, plus more that didn’t make the film’s final cut, visit our Workshops Page.

——– Continued Research ——–

To gain a more complex and comprehensive understanding of the history of race and institutionalized racism in the United States, start with the PBS and California Newsreel three-part film Race: The Power of an Illusion. This is required viewing!

You can rent it on Vimeo for $4.99: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/race

We also suggest reading Peggy McIntosh’s 1999 seminal article:  Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.

——– Talking With Kids About Race & Racism ——–

There are so many resources for talking with children about these issues. The ones below are a great start. While these specifically address talking with children, we believe that the adults engaging in these conversations with kids also need to spend time learning about these issues and doing their own self-exploration and reflection.

How to Talk About Race with Your Kids, Lifehacker

60+ Resources for Talking to Kids About Racism, Creative with Kids

Birds & Bees, Act Two: If You See Racism, Say Racism, This American Life Podcast

Being 12: The Year Everything Changes – WNYC video series featuring 12-year-old voices. Several of these videos address race.

General Resources

This list includes some of the films, books, websites, and publications we most continually rely upon in our work.

DOCUMENTARIES

Latino in America – CNN’s Soledad O’Brien Reports

Harvest of Shame – with Edward R. Murrow, CBS

Food Chain – produced by Eva Longoria and Eric Schlosser

Latino Americans – produced by PBS

The Abolitionists – American Experience – directed by Rob Rapley

The African Americans: Many Rivers To Cross – with Henry Louis Gates, Jr

Adopted – directed by Barb Lee

American Promise – directed by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson

Black in America and Black in America 2 – with Soledad O’Brien

The Central Park Five – A Film by Ken Burns, David McMahaon, and Sarah Burns

The Color of Fear – directed by Lee Mun Wah

Cracking the Codes: The System of Racial Inequity – a film by Shakti Butler

Latino Americans – a PBS and WETA Production

Life Cycles of Inequity – Colorlines, written by Kai Wright and produced by André Robert Lee

The Prep School Negro by André Robert Lee

Race: The Power of An Illusion – A PBS and California Newsreel Production

Slavery By Another Name – directed by Sam Pollard

Vincent Who? –  a film by Tony Lam

Who Killed Vincent Chin? – directed by Christine Choy, Renee Tajima-Pena

BOOKS

A People’s History of the United States: 1492 – Present, by Howard Zinn

Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Covering, by Kenji Yoshino

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander

Nurture Shock, by Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, by Dr. Joy DeGruy

Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to WWII, by Douglas A. Blackmon

Waking Up White, by Debby Irving

We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know, by Gary R. Howard

Whistling Vivaldi, by Claude Steele

White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, by Tim Wise

I’m Chocolate, You’re Vanilla:  Raising Healthy Black and Biracial Children in a Race-Conscious World, by Marguerite Wright

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations about Race, by Beverly Tatum

Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, by Frank Wu

ARTICLES

The Case for Reparations, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, by Peggy McIntosh

WEBSITES & PUBLICATIONS

Code Switch: Frontiers of Race, Culture and Ethnicity

Colorlines

Identities.Mic

Race: Are We So Different?

Vox Identities

ORGANIZATIONS

Border Crossers

Facing History and Ourselves

The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, Undoing Racism Workshop

Perception Institute

The Privilege Institute

SEED Project

Race Forward

Teaching Tolerance, a Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center

CONFERENCES

Facing Race – A National Conference

The White Privilege Conference

The People of Color Conference