Resources on Anti-Racism and Racial Justice, Including Recommendations by Members of Color at BHPC

Bradley Hills believes strongly that racism has no place in God’s world. We believe that all of humanity is created in the image of God and that each person is of holy and equal worth. Because every human is fully loved by God, Jesus commands us to love our neighbors as our self. To deny the dignity of any person is a sin. God has told us what is good – to do justice, to love kindness and mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.

Click Here for 21 Day Racial Justice Challenge 

Books for Adults:

  • How to be an Antiracist (2019) by Ibram X. Kendi – Kendi’s concept of antiracism reenergizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other.
  • Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Race in America (2016) National Book Award winner by Ibram X. Kendi – if we have any hope of grappling with this stark reality, we must first understand how racist ideas were developed, disseminated, and enshrined in American society.
  • Understanding White Privilege; Creating Pathways to Authentic Relationships Across Race (2013) by Frances Kendall – delves into the complex interplay between race, power, and privilege in both organizations and private life.
  • Americanah (2013) by Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi (Nigerian) – novel exploring the intersection of African immigrant and African-American experiences and See also Adichie’s 2009 TED talk: “The Danger of a Single Story.”
  • Caste (2020) by Isabel Wilkerson
  • The New Jim Crow (2010) by Michelle Alexander – Mass Incarceration in an age of color blindness
  • The Fire Next Time (1963) by James Baldwin – non-fiction/two essays, first a letter to Baldwin’s 14-year-old nephew, discusses the central role of race in American history. The second essay deals with the relations between race and religion, focusing, in particular, on Baldwin’s experiences with the Christian church and Islam as a youth in Harlem.
  • Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism (1992) by Derrick Bell, American lawyer, professor, and civil rights activist.
  • White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism (2018) and What DoesIt Mean to Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy (2012) by Robin DiAngelo
  • Waking up White and Finding Myself in the Story about Race (2014) by Debby Irving
  • Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God (2015) by the Rev. Kelly Brown Douglass – theological reflection in light of the Trayvon Martin shooting.
  • So You Want to Talk about Race (2018) by Ijeoma Oluo – accessible conversational perspective from author who grew up in predominantly white liberal circles in Seattle. Engages the themes of conversation for these days.
  • But I Don’t See you as Asian: Curating Conversations about Race (2013) by Bruce Reyes-Chow, the youngest PCUSA Moderator elected to date (2008) and current pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Palo Alto, California and a PCUSA pioneer in use of technology in the church.
  • Deep is the Hunger (1951) by Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King’s mentor and theologian, inspiring devotional reading including “Jesus and the Disinherited” and “Meditations from the Heart” among many other writings.
  • The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race (2017) by Jesmyn Ward – collection of essays for our day from the perspective of a younger, rising author.
  • “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” (1988) article by Peggy McIntosh likens the founding privileges upon which American institutions are built to an “invisible package of unearned assets” and unpacks those assets in terms of power, identity and self-image. http://www.nymbp.org/uploads/2/6/6/0/26609299/whiteprivilege.pdf

Books for children ages 3-5

  • Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice (2018) by Marianne Celane, Marietta Collins, & Ann Hazzard
  • The Naming Jar (2001) by Yangsook Choi
  • The Youngest Marcher (2017) by Cynthia Levinson
  • We’ve Got Jobs: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March (2012) by Cynthia Levinson
  • A Different Pond (2017) by Bao Phi
  • The World Needs More Purple People (2020)  by Kristen Bell and Benjamin Hart
  • Everybody’s Welcome (2018) by Patricia Hegarty

Books for older children

  • They Called Us Enemy (2019) by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scoot, & Harmony Becker
  • Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama (2005) by Diane C. Fujino
  • Myth of Model Minority: Asian American Facing Racism, Second Edition (2015) by Rosalins S. Chou & Joe R. Feagin
  • A Stranger from a Different Shore, Updated and Revised Edition (1998) by Ronald Takaki
  • Blackballed: The Black Vote & US Democracy (2014) by Darryl Pinckney

Recommended movies

  • Just Mercy – available to stream for free on Amazon through June 2020 – based on the book by Brian Stevenson and the founding of the Innocence Project, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton
  • 13th  – in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it revels the nation’s history with racial inequality, directed by Ava Duvernay 
  • Selma – based on the 1965 Selmato Montgomery voting rights marches initiated and directed by James Bevel and led by Martin Luther King Jr., Hosea Williams, and John Lewis, directed by Ava Duvernay
  • When They See Us – account of the Central Park Five, directed by Ava Duvernay

Video Resources

Recommended by members of color at BHPC for wider understanding

Audio and Podcast Resources

Resources for Parents

Resources for Educators

Website Resources