University of Washington Honors Program
UW Honors Staff Common Reads, book covers of Tatum, Kendi, Wilkerson

The Honors Staff participate in a common “Read, Watch, or Listen” with a collection of readings, movies, and podcasts that are inspired and informed by themes focused on racial justice, social equity for all, and intersectional power complexities. Equity justice anti-racist work merits a commitment to continued learning and processing through dialogue and self-reflection. Our discussions are intentionally facilitated, with democratic decisions made about norms for discussion and material selection. Our discussions are enriched by personal stories and a desire to continue learning about each other, through sharing vulnerabilities, questions, and an openness to understanding individual identity complexities as related to our equity work in Honors.

We will continue to update this list and are happy to share our current recommended reads. Contact uwhonors@uw.edu with suggestions or feedback.

Beverly Daniel Tatum - Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria Book Cover
Beverly Daniel Tatum’s “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race.”

What we are reading now (since March 2021):

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race –  Beverly Daniel Tatum

February/March 2021:

Podcasts: The Invention of Race (42 min) & Jose Antonio Vargas (46 min) 

What is the Model Minority Myth?

Bonus listen: Anti-Racist Science Education (13 min)

Inclusivity checklist for science classes (applicable to more than just science classes)

February 2021: 

Disclosure (1h 47 min documentary)

Seeing Ghosts, a memoir by Kat Chow
Seeing Ghosts, a memoir by Kat Chow

This is How it Always Is  

I Am They: a nonbinary transgender LOVE story 

Glossary of Terms 

November 2020 – January 2021:

Caste: the origins of our discontent –  Isabel Wilkerson

September 2021 – November 2021:

Seeing Ghosts, a memoir by Kat Chow

Ta-Nehisi Coates - Photo by Gregory Halpern
Bestselling Author, Ta-Nehisi Coates – Photo by Gregory Halpern (ta-nehisicoates.com)

Additional Staff Recommendations:

The Case for Reparations –  Ta-Nehisi Coates (The Atlantic)

We Were Eight Years in Power – Ta-Nehisi Coates

Conversations About Race –  Beverly Daniel Tatum

The Water Dancer – Ta-Nehisi Coates

How To Be an Anti-Racist – Ibram X. Kendi

The Vanishing Half – Brit Bennett

Me and White Supremacy – Layla Saad

Black Women Aren’t Allowed to be Introverted

Nobody Knows My Name, More Notes of a Native Son – James Baldwin

13th (documentary)

Our Boxes, Ourselves – Rough Translation from NPR

Implicit Bias 1 & 2 – Hidden Brain (NPR)

Between the World and Me adaptation – Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Invention of Race – Throughline (NPR)

My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant – Jose Antonio Varghas

Jose Antonio Vargas – Asian Enough (LA Times)

Define American – Vargas nonprofit

Signs Preceding the End of the World – Yuri Herrera

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