MCC No 2 Racism
Undermining White Privilege
The following list of resources has been compiled by MCC’s Racial Reconciliation Working Group to help empower us to undo the ways white privilege limits the full inclusion of peoples of color within MCC, and lead us into greater diversity as a movement of faith, justice, and liberation.
The resources are listed under the major categories of Litanies, Articles, By the Numbers (Hard Data), Videos, Classes and Resources, Deeper Reading (Books), and Similar Sites.
This is an ongoing project by the Working Group, and more resources will be added over time.
Please report any broken links and comments, or share other helpful online resources by emailing Rev. Wes Mullins at [email protected].
Also, visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/underminingwhiteprivilege/
Articles:
“What Multicultural Congregations Teach About Improving Race Relations,” by Clay Polson and Kevin Dougherty
Research shows that contact “has real power to be able to diminish some of the prejudice,” Polson said, “if people from different racial and ethnic groups come together and interact regularly in a context where they share equal standing, where they feel like they all have a voice, where they’re able to pursue common causes.”
https://onlinegrad.baylor.edu/resources/multicultural-congregations-race-relations-prejudice/
“Churches Examine White Privilege,” by Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service
In the wake of the continuing deaths of African-Americans at the hands of police officers, some white church leaders say they can no longer check off their racial-justice to-do list by hosting a Black History Month event. Instead, they are holding workshops that address white privilege.
https://religionnews.com/2016/04/19/churches-hold-classes-about-white-privilege/
“Seeing the Face of God in Each Other,” The Antiracism Training Manual of the Episcopal Church
https://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/antiracism_book-revise3.pdf
“Can Racism Be Stopped in the Third Grade?” by Lisa Miller
An experiment at Fieldston, which starts when 8-year-olds are sorted by race, has some very liberal parents fuming.
https://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/05/can-fieldston-un-teach-racism.html
“Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies,” produced by The Sentencing Project
https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Race-and-Punishment.pdf
“The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap: Explaining the Black-White Economic Divide,” by Thomas Shapiro, Tatjana Meschede, and Sam Osoro.
Results of a 25-year longitudinal study of white and black families and the economics of those families.
https://iasp.brandeis.edu/pdfs/Author/shapiro-thomas-m/racialwealthgapbrief.pdf
“The State of Racism in America,” Episcopal Church Resources
This is a video, facilitator, and group discussion guide released by the Episcopal Church. The first link below takes you to the print resources, and the second takes you to the vidoes of the conversations.
Print Resources: https://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/resources
“Everything I Know about Racism I Learned in the Church,” a blog post by Christena Cleveland
Christena Cleveland is a social psychologist with a hopeful passion for reconciling across cultural divisions. She is the first Associate Professor of the Practice of Reconciliation at Duke University’s Divinity School. Christena earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Willard, Laura. “A Religious Group Wants Everyone to Try on a Pair of White Privilege Glasses.”
“I would like to see religious organizations say, ‘We have a responsibility because of our faith in God. We are called to make the world a better place.'”
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration.” The Atlantic, October 2015.
A very lengthy and rich article/essay.
“The United States now accounts for less than 5 percent of the world’s inhabitants—and about 25 percent of its incarcerated inhabitants.”
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “Letter to My Son.” The Atlantic, July 2015.
“This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.”
“Our triumphs can never redeem this. Perhaps our triumphs are not even the point. Perhaps struggle is all we have.”
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “The Case for Reparations.” The Atlantic, June 2014.
“[This] 1939 Home Owners’ Loan Corporation “Residential Security Map” of Chicago shows discrimination against low-income and minority neighborhoods. The residents of the areas marked in red (representing “hazardous” real-estate markets) were denied FHA-backed mortgages.”
“A national real-estate association advised not to sell to ‘a colored man of means who was giving his children a college education.’”
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
Diangelo, Robin. “White America’s Racial Illiteracy: Why our National Conversation is Poisoned from the Start.” Salon, April 2015.
