The Challenge Starts June 17, 2020
UPDATE: June 24, 2020, San Francisco—We are humbled and excited by the response of the legal community to the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge. The curriculum has been shared with thousands of Bay Area lawyers. At the national level, the American Bar Association is also experiencing exciting levels of participation and feedback. In response to feedback received from around the country, the ABA Labor & Employment Law Section, which issued this challenge to its 20,000+ members last week, has begun to make some updates to the syllabus. To ensure that we all access the latest version of the curriculum, we now direct everyone to the ABA Section syllabus: View the curriculum here.
Curriculum
Day 1
Nikole Hannah-Jones, America Wasn’t a Democracy, Until Black Americans Made It One, The New York Times (Aug. 14, 2019)
Here is a pdf version of the article.
Day 2
How to Not (Accidentally) Raise a Racist, Longest Shortest Time Podcast
https://longestshortesttime.com/episode-116-how-to-not-accidentally-raise-a-racist/
Day 3
Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Case for Reparations, The Atlantic (May 21, 2014)
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
Day 4
Danielle Cadet, Your Black Colleagues May Look Like They Are Okay – Chances Are They Are Not (May 2020)
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/05/9841376/black-trauma-george-floyd-dear-white-people?fbclid=IwAR36NpuvZYaL08MXUlJRRC6IxeBFO4Bbutzr04Osu06wjQigWMVY1wGxHwI
Katy Waldman, A Sociologist Examines The “White Fragility” That Prevents White Americans From Confronting Racism, New Yorker (July 23, 2018)
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-sociologist-examines-the-white-fragility-that-prevents-white-americans-from-confronting-racism?fbclid=IwAR17xhTEel9Xu-RNDGYayXE8Im3A4BgSA9hXXFRbecBKQ1A9mqAciXVfHq0
Day 5
Megan Ming Francis, Let's get to the root of racial injustice, TEDTalks (March 21, 2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aCn72iXO9s
Day 6
Project Implicit, Implicit Association Test (IAT)
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
(This exercise requires navigating the sign up for the tests, which includes answering a series of questions for the researchers, but it is recommended that everyone do at least these tests: Race, Skin Tone, and Weapons-Race. Also, everyone is encouraged to add these tests if you are able: Asian American, Native American, and Arab-Muslim.)
Day 7
How microaggressions are like mosquito bites, Same Difference (Oct. 5, 2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDd3bzA7450
Heben Nigatu, 21 Racial Microaggressions You Hear On A Daily Basis: A photographer at Fordham asked her peers to write down the microaggressions they've encountered. Here is what they had to say, BuzzFeed (Dec. 9, 2013)
https://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/racial-microagressions-you-hear-on-a-daily-basis
Essence Grant, 27 Workplace Microaggressions That'll Make You Ask "How'd They Even Get Hired?" In conclusion, adults can be wildly dumb, BuzzFeed (Oct. 8, 2017)
https://www.buzzfeed.com/essencegant/workplace-microaggression-horror-stories
Ali Vingiano, 63 Black Harvard Students Share Their Experiences In A Powerful Photo Project, BuzzFeed (March 3, 2014)
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alisonvingiano/21-black-harvard-students-share-their-experiences-through-a
Day 8
James McWilliams, Bryan Stevenson On What Well Meaning White People Need To Know About Race: An interview with Harvard University-trained public defense lawyer Bryan Stevenson on racial trauma, segregation, and listening to marginalized voices, Pacific Standard (updated Feb 18, 2019)
https://psmag.com/magazine/bryan-stevenson-ps-interview
Day 9
Media Portrayals and Black Male Outcomes, The Opportunity Agenda
https://www.opportunityagenda.org/explore/resources-publications/media-representations-impact-black-men/media-portrayals
Day 10
Cheryl I. Harris, Whiteness As Property, Harvard Law Review, Vol. 106 No. 8 (June 1993)
https://sph.umd.edu/sites/default/files/files/Harris_Whiteness%20as%20Property_106HarvLRev-1.pdf
Day 11
Scott Winship, Richard V. Reeves, and Katherine Guyot, The Inheritance of Black Poverty: It’s All About the Men, Brookings (March 22, 2018)
https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-inheritance-of-black-poverty-its-all-about-the-men/
Karma Allen, More than 50% of homeless families are black, government report finds, ABCNews (Jan. 22, 2020)
https://abcnews.go.com/US/50-homeless-families-black-government-report-finds/story?id=68433643
Day 12
Hannah Giorgis, Black Art is dangerous because it marries the personal and the political, The Guardian (Feb. 22, 2015)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/22/black-art-dangerous-personal-political
Reggie Ugwu, Lena Waitheʼs Art of Protest: The “Queen & Slim” writer on mixing art and politics, the key to collaboration and those infamous comments about Will Smith and Denzel Washington, The New York Times (Dec. 2, 2019)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/movies/lena-waithe-queen-and-slim.html
Bryan Stevenson, "We can't recover from this history until we deal with it." legacy of slavery and the vision for creating the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and The Legacy Museum, Harvard Law School YouTube (Jan 30, 2019)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRJX5jvORzQ
Day 13
Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls Childhood, YouTube (June 27, 2017)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKzEF22fK24
Adrienne Green, How Black Girls Aren’t Presumed to Be Innocent: A new study finds that adults view them as less child-like and less in need of protection than their white peers, The Atlantic (June 29, 2017)
