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Anti-Racism Reading List September 2025
10+ thought-provoking articles to foster anti-racism learning and action
Sharon Hurley Hall
September 29, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes
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Hello friends,
In this month's edition of the reading list, the articles cover language being used both to foster belonging and to hide the workings of the hegemony, as well as more nuanced approaches to justice and degrowth. Some articles look at restorative justice and there's also some education around colonialism and history. Ready to dive in?
1. The small ways in which you can show others they belong by Sadia Siddiqui, Language Matters Memo
You won't be surprised that I love the Language Matters Memo (regular readers already know this). One of the many reasons why is the practical tips author Sadia Siddiqui shares. In this edition, it's about small tweaks we can make to our language to help people feel included.
"We often think about inclusion in macro terms - policy changes, public pledges, big DEI initiatives. But inclusion also lives in much smaller places. It’s shaped not only by what’s said in the spotlight, but by the small, nearly invisible language habits we carry with us every day.
And often, it’s the smallest words that land the deepest and can have a big impact on those around us."
2. There Was an Actual Conspiracy to Redefine CRT and DEI. Now They Have a New Target by Michael Harriott
There's been so much happening in the USA that most people's heads are spinning, unable to keep up with the latest. In this article, Michael Harriott digs into what (and I paraphrase) is the battle to "whiten" universities.
"the Manhattan Institute’s senior fellow wrote a study on critical race theory based on “research” from a Manhattan Institute senior fellow who has never actually studied or researched the subject on which he’s cited as an expert. Even though Rufo fits the right’s definition of an unqualified diversity hire, the failed filmmaker-turned-”far-right propagandist” does have a well-known plan to address CRT:
Just make stuff up."
3. Justice Over Aid: The Only Future Worth Rising For by Matt Kletzing
As this article points out, it's time to take a new approach and think better, including the perspectives of those most impacted and moving away from the systems that continue to fail us:
"We need system change, not a reset or reform. Instead of project technicians tinkering around an aid system designed for a world that doesn’t exist anymore, we need system architects embedded everywhere to create the conditions for far more justice-based alternatives to emerge. We need to rapidly upskill with the tools and paradigms of systems-thinkers and movement-mobilisers, to practice defaulting every decision to whomever is most affected by that decision, to build braver accountability mechanisms where they don’t exist, to align the values we espouse to the actions that make lasting, effective, structural change."
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