On this webpage we are compiling resources against racism in the United States, against police brutality, against mass incarceration, for the families of victims, for education and social justice, for Black empowerment.
Be safe, stand strong. Black Lives Matter.
updated 06.16.2023CRITICAL READING
As a part of the contemporary reckoning with race and white supremacy in America, many anti-racist reading lists have made the rounds. To complement this work, A.I.R. wishes to bring to the fore historical and contemporary texts for Black radicalism, revolution, and power. Such texts, both historical and contemporary, are the bedrock to an understanding of race in America. If anything has proven itself of late, it is the vitality of understanding American history—an American history that centers the history of Black America—and of understanding the function of white supremacy and whiteness in America. Through pulling passages from texts and soliciting responses to them, we hope to introduce both the A.I.R. community and beyond to the integral ideas and words of revolutionary Black thinkers, highlighting their texts and bringing them into a contemporary conversation about race in America.
*Texts featured below can be purchased online from Black-owned bookstores. Find a list here.*
Adam Pendleton, “Black Dada Manifesto” and “Afterword” in Black Dada Reader (London: Koenig Books, 2017).
Audre Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” in Sister Outsider (1984).
June Jordan, “Poem about My Rights” in Directed By Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan (Copper Canyon Press, 2017).
Angela Y. Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete? (Seven Stories Press, 2003)
“Revolutionary Hope: A Conversation Between James Baldwin and Audre Lorde” in Essence (1984), republished online by The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA)
adrienne maree brown, “a word for white people in two parts”, published on her blog (2020); See: Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good (AK Press, 2017) and Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (AK Press, 2019)
"The Combahee River Collective Statement” (1977); See: How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective, edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (Haymarket Books, 2017)
W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
Stefano Harney and Fred Moten, The Undercommons (Autonomedia, 2013)
Edwidge Danticat, "‘All Immigrants Are Artists’" in The Atlantic (2013)
Tina Campt, Listening to Images (Duke University Press, 2017)
Saidiya Hartman interviewed by Catherine Damman, “Saidiya Hartman on insurgent histories and the abolitionist imaginary” in Artforum (July 14, 2020)
Claudia Rankine, The White Card (Graywolf Press, 2019)
Charlene A. Carruthers, Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements (Beacon Press, 2018)
In addition to these texts, Radical Justice Bookshelf is a website that makes it easier to find books sold at Black-owned bookstores.
Relief
Black Trans Travel Fund is a mutual aid that provides Black trans women with materials and finances needed for accessing safer travel options.
Emergency Relief Fund: “The mission of the Emergency Release Fund is to ensure that no trans person at risk in New York City jails remains in detention before trial. If cash bail is set for a trans person in New York City and no bars to release are in place, bail will be paid by the Emergency Release Fund.”
FUNDRAISING/BAIL/PETITION/TRANS RESOURCES
For Black Empowerment
The Black Collective: “Centering the experiences of the African diaspora, The Black Collective is an organization committed to promoting a shared agenda to elevate political consciousness and amplify the economic power of Black communities.”
Black Lives Matter: Defund the Police
Black Vision Collective is an organization that builds Black leadership and political movements across Minnesota to empower local Black communities.
BOLD (Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity) is a national leadership initiative that trains Black leaders to rebuild their communities.
Brave Space Alliance is the first Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ+ Center committed to fostering safe spaces for LGBTQ+ folk in Chicago.
Brooklyn Movement Center is a Black-led organization that encourages and nurtures local leadership in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights.
Collective PAC is an organization working to change the underrepresentation of Black Americans in politics.
Color of Change organizes “online actions and in-person events you can join to stand up for racial justice.”
Fight for the Gworls is an NYC-based collective raising money for gender-affirming surgeries, medical bills, doctor’s visits, travel assistance, and funding Black trans rent.
Funds for Black Owned Businesses, Compiled by Black Lives Matter
Giving Gap is an organization that helps to “advance racial equity in giving and mobilize positive action for Black lives by connecting people to causes they care about.”
HOUSING is a platform for “stimulating public discourse through the work of artists and creative practitioners whose works show critical commentary and intent.” Find their resource page with information on relief funds, health, housing, and empowerment here.
Movement for Black Lives: “A space for Black organizations across the country to debate and discuss the current political conditions, develop shared assessments of what political interventions were necessary in order to achieve key policy, cultural, and political wins, and convene organizational leadership in order to debate and co-create a shared movement-wide strategy.”
The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation is a non-profit organization that aims to eradicate the stigma around mental health issues in the African-American community.
Marsha P. Johnson Institute defends Black trans human rights by “organizing, advocating, creating an intentional community to heal, developing transformative leadership, and promoting our collective power.”
The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC): “leading national civil rights organization dedicated to the empowerment of Black LGBTQ+ people, including people living with HIV/AIDS through coalition building, federal policy change, research, and education.”
Audre Lorde Project is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color center for community organizing, focusing on the New York City area.
The Okra Project is a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black trans people by bringing home-cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black trans people wherever we can reach them.
Resources for Black People Experiencing Racial Trauma
Snap for Freedom is a Black trans collective based in Atlanta working to create more opportunities for the local Black trans community.
For Black Women and Girls
A Long Walk Home: “Empowers young artists and activists to end violence against all girls and women. We advocate for racial and gender equity in schools, communities, and our country-at-large.”
