21-Day Racial Equity #MooreThanAMoment Challenge©
Curated by Eddie Moore, Jr., Debby Irving, and Marguerite Penick
“We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust…We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.” – Thurgood Marshall
This fall, we are challenging you to do Moore than the standard 21 days. Can you double or triple your commitment from 21 days to to 42 or 63? We’ve designed this version hoping that your answer is “yes!” and expanded both categories and content to meet this moment of crisis meets opportunity.
Creating effective social justice habits, particularly those dealing with issues of power, privilege, supremacy and leadership is like any lifestyle change. Setting our intentions and adjusting what we spend our time doing is essential. It’s all about building new habits. Sometimes the hardest part is just getting started. The good news is, there’s an abundance of resources just waiting to empower you to be a more effective player in the quest for equity and justice.
This Fall 2021 #MooreThanAMoment 21-Day Challenge version asks us all to embrace a #FromMomentToMovement mindset, leaning hard into this historic chapter in ways that drive movement and accelerate efforts towards the life, liberty, and justice for all promise that white supremacy threatens. This expanded version of the challenge is designed to equip us all for the kind of “good trouble” John Lewis modeled for and asked of us. You can do it! We got you! One day at a time…
Get Started
Commit. Choose an Activity. Complete. Reflect. Repeat.
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Individuals
Jump right in! You pick your start day and commit to one of the 9 action categories below on each of those days… yes, it is that simple to get started! The hope is that you will change things up based on your schedule, commitment, and understanding, so you will be able to attempt all activity types.
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Groups or Organizations
Use our Copyright and Recognition Page to get started on the planning and advertising, so your group is cohesive in your approach to the 21-Day Action Plan. Use our Facebook page or Prohabits to stay engaged with each other. As a group you can select which action type and resource to complete as a group or have individuals select for themselves. We have found engagement occurs either way. It is a good idea to plan a pre and post survey and discussion as a group to assess skills building and which challenge you will do next!
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Adapters
We encourage organizations to make the challenge fit their audience. Using the structure, intent, and resources within the 21-Day Action Plans, you can adjust daily design, prompts, or how you choose to reflect and engage as a group. Click HERE for adaptation ideas and examples of how communities are adapting the challenge to meet their specific social justice focus. Remember the required recognition. Reach out to us with your adaptations, so we can share with others.
Choose One Activity Per Day
To further your understanding of power, privilege, supremacy, oppression, and equity.
Read: Encounter new writers and ideas from a range of media sources.
- Final letter to editor from John Lewis July 2020, New York Times. Civil rights legend John Lewis connects past and present chapters in the unending struggle for racial justice and encourages all who care about justice to cause “good trouble.”
- The invention of whiteness: The long history of a dangerous idea April 2021,The Guardian. Before the 17th century, people did not think of themselves as belonging to something called the white race. But once the idea was invented, it quickly began to reshape the modern world.
- Voting rights: How the battle is unfolding across the US July 2021, BBC. At the centre of this national debate is a question of what is the greatest threat to American democracy. Is it the security of an election process that in 2020 relied heavily on early and mail-in voting? Or is it a system, corrupted by the influence of big donors and powerful interests, that makes voting more difficult than necessary, particularly for historically disadvantaged groups?
- Voting Laws Roundup: May 2021 May 2021, Brennen Center. States have already enacted more than 20 laws this year that will make it harder for Americans to vote — and many legislatures are still in session.
- Harvard Historian Examines How Textbooks Taught White Supremacy September 2020, The Harvard Gazette. Explains how U.S. textbooks and educational strategy became perpetrators of white supremacy.
- What’s Missing From the Discourse About Anti-racist Teaching May 2021, The Atlantic. Contextualizes the history of how Black educators have always known that their students are living in an anti-Black world and that their teaching must be set against the very order of that world.
- A $5 Million Fine for Classroom Discussions on Race? In Tennessee, This Is the New Reality August 2021, Education Week. Tennessee is one of 11 states this year that have drastically curtailed the ways that districts can fight systemic and individual acts of racism, homophobia, and sexism in the classroom and how teachers can talk to students about the ways America’s government has historically discriminated against minorities.
- Why Are States Banning Critical Race Theory? July 2021, The Brookings Institution. Exposes how critical race theory (CRT) has become a new boogie man for people unwilling to acknowledge our country’s racist history and how it impacts the present.
- It started with a mock ‘slave trade’ and a school resolution against racism. Now a war over critical race theory is tearing this small town apart. July 2021, Washington Post. A snapchat scandal pulls back the veil on one small town’s range of racial experiences and perspectives.
- Critical race theory is nothing more than this year’s cynical buzzword July 2021, Miami Herald. Musing about how current fervor over Critical race theory, a term coined over 30 years ago among legal scholars, is manufactured and points out that far from taking over our education system, it’s taught - if at all - in law school, not high school.
- The Weaponization of Whiteness in Schools Fall 2020, Teaching Tolerance. Explores the role of whiteness in schools and offers examples of how educators can counter impulses to enforce it.
