Racial Reconciliation Resources

Building Bridges: Racial Reconciliation and Understanding

Many of you have asked for tools to educate yourselves or your families. As Christians we must acknowledge pain and injustice when they exist. As realists we must acknowledge that any passionate topic can provoke partisan politics. How then should we respond to the request for resources?

On reflection, we need to seek the center, where all voices can be heard and where we can experience gracious open-minded dialogue. To do this well, we have to place our confidence in you. So we will. We believe in your compassion for those who suffer from racism, your desire to add understanding to your empathy and your motivation to promote racial equality where you can.

This gives us confidence you can handle a resource list that includes cries of anguish, passionate appeals, personal points of view and well reasoned essays. If you are troubled by opinions expressed in a particular source, set it aside for now. Yet, keep this in mind, the critical skill learned by all superb therapists is to hear the pain, fear and anger of a client, even when it is amplified or distorted. Aspire to the interpersonal arts of the Holy Spirit.

If we only listen to opinions we agree with, we will not grow. If we only value people like ourselves, we will neglect or reject some of God’s other children. We on senior staff don’t agree with every viewpoint expressed in the resources, yet we hope to hear and value each voice represented. More than some members, we are comfortable with strong disagreement between friends.

Resources include books, essays, videos and movies. You can improve our resources by emailing your suggestion to our research team for racial equality issues.

We know that Amazon can be the easiest way to order books online…but would you consider order a book from a Black-owned bookstore? Here are two in California: Underground Books and Ashay by the Bay.

Recommendations from Black Christian Leaders

ELIZABETH WOODSON, MINISTER AND THEOLOGIAN

13th, from Ava DuVernay
Eyes on the Prize, PBS Docuseries

The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander
Roadmap to Reconciliation, Brenda Salter McNeil

Disunity in Christ, Christena Cleveland
#Charlestonsyllabus

AUSTIN CHANNING BROWN, AUTHOR OF I'M STILL HERE

A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, by Ronald Takaki
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, by Edward E Baptist
The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America, With a New Preface, by Khalil Gibran Muhammad
The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, by Audre Lorde

Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander
Caucasia: A Novel, by Danzy Senna
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Too Heavy a Yoke: Black Women and the Burden of Strength, by Chanequa Walker-Barnes

salt. by Nayyirah Waheed
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, by Ntozake Shange
Trouble I've Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism, by Drew G. I. Hart
Roadmap to Reconciliation: Moving Communities into Unity, Wholeness and Justice, by Brenda Salter McNeil
Divided by Faith, Michael Emmerson & Christian Smith

LECRAE, CHRISTIAN HIP HOP RECORDING ARTIST, SONGWRITER, MUSIC EXECUTIVE, AND ACTOR

Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?, Beverly Daniel Tatum

Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander

More Than Just Race, William Julius Wilson
A Different Mirror, Ronald Takaki

For Children and Families

Coretta Scott King Book Award Winners
A list of books that "demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values,” searchable by age, from 2 years to 13+.

1000 Black Girl Books
A list of books with black girls as protagonists, curated by a 13-year-old Marley Dias.