This repository of resources was originally compiled by the PHIWM Boards' Race and Health Equity Committee, but we continue to add new resources as they are created, shared, or recommended by regional partners and collaborations. We hope you will use these resources to strengthen your understanding of race and health equity and move towards a more equitable world.
The resources are organized by format. You can scroll through the page or click one of these links to go directly to that section:
Articles & reports
- 1619 Project
- Set of New York Times articles that aim to reframe our understanding of slavery in the US
- A call to action for white people: Reflect and act
- Masslive article outlining health inequities that are caused by structural racism, some steps which can be taken to mitigate them
- A New Way to Talk About the Social Determinants of Health
- A guide from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that discusses why we need a better way to talk about the social determinants of health, and best practices to assist in conversation with different audiences around the concept.
- The Spectrum of Prevention
- A systematic tool that promotes a range of activities for effective prevention. It has been used nationally in prevention initiatives for traffic safety, violence prevention, injury prevention, nutrition, and fitness
- America’s Racial Contract Is Killing Us
- Atlantic article looking at COVID and health disparities in the US
- Beyond the Hashtag: How to Take Anti-Racist Action in Your Life
- Teen Vogue article looking at how to integrate anti-racism into your daily life
- Centering Racial Justice and Grassroots Ownership in Collective Impact
- Article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review about how a top-down coalition focused on reducing youth substance use in a predominantly white, rural area of Western Massachusetts has prioritized equity and community engagement.
- Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity
- A report of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- Countering the Production of Health Inequities: A Framework for Emerging Systems to Achieve an Equitable Culture of Health
- A report from the Prevention Institute, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- Going to your balcony
- Text of a graduation speech focusing on cooperation and understanding
- Health Equity Policy Framework
- Framework created by the Massachusetts Public Health Association to be more intentional in addressing all forms of health inequities
- How History Has Shaped Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities: A Timeline of Policies and Events
- An interactive timeline from the Kaiser Family Foundation
- How you can be an ally in the fight for racial justice
- TED article outlining ways you can be an ally in the fight for racial justice
- Levels of Racism: A Theoretic Framework and a Gardener’s Tale
- An academic guide that goes with the gardener video explaining the framework behind it
- Mental Health Inequities Among Springfield Eighth-Grade Students: Findings from the 2019 Youth Health Survey
- PHIWM report that examines mental health risk factors and outcomes experienced by Springfield teens as a whole and by race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation.
- Miles to Go Before We Sleep: Racial Inequities in Health
- Manuscript by David Williams about racial inequities in health
- My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant
- New York Times article by Jose Antonio Vargas
- Nazi Propaganda
- A webpage dedicated to understanding Nazi use of propaganda and how propaganda is used more broadly
- One People, One House: We all need to ‘stretch’ to bring about lasting change
- Masslive article outlining how we need to stretch in order to grow
- Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts reports
- Listing of reports written by PHIWM, including topics of health equity
- Springfield Health Equity Report: Looking at Health through Race and Ethnicity (2019)
- PHIWM report that examines social and economic factors that impact health among communities of color in Springfield and the resulting health inequities.
- Structural racism and health: Messages to inspire broader understanding and action (2023)
- A guide from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- Talking about Disparities: The Effect of Frame Choices on Support for Race-Based Policies
- A FrameWorks Institute Message Brief exploring how we can talk about disparities in ways that prompt people to rethink assumptions, acknowledge the root causes of racial disparities, and support equity-focused policies
- Teaching Tolerance: Let's Talk: Discussing Race, Racism and Other Difficult Topics with Students
- Guide for educators on how to facilitate conversations about race
- The 10 R’s of Talking About Race: How to Have Meaningful Conversations
- Net Impact's 10 R's to keep in mind when having meaningful conversations about race
- The Conversation: Tips on Having a Conversation about Race
- Guide on how to have difficult conversations about race
- The Intersectionality Wars
- Vox article looking at intersectionality as a framework and its consequences
- Understanding Implicit Bias
- Article from the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
- Visualizing Health Equity: One Size Does Not Fit All Infographic
- Visualización la Equidad en Salud: Una Medida No Se Adjusta a Todo
- What I learned when I recreated the famous ‘doll test’ that looked at how Black kids see race
- Short article looking at the famous "Doll Test" where Black children are offered dolls that are either Black or White, the author describes how racism plays a key role
- What is Cultural Humility?