- Neo-Nazis, QAnon and Camp Auschwitz: A guide to the hate symbols and signs on display at the Capitol riots January 2021, Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Visually rich understanding of who showed up with waht messages for the January 6th Capital breech.
- Decoding the extremist symbols and groups at the Capitol Hill insurrection January 2021, CNN. Self explanatory piece that includes a video blow by blow of the January 6th insurrection.
- The Things You Are Getting Wrong About White Supremacists Is What Allows Them To Grow January 2021, Medium. Case study in how fascist movements and their members rebrand and try to stay relevant in mainstream culture.
- Rosebud Sioux youths escort remains of Carlisle Indian School students home to South Dakota July 2021, The Philadelphia Inquirer. Six years ago a group of teenagers from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe traveled from South Dakota to Pennsylvania, placing candy on the graves of children buried on the grounds of the former Carlisle Indian Industrial School. This week they returned, helping to claim the remains of nine tribal boys and girls and escort them home to the vast grasslands of the Rosebud reservation.
- Tribal Land Acknowledgements - What they Are and Why We Need to Do Them July 2021, Embracing Equity Blog. The whys and hows of Tribal Land Acknowledgements for individuals and groups across North America.
- For Black Women who have Considered Quitting when the Whiteness was Too Much October 2020, The Wells Collective. Personal letter from Akailah Jenkins upon leaving a private school diversity, equity, and inclusion position.
- Criticism Of Simone Biles Is Just Further Proof That Black Women’s Mental Health Is Not Taken Seriously July 2021, Vogue. Explains how and why white dominant institutions exclude Black women from the idea of female as soft or fragile and instead reserve that exclusively for white womanhood.
- Infographic: What Is Tone Policing And Why Is It Wrong? July 2020, Feminism In India. Infographic explaining what tone policing is, why it's harmful, and how to avoid it.
- I’m Jewish and Don’t Identify as White. Why Must I Check That Box? October 2020, New York Times. Brings historical context to the fraught identify of being Jewish in a world built on whiteness.
- Ally or co-conspirator?: What it means to act #InSolidarity September 2016, Move To End Violence. Alicia Garza shares ineffective and effective ways to be in solidarity.
- Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person December 2017, Huffington Post. Raised “the kind of poor that people don’t want to believe still exists in this country,” Gina Crosley-Corcoran explores race and class and how she’s come to understand her own white privilege.
- The Men Who Turned Slavery Into Big Business The Atlantic, April 2021. The domestic slave trade was no sideshow in our history, and slave traders were not bit players on the stage. We still live in the world that slaveholder profits helped build, and the inequalities that they and their industry entrenched.
- Robin D.G. Kelley: The Tulsa Race Massacre Went Way Beyond “Black Wall Street” June 2021, Truthout. On the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa “Race Riot,” this piece tells a much more nuanced and complex story than is generally told.
- Black History Month: The oldest University in the world is in Africa February 2019, Rolling Out. The Sankoré Mosque was founded in 989 AD in the country today known as Mali. Mali was part of the ancient African Songhai Empire, one of the most powerful Kingdoms in the known world.
- Two Spirits, One Heart, Five Genders September 2017, Indian Country Today. Duane Brayboy (Tosneoc Tuscarora) offers insight to thinking and behaving beyond the binary by sharing the history and normalization Indigenous cultures’ embracing of multiple sexuality/gender identities.
- Love in Abundance date unknown, GLSEN blog. El Martinez & JP Grant explain how they and others in their generation are challenging how monogamy has shaped a dominant narrative about what love is supposed to look like.
- Pronouns: A Guide from GLSEN date unknown, GLSEN. Both a terminology guide and explanation of the whats, whys, and hows of learning and using updated gender pronouns.
- Oyate Thanksgiving Resources June 2016, Oyate. Judy Dow (Abenaki) breaks down and sets us straight on the story behind eleven Thanksgiving myths.
- Why ‘Hispanic/Latino’ isn’t a Racial Category on the U.S. Census August 2020, University of Arkansas Diversity and Inclusion IDEALS Institute. Race and ethnicity are not the same things yet are often treated as such. Why understanding the difference matters.
- Why Intersectionality Matters Even More in 2020 August 2020, Catalyst: Workplaces That Work For Women. Protests over racial inequity are pushing companies to reckon with their own policies and practices from the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion. But addressing race—and gender—in the workplace is not enough. Leaders must account for intersectionality.
- Neighborhoods with Highest Eviction Filing Rates have Lowest Levels of COVID-19 Vaccination June 2021, Eviction Lab. Explains how a surge in eviction—which has been associated with COVID-19 transmission, infection, and mortality—would accelerate the spread of the pandemic.
- Allyship (& Accomplice)- The What, Why, and How November 2019, Medium. Lays out do’s and don’ts, clear examples, and the distinction between ally and accomplice mindset and behaviors.
- The Injustice of This Moment Is not an ‘Aberration’ January 2020, New York Times. Michelle Alexander contextualizes the state of racism/white supremacy as an inevitable outcome of a collective narrative steeped in denial.
