One of the first steps to understanding racism and white supremacy is education - especially through the stories and lived experiences of those who are affected by racism.

It is particularly important for practitioners to learn about the impact of racism at the institutional and systemic levels that keep the status quo in place.

Here, we offer a collection of books, resources, and organizations that can help you get started.

Resources : Books & Articles

  • Just Health by Dayna Bowen Matthew

    Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America by Dayna Bowen Matthew

    Just Health examines how deep structural racism embedded in the fabric of American society leads to worse health outcomes and lower life expectancy for people of color by presenting evidence of discrimination in housing, education, employment, and the criminal justice system.

  • Choosing Consciousness and Remedying Injustice: Radical Reflection And Following Action to Engender Optimal and Equitable Health Outcomes: A Case Paper for Homeopaths by Laura Merrill

    Choosing Consciousness and Remedying Injustice: Radical Reflection And Following Action to Engender Optimal and Equitable Health Outcomes: A Case Paper for Homeopaths by Laura Merrill

    [click link to download PDF]

    This case paper lays out the most recent and relevant research related to race, power, privilege, unconscious biases, health disparities, homeopathy, and short-term international volunteer-staffed medical and education efforts in countries with significant colonial histories and current inequities.

  • Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington

    Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, by Harriet Washington.

    This history of medical experimentation on African Americans informs the notion that particular populations have reason to be distrustful of medicine, all the while, still wanting the best medical care available.

  • Sickening by Anne Pollock

    Sickening: Anti-Black Racism and Health Disparities in the United States, by Anne Pollock. Surveys the diversity of anti-Black racism operating in healthcare. It deconstructs the structures that make these events possible, including mass incarceration, police brutality, and the hypervisibility of Black athletes’ bodies, revealing the everyday racialization of health in the U.S.

  • Under the Skin by Linda Villarosa

    Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation, by Linda Villarosa. Tells the full story of racial health disparities in America, revealing the toll racism takes on individuals and the health of our nation.

  • Health Disparities in the United States, by Donald A. Barr

    In this revised edition of Health Disparities in the United States, Donald A. Barr provides extensive new data about the ways low socioeconomic status, race, and ethnicity interact to create and perpetuate these health disparities. Examining the significance of this gulf for the medical community and society at large, Barr offers potential policy - and physician-based solutions for reducing health inequity in the long term.

  • The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

    The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down explores the clash between a small county hospital in California and a refugee family from Laos over the care of Lia Lee, a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy. Lia's parents and her doctors both wanted what was best for Lia, but the lack of understanding between them led to tragedy. Winner of numerous awards, Anne Fadiman's compassionate account of this cultural impasse is literary journalism at its finest.

Resources : Self-Work

Resources : Action and Training

  • Equal Justice Initiative

    Equal Justice Initiative (EJI): founded by Bryan Stevenson. A non-profit organization, based in Montgomery, Alabama, that provides legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongly convicted of crimes, poor prisoners without effective representation, and others who may have been denied a fair trial.

  • The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond

    People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB). A national, multiracial, anti-racist collective of organizers and educators dedicated to building a movement for social transformation. Their aim is to undo racism and other forms of oppression.

  • 106 Things White People Can Do for RacialJustice

    106 White People Can Do for Racial Justice Use this list as a primer when you aren’t sure where to begin; includes many action-oriented links.

  • Seventh Generation Fund

    Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples: dedicated to Indigenous Peoples’ self-determination and the sovereignty of Native Nations, the organization emerged from a call from Indigenous communities in the Americas during the cultural, social and political renaissance era of the 1960’s and 1970’s.

  • Trauma Literacy

    Trauma Literacy provides multi-tiered consulting and training for educators and school leaders which transforms hopeless overwhelm into informed resourcefulness.

  • Sogorea Té Land Trust

    Sogorea Te Land Trust. An urban Indigenous women-led land trust that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people.