“Challenges to this identity become highly stressful and even intolerable. The following are examples of the kinds of challenges that trigger racial stress for white people…”
Swarns, Rachel L. and Sona Patel. “‘A Million Questions’ From Descendants of Slaves
Sold to Aid Georgetown.” New York Times, May 2016.
“I believe in my rosary. I believe in my prayers. I believe in my candles. I’m not angry at the church. I love my church. What happened with slavery, that was back in the day.”
By the Numbers (Hard Data):
The Barna Group. “Black Lives Matter and Racial Tension in America.” May 2016
A great set of Barna Group polling research results.
The Best Map Ever Made of America’s Racial Segregation, Duke University
A powerful map showing the distribution of the U.S. population by race.
https://www.wired.com/2013/08/how-segregated-is-your-city-this-eye-opening-map-shows-you/
Videos:
From the TV show Blackish:
Powerful moment addressing African American’s feelings about the permanence of racism even after the election of President Barak Obama.
https://sojo.net/articles/less-two-minutes-clip-blackish-explains-why-racism-america-isn-t-over
From SNL on Beyonce:
Famous Saturday Night Live response to Beyonce’s 2016 Super Bowl performance.
https://www.justjared.com/2016/02/14/snl-jokes-about-the-day-beyonce-turned-black-watch-now/
Politician Elizabeth Warren on Black Lives Matter
Video and text.
Cultural Humility: People Principles and Practices
A 30-minute documentary by San Francisco State professor Vivian Chávez, that mixes poetry with music, interviews, archival footage, and images of community, nature and dance to explain what Cultural Humility is and why we need it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaSHLbS1V4w
Slavery to Mass Incarceration
A 6-minute engaging history video. The legacy of slavery can be seen in the presumption of guilt and dangerousness assigned to African Americans, especially young men and boys, the racial profiling and mistreatment that presumption creates, and the racial dynamics of mass incarceration. “Slavery to Mass Incarceration” is narrated by Bryan Stevenson. The art is by Molly Crabapple.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4e_djVSag4
Yes, All White People are Racist
When you say ‘all white people’ they rush to claim that is unfair because they are ‘individuals;’ but this sense of individualism in and of itself is a privilege. Individualism is a facet of privilege.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zPtpRrpU-g
Crystal Valentine, “And the News Reporter Says Jesus is White.”
A black woman responds to Megyn Kelly’s claim that Jesus is white.
Class and Resources:
Sacred Conversation on Race: UCC Sacred Conversation Curriculum
Class materials for hosting a Sacred Conversation on Race, including a Resource Guide, Video, and more.
https://www.ucc.org/sacred-conversation
Racial Equality Resource Guide: from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
This resource guide has been prepared as a shared tool for building a community of connected, informed and engaged practitioners. It provides practical resources that will assist those community-based organizations engaged in the fields of healing, equity and inclusion, diversity and the elimination of structural racism. https://od.msue.msu.edu/uploads/files/Multiculturalism_Diversity/Racial_Equity_Resource_Guide1.pdf
“Racial Equality Toolkit: Implementing Greenlining’s Racial Equality Framework”
This toolkit is designed for use in a variety of settings, giving you a step-by-step thinking tool designed to help policymakers consider the needs of all communities.
https://greenlining.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/GLI-REF-Toolkit.pdf
Building the World We Dream About: class materials from the Unitarian Universalist Church for Adults and Young People
https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/adults/btwwda
Cracking the Shell of Whiteness: a six-week class curriculum
https://digiterp.com/new/community/cracking/
Deeper Reading (Books):
Agee, James. Cotton Tenants: Three Families (Melville House, 2013).
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (New Press, 2012).
Barndt, Joseph. Understanding and Dismantling Racism: The Twenty-First Century Challenge to White America (Fortress, 2007).
Bell, Derrick. Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism (Basic Books, 1993)
Blackmon, Douglas A. Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II (Anchor Books, 2008).
Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. Racism Without Racists: Colorblind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009).
Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 (Simon & Schuster, 1989).
Broyard, Bliss. One Drop: My Father’s Hidden Life – A Story of Race and Family Secrets (Back Bay Books, 2008).
Burrell, Tom. Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority (SmileyBooks, 2010).
Choudhury, Shakil. Deep Diversity: Overcoming Us vs. Them (Between the Lines, 2015).
Review: https://suzannehawkes.com/tag/white-privilege/
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau, 2015)
Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism (Routledge, 2004).
Cone, James H. The Cross and the Lynching Tree (Orbis Books, 2011).
Cone, James H. Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare (Orbis Books, 1992).
Dog, Mary Crow and Richard Erdoes. Lakota Woman (Grove Press, 2011).
Evers-Williams, Myrlie and Manning Marable. The Autobiography of Medgar Evers: A
Hero’s Life and Legacy Revealed Through His Writings, Letters, and Speeches (Basic Civitas Books, 2006).
Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks (Grove Press, 2008).
Feagin, Joe R. Systemic Racism: A Theory of Oppression (Routledge, 2006).
Griffin, John Howard. Black Like Me, 50th Anniversary Edition (Signet, 2010).
Griffin, Paul. The Seeds of Racism in the Soul of America (Pilgrim Press, 1999).
Harvey, Jennifer, et al. “Disrupting White Supremacy from Within: White People on What White People Can Do.” (The Pilgrim Press, 2008)
https://www.amazon.com/Disrupting-Supremacy-Within-Jennifer-Harvey/dp/0829816070
Higginbotham, F. Michael. Ghosts of Jim Crow: Ending Racism in Post-Racial America (NYU Press, 2013).
Jealous, Ann Todd, et al., eds. Colorblind Destinies: Whites Sharing Grief About Racism (Potomac Books, 2013).
Katz, Judith H. White Awareness: Handbook for Anti-Racism Training, Second Edition (University of Oklahoma, 2003).
King, Jr., Martin Luther. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (Beacon Press, 2010).
Kivel, Paul. Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice, Third Edition (New Society Publishers, 2011).
Lipsitz, George. How Racism Takes Place (Temple University Press, 2011).
Loewen, James W. Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (Touchstone, 2006).
Marsh, Charles. God’s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights (Princeton University Press, 2008).
Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (Vintage, 1993).
Rodriquez, Richard. Brown: The Last Discovery of America (Penguin, 2003).
Rothenberg, Paula S. White Privilege, Fourth Edition (Worth Publishers, 2011)
Shattuck, Jr., Gardiner H. Episcopalians and Race: Civil War to Civil Rights (University Press of Kentucky, 2003).
Smith, Lillian. Killers of the Dream (W.W. Norton & Co., 1994).
Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (Back Bay Books, 2008).
Tyson, Timothy B. Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story (Broadway Books, 2005).
Washington, James M., ed. A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Harper One, 2003).
West, Cornel. Race Matters (Vintage Books, 1994).
West, Traci. Wounds of the Spirit: Black Women, Violence, and Resistance Ethics (NYU Press, 1999)
Wise, Tim. Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity (City Lights, 2010).
Wise, Tim. White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, Revised and Updated Edition (Soft Skull Press, 2011).
Woodson, Carter Godwin. The Mis-Education of the Negro (Seven Treasures, 2010).
Wu, Frank. Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White (Basic Books, 2003).
Similar Sites:
Biola University Resource Page
https://www.biola.edu/mepd/resources
University of San Francisco Resource Page
https://www.usfca.edu/library/white-privilege-resource-guide
Collective Impact Forum Resource Page
https://collectiveimpactforum.org/resources/equity-resources
Black Church Syllabus (#blackchurchsyllabus)
https://kineticslive.com/blackchurchsyllabus/
Charleston Syllabus (#Charlestonsyllabus)