- Our Statement on Derek Chauvin's Guilty Verdict April 2021, Colorlines. In honor of George Floyd and countless others, Colorlines and Race Forward call for urgency in reimagining public safety for Black and Brown Lives.
- An Anti-Racist Glossary of Actions and Terms Every Accomplice Needs To Know November 2020, Well + Good. In order to dismantle institutionalized racism, white people need to be aware of how their own white fragility is damaging to that mission. Below, learn other terms and actions that, along with white fragility, move the focus away from anti-racism and toward protecting the feelings of those whose livelihood doesn't depend on fighting for it.
Listen in on the kinds of open, honest conversations that too many of us avoid having.
- 'BIPOC' Isn't Doing What You Think It's Doing April 2021, Newsweek. Andrea Plaid and Christopher Macdonald-Dennis advocate for the advantages of the term POC over BIPOC, which in their opinion numerous. (5 minutes)
- Opinion | Ibram X. Kendi on What Conservatives — and Liberals — Get Wrong About Antiracism July 2021, Ezra Klein podcast. Discussion of policy issues ranging from police defunding to open borders and interest rates, the research on corporate diversity and inclusion trainings, the political trade offs of Barack Obama’s presidency, the cases where a policy might reduce racial inequality but the backlash to it might increase it, the right-wing assault on critical race theory, visions of a positive-sum racial future and much
more. (1 hour 7 minutes) - Asian Enough on Apple Podcasts LA Times Podcast. Explores being Asian American -- the joys, the complications and everything in between. In each episode, hosts Jen Yamato, Johana Bhuiyan, Tracy Brown and Suhauna Hussain of the Times invite special guests to share personal stories and unpack identity on their own terms. They explore the vast diaspora across cultures, backgrounds and generations, and try to expand the ways in which being Asian American is defined. (episodes 40 - 60 minutes each)
- All My Relations hosted by Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip) and Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation) this podcast explores indigeneity in all its complexity. Episodes focus on issues such as DNA identity, appropriation, feminism, food sovereignty, gender, sexuality, and more while keeping it real, playing games, laughing a lot, and even crying sometimes. (episodes about 1 hour each)
- The Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women From Across The U.S. November 2018, NPR. Sacha Pfeiffer speaks with Annita Lucchesi (Cheyenne) about her report looking at missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in 71 cities across the U.S. (4 minutes)
- This Land Crooked podcast. that tells the story of An 1839 assassination of a Cherokee leader and a 1999 murder case – two crimes nearly two centuries apart provide the backbone to a 2020 Supreme Court decision that determined the fate of five tribes and nearly half the land in Oklahoma (8 episodes 30 - 40 minutes each)
- How QAnon-Like Conspiracy Theories Tear Families Apart January 2021, NPR. Political conspiracy theories are pushing some family relationships to the breaking point. NPR's Audie Cornish talks with Dannagal Young of the University of Delaware about how to mend those rifts. (7 minutes)
- Breaking Green Ceilings Podcast amplifying the voices of environmentalists from historically underrepresented communities including Disabled, Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color and accomplices (episodes 1 hour)
- Introducing: Nice White Parents From Serial and The New York Times.5-part series that looks at the 60-year relationship between white parents and the public school down the block. Includes reading list and discussion guide, calls in/out white progressives (episodes1 hour )
- Teaching To Thrive Podcast hosts Bettina Love & Chelsey Culley-Love share ideas that strengthen the everyday lives of Black and Brown students within our schools and communities. Each episode is aimed at empowering our knowledge for collective liberation (episodes 20 - 40 mins)
- Black Voices in Healthcare Podcast by the acclaimed medical storytelling community The Nocturnists who, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, invited in Black medical community luminaries, Ashley McMullen, MD and Kimberly Manning, MD, to host this series about how being Black shapes medical workers’ personal and professional lives (episodes 30 mins - 1 hour)
- 1619 New York Times. 6-part audio series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones examining how slavery has transformed America, connecting past and present through the oldest form of storytelling. (episodes 30 - 45 mins)
- Opinion | What’s Really Behind the 1619 Backlash? An Interview With Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates July 2021, Ezra Klein podcast,. You’ve heard plenty by now about the fights over teaching critical race theory and the 1619 Project. But behind those skirmishes is something deeper: A fight over the story we tell about America. Why that fight has so gripped our national discourse is the question of this podcast: What changes when a country’s sense of its own history changes? What changes when who gets to tell that story changes? What are the stakes here, and why now? ( 1 hour 19 minutes)
- On Point Radio – Oklahoma To Incorporate 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Into Statewide School Curriculum February 2020, NPR. Host David Folkenflik interviews Tulsans about the 1921 “Black Wall Street” race massacre and recent efforts to integrate it into the Oklahoma education system. (46 minutes)
- Here & Now – Without Slavery, Would The U.S. Be The Leading Economic Power? November 2014m NPR. Jeremy Hobson explores with Edward Baptis how slavery established the United States as a world economic power. (15 minutes)
- NPR Morning Edition – You Cannot Divorce Race From Immigration May 2019, NPR. Rachel Martin talks to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas for a response to a story in The Atlantic, written by David Frum, proposing the U.S. cut legal immigration by half. (6 minutes)
- Momentum Race Forward. Features movement voices, stories, and strategies for racial justice. 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. Deepen your racial justice lens and get inspired to drive action. (episodes range from 10 minutes to 1 hour)
- Origin Stories December 2019, NPR. Christopher Lydon with Nikole Hannah-Jones, Philip Deloria, and Peter Linebaugh about national origin stories. The thread here is storytelling that explains and often hides what happened (50 minutes)
You could also choose a song from the Soundtrack4Justice playlist below.
