Anti-racist resources

Videos/movies to watch

13th – movie on Netflix. Explores the history of the 13th amendment of the Constitution. It is based on the information that is written about in the book, listed below, “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander.

The Cross and the Lynching Tree: A Requiem for Ahmaud Arbery – This is a sermon given by Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III. Extremely powerful video. Words do not do it justice. Think along the lines of the most powerful speeches given by Martin Luther King Jr. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6985UG0Z3k

Just Mercy – available to rent and stream. Based on the book, listed below, by Brian Stephenson. It follows the story of black man who is wrongly arrested and put on death row for the murder of a white woman we was having an affair with. Based on a true story.

**Systemic Racism Explained –**Great short video that lays it out clearly and easily understood. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrHIQIO_bdQ&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0VeqrmMTaZJnvxGH2dGzzliTKIZ63e-ryCOwDYe8ekJjtC3FbqJ4KCO9A

**Seeing White with John Biewen.**TEDx Charlottesville https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy-r-3W2Fkg

How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them. Ted Talk: Verna Myers https://www.ted.com/talks/verna_myers_how_to_overcome_our_biases_walk_boldly_toward_them/discussion

Life of Privilegeexplained in a $100 dollar race. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K5fbQ1-zps&feature=emb_logo

The Color of Fear… just 5 minutes of it but it’s an intense part. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nmhAJYxFT4

Holy Post - Race in America:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGUwcs9qJXY&feature=youtu.be

Articles to read

The Assumptions of White Privilege and What We can do about it.https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/assumptions-white-privilege-and-what-we-can-do-about-it?fbclid=IwAR3-jEGXffh_HhdrqU7tv9lxJITsfrjHc3Pu1Z4Tz4JAkaz4_-XfG6a0L20

White Priviledge, Peggy Macintoshhttps://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf

Dear fellow white people: Here's what to do when you're called racisthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/dear-fellow-white-people-heres-what-to-do-when-youre-called-racist/2019/08/20/6e31941a-beda-11e9-b873-63ace636af08_story.html

We are afraid to talk about racism and the cognitive dissonance is nationwide.http://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/featured/afraid-talk-racism-cognitive-dissonance-nationwide/.

Avoiding Microaggressions in Classrooms and Onlinehttps://collegeeducated.com/resources/avoiding-microaggressions-in-classrooms-and-online/

Parent/Guardian Resources on Racism and Diversity

Review resources to match your child’s age, complexities, and goals.

Social Justice Books

https://socialjusticebooks.org/booklists/ An in-depth selection of multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators. Over 60 categories of curated booklists. There is also a guide for selecting anti-bias children’s books (e.g., stereotypes, invisibility, lifestyles).

Embrace Racehttps://www.embracerace.org/

National Association for the Education of Young Childrenhttps://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/may2018/teaching-learning-race-and-racism

Beyond the Golden Rule, a Teaching Tolerance publication that provides how to speak openly, model equity, and do something for the different developmental ages of Preschool years, Elementary & Preteen Years, The Teen Years, https://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/general/beyond_golden_rule.pdf

**The Power of the Story:**Diverse books for all readers. A catalog that groups books into areas such as race and ethnicity, social justice, immigration, physical differences, mental health, etc. Books are priced reasonably for paperback and hardcover. Created by Scholastic Book Club. https://kids.scholastic.com/kids/books/power-of-story/

CNN's Van Jones and Erica Hill partner with "Sesame Street" for Coming Together: Standing Up to Racism, a town hall for kids and families. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/06/us/cnn-sesame-street-town-hall-racism-trnd/index.html

Part 1: How to explain racism to kids. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms takes questions about racism along with CNN's Van Jones and Erica Hill. Messages are shared with kids about how to make a change. (21:28”)

_Part 2:_CNN/Sesame Street town hall on racism continued. Sesame Street puppet, Abby Cadabby, shares a personal story about how her fellow Sesame Street friend Big Bird was a victim of prejudice, how she stood up for him, and showed empathy. A college professor defines white privilege. (16:16”)

Multicultural skin colors markers and crayonshttps://www.amazon.com/Crayola-Multicultural-Colors-Washable-Markers/dp/B000F8V2GS

Podcasts

On Scene Radio, season 2 “Seeing White” with host John Biewen. He is the speaker in the TEDx talk listed above. That talk is a synopsis of this podcast. There are 14 episodes with most being around 30-40 minutes.

