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Biography and Booking information
{Jeb Middlebrook } Anti-Racist Speaker and Organizer 
Jeb Middlebrook is one of the most sought after anti-racist speakers and organizers today. He is the Director of the Solidarity Institute – a national non-profit that uses research, events, and projects to connect diverse communities in a collective vision for social justice.
Middlebrook holds a B.A. in Ethnic Studies from the University of Minnesota and a M.A. in American Studies & Ethnicity from the University of Southern California, where he is earning his PhD.
Drawing from historical and contemporary examples, his talks demonstrate the power of campus and community organizing in building a world free of racism.
His educational and entertaining talks engage:
* topics of anti-racism, racial justice and community organizing with a variety of stories, statistics, and anecdotes
* historical and contemporary examples that address the promise of campus and community organizing
* realities of cross-racial alliances against racism that positively transform relationships, communities, and institutions
Middlebrook has spoken to thousands of people in over 10 states and over 25 high schools and college campuses including Yale, Berkeley and the Universities of Colorado, St. Louis, and Kansas, and has been a regular speaker at the annual White Privilege Conference.
He has organized against racism in a variety of community campaigns around the U.S. including fighting for college loans for undocumented students in Minnesota; rights for ex-felons in California; fairness in high school suspensions in Connecticut; housing and minimum wage increases in Wisconsin; and free AIDS testing in Kansas. He has also helped develop white anti-racist discussion groups in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota and California.
Middlebrook has received training in anti-racist organizing from the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond and the Challenging White Supremacy workshops, and is a current member of the Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere (AWARE) which is building a national movement of white people who are willing to speak out against racism.
From 2007-2009, Middlebrook served as adjunct faculty at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where he taught Introduction to Studies of Whiteness and Anti-Racism. Since 2006, he has taught college classes on race and ethnicity at the University of Southern California, where he is completing a book manuscript on white anti-racist organizing from the 1960s to the present to earn his PhD.
In 2003, Middlebrook co-founded a spoken word and hip-hop duo
Anti-Racist Fifteen, as a project of the Solidarity Institute. The duo produces poetry and discussion panels to create anti-racist culture on campuses and in local communities. In addition to lecturing, he tours as an anti-racist poet with Anti-Racist Fifteen and has worked with national recording artists Just Blaze, KRS-One, dead prez, and the Coup.
Middlebrook has received national recognition for his work from the Ford Foundation, the Harry S. Truman Foundation, MTV Networks, Fox News, the Associated Press, Complex Magazine, and Hot 97 Radio in New York.
He was featured in the television program VH1’s The (White) Rapper Show, the film Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible, and the book Other People’s Property: A Shadow History of Hip-Hop in White America.
Middlebrook is the author of A Different Shade of White, Another Kind of Male: A Guide to Using Privilege Responsibly, e-published by the University of Minnesota.
Quote “Jeb is of those rare speakers who is completely at ease addressing difficult subjects like racism and white privilege in front of an audience, so it was a pleasure to listen to him. Our students were very impressed by his thoughtful, straightforward, and insightful reflections on solidarity across racial boundaries. I’m convinced that he connected with them in a way that will inspire many of them to act.”
- Dr. Kelly Kraemer, College of St. Benedict/ St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN
“[Middlebrook’s] discussion was more helpful than any assigned reading in increasing students’ appreciation for the politics of race and white privilege...I hope [he] will consider future invitations to speak at USC on subjects pertinent to race and ethnicity, politics, and popular culture.”
- Dr. Lanita Jacobs-Huey, Department of Anthropology, University of Southern California
“[Middlebrook’s] conviction, his stance on race relations in America, his perspective on what it means to be caucasian in America – the passion and conviction that makes who he is and what he stands for unique and important.”
- Sacha Jenkins, Editor, Mass Appeal Magazine
“Jeb’s project is quite significant. It connects us to a group in this society that is often viewed simply as protectors of the status quo - white males. The venue…is used for alliance building and understanding. That is quite important.”
- Dr. Rose Brewer, Department of African-American Studies, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
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