Watch and learn. We've offered everything from short videos to full-length films.
Short, Coffee Break Length < 10 min
- Christopher Columbus Was a Murderous Moron Adam Ruins Everything, August 2017. Explains where this holiday comes from and why changing it to Indigenous Peoples Day is so important. (6 minutes)
- The difference between being non-racist and anti-racist CBS News, June 2020. Ayana Lage, Bryce Micheale Wood, Jason Reynolds, Sonya Renee Taylor, and Patrick Ewing Jr. share their thoughts on the difference being being not racist and anti racist. (6 minutes)
- What Is Performative Allyship? Seventeen Magazine, July 2017. A series of LGBTQIA young people describe the difference between a real ally and a performative ally and why it matters. (2 minutes)
- Latino and Hispanic identities aren’t the same. They’re also not racial groups MTV’s Decoded, September 2016. Franchesca Ramsey and Kat Lazo explain how answering this question is tricky, largely because of the ways Hispanic and Latinx identity is racialized in the US, even though these categories don’t actually refer to a race at all. (6 minutes)
- Critical race theory: Breaking down the truth behind the spin Washington Post, July 2021. Teachers across the country are caught in the middle of the latest flash point in America's culture war: critical race theory. Here's what the decades-old framework actually entails. (6 minutes)
- Concerns grow about how the Delta Variant will hit the Latino population NBC Denver, July 2021. A community hardest hit by the pandemic in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths continues to have disproportionate vaccination rates. (2 minutes)
- COVID-19 vaccinations among Latinos, Blacks on the rise, data suggests USA Today, August 2021. Explains why Black Americans’ vaccination rate continues to lag. (2 minutes)
- West Chester trustee decries racism during meeting Cinncinati.com, March 2021. Asian American official Lee Wong reveals war scars during town meeting to push back against racism, asking 'Is this patriot enough?' (4 minutes)
- Teenagers Discuss Microaggressions and Racism SheKnows Media's Hatch program, February 2015. An education for parents on the concept of "microaggressions," defined as a form of unintentional discrimination, and their impact on teens' self-esteem. (2 minutes)
- Teacher Gaslights Students About History of the N-word Daily Dot, Feb 2021. AP HIstory teacher attempts to teach students that slaveholders did not whip enslaved Africans and that the N’word only means ignorant. Scroll down the page to find Tik Tok video. (1 minute)
- The New Dawn Blooms NPR, January 2021. Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman reads her poem written for Inauguration Day 2021. (6 minutes)
- What are sundown towns and do they exist in the DMV? Leading expert says "Yes!" WUSA, June 2021. James Loewen explains what sundown towns are and why we don’t know more about them. Also breaks down why Greenbook, the movie, gets it wrong on so many fronts. (7 minutes)
- We Want to Do More Than Survive C-Span, June 2019. Bettina Love vividly explains the difference between allies and co-conspirators in the fight for justice. (7 minutes)
- Pride Month 2021: What to know about the LGBTQ celebration CNN, June 2021. The history of Pride month, and encouragement to allies from outside the LGBT community to show support, to observe, listen and be educated. (4 minutes)
- I'm not your inspiration, thank you very much TED Talk, April 2014. Comedian and journalist Stella Young who happens to go about her day in a wheelchair — a fact that doesn't, she'd like to make clear, automatically turn her into a noble inspiration to all humanity. In this very funny talk, Young breaks down society's habit of turning disabled people into "inspiration porn." (9 minutes)
- How Can We Win CARJAM TV, June 2020. Author Kimberly Jones gives a powerful, spontaneous, eloquent speech explaining in detail why this is happening (racism across 450 years) and the difference between protesting, rioting and looting in 2020. (7 minutes)
- You love Black culture, but do you love me? Ad Age, November 2020. Powerful Beats By Dre spot challenging the appropriation of Black culture amidst ongoing lack of challenge to the racist systems that continue to oppress Black communities. (2 minutes)
- Systemic Racism Explained Act.TV, April 2019. Animated short illustrates how systemic racism affects every area of U.S. from incarceration to predatory lending, and how we can solve it. (4 minutes)
- The American Lows, Excerpt Blackamoor Films, October 2020. Jacqueline Battalora talks about how white supremacy permeates all aspects of American society. (4 minutes)
- Defund the Police Project Nia & Blue Seat Studios, October 2020. Explanation of the racist origins of U.S. policing, and paint a vision for what shifting resources from police budgets to housing, food, and other basic life needs can look like. (4 minutes)
- This is Us MSNBC, August 2019. Dr. Eddie Glaude explains why blaming current racial tensions on Donald Trump misses the point. (3 minutes)
- The Iroquois Influence on the Constitution Massachusetts School of Law at Andover, January 2011. First Voices Indigenous Radio host Tiokasin Ghosthorse explains the sequestering of two Iroquois chiefs to advise US founding fathers in the writing of the U.S. Constitution. (4 minutes)
- Racism is Real Vox, January 2016. Split-screen video depicting the differential in the white and black lived experience. (3 minutes)
