Educate yourself

How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Video in which Ibram X. Kendi introduces his ground-breaking book 'How to be an Antiracist'.

How to be Anti-Racist in the Arts

What does it mean to be an ally to people of colour? What does it mean to remove blackface from our streaming services? And what can the creative sector do to advance racial equity?

Diversity Arts Australia and the British Council launched the Creative Equity Toolkit with this timely conversation in partnership with Sydney Opera House.

101 Links to Black Writers and Voices

Links to work by black writers, journalists, scholars and other commentators in Australia in the context of Black Lives Matter.

'As I write this on 23 June 2020, the two scholars most cited and promoted on social media in the field of racism and privilege, are White... The promotion of their work over Black writers perpetuates the idea that White people understand racism best, and that only they can solve it. Dangerously, it suggests that racism actually has nothing to do with Black people.'

White Fragility

The 2011 article in which Robin DiAngelo introduces her theory which became her best-selling book.

'White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium.'

Gary Foley: Advice for white Indigenous activists in Australia

First Nations historian, activist and leader, Gary Foley, explains the do's and don't's of white activism.

'If people are serious about wanting to become involved in the struggle for justice, the first thing you need to do is not go and talk to any blackfellas at all, really, you need to look in the mirror - you need to look at yourself, you need to look at yourself, you need to think hard and fast about who you are and make sure you haven't got psychological identity problems of your own.'

Being Antiracist

Toolkit and analysis of Anti-Racism.

'Reflect on choices you make in your daily life (i.e., who you build relationships with, what media you follow, where you shop). How do these choices reflect being antiracist?'

A real history of Aboriginal Australians, the first agriculturalists

Bruce Pascoe introduces his influential research in Australian history, which he wrote about in Dark Emu.

'In 2014 I wrote a book Dark Emu, which exploded the myth that Aboriginal people were mere hunters and gatherers and did nothing with the land. I wrote the book because I found it hard to convince Australians that Aboriginal people were farming.'

Anti-racism requires so much more than 'checking your privilege'

Article responding to the celebrity 'I take responsibility' pledges sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement.

'The mainstreaming of anti-racist discourse is causing many people to question their own position in the world. As welcome as this is, let’s not stop at self-reflection. Unlearning personal prejudices should coincide with undoing the structures, logics and economic arrangements that perpetuate global anti-blackness.'

What is Systemic Racism?

An 8-part video series from the US on how racism shows up in our lives across institutions and society: Wealth Gap, Employment, Housing Discrimination, Government Surveillance, Incarceration, Drug Arrests, Immigration Arrests, Infant Mortality.

Around 1 minute each.

White People Are Noticing Something New: Their Own Whiteness

Article on white people in the US becoming aware of their racial identity for the first time.

'For a long time, many white people assumed it was our due, as the majority, to encounter various racial others and marvel at the exotic things they ate, built or wore. Now we can go online and find people of color doing the gawking, offering jokes and anthropological scrutiny about white people’s underseasoning food, mistreating potato salad or eschewing washcloths.'

Unseen. Unheard. Race and Disability - Black disabled experience in the UK's music industry

Black Lives in Music's 2021 survey revealed Black disabled people working in the UK music industry face pronounced challenges for opportunities and funding; 91% of survey respondents are dissatisfied with current levels of industry support.

The report includes calls to action to address this in the areas of Representation, Consultation and Commitment.

Resourcing Black Lives

List of resources from the UK's Skin Deep.

'The struggle for black liberation in the UK, the US and globally must be rooted in protecting and resourcing strength and joy in black communities.'

What the Author of Me and White Supremacy Wants You to Know About Anti-Racism Work

Interview with the British author Layla F Saad about her 2020 bestseller and her viral Instagram 28-day journalling challenge #meandwhitesupremacy challenging white people to learn about their complicity in white supremacy.

'The act of journaling alongside it really requires you to look only at yourself and to take self responsibility for the ways that you have had racist thoughts, have racist beliefs, done racist things, even when you weren’t meaning to.'

Tara June Winch wins 2020 Miles Franklin award for her book The Yield: ‘It broke my heart to write'

Wiradjuri writer Tara June Winch talks about winning Australia's prestigious Miles Franklin literary award for her book The Yield.

"This is true, every historical violence was word for word. So the language is true, the history of the language was true, what colonisation did to that part of Australia is true. So there’s a lot of historical fact in it, that’s more my point of truth. You can learn a lot from it; I learned a lot from writing it.”

'I have never stopped': Aileen Moreton-Robinson on 20 years of Talkin' Up to the White Woman

Interview with Goenpul author Aileen Moreton-Robinson on the re-release of her book that critiques feminist constructions of Indigenous women and Indigenous women's constructions of white feminism. The new edition looks at her book's initial reception. The reviews were “playing chicken at the intersection … [their] understanding of how power works limited to subjective and individual choices about being ‘good’ or ‘bad’.”

10 Things To Watch To Learn About Black Oppression & Systemic Racism #BlackLivesMatter

Video essay with 10 recommended things to watch on streaming services to get started on learning about Black experience, black oppression and systemic racism.

How to be a good Indigenous ally

Checklist of seven actions that non-Indigenous people can take to support Australian First Nations communities, including 'preference our voices' and 'be ok with not always being part of the conversation'.

'We need good allies. We are only three per cent of the Australian population. We can’t raise the profile of issues affecting us without our allies. But what does a good ally look like?'

‘Tokenised, silenced’: new research reveals Indigenous public servants’ experiences of racism

Australian research into the experiences of Indigenous people in the workplace and why there's a consistent lack of representation at leadership levels.

'A deeper understanding about what racism is and how race works is a good place to start. Non-Indigenous colleagues and managers must commit to anti-racist workplaces. This requires managers to act on reports of racism - the continued failure to do so makes them complicit in perpetuating white supremacy.'

The Music Industry Was Built on Racism. Changing It Will Take More Than Donations

In the aftermath of Blackout Tuesday when many in the music industry supported the Black Lives Matter movement, this article looks at the systemic racism built into the music industry, especially the lack of people of colour in leadership roles.

'The contemporary popular music industry also has racism baked into its foundation. The term R&B was coined, after all, to replace “race music.” The charts have always been mostly segregated'.

Dismantling Anti-Blackness in Democratic Workplaces

A learning guide with activities, resources, writings, and prompts for further reflection and growth

'Our goal in creating this packet is to equip democratic workplaces with tools to see and address antiBlack racism when it happens, as well as creating systems and practices that undermine anti-Black racism.'

Anti-Racism Kit

The Anti-Racism Kit is a resource designed for high school students, by high school students.