Somali Studies

• MN History Center (Becoming Minnesotan: Stories of recent immigrants and refugees): http://education.mnhs.org/immigration/node/579 Facts and statistics about Somalia are given along with oral histories, teacher resources, and more.

African American studies

• Books
  • Black Ice by Lorene Cary – "A streetwise kid from West Philly, Cary was one of the first African-Americans female to attend St. Paul's, a prestigious New England prep school. With tremendous drive, she set out to achieve self-imposed academic, athletic, and social goals. Although she believed she owed it to the school that accepted her on scholarship, to her family who encouraged and sacrificed, and to those who will come after, she found that the price was great…"
  • Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin – "In 1959, Griffin headed to New Orleans, darkened his skin and immersed himself in black society, then traveled to several states until he could no longer stand the racism, segregation and degrading living conditions…"
  • The Fall of Rome by Martha Southgate – "Latin instructor Jerome Washington is a man out of place. The lone African-American teacher at the Chelsea School, an elite all-boys boarding school in Connecticut, he has spent nearly two decades trying not to appear too ‘racial’…"
  • Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison - The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of ‘the Brotherhood’…"
  • Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum - Anyone who's been to a high school or college has noted how students of the same race seem to stick together. Beverly Daniel Tatum has noticed it too, and she doesn't think it's so bad…"
• Websites
  • African American Registry - Largest African American History website
  • Africans in America - Based on PBS television series; chronicles history of slavery in the U.S.
  • Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia - "Our mission is to promote racial tolerance by helping people understand the historical and contemporary expressions of intolerance."
  • St. Paul Urban League - "The Saint Urban Paul League serves as a forceful advocate for African Americans, other minorities, and the poor, and uses a variety of disciplines including social work, economics, public administration, and law to secure equal opportunities in all sectors of society for its constituents." (651) 224-5771
  • University of Pennsylvania African Studies Center: Guide for k-12 Resources - Resources that pertain to African American Studies (215) 898-6610
    University of Southern California’s Center for Multilingual Multicultural Research: African American Resources - Online resources including full text articles, mp3s and more

American Indian studies

• Carnegie Museum of Natural History - American Indians and the Natural World
• Indian Circle - Links to Native American newspapers and publications
• National Archives of US - The online exhibit hall has sound recordings, articles, photos, and maps. There is also Native American treaty information, and historical photographs.
• National Museum of the American Indian - Indigenous Geography
• Native Village - "NATIVE VILLAGE website was created for youth, educators, families, and friends who wish to celebrate the rich, diverse cultures of The Americas' First Peoples."
• Oh Day Aki (Heart of the Earth) charter school - Mpls charter school for American Indian students ( 612) 331-8862
  The Circle - Native American Press (612)722-3686

GLBTQ issues/studies

• Books
  • Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides - "I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974…"
  • Setting Them Straight by Betty Berzon – "Berzon provides a unique battle plan for confronting discrimination, whether it comes from strangers or beloved friends and family…"
• Websites
  • aMaze - "Using children's literature to make schools safe and welcoming for all children and families." (612) 724-4323
  • Faith, Family, Fairness Alliance - "A faith-based coalition of people in Minnesota from diverse religious backgrounds and beliefs. As people of faith we are committed to upholding the inherent humanity of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people as beloved children of God, and as Americans equally deserving of full rights, responsibilities, and legal protections for themselves and their families."
  • GLSEN - "GLSEN's online library holds a myriad of resources and documents that can help further your knowledge on creating Safe Schools." ( 212) 727-0135
  • MN Transgender Health Coalition - "The Minnesota Transgender Health Coalition is committed to improving health care access and the quality of health care received by trans and gender variant people through education, resources, and advocacy." ( 612) 823-1152
  • OutFront MN - "OutFront Minnesota's mission is to make our state a place where GLBT Minnesotans have the freedom, power, and confidence to make the best choices for their own lives." (612) 822-0127
    PFLAG - "Promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, their families and friends through: support, to cope with an adverse society; education, to enlighten an ill-informed public; and advocacy, to end discrimination and to secure equal civil rights..."

Hmong culture

• Books
  • Bamboo Among The Oaks by Mai Neng Moua – "First- and second-generation Hmong Americans -- the first to write creatively in English -- share their perspectives on being Hmong in America. In stories, poetry, essays, and drama, these writers address the common challenges of immigrants adapting to a new homeland…"
  • The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman – "Lia Lee was born in 1981 to a family of recent Hmong immigrants, and soon developed symptoms of epilepsy. By 1988 she was living at home but was brain dead after a tragic cycle of misunderstanding, overmedication, and culture clash: ‘What the doctors viewed as clinical efficiency the Hmong viewed as frosty arrogance’…"
  • The Late Homecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang In search of a place to call home, thousands of Hmong families made the journey from the war-torn jungles of Laos to the overcrowded refugee camps of Thailand and onward to America. But lacking a written language of their own, the Hmong experience has been primarily recorded by others. Driven to tell her family’s story after her grandmother’s death, The Latehomecomer is Kao Kalia Yang’s tribute to the remarkable woman whose spirit held them all together.”
• Websites
  • HmongNet - This website has links to many Hmong events, announcements, and resources for students and researchers
  • Hmong Cultural Center - HCC was the first Hmong Cultural Center in the Midwestern U.S. Its mission is to “promote the personal development of children, youth, and adults through cultural education while providing resources that enhance cross-cultural awareness between Hmong and non-Hmong.” Also houses the Hmong Resource Center Library.

    Hmong Studies Internet Resource Center - A website devoted to advancing and disseminating Hmong Studies research. The website includes census data, bibliography, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, and more.”

Latino/Hispanic studies

• Bill's Aboriginal Links: Latin America - While not a professional site, there are great links to Latin America, Mexico, Central and South America. Includes links to dictionaries, indigenous peoples, art, culture and current events.
• LANIC (Latino American Network Information Center) - Multiple resources on/for Hispanic and Latino peoples.
• National Latino Research Center - "The mission of the National Latino Research Center (NLRC) at California State University San Marcos is to promote scientific and applied research, training, and the exchange of information that contribute to the knowledge and understanding of the rapidly growing U.S. Latino population."
• The Center for World Indigenous Studies - "An independent, non-profit research and education organization dedicated to wider understanding and appreciation of the ideas and knowledge of indigenous peoples and the social, economic and political realities of indigenous nations." ( 360) 586-0656

Multicultural issues

• Books
  • Uprooting Racism by Paul Kivel – "Uprooting Racism has been revised and expanded with more tools than ever to help white people understand and stand-up to racism…"
  • White Like Me by Tim Wise – "A highly personal examination of the ways in which racial privilege shapes the lives of most white Americans, overtly racist or not, to the detriment of people of color, themselves, and society..."
  • White Privilege by Paula Rothenburg – "[These] readings let educators incorporate discussions of whiteness and white privilege into a variety of disciplines, including sociology, English composition, psychology, social work, women’s studies, political science, and American studies."
• Websites
  • Center for World Indigenous Studies - 4th world information, excellent virtual library including Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe and the Pacific. A good resource for hard to find information. For older children.
  • Colorado State University - Selected resources from Colorado State University
  • Colorlines - National newsmagazine on race and politics
  • International Journal of Multicultural Education - A peer-reviewed open-access e-journal for scholars, practitioners, and students of multicultural education.
  • Minnesota Institute of Art - World Myths and Legends in Art: MIA uses 26 works of art selected from its collections to explore mythology from around the world.
  • National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) - Founded in 1975, this organization addresses the needs of language minority students in the US, and works to advance language competence and multicultural understanding of all Americans.
  • National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) - This organization is committed to a philosophy of inclusion that embraces the basic tenets of democracy and cultural pluralism.
  • Race relations - Countering Prejudice in the Deep South: Information on improving race relations from Tulane University
  • Tolerance.org - "Tolerance.org is a principal online destination for people interested in dismantling bigotry and creating, in hate's stead, communities that value diversity."
    University of Virginia: Diversity "Yellow Pages" - Contacts for general resources, professional organizations, government and policy, arts and literature, and more for various groups including Arab Americans, Asian Americans, American Indians, Gender Studies, "Multicultural Mosaic"

Religion

• Books
  • The History of God by Karen Armstrong – "Armstrong's book explores the ways in which the idea and experience of God evolved among the monotheists - Jews, Christians and Muslims…"
  • When Religion Becomes Evil by Charles Kimball – "Leading religion and Middle East expert Charles Kimball shows how all religious traditions are susceptible to five basic corruptions and why only authentic faith can prevent such evil…"
• Websites
  • Interfaith Voices - Listen to Boston University’s religion professor Stephen Prothero give a crash course on the basic tenants on eight of the world’s religions, or listen to past shows from Interfaith Voices.

Socioeconomic issues

• Limbo: Blue Collar Roots, White Collar Dreams by Alfred Lubrano – "Lubrano's view of the challenges that upwardly mobile children of blue-collar families (he calls them Straddlers) face in establishing themselves in white-collar enclaves could spark lively debates among Straddlers themselves, not to mention those Lubrano views as having a head start based on birth into a white-collar family…"
• Nickled and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich – "To understand life beyond boom-time America, Ehrenreich spent months laboring as a cleaning woman; as a waitress; and as a Wal-Mart sales clerk. Her revelations about these hard, supposedly "unskilled" jobs and the difficulty of making ends meet in the U.S. gives this book a powerful, personal edge…"