Codeswitch from NPR - Code Switch is a multi-racial, multi-generational team of NPR journalists who cover race and identity.

Understanding you own bias

Harvard Implicit Bias Test: Preliminary Test Information. There are 3 tests with different focus… general implicit bias, health, and one about transgender people

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

Project Implicit Social Attitudes Test

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

Books

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and you, a remix by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

This should be a primer for every person. In the simplest and clearest way possible, Dr. Kendi (he wrote the original book and then Jason Reynolds adapted it to make it more accessible) explains that the world of race was not built on a misunderstanding, but it was built on a lie. Dr. Kendi explores the history of race (it is a recent notion in the history of the world) and is able to pinpoint when the concept of race entered history and how it was developed. This is a history that is not taught in most classes we had in school and it is shameful that it wasn’t. Dr. Kendi is a featured guest on the podcast listed, “Seeing White.”

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

Bryan Stevenson is a Harvard trained lawyer. After graduating, he goes to Atlanta, Georgia and works with inmates on death row that have not been served fairly by the criminal justice system. “Just Mercy” follows one of his early cases with a gentleman named Walter McMillian. Walter proclaims his innocence of a murder of a white woman with whom he was having an affair. While one chapter in the book tells the story of uncovering all that happened to Walter during his trial, alternating chapters tell the stories of a criminal justice system that does not work and how easy it is for people, particularly minorities and children, to receive unfair trials, harsh sentences and in some cases, not trial at all for years while they sit in jail. The power in this book is in how it personalizes injustice. The problems of racism are given a face and a name. The people incarcerated have a story and a life and families and people who love them. The book exposes the biases that occur in communities and in law enforcement. It is not a “hard read” in the way it is written or the vocabulary use, but it is a book that is “hard to read.” Meaning, when I read these stories I frequently found myself getting emotional in many number of ways, from hurt, to anger, to embarrassment to shame and even joy. I would not say that this is my favorite book that I have ever read, but it is one of the most important books that I have ever read.

https://www.amazon.com/Just-Mercy-Story-Justice-Redemption/dp/081298496X

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

Ms. Brown tells her story of having a name that would not normally be associated with a black woman, but instead a white man. Her parents did this intentionally. We need to hear the stories she shares about people’s reactions when she walks into a room for the first time to meet people and she is not who they were expecting. This is a great way to see how our implicit bias is at work, whether we want to acknowledge it or not.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

This is the 1969 autobiography describing the early years of American writer and poet Maya Angelou. The first in a seven-volume series, it is a coming-of-age story that illustrates how strength of character and a love of literature can help overcome racism and trauma. The book begins when three-year-old Maya and her older brother are sent to Stamps, Arkansas, to live with their grandmother and ends when Maya becomes a mother at the age of 16. In the course of Caged Bird, Maya transforms from a victim of racism with an inferiority complex into a self-possessed, dignified young woman capable of responding to prejudice.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Micelle Alexander

This book traces the history of racism, beginning with slavery and how it has adapted systemically in our society through Jim Crow laws and ultimately through the mass incarceration of African-American males. Michelle Alexander begins with the assertion that she would not have supported her ultimate conclusion when she began this book. She would have attributed the problem of mass incarceration of African-American males to poverty and lack of education. While that does play a role, she strongly makes that case that the real culprit has been the “war of drugs” that began in the 1980’s. She shows how there was not an inner-city drug problem when the “war” began and it was inaccurately portrayed in order to gain support from the public. She continues to show how African-Americans do not use drugs at a higher proportion that whites yet they are profiled and arrested at alarmingly higher rates are given much harsher sentences compared to whites. She then looks at how the system works against people once they are released from prison and how we have actually developed a caste system, a system in which there is not freedom to move from one class to another, instead people, specifically African-Americans are kept in a different class. This book is not what I would call an quick read, but it is clear and concise and I can’t help but continually having my mind blown and my perspective changed while reading it.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Jim-Crow-Incarceration-Colorblindness/dp/1595586431

