Resources and Bibliography

Scaffolded Anti-Racism Resources - A comprehensive guide of resources and activities for anti-racist learning, prepared by Anna Stamborski, M. Div, Nikki Zimmermann, M. Div, and Bailie Gregory, M. Div, M.S. Ed in Summer 2020. It contains activities, books, podcasts, resources, film, media, etc. (see Doc for causes to support in lieu of compensation)

Other pledges and statements

American Composers Forum Commitment to Racial Equity - a new commitment from ACF, one of the leading arts services agencies in our field. Their goals and strategies provide interesting models other organizations could adopt.

Americans for the Arts Statement on Cultural Equity - Statement on Cultural Equity.

Chamber Music America Equity Goals and Progress report - A Progress Report and Goals Statement from the philanthropic funder and arts services organization Chamber Music America. These documents are excellent examples of goal setting, accountability, and monitoring progress.

Plans & Studies

CreateNYC – NYC’s 2015 strategic arts and culture plan. If you have a chance to explore in detail, the plan is an extraordinarily impressive cultural equity project.

Ithaka S&R study commissioned by NYC DCLA:the baseline study informing CreateNYC—one of the first of its kind.

Organizations

Building Movement Project: Race to Lead – Advocacy for closing the nonprofit racial leadership gap.

BoardSource: Leading with Intent – Support, training, education, and data gathering on nonprofit leadership, and lots of baseline data on the sector.

Borealis Philanthropy: Equity in Philanthropy – various projects designed to foster more equitable grantmaking across the philanthropy sector.

Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity - The goal of PRE is to increase the amount and effectiveness of resources aimed at combating institutional and structural racism.

Grantmaking with a Racial Equity Lens by GrantCraft. This document is a “starting place” that makes a case to funders to focus more intentionally on racial equity. There is also an impressive appendix.

We Have Voice Collective - An advocacy group of jazz and creative musicians combatting sexual harassment and discrimination in the industry. An excellent example of coalition building and collective action, their activism has been featuring the Boston Globe, NY Times, and more.

Funders deeply invested in arts-based racial equity include MAP Fund, Surdna Foundation’s Thriving Cultures, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation’s Voice, Creativity, Culture initiative. Looking at the strategies and language they use to talk about their own work is quite valuable.

Reading & Listening

Code Switch - a podcast by Gene Demby and Shereen Marisol Miraji. Quoted in the how-to guides

White Fragility - by Robin DiAngelo. This book has seen much praise and much criticism. It can be a useful tool for predominantly White spaces to examine their preoccupations and tendencies. However, it heavily centers Whiteness in a way that may not be appropriate for a more diverse workplace. A common risk is also that White people read it and conclude they should withdraw from conversations for fear of doing wrong, and cease participating all together. Consider this resource carefully.

So you want to talk about race - by Ijeoma Oluo. An all-around excellent work now accompanied by a discussion guide. Oluo has several other popular books and essays, too.

How to be an Antiracist - by Dr. Ibram Kendi. A striking and bracing look at the distinction between racism and anti-racism that works to build on key terminology in each chapter (assimilationism vs segregationism, colorism vs color anti-racism, etc).

Creating Inclusive Spaces - Presented by Community Music Center of Boston, a talk by Chris Perry on disability advocacy and social models of disability. Particularly recommended for individuals who are new to disability culture or considerations of accessibility

Commemorating 30 Years of the Americans with Disabilities Act - A video from NowThis News narrated by Lawrence Carter-Long, (Communications Director, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund), about the history of advocacy in the US by people with disabilities, striving for accessibility and independent living

I am Disabled: On Identity-First Versus People-First Language by Cara Leibowitz is an explanation on the subject of person first vs. identity first language.

Explaining AP Style on Black and white - A seemingly simple question of capitalization has a complex history, explained here by the AP.

Time to capitalize Black and White - an essay by Kwame Anthony Appiah

To learn more about disability rights and advocacy, consider following the Twitter feeds of advocates like:

• Imani Barbarin (Visit Crutches & Spice to read more about Imani’s work) or visit @imani_barbarin to follow on Twitter
• Alice Wong (Click on Disability Visibility Project to learn more about Alice’s work or @SFdirewolf to follow on Twitter
• Haben Girma (Visit Haben Girma's webpage to learn about her work as a Disability Rights Lawyer or follower her on Twitter at: @habengirma)