- I Didn’t Tell You Norma J., December 2013. Ever wonder what a day in the life of a person of color is like? Listen to this poem, written and spoken by Norma Johnson. (7 minutes)
- 50 states, 50 different ways of teaching America's past CBS News, February 2020. Ibram X. Kendi reviews current history curriculum production and use across the U.S. (5 minutes)
- The Disturbing History of the Suburbs Adam Ruins Everything, October 2017. Humorous approach to educating about how redlining came to be. (6 minutes)
- New York Times Op-Docs on Race, Multiple videos with a range of racial and ethnic perspectives on the lived experience of racism in the US. (each video about 6 minutes)
- White Bred The Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere – Los Angeles (AWARE-LA), August 2017. Excellent quick intro to how white supremacy shapes white lives and perception. (5 minutes)
- What Kind of Asian Are You? Helpmefindparents, May 2013. Humorous two minute youtube video that illustrates the utter silliness of the way many white Americans interact with Asian Americans (2 minutes)
- What Would You Do?: Bicycle Thief Episode ABC, May 2010. Popular show explores the impact of racial and gender bias and prejudice at a family friendly park. Before this video, would you have anticipated this differential treatment
Medium, Lunch Break Length 10-50 min
- Segregated By Design Richard Rothstein, 2019. Film short outlining the unconstitutional housing practices and state violence that demolished existing racially integrated neighborhoods and prevented new ones. (19 minutes)
- Sec. (of the Interior) Haaland on healing from the indoctrination, dehumanization at Indian boarding schools PBS News Hour, July 2021. Like Canada, America has a painful history of creating boarding schools to assimilate Native American children, leading to trauma, abuse and death. For more than 150 years, Indigenous children were taken from their families and forced into far away boarding schools. But now there's a reckoning and a new federal investigation underway. Judy Woodruff discusses it with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. (10 minutes)
- Microaggressions In The Classroom Focused.Arts.Media.Education., May 2017. A wide range of microaggressions described by college students accompanied by a range of professors describing how they’ve handled their missteps. (18 minutes)
- 751 estimated unmarked graves found at former Saskatchewan residential school, FSIN announces Global News, June 2021. Virtual announcement by the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) and Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan regarding the estimated 751 unmarked graves found at the site of the former Marieval residential school, asking for support and understanding. (40 minutes)
- Are You a “Nice Racist”? Amanpour and Company, August 2021. Robin DiAngelo and Michel Martin discuss Robin’s latest book, “Nice Racism,” Robin’s enduring efforts to understand and educate white progressives about the part they play within a racist culture, and the criticism that has been leveled against her. (17 minutes)
- Siobhan Wescott, MD, MPH, discusses vaccination in Native American communities AMA, April 2021. Todd Under and Siobhan Wescott (Alaskan Athabascan) discuss the impact of COVID on Indigenous communities and explore how the vaccination process is going. (19 minutes)
- Munroe Bergdorf on racism, trans activism and acceptance Channel 4 News, January 2019. English activist and model Munroe Bergdorf, known for speaking her mind on trans issues, racism, and misogyny, talks about her own transition and the controversy that led to her being dropped by L'Oreal. (38 minutes)
- I’ve lived as a man & a woman -- here’s what I learned TED talk, 2017. Paula Stone Williams speaks frankly and humorously about the surprising injustices she discovered in transitioning from a white male to a white female body. (15 minutes)
- Indigenous People React to Indigenous Representation in Film And TV REACT, October 2019. Conversation with a diverse range of Indigenous people about media depictions of Indigenous people, Columbus day, and Indigenous identity. (15 minutes)
- The urgency of intersectionality, TED Talk, October 2016. Kimberlé Crenshaw asks us to see the ways Black women have been invisibilized in the law and in the media due a lack of intersectional lens. (19 minutes)
- How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them, TED Talk, December 2014. Vernā Myers encourages us to work vigorously to counter balance bias by connecting with and learning from the groups we fear. (19 minutes)
- Racial Wealth Gap Netflix, April 2020. Explanation of why measuring racial progress must include understanding the roots and dynamics of the Black/white racial wealth gap. (16 minutes)
- ‘We the People’ - the three most misunderstood words in US history TED Talk, January 2019. Mark Charles (Navajo) offers a unique perspective on three of the most misinterpreted words in American History and their connection to obstructing life, liberty, and justice for all people. (17 minutes)
Long, Sit On the Couch Length >50 min
- The Bamboo Ceiling November 2020, The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. As first-generation American of Chinese (Fujianese) descent goes to school and explores career pathways, she comes face to face with barriers and challenges that negatively impact her, such as the model minority myth, racial imposter syndrome, the bamboo ceiling, glass ceiling, and microaggressions. (54 minutes)
