Resources for Ministry on Racism
The SEYM Committee for Ministry on Racism recommends these resources for Friends, Meetings, and Worship Groups to deepen our understanding of racism, discrimination, bias and inequality in their many forms, and to help us work for the equality, inclusiveness, and love that build Blessed Community. This list is not exhaustive, but rather contains some favorites–current, old and new—of our committee members.
Resources for Ministry on Racism pdf>
Online
Friends Journal
- March 2017 issue, Race and Anti-Racism
- October 2014 issue: Experiences of Friends of Color
- October 2003 issue: Diversity Among Friends. (Available in FJ Archives with subscription).
Eileen Flanagan’s blog: Spirituality for Troubled Times
seymquakers.org: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, Peggy McIntosh.
Documentaries & Films
I Am Not Your Negro. Director, Raoul Peck, 2016. Based on James Baldwin’s unfinished book, Remember This House. Available on YouTube>
13TH. Filmmaker, Ava Duvernay, 2016. A powerful look at how the modern-day prison system links to enslavement. Available on Netflix>
BlacKkKlansman. Filmmaker, Spike Lee, 2018. True story of the first African American to serve on the Colorado Springs Police Department. See trailer>
In Print
Living Our Testimony on Equality: A White Friend’s Experience, Patience A. Schenck. Pendle Hill Pamphlet 415, 2011: Contains queries and bibliography. SEYM committed to reading this pamphlet in 2015
Black Fire: African American Quakers on Spirituality and Human Rights, Harold Weaver Jr., Paul Kriese, Steven W. Angell and Emma Lapsansky. 2011. Available at FGC Quakerbooks>
Books by Jawanza Kunjufu
Books by bell hooks
Cathedrals of the Spirit, The Messages of Sacred Places, T. C. McLuhan. 1996
Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir, Jean Guerrero. 2018. Author of Puerto Rican/Mexican background. Very current border issues.
Deep Denial: The Persistence of White Supremacy in United States History and Life, David Billings, 2016. Recommended reading by New York Yearly Meeting, 2017
Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship: Quakers, African Americans, and the Myth of Racial Justice, Donna McDaniel and Vanessa Julye. Available at FGC Quakerbooks>
I Dream a World – Portraits of African American Women who Changed America, Brian Lanker. 1989
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America, James Forman Jr. 2017. Winner of 2018 Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction.
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, Langston Hughes. Arnold Rampersad, Ed. 1995
The Debtors. Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation. 2005 (CURE, headquartered in Red Oak, Georgia)
The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander.
The Third Reconstruction: How A Moral Movement Is Overcoming the Politics Of Division and Fear, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II. 2016. Revival Of The Poor People’s Campaign.
Touch the Earth: A Self-Portrait of Indian Existence, T.C. McLuhan. 1971
Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race. Debbie Irving. 2016. Good discussion questions at the end of each chapter.
When I was Puerto Rican. Esmeralda Santiago, 1993. Memoir. “Oldie-but-goodie,” Minerva Glidden.
When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir, Patrice khan-cullors and asha bandel. 2017.
Whereas, Layli Long Soldier, Oglala Lakota poet, 2017. “… debut collection ‘Whereas’, a piercing rejoinder to the US Congressional resolution of apology to Native Americans, claimed the night’s book of the year prize, the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award…” Native Lit. and Culture, Feb. 23, 2018
White Awareness: Handbook for Anti-Racism Training, Judith Katz. 2003
Quaker Organizations
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
- Quaker Network to End Mass Incarceration
- AFSC’s Ending Racism page>
- Study Guide for groups reading The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.
- Acting in Faith connects Quaker Meetings to the work of AFSC. They have several posts on Undoing Racism >
Friends General Conference (FGC): Resources to Help Your Meeting Challenge Racism>
Other Organizations
Campaign to End the New Jim Crow: a project of the Riverside Church Prison Ministry and the American Friends Service Committee (NY) is a national coalition of organizations and individuals committed to ending mass incarceration and the collateral consequences coined the New Jim Crow.