To help citizens better understand racial issues challenging our nation, MPT has curated a selection of programs and educational materials. For those grappling with legacies of racial injustice and inequity in communities nationwide, we hope these resources provide insight and promote understanding.

To engage in a deeper conversation, please contact us at standingagainstracism@mpt.org.

Monday, March 1 at 8pm
American Experience: Voice of Freedom

Monday, March 8 at 8pm
It's What's Happening Baby (My Music Presents)

Monday, March 15 at 8pm
Rhythm, Love & Soul (My Music)

Monday, March 22 at 10pm
Independent Lens: Coded Bias

Monday, March 29 at 9pm
Marian Anderson: Once in a Hundred Years

• Baltimore Rising: In the wake of Freddie Gray's death in police custody, peaceful protests and destructive riots erupted as the city awaited the fate of six police officers involved in the incident. Baltimore Rising follows activists, police officers, community leaders and gang affiliates, who struggle to hold Baltimore together. https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/baltimore-rising
• 13th (Netflix) - In this thought-provoking documentary, scholars, activists and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8

• The Loving Story (HBO) - The moving story of an interracial couple in 1960s Virginia who fought a long battle against the state's prohibition of mixed marriage.https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/the-loving-story
• Whose Streets? (Hulu) - Told by activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising. https://www.whosestreetsfilm.com/

• The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (Netflix) - As she fights the tide of violence against trans women, activist Victoria Cruz probes the suspicious 1992 death of her friend Marsha P. Johnson. https://www.netflix.com/title/80189623
• King in the Wilderness (HBO) - King in the Wilderness chronicles the final chapters of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, revealing a conflicted leader who faced an onslaught of criticism from both sides of the political spectrum. https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/king-in-the-wilderness
• Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap- An in-depth explainer rather than a documentary, this episode of the Vox/Netflix series explores how slavery, housing discrimination and centuries of inequality have compounded to create a racial wealth gap. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqrhn8khGLM

• Hale County This Morning, This Evening- An intimate portrait of a place and its people, Hale County This Morning, This Evening looks at the lives of Daniel and Quincy, two young African American men from rural Alabama, over the course of five years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABWNHTURRmk

• Confronting Prejudice: How to Protect Yourself and Help Others, an online resource from Pepperdine University that educates readers on the prevalence of prejudice and implicit bias in society
  https://onlinegrad.pepperdine.edu/blog/prejudice-discrimination-coping-skills/
• “The Death of George Floyd, In Context,” by Jelani Cobb, The New Yorkerhttps://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-death-of-george-floyd-in-context
• “Of Course There Are Protests. The State Is Failing Black People,”by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor for the New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/29/opinion/george-floyd-minneapolis.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
• The 1619 Project, The New York Times Magazinehttps://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html
• “America’s Racial Contract Is Killing Us”by Adam Serwer, The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/americas-racial-contract-showing/611389/
• “Where do I donate? Why is the uprising violent? Should I go protest?”by Courtney Martin, Mediumhttps://medium.com/@cemwrites/where-do-i-donate-why-is-the-uprising-violent-should-i-go-protest-5cefeac37ef9
• “Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?”by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Atlantichttps://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/ahmaud-arbery/611539/
• “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”by Peggy McIntoshhttp://convention.myacpa.org/houston2018/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/UnpackingTheKnapsack.pdf
• “The Case for Reparations,”by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
• “A Decade Of Watching Black People Die”, NPR Code Switch https://www.npr.org/2020/05/29/865261916/a-decade-of-watching-black-people-die
• “This Is How Much Major Cities Prioritize Police Spending Versus Everything Else”, GQ, Luke Darbyhttps://www.gq.com/story/cops-cost-billions
• “Police militarization fails to protect officers and targets black communities, study finds” by Nsikan Akpan, PBShttps://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/police-militarization-fails-to-protect-officers-and-targets-black-communities-study-finds

