"In order to address racism, in all the places where we witness it's oppressive power, we need people who understand it, can address it and challenge it." - YWCA Southeast Wisconsin.

Racial Justice Resources 201 Click here for Year 1 Resources

YWCA Southeast Wisconsin is pleased to support learning opportunities for Professional Dimensions members as part of our joint project, The Ripple Effect. This resource list complements the Winter/Spring all-member read for the project's second year, How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi.

How to be an Anti-Racist 

Read How to be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi to build your understanding of how to effect change toward racial equity in the world.

In this powerful memoir and political guide, Kendi argues that we are either racist or antiracist, there is nothing in between.  Buy the book on your own and plan to participate in a  virtual small group discussion on April 22nd from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM hosted by Reframing Reality, the Race Relations SIG, led by Paula Penebaker and Corey Zetts. 

Purchase here

Caste: The Origins of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
(author of The Warmth of Other Suns)
Complete with Oprah’s Book Club Podcast options 

Living Apart
A publication by ProPublica highlighting how government policy undermined de-segregation attempts and the 1968 Fair Housing Act  

The Color of Law:  A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
The author spent years documenting the evidence that government not merely ignored discriminatory practices in the residential sphere, but promoted them. The impact has been devastating: generations of African-Americans have been denied the right to live where they wanted to live, and raise and school their children where they could flourish.

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
A debut novel, New York Times bestseller, Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award.  The story of a young Cameroonian couple building a new life in New York just as the Great Recession begins, touching on immigration, class and race as they pursue the American Dream. More information.

White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness by Ruth Frankenberg
Published in 1993, the author’s work is an early analysis of how racial identity is socially constructed, providing a webbed explanation of the position of white women in American culture. More information.

Toward Racial Justice: A Conversation on Systemic Racism

The Intersectionality of Racism & Sexism
Professor Kimberle Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” more than 30 years ago.

And the conversation continues today…

The Intersectionality Wars by Jane Coaston 

The Effect of Intersectionality in the Workplace – a conference sponsored by The New York Times in February 2019
Video featuring Brittany Paknett
Article by Alina Tugend

The State of Black Milwaukee in National Perspective:  Racial Inequality in the Nation’s 50 Largest Metropolitan Areas in 65 Charts and Tables by Marc V. Levine (July 2020)