Suggested Resources
Compiled by the NUMC Dismantling Racism Team
Updated 1/22/22
Online courses
“You Are Here: First Steps for White Christians on Race and Racism.” The General Commission on Religion and Race offers this four-session curriculum as a first step for white Christians, in particular, who are unsure about what racism is and unclear about its relevance to individuals, the church, and society as a whole. This resource is designed for individuals who are ready to learn about how racism operates, how it affects Christian communities, and how people of faith can recognize and resist racism. https://gcorr.teachable.com/p/youarehere
“Anti-Racism 101: Required Skills for White People Who Want to be Allies.” Also offered by The General Commission on Religion and Race, this three-session course centers on one big idea: that anti-racism is anything that actually interrupts and dismantles racism. As a 101 course, the content will focus on defining anti-racism, identifying anti-racism, and practicing anti-racism by interrupting racism. https://gcorr.teachable.com/p/antiracism101
Books
Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America, by Candacy Taylor, 2020.
In Their Own Words: Slave Life and the Power of Spirituals, by Eileen Guenther, 2016.
I’m Black. I’m Christian. I’m Methodist. Abingdon Press, 2020.
Dear White Christians, by Jennifer Harvey, 2014.
How to Be an Anti-Racist, by Ibram X Kendi, 2019.
Our Hearts Were Strangely Lukewarm: The American Methodist Church and the Struggle with White Supremacy, by John Elford, 2023.
A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota, edited by Sun Yung Shin, 2016. Sixteen of Minnesota’s best writers provide a range of perspectives on what it is like to live as a person of color in Minnesota.
America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege and the Bridge to a New America, by Jim Wallis, 2016.
I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, by Austin Channing Brown, 2018.
Plantations and Death Camps: Religion, Ideology and Human Dignity, by Beverly Eileen Mitchell, 2009.
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, by Isabel Wilkerson, 2011.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander, 2012.
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson, 2020.
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, by Carol Anderson, 2016.
White Fragility, by Robin Diangelo, 2018.
Stamped from the Beginning; The Definitive HIstory of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram X. Kendi, 2016.
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, 2020, Reynolds & Kendi; a reworked, more narrative version of Kendi’s book targeted for youth.
The Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activities to Help You Challenge Privilege, Confront Systemic Racism, and Engage in Collective Healing, by Anneliese A. Singh, 2019.
So You Want to Talk about Race, by Ijeoma Oluo, 2018.
The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas, 2017.
Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson, 2014. Has also been made into a motion picture.
The Blood of Emmett Till, by Timothy Tyson, 2017.
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nahisi Coates, 2015.
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, 2014.
Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance, by Edgar Villanueva, 2018.
Daybreak Woman: An Anglo-Dakota Life, by Jane Lamm Carroll, MN Historical Society, 2020. Biography of an Anglo-Dakota woman who lived some of her very long life (1810-1902) in Southern MN.
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, by David Treuer, 2019.
Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask, by Anton Treuer, 2012.
Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota, by Gwen Westerman & Bruce White, MN Historical Society, 2012.
Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe, by Staci Lola Drouillard, 2019.
Lincoln’s Bishop: A President, a Priest and the Fate of 300 Dakota Sioux Warriors, by Gustav Niebuhr, 2014. A detailed account of Bishop Whipple and his many years of mission work, friendship with, and advocacy for the Dakota and Ojibwe people.
What This Awl Means: Feminist Archaeology at a Wahpeton Dakota Village, by Janet D. Spector, 1993. Helpful in imagining how the Dakota lived and shared tasks in our part of MN in the mid-1800s.
Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God, by Kaitlin B. Curtice, 2020.
Unsettling the Word: Biblical Experiments in Decolonization, edited by Steve Heinrichs, 2019.
Videos/Movies
“Deconstructing White Racism”: One part of the GCRR series, “Vital Conversations on Race.” The speaker is Robin DiAngelo, the author of White Fragility. (20 min)
“White Allyship: What It Means to Be an Antiracist Ally”: Webinar sponsored by GCORR on May 17, 2023. (approx 90 min)
“Spark: A Systemic Racism Story”: Very-current documentary on white supremacy, systemic racism and current opportunities for action. (32 min)
“The Truth about the Confederacy in the United States”: 2017, with ACLU staff members, excellent history of the years from the Civil War’s end to the beginning of WWII. (1¾ hr)
“The African Americans: One More River to Cross”: 2013 PBS series of six episodes about the history of slavery from ancient times through the first black president, narrated by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
“Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools”: Feature-length PBS documentary based on the book by Monique W. Morris, 2018.
“Jim Crow of the North”: 1-hour PBS documentary about the history of racial covenants and redlining in Minneapolis, 2019.
“Descendant”: Feature-length documentary currently streaming on Netflix. Descendants of the enslaved Africans on an illegal ship that arrived in Alabama in 1860 seek justice and healing when the craft's remains are discovered.
