While our industry is still seeing significant impacts from COVID-19, the big news this week was the movement for racial justice and protests against racism and police violence in our country.
We’ve been thinking a lot about diversity and the impact of systemic racism on Black Americans this week, especially as a company that falls in the convergence of two industries – tech and endurance sports (as detailed here, here, and here) – that have struggled to meet calls for inclusion and outreach. Here are some of the voices we’re listening to, books we’re reading, accounts we are following, and places we are donating to make a conscious effort to address our own prejudices and the systemic racism that our country and institutions are built on.
Books and Articles
Nonfiction
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
- So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
- How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
- The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley and Ossie Davis
- Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson
- A Letter to My Nephew by James Baldwin
Fiction
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
- Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
- If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
- The Mothers by Brit Bennett
- White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Podcasts
- 1619 from the New York Times
- Throughline from NPR
- Code Switch from NPR
Documentaries and Movies
- 13th (Netflix)
- LA 92 (Netflix)
- Fruitvale Station (Amazon Prime)
- In the Heat of the Night (Amazon Prime)
- BlackkKlansman (HBO)
Social Media Accounts
- NAACP
- ACLU
- Rachel Cargle
- Ibram X. Kendi
- Check Your Privilege
- Black Lives Matter
- Justice League NYC
Places to Donate and Participate
- NAACP Legal Defense Fund
- Southern Poverty Law Center
- Black Girls Code
- Amistad Law Project
- Campaign Zero
- Vote Save America – Adopt a State
- Register to vote
There is no simple solution for a complex issue, and we don’t want to repeat platitudes without accompanying action and self-awareness. But as a starting point for a long and sustainable fight against racism, we know it’s important to read, listen, learn, and have conversations to consciously recognize our own prejudices so that we can be anti-racist as individuals and as a company.
More recommendations are welcome.
I don’t listen to a ton of podcasts but I do like The Rambling Runner. This podcast in particular was riveting and incredibly moving. Laymon not only illustrated his experience as a black runner and what that meant from a cultural perspective and actual experience (which has moments that are frightening) but also provided some incredibly insightful thoughts and quotes that make you want to change your world. https://overcast.fm/+JirvNErrg