This webpage is designed to provide additional support for the participants of Karen Gaffney’s pre-conference Institute “Dismantling the Racism Machine: Myths Taught to White People that Perpetuate White Supremacy.” Note that additional resources are available at the tab for Resources on Race and Racism as well as the additional Resource pages under that tab. Also see Karen’s blog posts on the main page.
Karen’s PowerPoint slides (pdf):
Dismantling the Racism Machine: A Manual and Toolbox by Karen Gaffney – coupon code: SS254 at the Routledge website
“Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Race” (from Race: The Power of an Illusion) (documentary available on library streaming service Kanopy)
“The urgency of intersectionality” Ted Talk by Kimberlé Crenshaw (video, 18 minutes)
Myth 1 Resources:
“The disturbing reason some African American patients may be undertreated for pain” (article)
Superior: The Return of Race Science (book by Angela Saini)
TED Talk with Dorothy Roberts “The Problem with Race-Based Medicine” (video, 15 minutes)
“What Serena Williams’s scary childbirth story says about medical treatment of black women” (article)
Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society (book by Arline T Geronimus)
Racism, Not Race: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (book by Joseph L. Graves Jr. and Alan H. Goodman)
RIOS Working Group – Debunking the Myth that Race is Biological (Karen Gaffney and Melanie Lenahan worked with 4 of their students, who created materials to debunk the myth that race is biological, all available to view, download, and share)
“The Origin of Race in the USA,” Danielle Bainbridge (The Origin of Everything series, PBS Digital Studios) (10 minutes)
“American Black women face disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality” (PBS Newshour video and article)
Race: Are We So Different (book and website)
What DNA ancestry tests can — and can’t — tell you (video, 7 minutes)
“Race ≠ DNA: If race is a social construct, what’s up with DNA ancestry testing?” (article by Joseph Graves)
“The Biology of Skin Color,” Nina Jablonski (HHMI Biointeractive) (video, 20 minutes)
Karen Gaffney’s op-ed “Countering the Rise of White Nationalism” recommending that faculty across disciplines address the myth that race is biological in their college courses
Myth 2 Resources:
“Whitewashing Ancient Statues: Whiteness, Racism And Color In The Ancient World” by Sarah Bond (article)
“The Myth of Whiteness in Classical Sculpture” (article)
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindess (book by Michelle Alexander)
“Why Did Europeans Enslave Africans?” (Video, 9 minutes)
Slate’s The History of American Slavery episode 1: The Terrible Transformation (podcast)
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (book and Netflix documentary by Ibram X. Kendi)
“History Social Science Framework, Chapter 11, World History and Geography: Medieval and Early Modern Times” includes section on the racialization of slavery (starting on page 224)
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (book by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz)
The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History (book by Ned Blackhawk)
“Seeing White” (14-part podcast series from Scene on Radio that covers the social construction of race, the invention of whiteness, systemic racism, and more)
Myth 3 Resources:
Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives—and How We Break Free (book by Tricia Rose)
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together (book by Heather McGhee)
Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want (book by Ruha Benjamin)
Maria Hinojosa’s TED Talk “From invisible to visible”
Michelle Alexander’s TED Talk “The future of race in America”
Bryan Stevenson’s TED Talk “We need to talk about an injustice”
Adam Ruins Everything: The Disturbing History of the Suburbs
Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland (book by Jonathan M. Metzl)
“Equity Imagery in the Context of Targeted Universalism” (post by the Othering & Belonging Institute)
divided no longer: calling out white supremacy, understanding it, and dismantling it 