Antiracism Resources

A key pillar of our mission is to build relationships and mutual understanding among and between various ethnic, racial, and religious groups. We cannot do that until we create a community that is as welcoming and inclusive for all Jews. Our 18 Day Exploration of Racial Justice was one way to begin important conversations about race in Baltimore’s Jewish community. We have compiled a collection of resources for those who joined us on that journey and would like to continue their learning, and for those who did not join us but would like to begin their own exploration. If you are interested in learning more about the BJC’s racial justice work, please contact Sarah Mersky Miicke.

Resources From The 18 Days

More About Our Facilitators and Creators of the 18 Days

Tracie Guy-Decker

Yosef Webb Cohen

Resources to Expand Your Learning and Analysis

Podcasts:

Articles, Videos, and Websites

Books

Note: If you decide to buy a title, please try to buy from your favorite independent bookseller, or find one on bookshop.org

Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010)

Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time (1963)

Brodkin, Karen. How Jews Became White Folks, and What that Says about Race in America (1998)

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me (2015)

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood (2008).

DiAngelo, Robin. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism (2018)

Goldstein, Eric L. The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity (2006)

Goldstein, Eric L. and Deborah R. Weiner On Middle Ground: A History of the Jews of Baltimore (2018)

Irving, Debby. Waking Up White: And Finding Myself in the Story of Race (2014)

Kendi, Ibram X. How to be an Antiracist (2019)

Kendi, Ibram X. Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (2016)

Lanahan, Lawrence. The Lines Between Us: Two Families and a Quest to Cross Baltimore’s Racial Divide (2019)

McKesson, Deray. On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope (2018)

Metzl, Jonathan. Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland (2019)

Oluo, Ijeoma. So You Want to Talk About Race (2019)

Pietila, Antero. Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City (2010)

Rankine, Claudia. Citizen: An American Lyric (2014)

Rothstein, Richard. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America (2017)

Saad, Layla. Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World and Become a Good Ancestor (2020)

Thurston, Baratunde. How to be Black (2012)

Watkins, D. We Speak for Ourselves: A Word from Forgotten Black America (2019)

Wilkerson, Isabel. Caste: The Origin of Our Discontent (2020)