Avery Elementary

Building an antiracist and inclusive culture is important for every child at Avery. Getting there requires constant work among us - parents and other adults. Below is an evolving list of resources to deepen empathy, build understanding of Black history, the impact of racism, and how to raise antiracist children.

Parenting tools for talking about race at home

• What White Children Need to Know About Race, by Ali MIchael and Elenora Bartoli 
• Raising Equity - also follow Raising Equity and Kira Banks on Facebook
• We Stories
• Talking with kids about racism
• White people are still raised to be racially illiterate. If we don't recognize the system, our inaction will uphold it.

Read - picture books

• On the Playground: Our First Talk About Prejudice by Jillian Roberts
• Ron’s Big Mission by Rose Blue
• Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson
• Trombone Shorty by Troy Andrews
• Equality’s Call: The Story of Voting Rights in America by Deborah Diesen
• A Voice Named Aretha by Katheryn Russell-Brown
• Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston-Weatherford
• Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine

Read - middle grade

• The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore
• Rebound (The Crossover Series) by Kwame Alexander
• March Forward, Girl: From Young Warrior to Little Rock Nine by Melba Pattillo Beals
• Child of the Dream by Sharon Robinson
• Ghost (Track #1) by Jason Reynolds
• March (triology) by John Lewis
• New Kid by Jerry Craft
• Resist by Veronica Chambers

Read - in an hour or less

• Why Minneapolis matters everywhere — yes, even Charlotte by Michael Graff 
• The 1619 Project (all the articles) | The New York Times Magazine 
• Real Estate and Racism in St. Louis by By Aimee VonBokel
• White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Knapsack Peggy McIntosh 
• Who Gets to Be Afraid in America? by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi | Atlantic (May 12, 2020) 
• 10 Ways Well-Meaning White Teachers Bring Racism Into Our Schools, by Jamie Utt 
• 21 Racial Microaggressions You Hear on a Daily Basis, by Heben Nigatu 
• Climbing the White Escalator, by Betsy Leondar-Wright 
• Explaining White Privilege To A Broke White Person, by Gina Crosley-Corcoran 
• Guide to Allyship, by Amélie Lamont 
• It’s Not Just the South: Here’s How Everyone Can Resist White Supremacy, by Sarah van Gelder 
• For the Sake of All, by Jason Purnell

Read - Adult books

• Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey
• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
• I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
• Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Tatum
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
• Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
• How To Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
• White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise

Watch - Documentaries

• The Pruitt Igoe Myth 
• True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality
• Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992
• The Force
• The Central Park Five
• 13th: From Slave To Criminal With One Amendment
• Strong Island
• 3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets
• Whose Streets?
• What happened, Miss Simone?
• I am not your Negro

Watch - Ted Talks, Short Films (search by name)

• How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion (18 minutes) 
• This is Us (3 minutes) 
• Racism is Real (3 minutes) 
• CBS News Analysis: 50 states, 50 different ways of teaching America’s past (5 minutes) 
• The Disturbing History of the Suburbs (6 minutes) 
• Birth of a White Nation (36 minutes) 
• 13th (1 hour, 40 minutes) 
• How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them (19 minutes) 
• The danger of a single story (18 minutes) 
• How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time (10 minutes) 
• White Lies We Tell Our Children (12 minutes)

Watch - Movies and Series

• The Hate U Give
• Selma
• Hidden Figures
• Mudbound
• When They See Us
• Dear White People
• If Beale Street Could Talk
• Just Mercy
• Harriet

Suggestions for this page? Email averyequity@gmail.com

Equity Resoluntion, Webster Groves School Board 2017

Moving Toward Equity, WGSD