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

Trevor Noah is the host of Comedy Central’s “Daily Show.” He took over from Jon Stewart 2 years ago. The reason that I chose this book to read is that Trevor is becoming more and more important in society as people watch his show to help understand and interpret the events of the world. An increasing amount of people, young people in particular (and I include myself in that) have more trust in Trevor Noah and people like him (think John Oliver and Stephen Colbert along with Jon Steward) in reporting the news then networks like Fox News or MSNBC. Because I enjoy Trevor and appreciate his opinion, I wanted to learn more about him.

The book has the title, “Born a Crime” because that was him, he was born a crime. He was born to a black mother and a white father during Apartheid in South Africa. Due to his being a mixed-race and having lighter skin, he didn’t have a place. He could not be seen with his father in public, and he struggled finding a group to belong to. This book is filled with stories from his childhood and how he navigated his way through it. In the end, you could say this book is about his mother as much as it is about him. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found myself laughing out loud several times throughout it. https://www.amazon.com/Born-Crime-Stories-African-Childhood/dp/0399588175

small great things by Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult is a prolific author. She is a constant presence on the New York Times Bestseller lists. She is able to take a controversial topic and able help people see that it may not be as black and white as the reader might have hoped. In this book, she tackles race and racism. The story is about an African-American labor and delivery nurse. When she reports to work one day, she is assigned to care for a white-supremacist couple who just had a baby the day before. After their initial interaction together, the couple asks for the nurse to not be allowed to come near their baby. The hospital grants the request. Yet, being short staffed, she is asked to watch over the baby in the nursery for a few minutes. It is during those few minutes that all goes wrong. The rest of the book tells of the aftermath and how everyone reacts and is supportive, unsupportive and distances themselves from the nurse and the situation. Jodi Picoult is a white woman and writes about her struggles and apprehension of writing about this topic at the end in the “Author’s Note. She provides a bibliography at the end of resources she used to help tell the story.

https://www.amazon.com/Small-Great-Things-Jodi-Picoult/dp/0345544951

racism without racists: color blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in America by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

There are times in our lives when we are not ready to hear what we need to hear. Maybe a better way of putting it is that we do not want to hear what we need to hear. I first encountered Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s book “racism without racists” when I was at Wartburg Seminary and had to buy it for a class titled, “Race and Racism.” Like most people, in college and seminary I did not do all of the reading that was assigned. This was for a couple of reasons. One, I just didn’t have time. Life got it the way. The other reason that I would choose not to read something is because I didn’t want to or didn’t think I needed to. This is the case with this book. I didn’t want to read it. I didn’t want to be confronted with the racism that lies within me. I thought that I was already fairly progressive and understood all the issues at hand. I can now see the arrogance in that. With all the reading that I have done, this one has been the last one, and I have not made my way very far in it. It is also the densest and reads more like a text book than the others (that is probably why it was used that way). I do not say this to discourage people from reading it. It might very well be the most important out of all the books mentioned, I just want to be honest in my assessment of it. If any of you have thoughts and opinions, please share.

https://www.amazon.com/Racism-without-Racists-Color-Blind-Persistence/dp/1442202181

The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone

This is an easy book to read. First, immediately it talks about the over 500 lynching’s that occurred between 1880-1940. Second, from a faith perspective it forces one to see the cross as a lynching and that makes you see it in a whole new way. Third, it is a dense book. None of that should discourage anyone from reading it. I would say, don’t make it the first one on your list, but make it a follow up. Use other books to help to shift your understanding and then this one will be able to be understood more.

Next steps

While now is a time for grief and anger, it is also a time for resolve. Find resources below to learn what you can do to create a more just and equitable world.

https://www.obama.org/anguish-and-action/?fbclid=IwAR2tqJ_N5XS7Qb6NBnqBGjSh-z20B9iF6Tmuu-OOol9vT-5R8IIC4wcAWU8

Organizations to follow on social media: