For parents

• The Anti-Racism Project’s Book List
• How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, PhD
• The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs
• Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
• Raising White Kids by Jennifer Harvey
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Olou

For kids

• Coretta Scott King Book Award Winners
  • The awards are given to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values.
• EmbraceRace’s Children’s Book List for Anti-Racist Activism
  • This list is curated to include reading material that can initiate conversations with children about race, racism, and what it means to resist oppression.
• The Conscious Kid’s 41 Children’s Books to Support Conversations on Race, Racism, and Resistance
  • The Conscious Kid is “an educational nonprofit that equips parents and educators with tools they can use to support racial identity development, critical literacy, and equitable practices in their homes and classrooms.”
  • Note: Users need a membership to access this list.

Best for babies and toddlers

• Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi
• A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara
• Woke Baby by Mahogany L. Browne
• “More More More,” Said the Baby by Vera B. Williams
• We’re Different, We’re the Same (Sesame Street) by Bobbi Kates

Best for younger children

• Black is a Rainbow Color by Angela Joy
• IntersectionAllies: We Make Room for All by Chelsea Johnson, LaToya Council, and Carolyn Choi
• Black Brother Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes
• This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do The Work by Tiffany Jewell
• We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices: Words and Images of Hope by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson (editors)
• Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice by Mahogany L. Browne
• Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness by Anastasia Higginbotham
• Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
• Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester
• A Kid’s Book About Racism by Jelani Memory

Best for young adults

• This is My America by Kim Johnson
• Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi & Yself Salaam
• Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You: A Remix by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
• I’m Not Dying With You Tonight by Gilly Segal and Kimberly Jones
• When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds
• On the Come Up by Angie Thomas
• Just Mercy (Adapted for Young Adults) : A True Story of the Fight for Justice by Bryan Stevenson
• All American Boys by Jason Reynolds
• Dear Martin by Nic Stone

Yard Report, the website devoted to reporting Harvard University rot (“You’re going to need a bigger boat!”) get the pointer for flagging the above, and writes in conclusion,

“None of this is subtle. Harvard is using its institutional authority to promote materials that treat white people—including children—as inherently suspect. If a university published a reading list framing Blackness as a pathology requiring correction, the backlash would be immediate and total. The same standard should apply here. Harvard’s administration should remove this page and fire whoever approved it. It’s about time Harvard answered to the American people.”

I completely agree. My diploma from this apparently completely untrustworthy institution has been turned face-to-the-wall in the hallway to my office for years now, and is on floor level so it is effectively out of my sight. Clearly, this is still not exile enough. I’m considering burying it in the back yard.