- Blog from the Social Work Practitioner addressing cultural humility and inclusivity in the workplace
- White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsac
- Article unpacking what white privilege is and how it operates
- Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?
- An article looking at white fear and its violent consequences
- What is Health Equity?
- A report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation designed to increase consensus around meaning of health equity
Books
- Difficult Conversations
- Book by William Ury that aims to help individuals have meaningful, difficult conversations
- Don’t Look Away: Embracing Anti- Bias Classrooms
- Book by a team of authors for childhood educators to combat racism in their classrooms
- How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
- Book by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi dedicated to describing how to be an anti-racist
- Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor
- Book by Layla F. Saad that will walk you step-by-step through the work of examining white privilege, allyship, anti-blackness, racial stereotypes, cultural appropriation, how you view and respond to race, and how to continue the work to create social change.
- My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies
- In this groundbreaking book, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology.
- Redefining Realness
- Janet Mock's memoir about her experience being a Black trans woman
- Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, & You by Jason Reynolds
- Book by Jason Reynolds which delves into the current state of race and racism and what can be done about it
- So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- Book by Ijeoma Oluo outlining her experiences of in the context of white supremacy in the US
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
- Book by Michelle Alexander looking at mass incarceration in the US
- Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum
- Book by Beverly Daniel Tatum looking at self-segregation in schools and the forces behind it
Podcasts
- 1619 Project Podcast
- Audio version of the New York Times 1619 project
- About Race
- Podcast from the author of the book "Why I am No Longer Talking to White People About Race", Reni Eddo-Lodge.
- Code Switch
- Podcast that explores how race affects every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, food, and everything in between
- Inheriting
- A podcast about Asian American and Pacific Islander families, which explores how one event in history can ripple through generations. In doing so, the show seeks to break apart the AAPI monolith and tell a fuller story of these communities.
- Intersectionality Matters!
- Podcast from Kimberlé Crenshaw who coined the term intersectionality
- Momentum: A Race Forward
- Podcast looking at racism, research, and social justice
- Pod For The Cause
- Podcast from The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights's which discusses civil & human rights to spark positive change
- Pod Save the People
- Podcast produced by Crooked Media which explores and analyzes news, culture, social justice, and politics
- Seeing White
- Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen took a deep dive exploring the notion of "whiteness", along with an array of leading scholars and regular guest Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, in this fourteen-part documentary series, released between February and August 2017. The series editor is Loretta Williams.
Templates & Tools
- Board and Staff Matrix
- Under the Race and Health Equity Board Committee, the Public Health Institute of Western MA developed a matrix to monitor and ensure that our staff and board are reflective of the region and include populations that experience health inequities.
- Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist Multicultural Organization
- 1-page summary adapted from the original concept by Bailey Jackson and Rita Hardiman.
- Health Equity Standard of Practice Checklist
- This checklist is a living document that we use to be explicit about the practices we engage in to support equity in our work. PHIWM uses this checklist for all new research & evaluation projects.
- Levers to Move Organizations Through the Race Equity Cycle
- Massachusetts Municipal DEI Coalition
- Many municipal governments have created or strengthened diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. After the murder of George Floyd, a period of social unrest caused organizations across numerous sectors—local government included—to examine how they could take a stand against racial injustice. This guide is a collection of lessons gathered by municipal DEI practitioners throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
- Our Shared Language: Social Justice Glossary
- A Glossary of terms used in social justice published by the YWCA USA.
- Preferred Terms for Select Population Groups & Communities
- CDC resource that provides some preferred terms for select population groups; these terms attempt to represent an ongoing shift toward non-stigmatizing language.
- Race and Health Equity Glossary
- The Glossary developed by regional thinkers committed to advancing regional equity is offered as a tool for moving conversations, initiatives, organizations, projects, programs, plans, and other types of efforts forward with an equity lens.
