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Racial and Social Justice

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

James Baldwin

Reading List

Coretta Scott King Book Award Winners

Each winter (either January or February), the Coretta Scott King Book Awards are given to outstanding African American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values.

Where you can find diverse children's books!

How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning comes a refreshing approach that will radically reorient America on the urgent issues of race, justice, and equality.

How White Parents Can Talk to Their Kids About Race (Article)

Most people have heard about "the talk" — the conversation many African American parents have with their kids about how to avoid altercations with police or what to do and say if they're stopped. The recent unrest sparked by anger over police brutality against African Americans has parents who aren't black thinking more about how they talk to their kids about race.

Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment

By Patricia Hill Collins

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

By Maya Angelou

Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon

Winner of the Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction, LA Times Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, Barnes and Noble Discover Award, and Audible’s Audiobook of the Year, HEAVY was also named one of the Best Books of 2018 by the The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, NPR, Broadly, Library Journal , The Washington Post , Southern Living , Entertainment Weekly, San Francisco Chronicle and The New York Times Critics.

75 Things White People Can Do

Note 1: This article is continually updated to ensure each item is accurate and needed today. Note 2: Achieving racial justice is a marathon, not a sprint. Our work to fix what we broke and left broken isn’t done until Black folks tell us it’s done.

Ahmaud Arbery Could Have Been Me

Who Gets To Be Afraid In America?

Curriculum

Let's Talk! A Teaching Tolerance Guide

Facilitating Critical Conversations With Students

Anti-Racism Project Resources

A collection of books, articles, videos, prompts, etc. to help facilitate better discussions in the classroom.

Racial and Social Justice 101

This recorded webinar acts as an educational resource for organizations and individuals seeking to deepen both their professional and personal practices toward centering those who navigate society from its margins.

Hip Hop as Liberation Theology

A 10 week interactive seminar course and discussion rooted in womanist praxis with an emphasis on hip hop as a socio-political and spirit/religion based ideology.

Zinn Education Project

The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people’s history in middle and high school classrooms across the country. Based on the lens of history highlighted in Howard Zinn’s best-selling book A People’s History of the United States, the website offers free, downloadable lessons and articles organized by theme, time period, and reading level.

Asian American Education Project

Lesson Plans from Untold Civil Rights Stories and Asian Americans

Juneteenth

What is Juneteenth?

By Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

History of Juneteenth

U.S. Census Bureau

Juneteenth, Explained

The holiday’s 155-year history holds a lot of meaning in the fight for black liberation today.

Teaching Juneteenth

The history of Juneteenth acknowledges hard history while also empowering students to be advocates for change.

NEA Ed Justice

Know Me, Know My Name

Know Me, Know My Name is a cost-free way for educators to identify and make contact with children who are in danger of slipping through the cracks at school.

Racial Justice in Education

To better align and institutionalize racial equity into the work and practices of NEA, it is important that we understand the connection of racial justice to our mission, vision, core values and strategic framework.

Creating the Space to Talk About Race

Our education system is intended to uphold equal opportunity, but too often it also entrenches racial disparities by its design. We are engaging educators, students and allies to foster real dialogue around issues of racial justice in education, to examine policies and practices in our school systems and our communities, and to mobilize and take action for education justice.

Video "Primers" for Anti-Racist White Educators

Luke Michener and Terry Jess are both white, male educators who teach at Bellevue High School in Washington state. They set about creating a series of YouTube videos they hoped could provide other white educators with ideas, insights and tools to better engage in racial equity work in their own schools and communities.

Ethnic Studies Classes Growing in Popularity

Over the past few years, at the urging of NEA members and students, an increasing number of school districts and states, including Indiana, are requiring that ethnic-studies courses or curriculum be developed and available to students.

NEA’s Ethnic and Cultural Diversity Resources

Resources and toolkits to help members safely and effectively teach students about ethnic and cultural holidays and celebrations. This is in response to New Business Item #6 (2024).

Supporting Immigrant Families and Students

Let’s work together to create immigration policies that are humane, functional, and just. This is in response to New Business Item #12 (2024).

Supporting Immigrant Families and Students

Let’s work together to create immigration policies that are humane, functional, and just. This is in response to New Business Item #12 (2024).

OEA Pages

Black History Month

On this page you will find a collection of classroom resources for all ages to support Black History Month curriculum in the state of Oklahoma.

OEA’s long history of advancing the concerns of all members from all walks of life is reflected in the various caucuses and their participation in the association. The caucuses serve to represent the interests and issues of their specific communities within the OEA and the community.

Absentee Voting

Discover how you can register and vote ahead of Oklahoma's in-person elections!

Podcasts

Integrated Schools: Conversations About Integration

Episode guest Dr. Jennifer Harvey discusses her book, Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America, as well her personal journey towards anti-racist organizing, educating, and child rearing.

Fried Okra: "It's OK to be Uncomfortable"

Sharica Cole and Dawn Brown from OEA's Human and Civil Rights Committee share their personal stories of dealing with race as educators. It is a difficult conversation to have, but one that is much needed in this time, as we navigate how to move forward and make progress in our schools and with our students.

Fare of the Free Child

Fare of the Free Child is a weekly-published podcast community centering Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color in liberatory living and learning practices.

NPR: Talking Race With Young Children

Even babies notice differences like skin color, eye shape and hair texture. Here's how to handle conversations about race, racism, diversity and inclusion, even with very young children.

An audio series on how slavery has transformed America, connecting past and present through the oldest form of storytelling.

Show About Race

Co-discussants Anna Holmes, Baratunde Thurston, Raquel Cepeda and Tanner Colby host a lively multiracial, interracial conversation about the ways we can’t talk, don’t talk, would rather not talk, but intermittently, fitfully, embarrassingly do talk about culture, identity, politics, power, and privilege in our pre-post-yet-still-very-racial America.

Pod Save the People

On Pod Save the People, organizer and activist DeRay Mckesson explores news, culture, social justice, and politics with fellow activists Brittany Packnett Cunningham and Sam Sinyangwe, and writer Dr. Clint Smith. They offer a unique take on the news, with a special focus on overlooked stories and topics that often impact people of color.

Fried Okra: Dr. Nicole Been

Dr. Nicole Been, University of Oklahoma Associate Athletic Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, joins the pod to discuss how DEI strategies and initiatives help everyone reach their highest potential.

Videos

Oklahoma Dreamers

Fiscal Tiger is an online site dedicated providing people with the latest information on managing personal finances, including repairing your credit and improving your credit score. The group also provides scholarships for DACA and undocumented students.

Initiatives