Typically, when choosing books for my Dive into Diversity posts, I mostly try to avoid titles that focus on racism, police or gun violence, or other trauma. Instead, I prefer to highlight books that show a diverse range of teens dealing with everyday life. In this moment, though, it's time to feature books that demonstrate the impact of violence and oppression on teens. These stories are heavy, but they are important. Especially if you don’t identify with the protagonist, I challenge you to read and consider the character’s situation with an open mind. Let these stories be windows into another
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Archives for Antiracism Reading List
A Call for Antiracism: Children’s Titles
In her June 1, 2020 article, “Black Lives Matter Book List for Kids and Teens,” Bianca Schulze writes eloquently, “No one person’s life is worth a higher value than another. It’s time to get uncomfortable, it’s time to immerse ourselves in the stories of others so that we may know and love our neighbors as we love ourselves.” I was inspired by her article, and If you would like you can read it here. We are living in deeply troubling times and sadly we are fighting the same battles for equality, human dignity, and justice that have plagued the United
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Antiracism Resources for Teens & Adults
This may seem irrelevant to the topic of antiracism, but I want to start by saying that I’m a knitter. In January 2019, the knitting community began a moment of reckoning with racism in the fiber arts industry. If you’re interested, you can read more about those conversations here, but suffice it to say that this event brought me to a new awareness of racism. After that, I thought a lot more consciously about my privilege, my place as a white librarian working with primarily teens of color, and my responsibility to teach my young children about antiracism. By no
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