Racial Justice Books & DVDs

Racial and Economic Justice Books

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.  Michelle Alexander. ©2010
Although Jim Crow laws have been wiped off the books, an astounding percentage of the African American community remains trapped in a subordinate status - much like their grandparents before them.  Alexander provocatively argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it.

Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age.  Juana Bordas.  ©2007
As the world becomes flatter and globalization creates a world village, it is imperative that leaders have the cultural flexibility and adaptability to inspire and guide people from very distinct backgrounds that represents the whole rainbow of humanity. This book puts forth a multicultural leadership model that integrates eight practices from African American, Indian and Latino communities, and offers leaders new approaches that will increase their interpersonal effectiveness with diverse populations.

United By Faith: The Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race.  Curtiss Paul DeYoung, Michael O. Emerson, George Yancey, Karen Chai Kim.  ©2003.
Establishes the moral and ethical basis for multiracial churches with the truly prophetic assertion that to be the church of Jesus Christ, the American church needs a multiracial movement.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. Barbara Ehrenreich. ©2001.
Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages, and one day Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 to $7 an hour?  This book is changing the way America perceives its working poor.

**Living with Racism: The Black Middle-Class Experience.  Joe R. Feagin, Melvin P. Sikes. ©1995. Based on the sometimes harrowing testimony of more than 200 Black respondents, this groundbreaking study exposes the depth and relentlessness of the racism that middle-class African Americans confront every day.

Welcoming Resistance.  William Chris Hobgood.  ©2001
An extremely wise and helpful guide to understanding the resistance that almost inevitably arises when change is proposed. Hobgood makes an important contribution to discussion about congregational dynamics because he recognizes not only the dysfunctional characteristics of resistance but the positive functions as well; and he lays out a constructive strategy for responding to resistance.

**On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-first Century.  Sherrilyn A. Ifill.  ©2008
Nearly 5,000 black Americans were lynched between 1890 and 1960. Over forty years later, On the Courthouse Lawn examines the numerous ways that this racial trauma still resounds across the United States. While the lynchings and their immediate aftermath were devastating, the little-known contemporary consequences, such as the marginalization of political and economic development for black Americans, are equally pernicious.

Power, Privilege, and Difference.  Allan Johnson.  ©2001
This is a groundbreaking tool to examine systems of privilege and difference in our society. Written in an accessible, conversational style, Johnson links theory with engaging examples in ways that enable readers to see the underlying nature and consequences of privilege and their connection to it. 

*Encounters – poems about race, ethnicity and identity.  Paula Cole Jones. ©2011
Cole Jones selects poets, hailing from a wide range of backgrounds that examine themes of race, ethnicity and identity.  These poems offer inspiration, clarity, and consideration through personal experience and observation.

**All Labor Has Dignity.  Martin Luther King, Jr. ©2011
People forget that Dr. King was every bit as committed to economic justice as he was to ending racial segregation.  Award-winning historian Michael Honey traces King's economic dream.

** Stride Toward Freedom: the Montgomery Story.  Martin Luther King, Jr. ©2010
An account of the first successful large-scale application of nonviolence resistance in America is comprehensive, revelatory, and intimate. It traces the phenomenal journey of a community, and shows how the twenty-eight-year-old Dr. King, with his conviction for equality and nonviolence, helped transformed the nation-and the world.

**Trumpet of Conscience.  Martin Luther King, Jr. ©2010
MKL’s final statements on racism, poverty, war, and the civil rights movement.

**Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?  Martin Luther King, Jr. ©2010
In this prophetic work, which has been unavailable for more than ten years, Martin Luther King, Jr. out his thoughts, plans, and dreams for America's future, including the need for better jobs, higher wages, decent housing, and quality education.

**Why We Can’t Wait.  Martin Luther King, Jr. ©2011
Often applauded as King's most incisive and eloquent book, Why We Can't Wait recounts the Birmingham campaign in vivid detail, while underscoring why 1963 was such a crucial year for the civil rights movement.

Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice.  Paul Kivel.  ©1996
Uprooting Racism talks about racism without rhetoric or attack. Speaking as a white to fellow whites, Kivel shares stories, suggestions, advice, exercises and approaches for working together to fight racism.

The Power of Stories: A Guide for Leading Multi-Racial, Multi-Cultural Congregations.  Jacqueline J. Lewis.  ©2008
Practical, realistic, and inspirational examples of congregational leaders who have successfully met the challenges of leading multicultural congregations to become unified communities through the power of storytelling.  Lewis uncovers the essential competencies required to lead on the emergent religious border.

Dancing on Live Embers.  Tina Lopes, Barbara Thomas.  ©2006
Investigates how racism, White power, and privilege operate in the ordinary moments of organizational life, holds up familiar workplace interactions for scrutiny, and looks for openings to advance racial equity and justice. Through stories, it offers concrete examples of racial justice work by a range of experienced activists. This is a hands-on book for people who are trying to create more equitable organizations.

