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Harvard resource page for parents lists books by authors known for anti-White rhetoric
ReHarvard resource page for parents lists books by authors known for anti-White rhetoric
A Harvard University webpage offering resources for parents includes an 'anti-racism' book list featuring authors who have made anti-White statements and argued that discrimination against White people can be acceptable. The university says the page was created by staff more than five years ago and is not an official Faculty of Arts and Sciences resource.
A Harvard University webpage offering resources for parents of students features an 'anti-racism' book list that includes works by authors known for anti-White rhetoric and arguments that discrimination can be acceptable when directed at White people. The list, posted under the 'Information for Parents' tab, recommends titles such as Ibram X. Kendi's 'How To Be An Anti-Racist' and Robin DiAngelo's 'White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.'
Kendi, born Ibram Henry Rogers, has a history of racially charged statements. In a 2003 column for his college newspaper, he wrote that 'Europeans are simply a different breed of human' who are 'socialized to be aggressive people' and 'raised to be racist.' In his 2019 book, Kendi argued that discrimination is acceptable when it promotes equity, writing: 'The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.' At a November 2023 film screening, he said he did not think 'White people worldwide have really reckoned with how much their own personal identity is shaped by constructions of whiteness.'
DiAngelo's 2018 book makes similar claims. She wrote that 'White people are socialized to feel that they are inherently superior because they are white' and that 'racism is a White problem. It was created by White people, it is wielded by White people, it benefits White people.' She also stated that White people are always racist, asking not whether racism took place but how it manifested in a given situation.
Other titles on the Harvard page include Layla Saad's 'Me and White Supremacy,' Jennifer Harvey's 'Raising White Kids,' and Michelle Alexander's 'The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.' The page also lists resources for teaching children as young as infants, including Kendi's picture book 'Anti-Racist Baby,' which, according to Goodreads, 'introduces the youngest readers and the grown-ups in their lives to the concept and power of antiracism.'
A Harvard spokesperson said the site 'was created by staff more than five years ago and was not developed as an official Faculty of Arts and Sciences resource.' The page is titled 'Anti-Racism Resources' and sits within the university's broader website.
The controversy comes amid broader scrutiny of race-related programming in educational institutions. Harvard has previously faced internal incidents involving anti-White statements by staff. Gregory Davis, the former Dunster House Allston Burr resident dean, was fired earlier this year after social media posts from 2019 to 2024 surfaced. In those posts, Davis called whiteness 'a self-destructive ideology that annihilates everyone around it,' told police officers they were 'racist and evil,' and defended rioting and looting as 'parts of democracy just like voting and marching.' He also posted a meme saying 'If he dies, he dies' around the time President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19 in 2020.
The resource page has drawn attention as students return to school and as debates continue over how universities address race, equity, and inclusion. Critics argue that some recommended materials promote divisive ideas, while supporters of such resources say they are intended to help families discuss systemic racism with children.