Black Girls CODE is an organization that empowers young Black women learning to code, providing programs in an array of areas.
Black Mamas Matter Alliance: “We envision a world where Black mamas have the rights, respect, and resources to thrive before, during, and after pregnancy.”
Black Women Radicals: “A Black feminist advocacy organization dedicated to uplifting and centering Black women’s radical political activism. We are a collective of Black women who represent and uplift Black women of diverse gender identities and gender expressions, educational backgrounds, nationalities, religious and/or non-religious affiliations, languages, ethnicities, and more who have diverse pathways of and to Blackness and to Black womanhood(s) but who are all committed to uplifting, centering, and honoring Black women in their entireties.”
Black Women for Wellness is an organization “committed to the health and well-being of Black women and girls through health education, empowerment, and advocacy.”
GirlTrek is a membership-based collective working to both heal intergenerational trauma and systemic racism and promote public health through organizing walking teams around America.
Higher Heights for America is an organization that helps Black women harness their power to expand Black women’s elected representation and voting participation, and advance progressive policies.
Isuroon is a grassroots non-profit organization working to promote the well-being and empowerment of Somali women in Minnesota and beyond.
SisterSong: “A Southern based, national membership organization; our purpose is to build an effective network of individuals and organizations to improve institutional policies and systems that impact the reproductive lives of marginalized communities.”
For Education and Social Services
Black Youth Project: “The Black Youth Project will examine the attitudes, resources, and culture of the young, urban Black millennial, exploring how these factors and others influence their decision-making, norms, and behavior in critical domains such as sex, health, and politics.”
Highlander Research and Education Center is a grassroots organization based in the South and Appalachia fighting for sustainability and racial justice through popular education, language justice, participatory research, and intergenerational organizing.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities Foundation: a nonprofit organization aims to “provide scholarship aid to deserving students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities. We partner with 102 public and private member-schools to: Increase access, retention and graduation rates of all students; Identify and adequately equip students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities who have displayed significant leadership potential; Create a talent pipeline for hiring organizations of top-tier, well-rounded, HBCU students and alumni; Foster a new generation of entrepreneurially and globally-minded, HBCU student and alumni leaders.”
Against Racism
Ibram X. Kendi, How to be Anti-Racist — NYPL Audio Book
Layla F. Saad, Do the work: an anti-racist reading list — The Guardian
Layla F. Saad, Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor — NYPL E-Book and NYPL Audio Book
Mireille Cassandra Harper, 10 Steps to Non-Optical Allyship — Instagram post
Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility - PDF
Scaffolded list of anti-racism resources 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.”
List of resources from SURJ (Showing Up For Racial Justice) NYC
Against Police Brutality
Abolitionist Futures — Introduction to Abolition: the full reading list
Campaign Zero is an organization dedicated to eliminating deaths due to police violence and brutality by “limiting police interventions, improving community interactions, and ensuring accountability.”
Center for Policing Equity: “Center for Policing Equity can measure bias in policing. That means we can stop it. 1 in 5 Americans interacts with law enforcement yearly. Of those encounters, 1 million result in use of force. And if you’re Black, you are 2–4 times more likely to have force used than if you are White. Reform can work. Working directly with police to measure behaviors and revise policies results in fewer people killed, and fewer people in jail.”
Equality for Flatbush: “A Black/POC-led, grassroots organization which does police accountability, affordable housing, and anti-gentrification/anti-displacement organizing in Flatbush, East Flatbush, and Brooklyn-wide.”
Mapping Police Violence: “A 501(c)(3) organization that publishes the most comprehensive and up-to-date data on police violence in America to support transformative change.”
National Police Accountability Project: “The central mission of NPAP is to promote the accountability of law enforcement officers and their employers for violations of the Constitution and the laws of the United States.”
Reclaim the Block is a Minneapolis based organization that calls on its community “to invest in violence prevention, housing, resources for youth, emergency mental health response teams, and solutions to the opioid crisis—not more police.”
8 can't wait info is a campaign to bring immediate change to police departments.
Minneapolis Police Department 150 “Enough is Enough” contains reports and resources for police reform.
Against Mass Incarceration
Black Immigrants Bail Fund is a project that offers free assistance to Black immigrants, with the goal of ending the mass incarceration of Black immigrants.
Equal Justice Initiative is an organization working to end mass incarceration through offering legal representation and human rights support to people who have been wrongfully convicted, sentenced, or abused in state jails.
Grassroots Law Project is an organization fighting for liberation from “policing, incarceration, and racial injustice in America.”
Minnesota Freedom Fund: “Pays criminal bail and immigration bond for those who cannot afford to as we seek to end discriminatory, coercive, and oppressive jailing.”
Local Bail Funds:
New York: Envision Freedom Fund
Chicago: Chicago Community Bond Fund
Seattle: Northwest Community Bail Fund
Louisville: Louisville Community Bail Fund
Or google one where you live!
Louisville Community Bail Fund: “Exists to not only bail out folks, but provide post-release support to get them from jail, fed, and to a situation of safety.”
National Bail Out: “A Black-led and Black-centered collective of abolitionist organizers, lawyers and activists building a community-based movement to support our folks and end systems of pretrial detention and ultimately mass incarceration.”
Parole Preparation Project provides “critical advocacy and direct support to currently and formerly incarcerated people serving life sentences, and seek to transform the parole release process in New York State.”