21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge ©

The KBA plans to follow the syllabus created by the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law, which is included below this section. The goal of the Challenge is to assist each of us to become more aware, compassionate, constructive, engaged people in the quest for racial equity. It transcends our roles as lawyers. It is, of course, completely voluntary to do, and participation in the Challenge shall not be construed as agreement with every word of every assignment nor a commitment by any person to a particular professional position or strategy. Further, participants are free to opt-out of participating along the way. There is no grade at the end of the Challenge. While it is not the intention of the Challenge to cause offense, some participants may be offended by some language used in the lessons.

The Challenge invites participants to complete a syllabus of 21 short assignments (typically taking 15-30 minutes), over 21 weekdays, that include readings, videos, or podcasts. It has been intentionally crafted to focus on the Black American experience. The assignments seek to expose participants to perspectives on elements of Black history, identity and culture, and to the Black community’s experience of racism in America. Even this focus on Black Americans cannot possibly highlight all of the diversity of experiences and opinions within the Black community itself, much less substitute for learnings about any other community of color. This syllabus is but an introduction to what we hope will be a rewarding journey that extends far beyond the limits of this project.

The Challenge event and emails are completed, but if you wish to create your own 21-day challenge by following this syllabus, it is below with links.  This syllabus was created by the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law and is used with their permission.
 

21-Day Racial Equity Habit-Building Challenge is the registered copyright of America & Moore, LLC. 2014. 

Syllabus: 21-day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge © 

Day 1

• Nikole Hannah-Jones, America Wasn’t a Democracy, Until Black Americans Made It One, The New York Times (Aug. 14, 2019)

Day 2

• How to Not (Accidentally) Raise a Racist, Longest Shortest Time Podcast

Day 3

• Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Case for Reparations, The Atlantic (May 21, 2014)

Day 4

• Danielle Cadet, Your Black Colleagues May Look Like They Are Okay – Chances Are They Are Not (May 2020)
• Katy Waldman, A Sociologist Examines The “White Fragility” That Prevents White Americans From Confronting Racism, New Yorker (July 23, 2018)

Day 5

• Megan Ming Francis, Let's get to the root of racial injustice, TEDTalks (March 21, 2016)

Day 6

• Project Implicit, Implicit Association Test (IAT), (This exercise requires navigating the sign up for the tests, which includes answering a series of questions for the researchers, but it is recommended that everyone do at least these tests: Race, Skin Tone, and Weapons-Race. Also, everyone is encouraged to add these tests if you are able: Asian American, Native American, and Arab-Muslim.)

Day 7

• Kristen Rogers, Dear anti-racist allies: Here's how to respond to microaggressions, CNN
• Ali Vingiano, 63 Black Harvard Students Share Their Experiences In A Powerful Photo Project, BuzzFeed (March 3, 2014)

Day 8

• James McWilliams, Bryan Stevenson On What Well Meaning White People Need To Know About Race: An interview with Harvard University-trained public defense lawyer Bryan Stevenson on racial trauma, segregation, and listening to marginalized voices, Pacific Standard (updated Feb 18, 2019)

Day 9

• "Media portrayals of black men contribute to police violence, Rutgers study says,” EurekAlert! Science News (Nov. 29, 2018)
• Leigh Donaldson, “When the media misrepresents black men, the effects are felt in the real world,” The Guardian (Aug. 12, 2015):

Day 10

• John Biewen, Seeing White (14-part series podcast, 2017),  S2 E14: Transformation (44 minutes, 10 seconds)
  • or, if pressed for time:
    • John Biewen, Seeing White (14-part series podcast, 2017),  S2 E1: Turning the Lens (16 minutes, 30 seconds)

Day 11

• Karma Allen, More than 50% of homeless families are black, government report finds, ABCNews (Jan. 22, 2020)
• Scott Winship, Richard V. Reeves, and Katherine Guyot, The Inheritance of Black Poverty: It’s All About the Men, Brookings (March 22, 2018), 

Day 12

• Hannah Giorgis, Black Art is dangerous because it marries the personal and the political, The Guardian (Feb. 22, 2015)
• Reggie Ugwu, Lena Waitheʼs Art of Protest: The “Queen & Slim” writer on mixing art and politics, the key to collaboration and those infamous comments about Will Smith and Denzel Washington, The New York Times (Dec. 2, 2019)
• Bryan Stevenson ’85, "We can't recover from this history until we deal with it." legacy of slavery and the vision for creating the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and The Legacy Museum, Harvard Law School YouTube (Jan 30, 2019)

