Resources for Exploring Racial Injustices

Rev. Brett Gudeman, First Huntsville

Below is a set of resources to help any individual, group, or congregation become more aware of the racial injustices and inequities in this country. They range in a variety of ways to interact: viewing, listening, reading, and more. The original list comes from Eddie Moore Jr. who put this resource list together to assist in the education of anti-racist ways of being. With this, he created the 21-day challenge. The challenge is to learn from one resource a day for 21 days and reflect on what you have learned. I have added additional resources to help create a theological framework for understanding these systemic injustices which are apart of our everyday lives.

You can use the 21-day challenge however is best for your congregation. What we did, was offer up the resources to the whole congregation, and then had a zoom debrief at the end of the 21-days. Several congregants participated in the Zoom debrief, but many did the challenge on their own. I hope these are useful in your congregation’s striving towards a more just and understanding community.

Tracking Tool Use this PDF to track and reflect on what you have learned.

WATCH

13th, Netflix documentary by Ava DuVernay about the connection between US Slavery and the present day mass incarceration system. (1 hour, 40 minutes)

Birth of a White Nation, Keynote speech by legal scholar Jacqueline Battalora, offers a blow-by-blow description of the moment the idea of, and word for, “white” people entered U.S. legal code. (36 minutes)

CBS News Analysis: 50 states, 50 different ways of teaching America’s past, Ibram X. Kendi reviews current history curriculum production and use across the U.S. (5 minutes)

Confronting ‘intergroup anxiety’: Can you try too hard to be fair? Explores why we may get tongue tied and blunder when we encounter people from groups unfamiliar to us. (5 minutes)

How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time, TED Talk by Baratunde Thurston that explores patterns revealing our racist framing, language, and behaviors. (10 minutes)

How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them, TED Talk by Vernā Myers, encourages work vigorously to counter balance bias by connecting with and learning about and from the groups we fear. (19 minutes)

Indigenous People React to Indigenous Representation in Film And TV, Conversation with a diverse range of Indigenous people by FBE about media depictions of Indigenous people, Columbus day, and Indigenous identity. (15 minutes)

Racism is Real, A split-screen video depicting the differential in the white and black lived experience. (3 minutes)

The danger of a single story, TED Talk by Chimamanda Adiche, offers insight to the phenomenon of using small bits of information to imagine who a person is. (18 minutes)

The Disturbing History of the Suburbs, An “Adam Ruins Everything” episode that quickly and humorously educates how redlining came to be. (6 minutes)

This is Us, Dr. Eddie Glaude explains why blaming current racial tensions on Donald Trump misses the point. (3 minutes)

Tyler Merrit Project: Before You Call (3 minutes)

What Being Hispanic and Latinx Means in the United States, Fernanda Ponce shares what she’s learning about the misunderstanding and related mistreatment of the incredibly diverse ethnic category people in U.S. call Hispanic. (12 minutes)

What Kind of Asian Are You? Humorous two minute YouTube video that illustrates the utter silliness of the way many white Americans interact with Asian Americans. (2 minutes)

READ

10 Ways Well-Meaning White Teachers Bring Racism Into Our Schools, by Jamie Utt

21 Racial Microaggressions You Hear on a Daily Basis, by Heben Nigatu

Caught Up In God, by Willie James Jennings

Climbing the White Escalator, by Betsy Leondar-Wright

Explaining White Privilege To A Broke White Person, by Gina Crosley-Corcoran

Guide to Allyship, Created by Amélie Lamont

It’s Not Just the South: Here’s How Everyone Can Resist White Supremacy, by Sarah van Gelder

Making America White Again, by Toni Morrison

My President Was Black, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Presbytery of Charlotte letter from Antiracism Team

Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap, by Amy Traub, Laura Sullivan, Tatjana Mescheded, & Tom Shapiro

What White Children Need to Know About Race, by Ali MIchael and Elenora Bartoli

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, by Peggy McIntosh

Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?, by Ibram X Kendi

LISTEN

Black Like Me, host Dr. Alex Gee

Code Switch, hosted by journalists Gene Demby and Shereen Marisol Meraji

Here & Now – Without Slavery, Would The U.S. Be The Leading Economic Power? host Jeremy Hobson and author Edward Baptist

NPR Morning Edition – You Cannot Divorce Race From Immigration journalist Rachel Martin talks to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas

Pod Save the People, Activism. Social Justice. Culture. Politics. On Pod Save the People, organizer and activist DeRay Mckesson

Scene on Radio – Seeing White Series, host John Biewen and collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika

TED Radio Hour – Mary Bassett: How Does Racism Affect Your Health? host Guy Raz speaks with Dr. Mary T. Bassett, Director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University

NOTICE

Test Your Awareness: Do The Test, This video shows us the importance of paying attention, and how much more we see when we are looking for particular things around us.

Use each question below separately as one day’s challenge.

Who is and is not represented in ads?
What are the last five books you read? What is the racial mix of the authors?
What is the racial mix of the main characters in your favorite TV shows? Movies?
Who is filling what kinds of jobs/social roles in your world? Can you correlate any of this to racial identity?