• Penn North: The Epicenter of Unrest, Out of the Blocks (NPR) - The 'Out of the Blocks' team of WYPR radio producer Aaron Henkin and electronic musician Wendel Patrick put together this audio-portrait of the neighborhood that’s become the epicenter of civil unrest in Baltimore. These are the voices of Baltimore City’s Penn North community. https://www.wypr.org/post/epicenter-unrest-penn-north
• Code Switch (NPR) - Hosted by journalists of color, Code Switch tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and everything in between. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/
• 1619 (The New York Times) - Four hundred years ago, a ship carrying enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. This New York Times podcast examines the long shadow of that fateful moment. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/podcasts/the-daily/1619-project.html
• Pod for the Cause (The Leadership Conference on Human & Civil Rights) - The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights launched “Pod for the Cause” to expand the conversation on the critical civil and human rights challenges of our day: census, justice reform, policing, education, fighting hate & bias, judicial nominations, fair courts, voting rights, media & tech, economic security, immigration, and human rights. https://civilrights.org/podforthecause/
• Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast - Co-hosts Chevon and Hiba give their unique takes on race and pop culture, and uplift narratives of hope, struggle, and joy, as we continue to build the momentum needed to advance racial justice in our policies, institutions, and culture. https://www.raceforward.org/media/podcast/momentum-race-forward-podcast

• From Slavery To Freedom: A History of African-Americans, by John Hope Franklin - The preeminent history of African Americans, this best-selling text charts the journey of African Americans from their origins in Africa, through slavery in the Western Hemisphere, struggles for freedom in the West Indies, Latin America, and the United States, various migrations, and the continuing quest for racial equality. https://bookshop.org/books/from-slavery-to-freedom-a-history-of-african-americans/9780072963786
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander - “Two years after Obama’s election, Alexander put the entire criminal justice system on trial, exposing racial discrimination from lawmaking to policing to the denial of voting rights to ex-prisoners. This bestseller struck the spark that would eventually light the fire of Black Lives Matter.” —Ibram X. Kendi, The New York Timeshttps://bookshop.org/books/the-new-jim-crow-mass-incarceration-in-the-age-of-colorblindness-anniversary/9781620975459
• How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi - Ibram X. Kendi's concept of antiracism reenergizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America--but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. Instead of working with the policies and system we have in place, Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it. https://bookshop.org/books/how-to-be-an-antiracist/9780525509288
• White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism, by Robin DiAngelo - The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality. https://bookshop.org/books/white-fragility-why-it-s-so-hard-for-white-people-to-talk-about-racism/9780807047415
• Me and White Supremacy, by Layla F. Saad - Based on the viral Instagram challenge that captivated participants worldwide, Me and White Supremacy takes readers on a 28-day journey, complete with journal prompts, to do the necessary and vital work that can ultimately lead to improving race relations. https://bookshop.org/books/me-and-white-supremacy-combat-racism-change-the-world-and-become-a-good-ancestor/9781728209807
• Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race, by Beverley Daniel Tatum - Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see Black, White, and Latino youth clustered in their own groups. Is this self-segregation a problem to address or a coping strategy? Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about enabling communication across racial and ethnic divides. https://bookshop.org/books/why-are-all-the-black-kids-sitting-together-in-the-cafeteria-and-other-conversations-about-race/9780465060689
• Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do,by Jennifer Ebidhardt - With a perspective that is at once scientific, investigative, and informed by personal experience, Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt offers us the language and courage we need to face one of the biggest and most troubling issues of our time. She exposes racial bias at all levels of society—in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and criminal justice system. Yet she also offers us tools to address it. Eberhardt shows us how we can be vulnerable to bias but not doomed to live under its grip. https://bookshop.org/books/biased-uncovering-the-hidden-prejudice-that-shapes-what-we-see-think-and-do/9780735224933
• Women, Race, and Class, by Angela Y. Davis - A powerful study of the women's liberation movement in the U.S., from abolitionist days to the present, that demonstrates how it has always been hampered by the racist and classist biases of its leaders. https://bookshop.org/books/women-race-class/9780394713519
• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, by Brian Stevenson - A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice--from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time. https://bookshop.org/books/just-mercy-a-story-of-justice-and-redemption/9780812984965
• The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin - At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, The Fire Next Time is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two "letters," written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. https://bookshop.org/books/the-fire-next-time/9780679744726

For additional book recommendations, check out An Anti-Racist Reading List, compiled for the New York Times by Ibram X. Kendi, founder of the Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University, and head of the new Boston University Center for Antiracist Research.

Having tough conversations about current and historical events focused on racism, nationwide protests, and racial bias is challenging, uncomfortable - and necessary. Explore our collection of digital resources, booklists, lesson plans, and more to help students, teachers, and families learn more about race, where and how injustice and inequality operate in society, and ways to take action for equity and inclusion.

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