Augustana for racial justice and social change

Know justice, know peace

Justice is necessary because injustice exists. Racial discrimination; economic inequality; health care disparities; and inadequate access to quality education, healthy food and transportation are just some of the issues.

When we know what injustices exist, we can work to dismantle the systems that perpetuate injustice and create a fair, more equitable society.

Our ambition at Augustana College is to promote the social change necessary to remediate the inequities that we see because of racial disparities.

Campus Conversations

Dr. Monica M. Smith, vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, leads campus conversations to help raise awareness of racial justice issues and empower the campus community to get involved in efforts to make positive change on campus and in the world. Earlier this summer, Dr. Smith hosted student-focused as well as campus-wide sessions. Topics included vicarious trauma (with Dr. Tiffany Stoner-Harris), stereotype threats, affirming identities and historical and racial implications of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others (with Dr. Jason Williams and Dr. Drick Boyd). The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion also hosted multiple sessions of The Defamation Experience, a courtroom drama that explores issues of race, class, religion, gender and the law. During the fall, Augustana also participated in a nation-wide teach-in.

Professional development and community engagement

Topics will include:

• Introduction to and understanding marginalized identities

• Stereotyping, microaggressions

• Self-help: What you can do to learn about racism, violence and hatred without asking your minority friends

• De-escalation training

Augustana recognized for commitment to diversity

For the second year in a row, Augustana College has received the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education.

This honor recognizes U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion. Augustana was one of 90 institutions from 300 applicants to receive the award, and one of only four Illinois schools.

The Presidential Racial Justice and Equity Fund

In addition to the above conversations and learning opportunities, Augustana College's Presidential Racial Justice and Equity Fund has been established to help foster our community's passion for equity and justice initiatives.

With seed money provided by Steve and Jane Bahls, the fund provides a means for students at Augustana College to initiate projects on campus or within the Quad Cities community that:

• Raise awareness of racial justice issues

• Promote dialogue between differing constituencies concerning racial justice issues

• Propose methods to racial justice issues

• Encourage activism and social change to address racial justice issues

• Help the community examine underlying equity issues that impact racial justice

Racial justice broadly defined includes criminal justice, economic justice, environmental justice, health care justice and other issues of justice impacted by race.

More details about the Presidential Racial Justice and Equity Fund.

For more information about diversity efforts at Augustana College, please read our 2019 Diversity Report.

Want to impact social change?

Check out these organizations and resources suggested by Dr. Smith.

Articles to read

"America’s Racial Contract Is Killing Us" by Adam Serwer, The Atlantic (May 8, 2020)
"My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant" by Jose Antonio Vargas, The New York Times Magazine (June 22, 2011)
"More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City" by William Julius Wilson, Issues of Our Time (May/June 2009)
The 1619 Project (all the articles), The New York Times Magazine
The Combahee River Collective Statement (1977)
"Disruptive Christian Ethics: When Racism and Women's Lives Matter" by Traci West (2006)
"The Intersectionality Wars" by Jane Coaston, Vox (May 28, 2019)
"Tips for Creating Effective White Caucus Groups" developed by Craig Elliott PhD (2016)
"Where do I donate? Why is the uprising violent? Should I go protest?" by Courtney Martin (June 1, 2020)
"White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" by Knapsack Peggy McIntosh (1990)
"Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?" by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, The Atlantic (May 12, 2020)

Videos to watch

"Black Feminism and the Movement for Black Lives: Barbara Smith, Reina Gossett, Charlene Carruthers" (YouTube, 51 minutes)
Baratunde Thurston: "How to Deconstruct Racism, One Deadline at a Time" (TedEx, 17 minutes)
Dr. Robin DiAngelo: 'White Fragility" (YouTube, 1 hour 24 minutes)
Peggy McIntosh: "How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion" (TEDxTimberlaneSchools, 19 minutes)
"Stereo: A Film About Reversed Gender Stereotypes" (YouTube, 6 minutes)
"Disney Sexism and Gender Roles" (YouTube, 8 minutes)
Jane Elliott's "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise" (YouTube, 33 minutes)

Podcasts to subscribe to

1619 (New York Times)
About Race
Code Switch (NPR)
Intersectionality Matters! hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw (African American Policy Forum)
Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast
Nice White Parents (Serial and The New York Times)
Pod For The Cause (The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights)
Pod Save the People (Crooked Media)
Seeing White (Scene on Radio)

