Resources for fighting racism in publishing and pedagogy

[LeighKP (Leigh Kinch-Pedrosa)]

Hello all,

I’m beginning a list of resources that support anti-racist publishing and pedagogy. This list is not complete. I encourage those who are able and willing to contribute, share, and comment. Together, we can combat racism in every community, movement, and organisation. Our company’s statement on systemic racism is available on our blog, and the next newsletter (which, like our previous newsletters, is archived for future viewing) will include a list of actions people involved in the Open Education community can take to fight racism. This list is a starting point. I’m really looking forward to seeing how this list grows. I’ll update this post with links to the statement and the newsletter as soon as they’re available.

Again, I really want to stress that I encourage everyone who can contribute to do so. Fighting racism in higher education and publishing is going to take a community.

Resources for fighting racism in publishing and pedagogy

“White Academia: Do Better” by Jasmine Roberts

If I can recommend one text that everyone should read to inform their anti-racist thinking and practices, (well, I would recommend everyone read a lot more than one text) it would be Jasmine Roberts call to action “White Academia: Do Better.” It’s full of very clear actions that faculty and administrators in higher education can do right now.

#BlackInTheIvory by Joy Melody Woods, MA and Dr. Shardé M. Davis

Follow this hashtag on Twitter to hear accounts of experiences of Black people who work or attend institutions of higher education. I’m a huge believer in the power of personal storytelling, and these are some powerful stories.

“Pulling Together: A Guide for Indigenization of Post-Secondary Institutions; A Professional Learning Series” by BCcampus, the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training, and a steering committee Indigenous education leaders including “Indigenous education leaders from B.C. universities, colleges, and institutes, the First Nations Education Steering Committee, the Indigenous Adult and Higher Learning Association, and Métis Nation British Columbia.”

BCcampus offers a series of guides that a variety of institutions and people can use to indigenize their resources and curriculum.

“Anti-Racist Pedagogy Guide: Methods and challenges” from University of Southern California

This research guide, among others from USC, offers a good set of annotated readings.

“Canadian education is steeped in anti-black racism” by Robyn Maynard

Because Rebus Foundation is headquartered in Canada, it’s important for us to acknowledge and speak out about the racist systems that are close to home. Robyn Maynard is also the author of an excellent book on racist policing in Canada, called Policing Black Lives.

The Noun Project, Women of Color in Tech, and Broadly Gender Spectrum Collection

These three resources are collections of icons and stock photos that can be used to make content more representative of a diverse population.

Cite Black Women “Our Praxis” by Christen A. Smith, PhD

On the Cite Black Women website, Christen A. Smith has clearly broken down the hows and whys of dismantling “patriarchal, white supremacist, heterosexist, imperialist impetus of the neoliberal university (and its accomplices) by centering Black women’s ideas and intellectual contributions.”

“How to Cite Like a Badass Tech Feminist Scholar of Color” by Sareeta Amrute and Rigoberto Lara Guzmán

Download, read, and pass this zine around

[apurva (Apurva Ashok)]

Thanks for putting in this work to get us started, Leigh. I’ve come across many resources myself and more so in conversations with community members over the recent weeks. I’ll add to your list with the following:

• Webinar: Addressing Racial Bias and Microaggressions in Online Environments - I was lucky to view this webinar by Drs. Frank Harris III and J. Luke Wood earlier this year. It’s important to first acknowledge and understand the many different ways in which racism presents itself in the education sphere. Robyn and Jasmine’s pieces offer multiple insights, and this webinar provides another telling perspective from students and teachers. I appreciate Frank and Luke’s RAVEN approach as a practical way to respond to racist situations in the classroom.
• Project Implicit - For organizations that are trying to analyze the implicit bias of the many facets of their organization, look at the work of Project Implicit. Their work is feeding directly into research around implicit social cognition. Many thanks to Drs. Frank Harris III and J. Luke Wood for making me aware of this tool.
• I want to point out a few resources in the University of Southern California libguide:
  • “Teaching Beyond ‘Tolerance’” in ‘The Radical Thinker’ - The last few paragraphs of the introduction is very useful in thinking about the different ways hate, colourism, racism can manifest in the classroom. Plus, essays by Dr. Priya Kandaswamy and others are very useful.
  • James Baldwin’s “A Talk for Teachers” - this is a powerful piece to read. Plus here’s an additional take in an article by Dr. Clint Smith on why it’s relevant: James Baldwin’s Lesson for Teachers in a Time of Turmoil.
• Some articles that may require institutional access:
  • Dismantling anti-black linguistic racism in English language arts classrooms: Toward an anti-racist black language pedagogy by Dr. April Baker-Bell
  • Sidelines and separate spaces: making education anti-racist for students of color by Dr. Deanna M. Blackwell
• @lizalong recommended the Antiracist Writing Assessment Ecologies: Teaching and Assessing Writing for a Socially Just Future book, specifically Dr. Asao Inoue’s chapter on “Anti-racist Writing Assessment Ecologies.” Her team is putting together a list of resources for the purpose of their own project — Liza, would you or someone on the team be willing to share these more broadly?
• @mfp11 recommended the following courses and list of professional sociologists to contact:
  • Beyond Niceness: Critical Reflections on Anti-Racist Allyship by the National Association of Social Workers
  • Sociologists Available to comment on police brutality and racial inequality by the American Sociological Association

I hope that this shapes our collective approach and future work. Thank you again Leigh, and Liza, Michael for this growing list.

[mfp11 (Michael Polgar)]

Thanks Apurva. I learned from the article about anti-black linguistic racism by Dr. April Baker-Bell.
There are also important sociological analyses of urban and street life by sociologists that help contextualize the complex and often constrained roles faced by Black men in particular and by people of color more generally. Dr. Elijah Anderson of Yale is a leading sociologist and ethnographer describing this context. Anderson’s books on these topics include Streetwise and Code of the Streets).

[apurva (Apurva Ashok)]

I’m glad to hear that you’ve read and learned from Dr. Baker-Bell’s article. Thank you these additional for the recommendations! I’m including links to Dr. Anderson’s two books for others to more easily access them:

• Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community
• Code of the Streets: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City

[apurva (Apurva Ashok)]

@jeff.gallant shared a reading list for Disrupting Whiteness in Libraries and Librarianship developed by Dr. Karla J. Strand from the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Twitter. It has been updated this June with new material. Thanks for sharing, Jeff!

[zoe (Zoe Wake Hyde)]

What an awesome list, thanks to all for contributing. Adding a few more things I’ve come across recently:

• It’s Time to End the Publishing Gatekeeping! by the RaceB4Race Executive Board
• A Letter From a Black Woman in Publishing on the Industry’s Cruel, Hypocritical Insistence That Words Matter by Mariah Stovall
• blackillustrations.com (to add to Leigh’s suggested icon/image collections)
• @APStylebook and the #APStyleChat hashtag on Twitter has some great advice on race-related language
• Finding Diverse Sources for Science Stories (good advice that can be adapted to any discipline or type of publication, with a great set of sources for those working in science)
• Improving Representation and Diversity in OER Materials (draft) from OpenStax

And one last one - it isn’t really related to education or publishing (although at the very least, it drives home the vital importance of education affordability that OER works towards), but it is one of the most powerful and extraordinary things I’ve read in recent weeks: What is Owed by Nikole Hannah Jones.