You’ve finished reading White Awake, and you want to learn more about race in America. Below is a list of resources, divided by topic, to help you on your inward journey and prepare you for the outward journey of working towards racial justice. This isn’t a checklist, though! Pick the resources that you think will best help you go deeper and learn more in your journey into justice.
Racism in the Church
The Color of Compromise, by Jemar Tisby: this is book (and video series available through Amazon Prime) details the way the church in America has been complicit with racism throughout its history.
Faith & Prejudice, “Race and the Church” (video; watch through 38:09): this provides a good overview of the way pastors and leaders of color have been excluded in the not-so-distant past.
Understanding Whiteness
Be the Bridge, by Latasha Morrison: this book, the accompanying curriculum for groups, and the podcast, helps orient Christians towards justice and restoration.
The History of White People, by Nell Irvin Painter: a deep dive into the construction of “whiteness” from early modern Europe to the present.
Mass Incarceration
Thirteenth (Netflix documentary): a wrenching history of how the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution allowed a loophole for slavery to continue.
Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice That Restores, by Dominique DuBois Gilliard: this book looks at the church’s involvement with mass incarceration and offers ways that the church can participate in the reformation of our justice system.
Two articles that offer statistics about racism and policing, from NBC News and the Washington Post.
Race and Education
CodeSwitch (NPR podcast): “Audie and the Not-So-Magic School Bus” (audio): this short podcast episode looks at school segregation and busing through Audie Cornish’s experience in a busing program in Boston in the late 1980s.
Nice White Parents podcast series: a 5-part podcast that examines the power of white parents in America’s school systems.
Race and Housing
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein: this book examines the history of redlining, the practice of segregating neighborhoods.
This article on a recent case of redlining.
Hearing Minority Voices: Memoir and Fiction
I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, Austin Channing Brown (memoir)
An American Marriage, Tayari Jones (novel) — this book does contain strong language
The Means that Makes Us Stranger, Christine Kindberg (young adult novel)
Theology
Reading While Black, Esau McCaulley