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Anti-Racism Reading List May 2025
10+ thought-provoking articles to promote learning and action on anti-racism
Sharon Hurley Hall
May 28, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes
Hello friends,
This month's reading list looks at everything from leadership and professionalism, to the working of racism in different contexts, and ideas for fighting back. I hope you'll find something to inspire you:
1. From White Coats to White Hoods: Stanford's Racism, Retaliation, Lies, and a $10M Smackdown. by Khafre Jay
This article shares the story of a long battle for justice, and reveals - again - the ongoing racism that exists in many systems, including the educational system:
“When Qiqiuia Young, a Black technician, tried to sound the alarm about the racism, abuse, and medical negligence she witnessed, Stanford responded not with reform but with retaliation. What followed wasn’t just a lawsuit but a war for truth inside one of the country’s most prestigious institutions. And it exposed a system where white comfort was prioritized over Black survival. Workplaces are supposed to be spaces of dignity and professionalism—but too often for Black workers, especially Black women, they become battlegrounds where silence is survival and truth is punished.”
2. When the World Doesn't Trust Your Country, Be Worth Trusting Anyway by Kai Romero
I loved this approach to leadership through tackling the hardest issues head-on:
“When you’re from a country whose global legacy includes coups, drone strikes, stolen artifacts, and broken treaties—you don’t walk into a room expecting trust. You earn it through transparency. Through repair. Through naming harm without flinching.”
3. Professionalism as a Racial Construct by Leah Goodridge
This reminded me of an incident in the UK where a Black solicitor was assumed to be in the wrong space (the assumption being that she belonged in the space for defendants):
“While appearing before the judge, opposing counsel—a white woman—yelled at me, interrupted me, talked over me, sighed and rolled her eyes when I spoke. Before this appearance, we had only seen each other in passing. Dumbfounded, I spent half of the time making legal arguments and the other half wondering whether my presence in court, as a Black woman, was the main factor in the attorney’s scorn. Curiosity inched closer to certainty when I learned that my junior colleague, who is white, appeared by herself on the same case just weeks before. We danced around it—“That was ridiculous!” “Oh man, Housing Court”—until we finally made our way to: “She wasn’t like that with me. She treated me with respect.”.
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