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/black-girls-innocence-georgetown/532050/
Day 14
Perspectives in Poetry:
Richard Wright, Between the World and Me: https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/between-the-world-and-me/
(author bio: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/richard-wright)
Langston Hughes, Harlem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46548/harlem
(author bio: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/langston-hughes)
June Jordan, Poem for Ms. Fannie Lou Hamer:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48763/1977-poem-for-mrs-fannie-lou-hamer
(author bio: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/june-jordan)
Audre Lorde, Who Said it Was Simple: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42587/who-said-it-was-simple
(author bio: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/audre-lorde)
Claudia Rankine – “You are in the dark, in the car . . .” - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/56848/citizen-you-are-in-the-dark-in-the-car
(author bio: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/claudia-rankine)
Alice Walker, The World Rising: https://alicewalkersgarden.com/2015/09/the-world-rising-2015-by-alice-walker/
(author bio: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/alice-walker)
Perspectives on Change:
The Beatles – Revolution #1 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGLGzRXY5Bw) v. Nina Simone – Revolutions 1 and 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2_NVX-T8iM) & Mississippi Goddam (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghhaREDM3X8)
Day 15
Peggy McIntosh, Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of White Privilege
https://nationalseedproject.org/Key-SEED-Texts/white-privilege-unpacking-the-invisible-knapsack
Day 16
George Johnson, White gay privilege exists all year, but it is particularly hurtful during Pride, NBC News (June 30, 2019)
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/white-gay-privilege-exists-all-year-it-particularly-hurtful-during-ncna1024961
Laverne Cox Talks about Intersectionality at Harvard (Video clips) (March 11, 2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY3F1pIxHMA
D-L Stewart, Black Trans Lives Matter (TEDxTalks) (April 22, 2019)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs67v5klQI4
Day 17
N. K. Jemisin, How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? The Toxins of Speculative Fiction, and the Antidote that is Janelle Monae, Blog (Sept. 30, 2013)
http://nkjemisin.com/2013/09/how-long-til-black-future-month/ (music videos optional)
Day 18
Sam Dylan Finch, 9 Phrases Allies Can Say When Called Out Instead of Getting Defensive, Everyday Feminism (May 29, 2017)
https://everydayfeminism.com/2017/05/allies-say-this-instead-defensive/ (Short read and video)
Day 19
Jolie A. Doggett,4 Questions About Hair that Black Girls Are Tired of Answering, HuffPost (Feb. 14, 2020)
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/black-hair-annoying-questions_l_5c5b3d71e4b08710475a3daf
Jessica Moulite, Exclusive: Rep. Ayanna Pressley Reveals Beautiful Bald Head and Discusses Alopecia for the First Time, The Root (Jan. 16, 2020)
https://theglowup.theroot.com/exclusive-rep-ayanna-pressley-reveals-beautiful-bald-1841039847
Hair Love, Oscar®-Winning Short Film (Full), Sony Pictures Animation, YouTube (Dec. 5, 2019)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNw8V_Fkw28&feature=youtu.be
Day 20
National Conference for Community and Justice, Colorism (History, Facts, and Videos)
https://www.nccj.org/colorism-0
Natasha S. Alford, Why Some Black Puerto Ricans Choose ‘White’ on the Census: The island has a long history of encouraging residents to identify as white, but there are growing efforts to raise awareness about racism, The New York Times (Feb. 9, 2020)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/09/us/puerto-rico-census-black-race.html
Day 21
Karyn Lacy, How to Convince a White Realtor You’re Middle Class, New York Times (Jan. 21, 2020)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/21/opinion/black-discrimination-study.html
Who is "Karen" and Why Does She Keep Calling the Police on Black Men?, On the Media (Podcast) (May 29, 2020)
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/who-karen-and-why-does-she-keep-calling-police-black-men-on-the-media?fbclid=IwAR2TkeMeXL0kLv1ilZutGFZpd3AQByLFgkPIFc2p2LYS7ha9_ygbn3F2U9c
Extra Resources
“The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture today launched Talking About Race, a new online portal designed to help individuals, families, and communities talk about racism, racial identity and the way these forces shape every aspect of society, from the economy and politics to the broader American culture.”
https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race
Robin DiAngelo, Ph.D, Critical Racial and Social Justice Education: List of Resources
https://robindiangelo.com/resources/
Verna Myers, How to Overcome Our Biases? Walk Boldly Toward Them, TED Talk (video) (Dec. 15, 2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYyvbgINZkQ
John Biewen, Seeing White (14-part series podcast, 2017)
https://www.sceneonradio.org/seeing-white/
Janice Gassam, Your Unconscious Bias Trainings Keep Failing Because You’re Not Addressing Systemic Bias (Forbes, Dec. 29, 2019)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2020/12/29/your-unconscious-bias-trainings-keep-failing-because-youre-not-addressing-systemic-bias/#4b51df181e9d
Michael Harriott, How to Be a Better White Person in 2020The Root (Jan 9, 2020)
https://www.theroot.com/how-to-be-a-better-white-person-in-2020-1840868641?utm_medium=sharefromsite&utm_source=_facebook&fbclid=IwAR12F3wQnflAPPY8VKCT5tr6Fa60nT7VT2OT4CKDoWzudGdJSuOkfldpaTU