ANTI-RACISM RESOURCES
For Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
Breaking the narrative of racism is an on-going process. This listing of resources is a place to begin, and will be added to as resources are shared.
Dear Reader,
At the Highlights Foundation, we hold DIVERSITY as one of our core values. We are committed to diversity in craft, storytelling, shared stories and experiences. We strive for diverse representation in our faculty, staff, students, and partnerships. By fostering forward-moving dialogues, we encourage personal and institutional growth through education, awareness, and action.
We know we have much work to continue to do to live up to these values. Please join us in your own personal journey towards becoming anti-racist.
This is not a comprehensive guide. Rather it is meant to be a starting point, or one resource for people interested in doing the work to become anti-racist. This is meant to be one part of your understanding of the societal constructs of racism as they occur in children’s literature and the children’s publishing industry.
For starters, some organizations who are dedicated to fighting racism:
- We Need Diverse Books
- The Brown Bookshelf
- The Conscious Kid
- Learning for Justice
- we are
- Dr. Laura Jimenez’s blog Book Toss
- Edi Campbell’s blog CrazyQuiltsEdi
- American Indians in Children’s Literature
- Las Musas Blog
- Latinxs in KidLit
- CBC Diversity
- Pragmatic Mom blog
- Cynsations blog
- I’m Here, I’m Queer, Now What the Hell Do I Read?
- KidLitWomen*
- SCBWI Organization and Resources
Articles of Interest:
- Workplace Racism Survey, from Latinx in Publishing
- The Weaponization of Whiteness in Schools, from Learning for Justice
- Dr. Seuss Books Can Be Racist, But Students Keep Reading Them, from NPR’s Code Switch
- It’s Time to Talk About Dr. Seuss, from Learning for Justice
- The Problem with Picture Book Monkeys, by Edith Campbell in School Library Journal
- Weeding Out Racism’s Invisible Roots: Rethinking Children’s Classics, by Padma Venkatraman in School Library Journal
- The Disappearance of the Black Muslim Author, by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow on the We Need Diverse Books blog
- Little Free Library launches Read in Color Diversity Initiative
- How to Be an Ally to Native Americans and Indigenous People
- Indigenous Reads Rising
- The ‘Unbearable Whiteness of Publishing’ Revisited
- Linda Sue Park discusses the scarcity myth
- Asian Author Alliance
- Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience
- Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
- Embrace Race
- Center for Racial Justice in Education
- kiBooka – A Resource Celebrating Books for Kids and Teens by Korean Americans (and Korean Diaspora)
- The Asian American Curriculum Project
- Stop AAPI Hate
To help add to this list, please click here.
We will continue to build our resource list over the coming months, years, decades. Educating ourselves and our organization about inclusivity and anti-racist behavior must also take place over the coming days, months, years, and decades. We hope that you’ll help us add to this resource list with articles, podcasts, and critical dialogue. As with our online and in-person courses, please know that we will not tolerate hate, harm, or harassment in the chats, discussions, or shared resources.
We are in this together.
Amplify the good.
Hate has no place here.
To support our work to amplify the voices of diverse storytellers, please consider contributing to:
- The Diverse Verse Scholarship
- The Diversify Science Scholarship for Illustrators
- The Jewish Writers/Illustrators of Color Scholarship
- The Erin Entrada Kelly Scholarship
- The Renée Watson Scholarship
- The Nikki Grimes Scholarship
- The Floyd Cooper Scholarship
- The Brown Bookshelf Scholarship
- The kidlitwomen Scholarship
- The Asian and Asian American Storyteller Scholarship
- The Pacific Islander Storyteller Scholarship
- The Native Creatives Scholarship
- The Latinx Storyteller Scholarship
- The Poesía Scholarship for Latinx Poets Scholarship
To find out more about our Essential Conversation series of workshops and symposiums, click here.
