This is a list of resources on race from a predominantly white congregation that is journeying together to deconstruct whiteness in an increasingly diverse culture. If you are a white person interested in exploring privilege and power and how to be a better ally to people of color and other marginalized people groups, this is a good primer. We must do the work ourselves and not expect our brothers and sisters of color to inform us. White people created systems of racism and we have a responsibility to begin the process of dismantling it in our own hearts, communities, and the world.

Books to Read:

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness – Austin Channing Brown

The War on Kids: How American Juvenile Justice Lost Its Way – Cara H. Drinan

The South Side – Natalie Y. Moore

The Invention of the White Race – Theodore W. Allen

The Blood of Emmett Till – Timothy B. Tyson

Evicted – Matthew Desmond

Divided by Faith – Michael O. Emerson, Christian Smith

Color of Law – Richard Rothstein

Tears We Cannot Stop – Michael Eric Dyson

White Like Me – Tim Wise

The Soul of Black Folk – W.E.B. Du Bois

Birth of a White Nation – Jacqueline Battalora

The New Jim Crow – Michelle Alexander

*Just Mercy – Bryan Stevenson

America’s Original Sin – Jim Wallace

Disunity in Christ – Christena Cleveland

Black Like Me – John Howard Griffin

A Black Theology of Liberation – James Cone

*Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coats

The Economics of Racial Discrimination and Segregation in the Housing Markets of Cities in the North During the Great Migration, 1915-1930 – Andrew D. Branch

Roadmap to Reconciliation – Brenda Salter McNeil

*I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness – Austin Channing Brown

Barracoon: The Story of the Last Black Cargo – Zora Neale Hurston

The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row – Anthony Ray Hinton

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood – Trevor Noah

The Hate You Give – Angie Thomas

Stamped from the Beginning – Ibram X. Kendi

How to be an Anti-Racist – Ibram X. Kendi

Films/Documentaries to Watch (always better with a group!):

* When They See Us

American Son

I am not your negro
*13th
Racism in the media
The Central Park Five
LA 92
OJ vs the People
The House I Live In
Dark Girls
Let the Fire Burn
*Fruitvale Station
*Selma
Birth of a Nation
The Wire

Music to Listen To:

Nina Simone (Mississippi Goddamn)
Curtis Mayfield
The Freedom Singers
Billy Holiday (Strange Fruit)
Charles Mingus
Ray Charles
Sam Cooke
Harry Belafonte
Marvin Gaye
Stevie Wonder
The Staples Singers
Mahalia Jackson (We Shall Overcome)
Public Enemy
N.W.A.
Tupac
Common
Kendrick Lamar
Childish Gambino (This Is America) *watch video as well

Podcasts:

1619

16 Shots

Profane Faith

Yes, this list is long. But don’t be scared off by its length. Just watch/read/listen to one thing…then choose something else. It’s a journey of growing understanding, of being willing to hear a perspective that is not your own.