Book Nook - How to Have Anti-racist Conversations and The Anti-racist Heart: A Self-Compassion and Activism Handbook

 As college-bound teens prepare to enter a diverse academic environment, they need guidance navigating challenging conversations about race and racism. Subtle insults and stereotypes can easily lead to threats and hinder their learning, engagement, and social connections. Therefore, empowering them with the knowledge and skills to foster empathy, understanding, and positive change in society is crucial.

Clinical psychologist Roxy Manning Ph.D., and neuroscience educator Sarah Peyton have dedicated their work to teaching individuals the role of biases in their lives, the role of compassion in fostering inclusivity, and interrupting explicitly and implicitly oppressive attitudes and cultural norms. Manning is the author of How to Have Anti-racist Conversations (Berrett-Koehler Publishers; August 29, 2023), and together with Peyton, they authored the accompanying handbook, The Anti-racist Heart: A Self-Compassion and Activism Handbook, integrating neuroscience and resonant language to awaken and sustain self-compassion. Both of these works include information on how to dig deep into antiracism through inner work and how to have conversations around race and racism.

Parents and educators play a vital role in shaping the next generation of change-makers, and having these conversations early on is key. By embracing Manning and Peyton's work, parents and educators can gain a clear understanding of these subjects and provide college-bound teens with a solid foundation to navigate anti-racist conversations with empathy and respect.

I had a chance to learn more in a well-written interview/post with them, so be on the lookout for that in a future post!

Roxy Manning, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and certified Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) trainer. She brings decades of service experience to her work interrupting explicitly and implicitly oppressive attitudes and cultural norms. Dr. Manning has worked, consulted, and provided training across the US with businesses, nonprofits, and government organizations wanting to move towards equitable and diverse workplace cultures and internationally in over 10 countries with individuals and groups committed to social change. She also works as a psychologist in San Francisco, serving the homeless and disenfranchised mentally ill population. 

She is the author of How to Have Antiracist Conversations: Embracing Our Full Humanity to Challenge White Supremacy and the co-author with Sarah Peyton of the companion text, The Antiracist Heart: A Self-Compassion and Activism Handbook. 

Sarah Peyton, Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication and neuroscience educator, integrates brain science and resonant language to awaken and sustain self-compassion, particularly in the face of difficult issues like self-condemnation, self-disgust, and self-sabotage.

She teaches and lectures internationally and is the author of the Your Resonant Self book series. She is also the co-author alongside Roxy Manning, PhD of The Antiracist Heart: A Self-Compassion and Activism Handbook.