- Rose, Bud, and Thorn exercise
- Framework for examining and reflecting on an incident, day, or institution for what is working and what is not
- Six Phases of Racial Equity Practice
- The Action Continuum
- This self-assessment tool can be used as you move along your journey to becoming an anti-racist ally and confronting oppression. The spectrum has two poles, actively supporting oppression and actively confronting it.
- The Ladder of Inference
- The Ladder of Inference is a model for understanding how people create meaning and sometimes jump to incorrect conclusions about what others have said or done. It helps us understand where our thoughts and actions come from and how to interrupt moments of oppression.
- White Dominant Culture and Something Different
- A worksheet designed for workplaces to examine white supremacy culture in the workplace
Videos
- 13th
- Movie produced by Netflix that draws lines between slavery and modern mass incarceration
- American Son
- Movie which tells a story about the danger of policing and racism in the US
- Black Feminism & the Movement for Black Lives
- 50 min video of a panel discussion on Black Feminism and the Movement for Black Lives
- Camara Jones: Allegories on Race and Racism
- 20-minute TEDx where Dr. Jones shares 4 allegories on race and racism as a way of contextualizing race and racism
- Camara Jones: The Gardener
- 6-minute video that uses flowers and soil as a metaphor for 3 levels of racism
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story
- In this 20-minute TED Talk, Novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
- Dear White People
- Netflix show set on a fictional, predominantly white Ivy League college, and follows a group of black students as they navigate various forms of racial and other types of discrimination
- Fruitvale Station
- Movie based on the true story of Oscar Grant III, who was killed by police in 2009
- Health Equity Guide Webinar Series
- Recordings from Human Impact Partners' 4-part webinar series with national experts and local health departments to discuss their work to advance health equity
- How Racism Makes Us Sick
- Dr. David Williams presents evidence for how racism is producing a rigged system -- and offers hopeful examples of programs across the US that are working to dismantle discrimination. Improving Health Equity, Beating the Odds video Racial Equity
- How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion
- 18-minute video of Peggy McIntosh at TEDx shares how her experience as a white woman in academia has informed her knowledge of racial discrimination and oppression
- I Am Not Your Negro
- Documentary based on the unfinished James Baldwin Book which examines modern racism in the US
- Improving Health Equity, Beating the Odds
- Dr. Anthony Iton speaks at the Springfield Public Forum on how race, class, wealth, education, geography, and employment impact public health?
- Jane Elliott's "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" Anti-Racism Exercise | The Oprah Winfrey Show
- 32-minute video from the Oprah show in 1992 where staff and audience members were instructed to discriminate against those with blue eyes
- Jeremy Heimans: What new power looks like
- 14 minute Ted Talk video from 2014 discussing power and the digital age
- King In The Wilderness
- Documentary produced by HBO which looks at the final years of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life
- Let's stop talking about diversity and start working towards equity
- 15-minute TEDx by Paloma Medina which challenges our paradigm of diversity and the concept of diversity vs. equity
- NBC News: Does Congress hold power over Puerto Rico through racist, outdated rulings?
- 3-minute news stories outlining the response to Hurricane Maria and how that ties into systemic racism
- Oprah Winfrey: Where do we do from here?