- Exterminate All the Brutes April 2021, Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro). Four-part mini-series that deconstructs the making and masking of history, digging deep into the exploitative and genocidal aspects of European colonialism — from America to Africa and its impact on society today. (4 one-hour episodes)
- Amend: The Fight for America May 2021, Netflix series by Will Smith. When the United States of America was founded, the ideals of freedom and equality did not apply to all people. These are the stories of the brave Americans who fought to right the nation’s wrongs and enshrine the values we hold most dear into the Constitution — with liberty and justice for all. (6 one-hour episodes)
- The United States versus Billie Holiday February 2021, Hulu. Based on the book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, this film tells the 1940s story of the US government’s attempts to target Billie Holiday in a growing effort to racialize the war on drugs, ultimately aiming to stop her from singing her controversial ballad, “Strange Fruit.” (2 hours 10 minutes)
- Documented 2014, Jose Antonio Vargas. Jose Antonio Vargas uses his personal story to convey the internal and external impacts of the US’s broken immigration system. Also available on Amazon Prime. (1 hour 30 minutes)
- Race In America: Fighting for Justice October 2020, Washington Post, Bryan Stevenson with interviewer Jonathan Capehart delves into the state of US racism and racial justice and explores the role of hope in staying the course. (1 hour)
- The Force 2014, YouTube Movies. A fly-on-the-wall look deep inside the long-troubled Oakland Police Department as it struggles to rebuild public trust. (1 hour 32 minutes)
- 13th, 2016, Netflix movie by Ava DuVernay. Uncovers the connection between US Slavery and the present day mass incarceration system. (1 hour 40 minutes)
- Slavery by Another Name:The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II 2008, PBS. Documentary challenging the idea that slavery ended with the emancipation proclamation. (90 minutes)
- Unnatural Causes 2008, California Newsreel. 7-part documentary that explores the impact of racism on health and US healthcare. (4 hours total, episodes have variable lengths)
- In The White Man’s Image 1992, PBS: American Experience. Documentary about the Native American boarding school movement designed to “kill the Indian and save the man.” (56 minutes)
- Race: The Power of an Illusion 2003, California Newsreel. 3-part documentary exploring the biology of skin color, the concept of assimilation, and the history of institutional racism with particular focus on 20th century housing and lending programs and the post WWII GI Bill. (three 1 hour episodes)
- Who Killed Malcom X? 2020, Netflix. 6-episode series exploring the decades-long investigation into who was behind the assassination of Malcom X and the mis/reporting of it. (episodes 40 minutes)
Notice: Why didn’t I see this sooner? It’s easy to overlook what we’re not looking for.
Once people start to learn about white privilege and America’s systems of oppression through history, they often ask, “Why didn’t I see this sooner?” It’s easy to overlook what we’re not looking for. Once you understand the phenomenon of selective noticing, take yourself on a noticing adventure.
1) Watch the Test Your Awareness: Do The Test
2) Go out in the world and change up what you notice. (Some of this will be influenced differently pre/during/post COVID. You may need to rely on memories until we are on the move again!) Here’s some of what you might look for:
- Who is and is not represented in ads?
- Who are your ten closest friends? What is the racial mix in this group?
- As you move through the day, what’s the racial composition of the people around you? On your commute? At the coffee shop you go to? At the gym? At your workplace? At the show you go on the weekend?
- What percentage of the day are you able to be with people of your own racial identity?
- Notice how much of your day you are speaking about racism. Who are you engaging with on these issues? Who are you not? Why do you think this is?
- What are the last five books you read? What is the racial mix of the authors?
- What is the racial mix of the main characters in your favorite TV shows? Movies?
- What is the racial mix of people pictured in the photos and artwork in your home? In your friend, family, and colleagues’ homes?
- Who is filling what kinds of jobs/social roles in your world? (e.g. Who’s the store manager and who’s stocking the shelves? Who’s waiting on tables and who’s busing the food?) Can you correlate any of this to racial identity?
- Who do you notice on magazine covers? What roles are people of color filling in these images?
- If you’re traveling by car, train, or air, do you notice housing patterns? How is housing arranged? Who lives near the downtown commerce area and who does not? Who lives near the waterfront and who does not? Who lives in industrial areas and who does not? What is the density of a given neighborhood? Can you correlate any of this to racial identity?
3) Review the Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist, Multicultural Institution with a small group of people at your workplace, faith institution, club, or any organization you’re a part of.
- Where do you think the organization is right now
- What’s your evidence?
