Spring 2025 Book Discussion Group
The College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences in collaboration with University Libraries is hosting a 10-week book discussion group using Dr. Anneliesse Singh's The Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activities to Help You Challenge Privilege, Confront Systemic Racism & Engage in Collective Healing and the discussion guide provided by the author (click here to access). Please continue reading for details about the book and important dates.
Meeting location and dates: Meetings will take place on Zoom every Friday from 12-1:00pm for 10 consecutive weeks starting January 31, 2025 and ending on April 11, 2025 (no meeting during spring break).
Open to: Any member of The Ohio State University community (staff, faculty, and students).
CAP: 50
Facilitators: Leo Taylor (CFAES), Thomas Dickens and Leta Hendricks (University Libraries)
The first 30 registrants will be eligible to receive a complementary printed copy of the book!
About the book:
A powerful and practical guide to help you navigate racism, challenge privilege, manage stress and trauma, and begin to heal.
Healing from racism is a journey that often involves reliving trauma and experiencing feelings of shame, guilt, and anxiety. This journey can be a bumpy ride, and before we begin healing, we need to gain an understanding of the role history plays in racial/ethnic myths and stereotypes. In so many ways, to heal from racism, you must re-educate yourself and unlearn the processes of racism. This book can help guide you.
The Racial Healing Handbook offers practical tools to help you navigate daily and past experiences of racism, challenge internalized negative messages and privileges, and handle feelings of stress and shame. You’ll also learn to develop a profound racial consciousness and conscientiousness, and heal from grief and trauma. Most importantly, you’ll discover the building blocks to creating a community of healing in a world still filled with racial microaggressions and discrimination.
This book is not just about ending racial harm—it is about racial liberation. This journey is one that we must take together. It promises the possibility of moving through this pain and grief to experience the hope, resilience, and freedom that helps you not only self-actualize, but also makes the world a better place.
A significant portion of each chapter is devoted to worksheets (78 pages in total, more than 37% of the whole book!). The book is intended to be a working tool to help you navigate the complexities of racism and racial liberation. Downloadable versions of worksheets are available from the publisher here.
Scroll to the bottom of this page for information about the authors Anneliese Singh, Tim Wise (foreward), and Derald Wing Sue (afterward).
important dates
Truth, Trust, and Transformation: The Path to Racial Healing
(followed by a book club preview)
Tuesday, January 21st, 11am-12pm ET (Zoom)
During this optional introductory session we hear from speaker, consultant, and workshop facilitator Lakweshia Ewing, who will
highlight the critical importance of racial healing in fostering equity and inclusion. Drawing on the frameworks of the Racial Equity Institute, research on vulnerability, and Dr. Anneliese Singh’s transformative racial healing process (from The Racial Healing Handbook), participants will explore how addressing systemic inequities and personal biases paves the way for authentic connections. Through truth-telling, reconciliation, and repair, this session empowers individuals and organizations to embrace the work of racial healing as an ongoing commitment to justice and belonging.
After attending this session participants will be able to:
- Understand the role of racial healing in addressing systemic inequities.
- Harness vulnerability as a leadership tool to build trust and inclusion.
- Utilize truth-telling and reconciliation as pathways to equity and transformation.
After Ewing's 45-minute presentation, individuals who are interested in and eligible for the book club will meet the book club facilitators who will provide an overview of the book, book club logistics, information about book distribution, and the Zoom link for meetings. If you are unable to attend this session or have other questions please reach out to Leo Taylor (taylor.3408@osu.edu) to receive instructions for getting your book and the Zoom link for the series.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE optional introductory session with Lakweshia ewing
NOTE: The above link registers you for the preview session only. You must register for the book club separately using the link provided below.
About the speaker:
Lakweshia Ewing is a dynamic force in education, leadership development, and racial equity. With over 20 years of experience, she has become a catalyst for change in diverse sectors. As a trainer for the Racial Equity Institute and CEO of Unlearn Everything and Live, LLC, a social impact consulting firm, Ewing drives social change through innovative consulting and speaking. Ewing’s commitment to excellence has earned her numerous accolades, including the Harvard Business School Young American Leader Award and recognition as one of the "Top 20 Under 40" leaders by the city of Chattanooga, TN, where she resides. As an Internationally certified Human Rights Consultant, David Kessler Grief educator trainer, and Brene Brown Dare to Lead educator, Ewing facilitates social change by empowering individuals and organizations to break barriers, build bridges, and embrace a future of bold possibilities. To learn more about Ewing, please visit her website unlearneverythingandlive.com.
Book club meeting dates and reading schedule
Meetings always take place on Fridays at 12pm-1pm on Zoom
Week |
Date |
Assigned reading (pg#) |
#pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | January 31 |
Foreward by Tim Wise (VII-IX) Introduction (1-10) Chapter 1: Know Your Racial Identity (11-31) |
34 |
| 2 | February 7 | Chapter 2: Explore Your Internalized Racism (33-48) | 16 |
| 3 | February 14 | Chapter 3: (Re)learn the History of Racism (49-64) | 16 |
| 4 | February 21 | Chapter 4: Grieve and Name Racism (65-82) | 18 |
| 5 | February 28 | Chapter 5: Raise Your Race Consciousness (83-103) | 21 |
| 6 | March 7 | Chapter 6: Catch Yourself in the Flow of Racism (105-127) | 23 |
| 7 | March 14 | SPRING BREAK - no meeting | N/A |
| 8 | March 21 | Chapter 7: Understand Racism in Relationships (129-148) | 20 |
| 9 | March 28 | Chapter 8: Reclaim Your Whole Racial Self (149-168) | 20 |
| 10 | April 4 | Chapter 9: Be a Racial Ally 9 (169-186) | 18 |
| 11 | April 11 |
Chapter 10: Engage in Collective Racial Healing (187-203) Conclusion (205-211) Afterward by Derald Wing Sue (215-217) |
27 |
Click here to register for the book club
About the authors
Anneliese A. Singh, PhD, LPC, is a professor and associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the college of education at the University of Georgia. Singh is cofounder of the Georgia Safe Schools Coalition to work on reducing heterosexism, transprejudice, racism, and other oppressions in Georgia schools. She founded the Trans Resilience Project, where she translated her findings from nearly twenty years of research on trans people’s resilience to oppression into practice and advocacy efforts. She is author of The Queer and Transgender Resilience Workbook. She’s delivered widely viewed TEDx Talks, and recorded a podcast for the American Psychological Association on her research with transgender youth and resilience.
Foreword writer Tim Wise is among the nation’s most prominent antiracist essayists and educators. He has spent the past twenty-five years speaking to audiences in all fifty US states, at more than 1000 college and high school campuses, at hundreds of professional and academic conferences, and to community groups across the nation. He has lectured internationally in Canada and Bermuda, and has trained corporate, government, law enforcement, and medical industry professionals on methods for dismantling racism in their institutions.
Afterword writer Derald Wing Sue, PhD, is professor of psychology and education in the department of counseling and clinical psychology at Teachers College and the School of Social Work, Columbia University. He is a pioneer in the field of multicultural psychology, multicultural education, multicultural counseling and therapy, and the psychology of racism/antiracism.