This guide is intended as a resource for the Saint Mary's University of Minnesota community, particularly the white and non-Black people of color in our community who seek to contribute more meaningfully to antiracist work.
In this guide, you will find links to many books, articles, and other resources for learning more about African American history, civil rights struggles both historical and contemporary, and antiracism. This guide also attempts to give some context regarding the history of African Americans in the Twin Cities that informs the crisis there after the murder of George Floyd.
If you have suggestions, complaints, questions, or comments, please get in touch.
"In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist." - Angela Y. Davis
Anti-racism and the notion of being an anti-racist is the concept that in a racist society, simply passively being "not racist" is not sufficient to combat systemic racism. All of us, white and non-Black POC, along with Black folks, must seek to acknowledge and change policies and structures that have racist outcomes and continually work toward a more equal society. Anti-racism requires acting to create a more just world, rather than simply believing that all people are equal.
In 2019, police killed 1,098 people in the United States. This map is a visual representation of each of those killings. Black people were 24% of those killed, despite being only 13% of the population.
The above map is from Mapping Police Violence. You can view their full dataset here.