Day 13

• Rebecca Epstein, Jamilia J. Blake, and Thalia González, Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood, Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality
• Adrienne Green, How Black Girls Aren’t Presumed to Be Innocent: A new study finds that adults view them as less child-like and less in need of protection than their white peers, The Atlantic (June 29, 2017)

Day 14

• Perspectives in Poetry:  
  • Richard Wright - Between the World and Me
    • Author Bio
  • Langston Hughes - Harlem
    • Author Bio
  • June Jordan - Poem for Ms. Fannie Lou Hamer
    • Author Bio
  • Audre Lorde -  Who Said it Was Simple
    • Author Bio
  • Claudia Rankine – You are in the dark, in the car . . .
    • Author Bio
  • Alice Walker - The World Rising
    • Author Bio

• Perspectives on Change:
  • The Beatles – Revolution #1 
  • Nina Simone – Revolutions 1 and 2 
  • Nina Simone - Mississippi Goddam

Day 15

• Peggy McIntosh, Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of White Privilege

Day 16

• George Johnson, White gay privilege exists all year, but it is particularly hurtful during Pride, NBC News (June 30, 2019)
• Laverne Cox Talks about Intersectionality at Harvard (Video clips) (March 11, 2014)
• D-L Stewart, Black Trans* Lives Matter (TEDxTalks) (April 22, 2019)

Day 17

• N. K. Jemisin, How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? The Toxins of Speculative Fiction, and the Antidote that is Janelle Monae, Blog (Sept. 30, 2013) 

Day 18

• Sam Dylan Finch, 9 Phrases Allies Can Say When Called Out Instead of Getting Defensive, Everyday Feminism (May 29, 2017)

Day 19

• Jolie A. Doggett, 4 Questions About Hair that Black Girls Are Tired of Answering, HuffPost (Feb. 14, 2020)
• Jessica Moulite, Exclusive: Rep. Ayanna Pressley Reveals Beautiful Bald Head and Discusses Alopecia for the First Time, The Root (Jan. 16, 2020)
• Hair Love, Oscar®-Winning Short Film (Full), Sony Pictures Animation, YouTube (Dec. 5, 2019)

Day 20

• National Conference for Community and Justice, Colorism 
• Natasha S. Alford, Why Some Black Puerto Ricans Choose ‘White’ on the Census: The island has a long history of encouraging residents to identify as white, but there are growing efforts to raise awareness about racism, The New York Times (Feb. 9, 2020)

Day 21

• Karyn Lacy, How to Convince a White Realtor You’re Middle Class, The New York Times (Jan 21, 2020)
• Who is "Karen" and Why Does She Keep Calling the Police on Black Men?, On the Media (Podcast) (May 29, 2020)

Extra Resources

• Eddie Moore Jr., 21-Day Plans
   
• KBA Diversity in Practice: Expanding Horizons, Establishing Connections - October 2017
     Key Note Speaker: Edward L. Stanton III, Butler Snow, LLP
     Panel Participants: Stanton A. Fears, Kramer Rayson LLP, Amanda L. Morse, Knox County Law Department, Phyllis Y. Nichols, Urban League President, Hon. Deborah C. Stevens, Knox County Circuit Court, Division III, and Carlos A. Yunsan, Kizer & Black

• https://youtu.be/AGUwcs9qJXY  - It explains how various laws, funding, and criminal justice policies resulted in poor black households, which results in generational issues. 

  “The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture today launched Talking About Race, a new online portal designed to help individuals, families, and communities 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.”
• Robin DiAngelo, Ph.D, Critical Racial and Social Justice Education: List of Resources
• Matthew Rozsa, The Affluent are in Denial about their Class Privilege
• Verna Myers, How to Overcome Our Biases? Walk Boldly Toward Them, TED Talk (video) 
• John Biewen, Seeing White (14-part series podcast, 2017)
• Janice Gassam, Your Unconscious Bias Trainings Keep Failing Because You’re Not Addressing Systemic Bias (Forbes, Dec. 29, 2019)
• Michael Harriott, How to Be a Better White Person in 2020, The Root (Jan 9, 2020)
• Cheryl I. Harris, Whiteness As Property, Harvard Law Review, Vol. 106 No. 8 (June 1993)