Resources for Becoming an Antiracist
Depending on how you look at it, this post is either a day, two weeks or more than 400 years late.
I’m so over racism. I’m over ignorance, tolerance and white fragility. Like so many, the past few weeks have been riddled with some of the most heartbreaking and difficult moments of my life. I’ve been devastated by the prevalence of racism, white supremacy, ignorance and hate – not just in the world, but in my communities. And I’ve been encouraged by the amount of people who have reached out to show care for me and Dom and to ask how they can help.
This post is my best answer to this question: learn, listen and commit to change.
White friends and family, we can do better. We need to do better. Fighting racism requires a daily choice to challenge our implicit biases, recognize our white privilege and commit to be an ally. It’s not enough not be a racist; we must be antiracists. We must be vehemently against systemic, individual and institutional racism.
Almost five years ago, I read “Interrupted” by Jen Hatmaker and was challenged to ask God to interrupt my life with ways to serve Him and love His people; to break my heart with what breaks His. My life changed in that moment. Now, in this moment, I am feeling interrupted and my heart is breaking.
So, today, I’m inviting all of my non-Black friends and family to commit to being an ally and becoming an anti-racist. This means seeking understanding through Black voices and experiences – and that DOES NOT mean reaching out to that one Black person you know to ask them to teach out about what it means to be Black. This means accepting that you are racist – even though you don’t want to be – so that you actively assume a posture that causes you to recognize your implicit biases and challenges you to choose actions and attitudes that counter your unintended racist/oppressive tendencies.
To get you started, I’ve put together some resources – with the help of some friends – to help you learn what it means to be Black in America. I’ll keep adding, so please keep coming back. Join me in challenging yourself to engage in this fight each day by committing to reading, listening or watching something from this list (or others).
My hope and prayer as you engage in these materials is that your blind spots are revealed, your heart is broken in a way that sparks change and that you realize that you can be part of the solution even if you don’t think you are part of the problem.
We can do better. We must do better. Let’s be better together.
(Have other resources to add? Let me know in a comment below.)
To Watch
Movies
“13th” – Ava Duvernay (Available on Netflix)
“When They See Us” – Ava Duvernay (Available on Netflix)
“Just Mercy” (Available on Prime Video)
“Malcolm X” (Available on Netflix)
“Who Killed Malcom X?” (Available on Netflix)
“Stranger Fruit” (Available on Hulu)
“16 Shots” (Available on Hulu)
“I Am Not Your Negro” (Available on Prime Video)
Shows
Black-ish (Available on Hulu)
Mixed-ish (Available on Hulu)
America to Me (Available on Prime Video)
Dear White People (Available on Netflix)
Time: The Kalief Browder Story (Available on Netflix)
YouTube
To Donate
To Listen
Artists
Propaganda
Sho Baraka
Lecrae
Podcasts
Truth’s Table
Pass the Mic
Code Switch
White Lies
The Red Couch Podcast
The Tight Rope with Cornel West
To Read (or Listen via Audio Book)
“White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh (the origination of the term “white privilege” (PDF linked)
“White Fragility” by Robin Diangelo
“How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr. (PDF linked)
“The Cross and the Lynching Tree” by James Cone
“God of the Oppressed” by James Cone
“Is Christianity the White Man’s Religion?” by Antipas Harris
“Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehesi Coates
“Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” by Bryan Stevenson
“I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness” by Austin Channing Brown
“The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander
“Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria” by Beverly Tatum
“Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist ideas in America” by Ibram X. Kendi
“Be the Bridge: Pursuing God’s Heart for Racial Justice” by Latasha Morrison
“The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism” by Jemar Tisby
“Roadmap to Reconciliation 2.0” by Brenda Salter McNeil
“The Very Good Gospel” by Lisa Sharon Harper
“The Color of Law” by Richard Rothstein
“Mindful of Race” by Ruth King
“Walls Can Fall” by Kenneth Ulmer
To Follow
@TheConsciousKid
@ShaunKing
@ the_culturecheck
@jackiehillperry
@ preston_n_perry
@prophiphop
@lecrae
@arraynow
@ava
@blackalliesmatter
@ibramxk
@samefacescollective