Racial Healing
Committing to Change
Discovering Bias
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Additional Resources
Committing to Change
We are a church, and a community committed to positive change and advancing racial healing in our nation. Here we have gathered a growing list of resources, articles, reading lists and more to help further this cause. If you have suggestions for something to add here, please let us know!
Standing Together: A Message from Unity CEO Jim Blake
A Stand for Humanity- Rev. Patricia T. Bass
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man
"We Need to Talk About Injustice" - TED Talk with Bryan Stevenson
"How to Overcome Our Biases and Walk Boldly Toward Them" - TED Talk with Verna Myers
"Deconstructing White Privilege" - with Robin DiAngelo
Discovering Bias
Who Me Biased?
The New York Times produced a series of six short videos (between 1 and 3 minutes each) on implicit bias and its effects.
How to Overcome Biases– Walk Boldly Toward Them
Verna Myers in a TedxTalk offers three important calls of action for acknowledging our unconscious (and conscious) biases and changing our relationships with others, especially with young black men.
Look Different
Look Different is an MTV campaign to help people “unlearn biases, open up conversations with family & friends and [get] specific things you can do to fight for what’s right. There are resources for educators, information on racial, gender, and anti-LGBT bias, a bias cleanse, and several other tips and actions to take.
Implicit Association Test
Project Implicit is a non-profit organization founded by researchers from the University of Washington, Harvard University, and the University of Virginia. Its goal is to educate the public about hidden biases and to function as a virtual laboratory for collecting data on unconscious bias. The link takes you to a page where you can take online implicit association tests (IATs) relating to different types of unconscious bias, including skin-tone preference, sexuality preference, the link between gender and science, age preference, the link between gender and family versus career, racial preference, weight preference, disability preference, and others. For an analysis of issues relating to IAT procedures and application, see Nosek et al (2005).
Interrupting Bias in the Faculty Search Process
The University of Washington’s ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change created a training video and facilitation guide to help faculty search committees uncover and address unconscious bias in the faculty candidate evaluation process.
Additional Reading List
Resources and tools regarding racism and anti-blackness and how to be a better ally.
Additional Resources
BOOKS
- Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story by Martin Luther King Jr.
- Wilmington’s Lie by David Zucchino
- The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
- So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving
- The Black Book by Middleton A. Harris
- Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Dr. Robin DiAngelo
- Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, and Future Reparations by Joe R. Feagin
- White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
- Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
- Ways of Grace: Stories of Activism, Adversity, and How Sports Can Bring Us Together by James Blake
FILMS
“13th”
Also from Ava DuVernay, this documentary explores the United States prison system and how it is tied to the nation’s history of racial inequality.
How to watch: Netflix has made “13th” available to watch for free on YouTube.
“White Like Me”
2013 documentary exploring racism in the U.S. through the lens of whiteness, based on the book by Tim Wise. (We plan to purchase this for Unity Renaissance)
“I Am Not Your Negro”
Based on James Baldwin’s unfinished work “Remember This House,” which was meant to be a reflection on the assassination of his friends Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., this film is narrated by Samuel L. Jackson using Baldwin’s words.
How to watch: Available to stream for free on PBS.
“The African-Americans: Many Rivers to Cross”
This six-episode miniseries from historian and filmmaker Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a full survey of African-American history. Other works from Gates, including “Reconstruction: America After the Civil War” and “Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise,” are also currently free to watch.
How to watch: Available to stream for free on PBS.
“Harriet”
The true story of African-American abolitionist Harriet Tubman’s work with the Underground Railroad.
How to watch: Available on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Google Play and other platforms. Also available on loan from Unity Renaissance.
Twelve Years a Slave
2013 pre-Civil War drama, Academy Award Winner.
“Selma”
This Oscar-nominated film (directed by Ava DuVernay) tells the story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s campaign to secure equal voting rights by marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965.
How to watch: Paramount has made “Selma” available for free on all digital platforms, including iTunes and Amazon, through the end of June.
PODCASTS
“Seeing White”
14-part series from 2017 on Scene On Radio.
“The 1619 Project”
New York Times magazine project, aimed at reframing the legacy of slavery in America.
“Fresh Air Interviews” with Terry Gross
Interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of “Between the World and Me,” and with Bryan Stevenson, attorney and author of “Just Mercy.”