Racial equity is among the most fundamental issues in our national and community dialogues, and issues of race have both historical and current implications in the way we govern at federal, state, and local levels.

As a City employee, you can help ensure that our programs and services work to ensure equitable services for all members of our community by growing your own knowledge of the issues.

Here’s a list of resources to get you started on your own journey of understanding. This list is compiled from offerings by GARE member organizations, or have been identified by our own staff as being of more local interest.

You can also review the reading list provided at the Fall 2019 Senior Staff training on racial equity at the bottom of this page.

Racial Equity Glossary & Terms 

Read

Reserve some of these books HERE.

• Caste, Isabel Wilkerson
• Four Pivots, Shawn A. Ginwright
• Poverty, by America, Matthew Desmond
• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, Richard Rothstein, 2016.
• The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander, 2012. 
• For Whites Only: Shocking language found in property docs throughout Bay Area,” San Jose Mercury News, Marisa Kendall, Feb. 26, 2019 
• So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeaoma Oluo
• How to be an Anti-Racist, Dr. Ibram X Kendi
• The Devil in Silicon Valley, Dr. Stephen J. Pitti 
• Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
• The Curb Cut Effect, Angela Glover Blackwell
• How We Achieve a Multiracial Democracy, Angela Glover Blackwell

• TIMELINE: Citizenship in the United States, 1781 – Present, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees

Watch

• Debunking Race: by Vox 
•  Targeted Universalism: Othering & Belonging Institute 
• Structural Racism Explained: Othering & Belonging Institute  
• Colorblind: Rethinking Race - PBS documentary on race relations in America
• Race: The Power of an Illusion, episodes

Listen

• “The Invention of Race” from the Seeing White podcast series by producer John Biewen
• This American Life: The Problem We All Live With, Part 1 and Part 2