- Has the organization evolved in some ways?
- What caused/allowed for that?
- Has the organization articulated a desire to evolve towards being an anti-racist, multicultural organization?
- If not, do you have the power to influence that movement?
- Who are your in-organization and/or stakeholder allies?
- If yes, what steps is it taking?
- Could it be doing more? If so, what?
- Who are your in-organization and/or stakeholder allies?
Follow Racial Justice activists, educators, organizations, and movements on social media.
FollowRacial Justice activists, educators, organizations, and movements on social media. Consider connecting with any of the people /organizations you learn about in the above resources. Here are more ideas to widen your circle of who you follow. Pro Tip: check out who these organizations follow, quote, repost, and retweet to find more people/organizations to follow.
hollaback! Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Anti-Racism Daily
Indigenous Environmental Network
Mona Eltahawy
Michelle Kim Twitter | Instagram
Tony DelaRosa Twitter | Instagram
Bianca Mabute-Louie Twitter | Instagram
Latina Rebels (@latinarebels) • Instagram photos and videos
Antiracism Center: Twitter
Audre Lorde Project: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Black Women’s Blueprint: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Justice League NYC: Twitter | Instagram + Gathering For Justice: Twitter | Instagram
The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
MPowerChange: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Muslim Girl: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
NAACP: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
National Domestic Workers Alliance: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
RAICES: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
SisterSong: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
National Center for Transgender Equality | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Movement for Black Lives | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Dream Defenders | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum: APIAHF | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
United We Dream | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
The Philanthropy Initiative | Twitter
National Congress of American Indians | Twitter | Facebook
Antiracism Center | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Color Of Change | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Colorlines | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
The Conscious Kid | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Families Belong Together | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Teaching Tolerance | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Colours of Us | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Anti-Defamation League | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Nonprofit AF | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Define American | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
AWARE-LA | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Privilege to Progress | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Black Minds Matter | Twitter
18MillionRising | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Black Voters Matter | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Teaching While White | Twitter | Facebook
White Nonsense Roundup | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Conversations with White People: Talking about race | Facebook
Race Forward | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Racial Equity Tools | Twitter | Facebook
1Hood Media | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
White Awake | Twitter | Facebook
The Transgender Training Institute | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Engage in racially mixed settings. Be a learner more than a knower.
This can be the hardest part for people new to racial justice work. Engaging in racially mixed settings can trigger age-old power and privilege dynamics. The goal is to be a learner more than a knower, exactly the opposite of what dominant U.S. culture teaches us to be.
Here are some Engagement Tips to guide you:
- Enter the process to learn and bridge knowledge gaps.
- Enter the process to practice mindful social habits like the ones below.
- Work to stay engaged even when your mind and body start sending you signals to shrink or walk away.
- Ask clarifying questions.
- Acknowledge what you don’t know.
- Validate others by listening closely and believing the truth and importance of what they are sharing.
- Share airtime so that multiple perspectives are shared.
- Step Up Step Back. If you are generally quiet, step up and practice speaking more. If you are generally a talker, practice stepping back and listening more.
- Notice your biases and judgments as they arise. These are gold for you to excavate your subconscious!
- Notice when you are uncomfortable. Reflect on why you’re uncomfortable and think about what you can do to build more emotional stamina in this area.
- Honor confidentiality. Though you can share what you are learning in general terms, do not repeat stories in a way that can be traced back to the person who shared it.
- Find a mentor within your own racial group to support and guide your growth.
If you are white, join a Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ) chapter in your area.
Google who’s who in your area by typing in ‘Racial Justice” or “Anti-Racist/m” + name of city/town, organization, or sector. A few website visits, emails, and phone calls later, you’ll likely have an idea of how to get on the mailing of one or more organizations in your area who are addressing issues of power and privilege. Once you connect to one, it’s easy to connect to many!
Research racial justice speakers and see who might be coming to your local university, church, community center, or speaker series.
Take a course or workshop. Community Colleges and Adult Education Centers are a great place to find a course about social justice issues.
Act: Flex your skills. Take action to interrupt power and privilege dynamics.
Though many people want to jump to action sooner instead of later, action without a vigorous self-education, self-reflection, and multiracial coalition can unexpectedly reproduce the very power and privilege dynamics we seek to interrupt. That said, sometimes acting immediately is called for. Welcome to the messy, imperfect world of challenging the status quo! Here are a few actions that you might consider:
- Invite friend(s), family, and/or colleagues to do the 21-Day Challenge with you.
- Prepare yourself to interrupt racial jokes. Click HERE for some advice about how.
- Interrupt the pattern of white silence by speaking openly with family, friends, and colleagues about what you’re doing and learning in the 21-Day Challenge.
- Invite friend(s), family, and/or colleagues to join you for one or more of your daily “to-do’s” for a low-threshold invitation into the work and introduction to the 21-Day Challenge.
- Find out if your school, workplace, or faith group has an Equity Committee. What can you learn from them? Are they open to new members? Join if you can. Support in other ways if you can’t.
