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June 04, 2020

Social Justice and Anti-Racism Resources

Black Lives Matter. Black Stories Matter.

The Television Academy will continue to foster content that informs, educates, and prompts meaningful dialogue and change. We are a community of storytellers, and we stand in solidarity against racism and social injustice.

updated 6.22.20

See below for resources and information.

Make Your Voice Heard

We want to use our platform to amplify your voice.

We invite you to share your story.

We welcome your words, perspective, and thoughts on the role and responsibility of our membership in understanding systemic racism, racial injustice, and the action that must be taken to create lasting change within our attitudes and institutions.

Take Action

  • NEW  In this Rolling Stone article, Jon Blisten covers Alicia Keys' campaign demanding justice for Breonna Taylor. It also highlights her new Until Freedom video and offers ways to join the campaign and show your support.
  • NEW  #ITakeResponsibility Campaign - Julianne Moore, Kristen Bell, Sarah Paulson and more encourage white people to call out racism. Watch the video, take the pledge and spread the word.
  • NEW  Women in Film has launched Hire Her Back, an initiative to call on entertainment companies to continue to seek gender and racial equality as the industry looks to return to film and TV production after the COVID-19 shutdown. Find ways you can help and support.
  • M4BL (Movement for Black Lives) Week of Action: Five Demands - An opportunity to uplift and fight alongside those turning up in the streets and online.
  • Take Action and Support the Black Lives Matter Movement in L.A. Now - Here's how you can show your support, both nationally and locally in Los Angeles.
  • Ways You Can Stand in Solidarity with the Black Community - An ongoing list of ways you can help as we collectively fight against systemic racism and violence.
  • Support the Black Lives Matter Movement - A list of petitions to sign, funds and charities to donate to, and resources for educating yourself and those around you.
  • Black Lives Matter can help you educate yourself on myriad issues and ways to help - Includes petitions you can sign and information on how to text or call in protest or to show support for George Floyd and stand against social injustice.
  • Great Big Story - Information on how you can help in the fight for equality and racial justice.
  • VolunteerMatch - Helps people find opportunities to volunteer in their community, based on their area of interest and the time they have available to contribute.
  • Black Visions Collective - A black, queer, and trans-led Minnesota nonprofit committed to creating a community where all black lives not only matter, but also thrive. They have organized campaigns to cut police budgets, invest in community-driven safety strategies, and train activists.
  • UNLV created a non-partisan guide aimed at their academic community - useful for addressing anti-oppression, diversity, inclusion, and social justice.
  • Know Your Rights Camp - Aims to advance the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization and the creation of new systems that elevate the next generation of change leaders.

Broaden Your Knowledge

  • NEW  In their published article, the Think Tank For Inclusion And Equity calls on Hollywood to prioritize hiring Black writers not only when creating Black characters and crafting Black stories, but for all stories.
  • NEW  Uncomfortable Conversations With A Black Man - A conversation with Emmanuel Acho about race that many white people have never been able to have.
  • NPR's Life Kit - How white parents can talk to their kids about race. Listen to and/or read the interview Michel Martin, weekend host of All Things Considered, has with Jennifer Harvey, author of Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America
  • Talking About Race – The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture's online portal, designed to help talk about racism, racial identity and the way these forces shape every aspect of society, from the economy and politics to the broader American culture.
  • Harvard's Project Implicit - A series of tests to see where you might have unconscious biases.
  • Understanding the historical context behind this moment can help crystallise the complex forces at play. Yale offers a free online course on African-American history, from 1863 to present.
  • Anguish and Action - Obama Foundation - Resources to create a more just and equitable world.
  • Courtney Yahn Instagram page offers a breakdown of the basics of what "white privilege" means.
  • Anti-Racism Resources - Wake-Up Call - Understanding begins with all of us looking inward, reflecting on our own attitudes, and of course, having difficult conversations with family and friends.  Includes kid-friendly resources.
  • Five Artists for This Moment - These esteemed black American creators make work that responds to violence against the black body.

Resources

Viewing Suggestions

#BlackStoriesMatter: TV Programs and Films You Can Stream Now

Television has the ability to inspire lasting change, bring awareness and motivate audiences. Here are just a few programs that you can watch or binge now.

