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Resources to Support Diversity & Equity Work

Understanding Race, Racism, Systemic Racism, and Antiracism

This page and the links below are intended to serve as a resource for our Cornell community to deepen our antiracism work and encourage dialogue among students, staff, faculty, and community members. We encourage you to review the materials below, share them with others, and take action. 

The Division of Student & Campus Life joins President Pollack in recognizing the critical work we as a University must do to address systemic racism as an institution and as a community. While Cornell has a proud history of promoting an inclusive campus environment, we know there is still much work to be done to make us a more equitable and just community. One small step is to participate in the community book read of “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi. We encourage you to join us.

Additional Common Read Resources:

Please note, this page and the resources list below will be maintained and updated as additional tools and action items are identified.

Recommended Resources from the Office of the Dean of Students

The Dean of Students’ Diversity & Inclusion team has collected and reviewed the following list of resources to help guide you in your understanding of race, racial justice and equity. In addition, the support and resource centers in the Office of the Dean of Students are available for Cornell students of all identities, backgrounds, and experiences.

Understanding Racism

 Understanding Anti-Racism

Anti-Racism Workshops and Tools:

Re-centering the Voices of Black Leaders

Understanding Whiteness and White Privilege

Understanding Racial Politics and History

Understanding Anti-Blackness in POC Communities

Understanding Spirituality and its Relationship to Race and Racial Justice

  • Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative
  • Jewish Social Justice
  • angel Kyodo Williams and Lama Rod Owens, Radical Dharma: Talking Love, Race, and Liberation (Berkely, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2016)
  • angel Kyodo Williams, Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living with Fearlessness and Grace (New York: Penguin, 2000)
  • The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism (Amazon Prime Series)
  • Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice, Spiritual Practice and Social Justice  
  • USCCB Combatting Racism (Catholic Bishop’s website on racism)
  • The Episcopal Church Racial Reconciliation
  • Willie James Jennings, The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race (New Haven: Yale, 2011)
  • Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America (St. Martin's Press: 2017)

Talking to Kids About Racism

The following resources and tools are recommended for parents, families, and others who work or interact with children. They have been collected and reviewed by the Dean of Students’ Diversity & Inclusion team to help guide you in discussions with children about race, racial justice, and equity.

Talking to children about race, racism, and social justice activism

 Podcasts for Parents:

More from Across Cornell University

Additional Resources

Films

Short Films
Full Length Movies (linked films are free)

Deeper reading if you watched or plan to watch 13th:

Expansion of Prison Industrial Complex

 Abolition

Student Support Services: Identity, Diversity and Equity Office of the Dean of Students Asian & Asian American Center First-Generation & Low-Income Student Support LGBT Resource Center Office of Spirituality and Meaning-Making Multicultural Student Leadership and Empowerment Undocumented & DACA Support Women’s Resource Center Campus Chaplains Cornell Title IX Office Office of the University Ombudsman Multicultural Greek & Fraternal Council Cornell Veterans Support Africana Studies & Research Center Cornell Health Recent racially-motivated events are shaking our nation, and contributing to added emotional stress, grief, anger, and sadness for many Cornellians, especially for our Black students and other community members of color. Please contact Cornell Health, or connect with one of the following resources, if you need support.