Books to read

A Collar in My Pocket by Jane Elliott
A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki
A Little Matter of Genocide by Ward Churchill
A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress by Howard Zinn
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color by Cherríe Moraga
The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone
Dancing on Live Embers: Challenging Racism in Organizations by Barb Thomas and Tina Lopes
Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith
The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America by James Wilson
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Dr. Brittney Cooper
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Geronimo: His Own Story, The Autobiography of a Great Patriot Warrior by S.M. Barrett Frederick Turner
God of the Oppressed by James H. Cone
Guests in the Promised Land, Stories by Kristin Hunter (Lattany)
Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist
Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (more versions here)
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen
Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea J. Ritchie
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
Let Nobody Turn Us Around: An African American Anthology by Manning Marable and Leith Mullings
Mad at Miles: A Blackwoman’s Guide to Truth by Pearl Cleage
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
The Myth of Rock and Roll: The Racial Politics of American Popular Music (1945-2005) by Robert I. Bell
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs
North American Indians by Bill Yenne and Susan Garratt
Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored by Clifton Taulbert
Racism Without Racists by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
Raising Our Hands by Jenna Arnold
Redefining Realness by Janet Mock (more versions here)
Separate but not Equal (The Dream and the Struggle) by Jim Haskins
Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America by Melissa V. Harris-Perry
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
Slavery and Freedom in the Age of the American Revolution by Ira Berlin and Ronald Hoffman
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward
Strangers in The Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860 – 1925 by John Higham
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America by Ira Katznelson
Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us And What We Can Do by Claude M. Steele
Whiteness of a Different Color by Matthew Frye Jacobs
Women, Race & Class by Angela Y. Davis
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Tatum

Films and TV series to watch

12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet), Available to rent
13th (Ava DuVernay), Netflix
Aging Out (Roger Weisberg), Available to rent
An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim), Available to rent or on Kanopy
American Son (Kenny Leon), Netflix
Best Boy (Ira Wohl)
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Available to rent
Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 (Göran Olsson), Available to rent
Blindspotting (Carlos López Estrada), Hulu with Cinemax or available to rent
Born Into Brothels (Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman), Available to rent
Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore), HBO
Boys Don't Cry (Kimberly Peirce), Available to rent
The Celluloid Closet (Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman), Available to rent
The Central Park Five (Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David Mcmahon), Available to rent or on Kanopy
City of God (Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund), HBO
Clemency (Chinonye Chukwu), Available to rent
Dallas Buyers Club (Jean-Marc Vallée), Netflix
Dark Girls (D. Channsin Berry, Bill Duke), Available to rent
Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee), Available for rent or on Peacock
Dear White People (Justin Simien), Netflix
Erin Brockovich (Steven Soderbergh), Available to rent
Fahrenheit 9/11 (Michael Moore), Available to rent
Food, Inc. (Robert Kenner), Hulu, Amazon, available for rent
Fruitvale Station (Ryan Coogler), Available to rent
Gender Revolution (Katie Couric), Available to rent
Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata), Hulu
Ghandi (Richard Attenborough), Available to rent
Hidden Figures (Theodore Melfi), Available to rent
Hold Me Down, Amazon
The Hate U Give (George Tillman Jr.), Available to rent
I Am Not Your Negro (James Baldwin doc), Available to rent or on Kanopy
If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins), Hulu
John Q (Richard Attenborough), HBO
Just Mercy (Destin Daniel Cretton), Available to rent
King In The Wilderness, HBO
Milk (Gus Van Sant), Available to rent
Moolaadé (Ousmane Sembene)
O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman), Available to rent
On the Basis of Sex (Mimi Leder), Showtime
Philadelphia (John Demme), Available to rent
Resist (Tani Ikedam Mobolaji Olambiwonnu, Nathalie Johns)
See You Yesterday (Stefon Bristol), Netflix
Selma (Ava DuVernay), Available to rent
Snow Piercer (Bong Joon Ho), Netflix
Tangerine (Sean Baker), Hulu
Time: The Kalief Browder Story (Jenner Furst, Julia Willoughby Nason, Nick Sandow), Netflix
To Kill a Mockingbird (Rupert Mulligan), Available to rent
Waiting for Superman (Davis Guggenheim), Netflix
When the Wind Blows (Jimmy T. Murakami), Available to rent
When They See Us (Ava DuVernay), Netflix