- Clips from Oprah Winfrey's two-part special featuring conversations with black thought leaders, activists, and artists in the wake of George Floyd's death in police custody
- Proctor and Gamble: Widen the Screen
- 2.5-minute video showing stereotyped situations before flipping the narrative
- Racist Images and Messages in Jim Crow Era
- 2.5-minute video produced by PBS from the Jim Crow Museum showing how historically racist caricatures have shaped future attitudes
- Systemic Racism Explained
- 5-minute video explaining how racism is a structural phenomena from Act.tv
- The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
- A documentary produced by PBS about the Black Panthers
- Trump lifts hold on $8B for Puerto Rico, but protesters say U.S. owes island billions more
- 3-minute video from ABC News 7 in New York City
- We Need to Talk About Asian Hate
- 1 hour video focusing on the experiences of AAPI people in the United States
- When they See Us
- Netflix limited series following the teens denoted as the 'Central Park Five' from when they are first questioned about the incident in the spring of 1989, through their exoneration, and settlement in 2014
Websites
- 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge
- 21 day guided challenge on practices that we should implement into our daily lives
- 106 things that white people can do for racial justice
- List of 106 things white people can do to help bring about greater racial justice
- Accomplice Resources
- Website with the actor, ally, accomplice framework, and action steps
- American Public Health Association
- Webpage with resources on Racism and Health
- An Educators Guide to This Moment
- Framework for educators to talk about race and racism in the classroom and the current moment we are living in
- Anti-Racism Project
- New York-based organization offering trainings and professional development
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- Resource bank with tools, social media accounts, and other exercises
- Resource bank with tools, social media accounts, and other exercises
- Center for Antiracist Research
- From Boston University and directed by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, with a mission to build a world where racial equity and social justice prevail
- Colorlines
- Daily news site where race matters, published by Race Forward, a national organization that advances racial justice through research, media, and practice
- Color of Change
- Progressive nonprofit civil rights advocacy organization working to strengthen the political voice of Black and African American communities
- County Health Rankings & Roadmaps
- The County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, a program of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, works to improve health outcomes for all and to close the health disparities between those with the most and least opportunities for good health
- Equal Justice Initiative
- Organization committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights
- Families Belong Together
- Multi-organization advocacy campaign devoted to reuniting immigrant families that were separated at the US-Mexico border
- Health Equity Guide, A Human Impact Partners Project
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HealthEquityGuide.org is a resource with inspiring examples of how health departments have concretely advanced health equity — both internally within their departments and externally with communities and other government agencies.
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- Health Equity Resources
- List of health equity resources from Plan 4 Health
- Health Equity Resources
- List of health equity resources from Plan 4 Health
- Kirwan Institute of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University
- The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity is an interdisciplinary engaged research institute at The Ohio State University. Building the capacity of allied social justice organizations, and investing in efforts that support equity and inclusion.
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- Framework that helps us understand where our thoughts and actions come from and how to interrupt moments of oppression
- Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
- Coalition of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States
- National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ)
- National organization doing anti-racist work
- Othering and Belonging Institute
- The Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley advances groundbreaking approaches to transforming structural marginalization and inequality.
- Racial Equity Institute
- An organization that does workshops as well as maintain a resource bank
- Racial Equity Tools
- Website dedicated to compiling tools and resources related to anti-racism
- RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services)
- Organization based in Texas that aims to provide legal services for immigrants
- ReThinking Racism For Racial & Social Justice
- Workshop examining the imposition of individual, institutional, and cultural ideology that leads to systemic racism and provides a basis for taking action
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)
- The RWJF webpage which focuses racism's impact on health; resources, articles, and grant funding opportunities
- The RWJF webpage which focuses racism's impact on health; resources, articles, and grant funding opportunities
- Showing Up for Racial Justice
- National network of groups and individuals organizing white communities for racial and economic justice
- Springfield Youth Health Survey Interactive Data Portal
- Interactive data portal that allows user to explore and visualize findings from the Springfield Youth Health Survey by race and sex.
- The Conscious Kid
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Education, research and policy organization that supports families and educators in taking action to disrupt racism, inequity, and bias
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- The Structural Racism Remedies Repository
- This is a repository of policy-based recommendations for addressing structural and systemic racism or advancing racial equity drawn from a vast array of published material, from the University of California, Berkeley, Othering and Belonging Institute.
- Undoing Racism Organizing Collective
- An organization that does trainings as well as maintains a resource bank
- Unnatural Causes: Health Equity Resources
- An online collection of health equity resources
- United We Dream
- Immigrant youth-led community creating welcoming spaces for young people to support, engage, and empower them to make their voice heard and win
- White Supremacy Culture
- Website dedicated to understanding, dismantling, and divorcing white supremacy culture by sharing information, resources, articles, and stories
Putting Resources into Practice: A Race and Health Equity Blog
We would love to hear from you! Do you have a resource that should be added to the Guide? Would you like to share a story about your favorite resource and how you have used it to advance racial equity? Contact us!