“The Forgotten Slavery of Our Ancestors”: 12-minute introduction to the history of Indigenous enslavement, which predated and helped shape the system of African enslavement in New England and lasted through the 19th century in the West. Part of the Teaching Tolerance program of the SPLC.
“13th”: 2016 feature-length documentary by Ava DuVernay that explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation's prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans.
“Firstlight”: 13-minute documentary about the historical practice of removing Native American children from their tribes and an experiment in truth-telling for Wabanaki people and child welfare workers in Maine.
“Rooted in Secrets”: 20-minute news story featuring the history of Marlys Boone, the first Black woman graduate of St. Olaf, as well as interviews with current Black students at the college.
Podcasts
“Seeing White": a 14-part series, ranging in length from 15 - 60 minutes each. Season two of Scene On Radio.
“1619”: a 7-part series based on the New York Times “1619 Project.”
“Reparations: The Big Payback”: Erika Alexander and Whitney Dow use their storytelling skills and experiences to explore the argument for and against reparations for Black Americans, 2021.
“Blindspot: Tulsa Burning”: a 6-part series about the destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District in 1921, one of the worst incidents of racial terror in U.S. history.
“This Land”: award-winning documentary style with two seasons released so far; season one is about the Supreme Court case decided during the summer of 2020 on the status of reservation land in Oklahoma; season two is about the Indian Child Welfare Act.
“Expanding the Table”: a video podcast series from the General Commission on Religion and Race focusing on how individual Christians and church-based entities can and should engage the work of racial justice-making and anti-racism.
“Code Switch”: a weekly NPR podcast that’s been around since 2016, using fearless conversations to explore how race impacts every part of society.
Articles
Related to UMC:
Amid its own racist history, United Methodist Church unites against racism by Cynthia Astle, Baptist News Global, (August 5, 2020)
Conference Backs Replacing Cross and Flame by Sam Hodges, UM Insight [September 22, 2020]
Timeline: Methodism in Black and White
Church History Requires We Discuss Racism, 2012
Overt and Covert Racism: Excellent resource from the General Commission on Religion and Race that identifies and defines such elements of covert racism as “white silence,” “tone policing,” “tokenism” and “meritocracy myths.”
Our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true, by Nikole Hannah-Jones, The 1619 Project, The New York Times (August 14, 2019).
The Injustice of This Moment Is Not an "Aberration." Michelle Alexander contextualizes the current state of racism/white supremacy in the United States as an inevitable outcome of a collective narrative steeped in denial. The New York Times (January 17, 2020)
The Case for Reparations, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic (June 2014)
How White People Got Made, by Quinn Norton, exploring where the term “white people” comes from and which ethnic groups have and have not been able to become “white” over the course of U.S. history, The Message (October 17, 2014)
How COVID-19 Hollowed Out a Generation of Young Black Men, by Akilah Johnson & Nina Martin, ProPublica (December 22, 2020)
Racial Equity as Spiritual Healing, by Naaima Khan, Church Anew[January 7, 2021]
Websites
UMC Dismantling Racism: Around the connection, United Methodists are gathering online and in-person to do the difficult work of dismantling racism. Find an event to attend or watch the video of one that has already occurred.
R-Squared: A project of the UMC General Commission on Religion and Race; videos, study guides, online courses, Bible studies.
Talking About Race: Resources compiled by the Smithsonian
Inheritance: A journalistic project of The Atlantic about American history, Black life, and the resilience of memory.
Why Treaties Matter: an exhibit from the Minnesota Humanities Center
We are Still Here, Minnesota: a network of Native American leaders in education, governance, media and philanthropy working together with allies to identify and deconstruct narratives harmful to Native Americans.
Reclaiming Native Truth: a national effort to create a new understanding of public perceptions and dominant narratives that impact Native peoples within American society.
Other
Westminster Hall Town Forums by Eddie Glaude
9/13/2016 Racism and the Soul of America
ttps://www.westminster forum.org/forum/racism-and-the-soul-of-america/
11/10/2020 James Baldwin’s Lessons on Race in America
https://www.westminsterforum.org/forum/james-baldwins-lessons-on-race-in-america/
Washington National Cathedral Sermons
1/17/2021 The Rev. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
https://cathedral.org/sermons/sermon-the-rev-dr-michael-eric-dyson/
Carleton College Student Presentation
Indigenous Histories at Carleton College, May 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ureZQZDshfM
City of Northfield Presentation about Land Acknowledgement Statements
https://www.ci.northfield.mn.us/1403/Land-Acknowledgement-Statement
Stealing the Earth: The Conquering of Indigenous People, The Role of Christianity, and What Can Bring About Justice
5-part webinar series about the “Doctrine of Discovery” presented by the Methodist Federation for Social Action
https://www.mfsaweb.org/stealing-the-earth