- Find organizations such as The Privilege Institute, your local YWCA, and other non-profits doing racial justice work and support them through donating your time, money, and other resources.
- Find a 21-Day Challenge group in your region or sector and reach out to connect with, and perhaps co-create a region or sector specific 21-Day Challenge in the future. Google “21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge + your state, region, or sector”
- When the status quo is blatantly racist, disrupt it. No matter how big or small put yourself out there to create change. No need to wait until you are comfortable disrupting; it may never get comfortable, though you will get better at managing discomfort. These actions are generally more successful when done in multiracial coalition. Examples from past participants include:
- Demanding administration change the name of a dodgeball team from “The Cottonpickers”
- Improving the representation of books in the library by raising funds and purchasing hundreds of new books
- Conducting an equity audit within the organization
- Creating learning communities to set goals, objectives, and action plans
- Disrupting inappropriate language by offering alternative language you yourself are learning
- Speaking, emailing, and posting about articles, blogs, movies, and this 21-Day Challenge that you find impactful.
Let people know you are not neutral!
EXPLORE!
Dive into resource-rich websites that can inspire and educate you.
- All about the DREAM Act 2021
- ImmigrationHelp.org
- (Divorcing) White Supremacy Culture
- GLSEN
- BreakOUT!
- The Transgender Training Institute
- We are not a stereotype
- Learning Together
- Racial Equity Tools Glossary
- Othering & Belonging Institute
- Annotated Guide to the For the People Act of 2021
- Black Americans and the Vote
- National Archives
- A Different Asian American Timeline
- AAPI Data: Home
- Race: The Power of An Illusion
- Resources to Educate Yourself On Black Oppression
- American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL)
- Reading Lists - Anti-racism - Subject Guides at University of Iowa
- Resources for Talking to Students about Police Violence and the Murder of George Floyd
- National Museum of African American History and Culture
Native-Land.ca - Our home on native land Anti-Asian Violence Resources Allied Organizations
Create a Soundtrack4Justice playlist that fuels you and/or can serve as a conversation starter with people of all ages.
You can find ours on Spotify, Youtube, Apple Music, or see individual songs below:
Ain’t Got No, I Got Life / Nina Simone
Baltimore / Nina Simone
Be Free / J Cole
Blended Family / Alicia Keys
Blue Bucket of Gold/Gallant X Sufjan Stevens
Born This Way / Lady Gaga
Brave / Sara Bareilles
Call Me By Your Name / Lil Nas X
Colors in Bloom / Lex Allen ft. Taj Raiden
Fight the Power / Public Enemy
Fight Song / Rachel Platten
Formation / Beyonce
For The Kids / Homeboy Sandman
Four Women / Nina Simone
Give Your Hands to Struggle / Sweet Honey in the Rock
Get Up, Stand Up / Bob Marley
Good As Hell / Lizzo
Good Way / Frank Waln w/ Gunner Jules & Rollie Raps
Hear My Cry / Frank Waln w/ Cody Blackbird
House Of A Thousand Guitars / Bruce Springsteen
Hijabi / Mona Hayder
If It’s Magic / Stevie Wonder
Industry Baby / Lil Nas X & Jack Harlow
It’s a good day (to fight the system) / Shungudzo
Keep Your Head Up / Tupac
Love’s In Need of Love Today / Stevie Wonder
Living for the City / Stevie Wonder
Mercedes Benz / Janis Joplin
My Country ‘Tis Of Thy People You’re Dying / Buffy Sainte Marie
Ne Me Quitte Pas / Nina Simone
People Get Ready / Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions
Rich Girl / Nina Simone
Roar / Katy Perry
Same As It Ever Was/Michael Franti & Spearhead
Same Love / Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Save Me / Nina Simone
Slow Up / Jacob Banks
Stay Human / Michael Franti & Spearhead
Super Rich Kids / Frank Ocean
Strength, Courage & Wisdom / India Arie
The 10 Stop and Frisk Commandments / Jasiri X
The Colour in Anything / James Blake
Try / Colbie Caillat
We The People / Tribe Called Quest
Try Everything / Shakira
Where Is The Love / Black Eyed Peas
White Privilege / Mackelmore
White Privilege II / Macklemore
Whitey on the Moon / Gil Scott-Heron
Stand 4 What / Nick Cannon
This Is America / Childish Gambino
To Be Young Gifted and Black, Nina Simone
Ultra Black / Nas

Guidelines:
If you are using, revising or editing the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge © content created by Dr. Eddie Moore Jr. and his team at The Privilege Institute, giving credit to the creators is required. Remember, now more than ever, you/your organization must always give credit for the social justice tools/ideas created by BIPOC folks doing and leading Antiracist work. We’ve made it easy to give the proper recognition to be used on websites, social media sites, in email communication, during interviews and/or infomercials. Click HERE for our copyright information and tools to incorporate the required recognition in your plan. We are committed to offering the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge © free of charge. We are constantly enhancing the materials, monitoring social media pages, responding to inquiries/questions, and Moore.