White by Law.  Ian F. Haney López.  ©1996
This remains the definitive work on how American law constructed a 'white' race at the turn of the twentieth century. López has added a chapter to the new edition, a sobering analysis of how, in our own time, 'colorblind' law and policy threaten to perpetuate, not eliminate, racial inequality.

**The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America.  Katherine Newman, Victor tan Chen.  ©2008
While government programs help the needy and politicians woo the more fortunate, the "Missing Class" is largely invisible and ignored. Through the experiences of nine families, Katherine Newman and Victor Tan Chen trace the unique problems faced by individuals in this large and growing demographic-the "near poor."

Class Matters.  The New York Times.  ©2005
The topography of class in America has shifted over the past twenty years, blurring the lines between upper, middle and lower classes.  While the 14 pieces in this volume (all originally printed as part of a New York Times series) shed light on a different aspect of class, they all agree that it remains an important facet of contemporary American culture and draw their strength by examining class less through argument than through storytelling.

The Anti-Racist Cookbook – A Recipe Guide for Conversations About Race That Goes Beyond Covered Dishes and “Kum-Bah-Ya”.  Robin Parker and Pamela Smith Chambers.  ©2005
Many Americans are distressed by race but few know how to talk about it. This book tells how. Dialogue begins the path to racial reconciliation. The Anti-Racist Cookbook gives straight-forward advice on forming dialogue groups. From whom to invite and how to arrange the room to how to facilitate and what questions to discuss, everything is here. Recommended for anyone interested in answering the question "What can we do and how can we do it?"

The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Divide.  Barbara Robles, Betsy Leondar-Wright  ©2006
For every dollar owned by the average white family in the United States, the average family of color has less than a dime. Why do people of color have so little wealth? The Color of Wealth lays bare a dirty secret: for centuries, people of color have been barred by laws and by discrimination from participating in government wealth-building programs that benefit white Americans.

The Hispanic Condition: The Power of the People. Ilan Stavans ©2001
In this subtle and insightful meditation on Hispanic society in the United States, Stavans uses a pioneering psycho-historical profile to delve into the cultural differences and similarities among the five major Hispanic groups: Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Central and South Americans, and Spaniards.

**Bridging the Class Divide: And Other Lessons for Grassroots Organizing.  Linda Stout. ©1997
A practical and inspirational guide to overcoming barriers of class and race. Again and again social change movements--on matters from the environment to women's rights--have been run by middle-class leaders. But in order to make real progress toward economic and social change, poor people--those most affected by social problems--must be the ones to speak up and lead. It can be done.

A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America.  Ronald Takaki.  ©1993.
A dramatic new retelling of our nation's past. Beginning with the colonization of the New World, it recounts the history of America in the voice of the non-Anglo peoples of the United States--Native Americans, African Americans, Jews, Irish Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and others--groups who helped create this country's rich mosaic culture.

**Can We Talk About Race? And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation.  Beverly Daniel Tatum.  ©2007
What Tatum seeks to do above all is trigger sometimes challenging discussions about race, and infuse those discussions with a reality-based focus on how race affects us all. She does that beautifully, asking tough questions, and patiently, inclusively seeking answers.

“Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” -A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity.  Beverly Daniel Tatum.  ©1997
Walk into any racially mixed high school and you’ll see black youth seated together in the cafeteria. Of course, it's not just the black kids sitting together-the white, Latino, Asian Pacific, and, in some regions, American Indian youth are clustered in their own groups, too. The same phenomenon is noticeable in college dining halls, faculty lounges, and corporate cafeterias. What is going on here?  Tatum presents strong evidence that straight talk about our racial identities-whatever they may be-is essential if we are serious about facilitating communication across racial and ethnic divides.

After the Storm: Black Intellectuals Explore the Meaning of Hurricane Katrina. David Dante Troutt, Derrick Bell, Charles J. Ogletree, and others. ©2006
These 10 original, judiciously edited essays-most of them by lawyers-explore the political and social response to Hurricane Katrina. 

**Race Matters.  Cornell West. ©2001
A collection of eight cogent and profoundly moral essays on American race relations.

White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son.  Tim Wise.  ©2007
Racial privilege shapes the lives of white Americans in every facet of life, from employment and education to housing and criminal justice. Using stories from his own life, Tim Wise shows that racism not only burdens people of color, but also benefits those who are "white like him" — whether or not they’re actively racist. Wise weaves a compelling narrative to assess the magnitude of racial privilege and is at once readable and scholarly, analytical yet accessible.

A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present. Howard Zinn.  ©1980
Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People's History is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of -- and in the words of -- America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers.

Book list for printing (page one is UU books only).

*Published by Skinner House Books - www.uua.org/publications/skinnerhouse
**Published by Beacon Press - www.beacon.org

At this time for information regarding DVDs please contact:
Alex Kapitan, Congregational Justice Administrator
Multicultural Growth and Witness, Unitarian Universalist Association
(617) 948-6461     email: akapitan [at] uua [dot] org

JPD Racial Justice Contact: districtstrategy [at] gmail [dot] com