  • NEW  Global Goal: Unite for Our Future a concert hosted by Dwayne Johnson on June 27. The Concert, featuring top singers and performers will be televised worldwide and digitally streamed to highlight the disproportionate impact COVID-19 has on marginalized communities.
  • NEW  American Masters is honoring the memories of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade and the many other lives lost to police violence and racism. Below are some of their programs that amplify Black storytellers and shine a light on Black cultural figures in American history.
  • Now Streaming: Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise focuses on the untold aspects of her life through never-before-seen footage, rare archival photographs and videos and her own words.
  • Now Streaming: Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart profiles the author of Raisin In The Sun (the first-ever Black woman to author a play performed on Broadway), explores her complex life and influences that shaped her childhood, future art and activism.
  • Premiere of Documentary Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am on June 23 at 8/7c on PBS and PBS.org/tonimorrison.
  • In 1959, Miles Davis was unlawfully assaulted and arrested by two New York police officers outside a jazz club he was performing in. PBS subscribers can watch Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool. If you're not a subscriber, read about the incident here.
  • 13th (Netflix)
  • 16 Shots (Showtime is offering this free)
  • American Son (Netflix)
  • Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (PBS)
  • Burn MotherF*cker, Burn! (Showtime is offering this free)
  • The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 (Amazon)
  • Clemency (Amazon Prime rental)
  • The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (Netflix)
  • Dear White People (Netflix)
  • Fruitvale Station (Tubi)
  • The Hate U Give (Hulu with Cinemax)
  • I Am Not Your Negro (Amazon)
  • If Beale Street Could Talk (Hulu)
  • Just Mercy (available free during June on all digital platforms)
  • King in the Wilderness (HBOMax/Hulu)
  • Selma (available free during June on most streaming platforms)
  • Time: The Kalief Browder Story (Netflix)
  • When They See Us (Netflix) [ARRAY 101 - Provides a learning companion and field study lesson, intended to be a catalyst for conversation and change.]
  • A series of videos on race (New York Times)
  • NEW  Netflix has launched a collection of film and TV content for U.S. subscribers which highlights "powerful and complex narratives about the black experience."

Reading Suggestions

  • NEW  The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein - how federal, state, and local governments gave rise to and reinforced neighborhood segregation.
  • Holistic Wealth: 32 Life Lessons To Help You Find Purpose, Prosperity and Happiness by Keisha Blair - addresses wealth inequality and provides positive messages on economic empowerment as well as setbacks, trauma and grief so you can go after all you want!
  • There's a growing call to defund the police. Read CNN writer Scottie Andrew's article on what it means.
  • The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race by Jesmyn Ward - A historic second National Book Award–winner, this intimate portrait of three generations of a family is an epic tale of hope and struggle.
  • How We Fight White Supremacy: A Field Guide to Black Resistance by Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin - A celebration of Black resistance, from protests to art to sermons to joy, offers a blueprint for the fight for freedom and justice -- and ideas for how each of us can contribute.
  • I Can't Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street by Matt Taibbi - Explores the roots and repercussions of the infamous killing of Eric Garner by the New York City police.
  • Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson - An idealistic, gifted young lawyer's coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice.
  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness - by Michelle Alexander - winner of numerous prizes, including the prestigious NAACP Image Award; and nearly 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, Alexander makes the argument that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it."
  • On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope by DeRay McKesson – From the internationally recognized civil rights activist/organizer and host of the podcast Pod Save the People, a meditation on resistance, justice, and freedom, and an intimate portrait of a movement from the front lines.
  • Racism: A Short History by George M. Fredrickson - The history of Western racism from its emergence in the late Middle Ages to the present.
  • So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo - New York Times bestseller offers a hard-hitting but user-friendly examination of race in America.
  • Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi - The National Book Award winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society.
  • They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib and Dr. Eve L. Ewing - Essays that use music and culture as a lens through which to view our world, so that we might better understand ourselves, and in so doing proves himself a bellwether for our times.
  • We Can't Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival by Jabari Asim - Insightful and searing essays that celebrate the vibrancy and strength of black history and culture in America.
  • White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo and Michael Eric Dyson - The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.
  • Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge - Exploring everything from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race in Britain today.
  • Ibram X. Kendi's book How to Be an Antiracist, as well as his article for New York Times, An Antiracist Reading List can help America learn about and transcend its racist heritage.
  • Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates - Written as a letter to his son, this nonfiction book details the realities of, and author's personal experiences with, being Black in the United States, and how it infiltrates everything from school to the streets.
  • The 1619 project - The New York Times Magazine initiative won a Pulitzer Prize for its exploration of how America was built on slavery. Read the essays, then download the audio series hosted by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones.
  • Maintaining Professionalism In The Age of Black Death Is... A Lot - Read Shenequa Golding's impactful article about Black professionals.
  • What to Do If You Want to Protest Injustice But Can't Because of the Pandemic - Shondaland offers ways you can support from home.
  • Performative Allyship Is Deadly (Here's What to Do Instead) - Activism can't begin and end with a hashtag from author Holliday Phillips.
  • For Our White Friends Desiring to Be Allies - Helpful advice from Courtney Ariel.
  • If you have young children, here are ideas for books that celebrate diversity and inclusion.
  • NICKELODEON has extensive resources available to help families address racism, bias, and actions they can take.        

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Find Support

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Organizations That Work to Advance Social Justice

updated 6.22.20

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