What texts do you use in your classroom to ensure all students have representation or to foster discussions about difficult topics like race and inequity? Here are some of my suggestions!
YA books by Black authors:
https://www.fiercereads.com/blog/books-black-authors-add-your-tbr-list/
Diverse books by grade-level
https://www.edutopia.org/article/22-diverse-book-choices-all-grade-levels
As a biology teacher, it might seem difficult on the surface to find texts about race and inequity, but a few years ago, I started using "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" when teaching about cancer and cell division. We always learned about HeLa cells in bio classes in college and their unique properties (they were the first cells in space, they helped Jonas Salk develop the polio vaccine, they were used to study leukemia and treatments, etc...). I had NO idea they belonged to a Black woman who didn't realize the impact her cells were having on science or that her cells had been sent to scientists around the globe for research. She passed away shortly after her surgery, but her family didn't know that companies were making millions of dollars on their matriarch's cells. I tie her story into my classes to expose just one case in which a person of color was exploited and how she was treated differently than white patients undergoing the same procedure.