How To Be An Antiracist

Reading Schedule

Week 1 (Aug 31 – Sept 6): Introduction + Chapter 1 
Week 2 (Sept 7 – 13): Chapters 2, 3, & 4 
Week 3 (Sept 14 – 20): Chapters 5, 6, & 7 
Week 4 (Sept 21 – 27): Chapters 8 & 9 
Week 5 (Sept 28 – Oct 4): Chapters 10 & 11 
Week 6 (Oct 5 – 11): Chapters 12 & 13 
Week 7 (Oct 12 – 18): Chapters 14, 15, & 16 
Week 8 (Oct 19 – 25): Chapters 17 & 18 
Week 9 (Oct 26 – Nov 1): Catch up & integration

Gatherings

Dates: Wednesday Sept 16, Thursday Oct 8, Thursday Oct 29
Time: 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. MT

Zoom Link for All Gatherings: https://zoom.us/j/386926379

For telephone, dial (for higher quality, dial number based on your current location):
US: +1 669 900 6833 or +1 646 876 9923
Meeting ID: 386 926 379
International numbers available: https://zoom.us/u/cN1z17x22

*All gatherings are virtual and recorded for those who can’t attend live.

Week 1

Reading Assignment: Introduction + Chapter 1

Audio Link (26 min): https://www.annettesloan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/How-To-Be-An-Antiracist-Week-1-Audio.mp3

Calls to Action: 

  1. Begin to develop a definition of the kind of person you want to be. For now, just write down some initial thoughts, core values, etc. You’ll continue to work on this throughout our time with this book.
  2. Write or type up a “cheat sheet” of the definitions Ibram gives us in this chapter. Revisit the definitions every few days in order to help you commit them to memory – not in a “I can repeat them verbatim” kind of way, but in a “I get what this means” kind of way.

Week 2

Reading Assignment: Chapters 2, 3, & 4

Audio Link (30 min): https://www.annettesloan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/How-To-Be-An-Antiracist-Week-2-Audio.mp3

Calls to Action: 

  1. Continue to develop a definition of the kind of person you want to be.
  2. Make a list of things that you believe that people are generally personally responsible for. Then, go through the list, and for each one, ask yourself, “How does policy play a role in this?” (For example: diet, exercise, educational outcomes, career, etc.)
  3. Choose 1-2 parts of this week’s reading that you found the most interesting. Tell someone else about them.

Week 3

Reading Assignment: Chapters 5, 6, & 7

Audio Link (24 min): https://www.annettesloan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/How-To-Be-An-Antiracist-Week-3-Audio.mp3

Calls to Action: 

  1. Continue to develop a definition of the kind of person you want to be.
  2. Choose 1-2 parts of this week’s reading that you found the most interesting. Tell someone else about them.
  3. In your own words, write down an explanation of your understanding of ethnic, body, and cultural racism and antiracism.

Week 4

Reading Assignment: Chapters 8 & 9

Audio Link (29 min): https://www.annettesloan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/How-To-Be-An-Antiracist-Week-4-Audio.mp3

Calls to Action: 

  1. Continue to work on a definition of the kind of person you want to be.
  2. Choose 1-2 parts of this week’s reading that you found the most interesting. Tell someone else about them.
  3. In your own words, write down an explanation of your understanding of behavioral racism and antiracism as well as colorism and color antiracism.

Week 5

Reading Assignment: Chapters 10 & 11

Audio Link (25 min): https://www.annettesloan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/How-To-Be-An-Antiracist-Week-5-Audio.mp3

Calls to Action: 

  1. Journal or have a conversation with someone on this prompt: “Do you agree with Ibram’s ideas that not all white people are racist and that Black people can be racist? Why or why not?”
  2. Write down a list of questions you are wrestling with at this point in the reading, including any that are specific to the discrepancies between this book and White Fragility.

Week 6

Reading Assignment: Chapters 12 & 13

Audio Link (31 min): https://www.annettesloan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/How-To-Be-An-Antiracist-Week-6-Audio.mp3

Calls to Action: 

  1. For the next few weeks, as you engage with the news, ask yourself the question “Do I see evidence that racism and capitalism are ‘conjoined twins?’” Look for specific examples.
  2. Ponder, journal on, or have a conversation with someone on this question: What do you imagine a world without racism and without capitalism would look like?
  3. Ponder, journal on, or have a conversation with someone on this question: Do you or have you ever believed that integration into whiteness is “racial progress”? After reading Chapter 13, how would you now define “progress” in terms of space racism?

Week 7

Reading Assignment: Chapters 14, 15 & 16

Audio Link (41 min): https://www.annettesloan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/How-To-Be-An-Antiracist-Week-7-Audio.mp3

Calls to Action: 

1) Ponder, journal on, or have a conversation with someone on this prompt: “Have I taken the time to reflect on each of my identities and how they intersect?” Specifically, focus on race, class, gender, and sexuality. It may help to first focus in on each identity by identifying specific ways your identity either gives you privilege or oppresses you, and then reflect on how your identities intersect.

1) Ponder, journal on, or have a conversation with someone on this prompt: “Have I taken the time to reflect on each of my identities and how they intersect?” Specifically, focus on race, class, gender, and sexuality. It may help to first focus in on each identity by identifying specific ways your identity either gives you privilege or oppresses you, and then reflect on how your identities intersect.

As an example, the questions I’ve been sitting with include:

  • As a white person, how is my lived experience different than a Black person’s lived experience?
  • As a middle-class person, how is my lived experience different than a person who lives in poverty? How is it different than a person who is very wealthy?
  • As a woman, how is my lived experience different from a man’s lived experience?
  • As a cisgender person, how is my lived experience different than a trans person’s lived experience?
  • As a straight person, how is my lived experience different than a gay or lesbian person’s lived experience?
  • How do my various identities – as a white, middle-class, cisgender, straight woman – intersect, and how do these intersections affect my lived experience? 

2) Start to reflect on this question: “How can I put the resources at my disposal towards antiracist policy change?”

Week 8

Reading Assignment: Chapters 17 & 18

Audio Link (26 min): https://www.annettesloan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/How-To-Be-An-Antiracist-Week-8-Audio.mp3

Calls to Action: 

  1. Continue to reflect on this question: “How can I put the resources at my disposal towards antiracist policy change?”
  2. Identify ONE tangible next step you will take on your antiracist journey. This could be a next step in your learning, signing up to give reoccurring donations to an antiracist organization, researching inequity in an area that’s especially dear to your heart, then identifying the racist policies that are creating that inequity, etc. Come up with ONE next step. Then, begin.