Injustice Resources

UPDATED JULY 17 – Resources on racial and social injustice, including websites, books, videos, articles and movies. Note: some articles from before June 29 have been archived to Injustice Articles – Archive.

Resources for Empathy, Understanding, and Compassion

When COVID-19 was starting to affect our lives in March, Mary and I published a number of blog posts with resources and Bible studies to help disciples cope with the disruption that it brought to our lives. With the growing response to social and racial injustice that has been systemic in American history and society, we’re focusing now on providing resources to help us better understand, communicate, empathize and have compassion for one another.

Below are a few categories of resources: websites, a book list, videos, articles and movie suggestions. We’d like to make this a living document with updates as we find more information – if you have suggestions, please contact us or add a comment (at the bottom of the page).

Our prayer is that the church will grow in love and unity to be able to help others in our broken world to find the only hope we have for a solution to all of these issues: the gospel, the good news of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.

Websites

A number of great resources are available on websites from our fellowship of churches. Here’s a few to get started:

• DisciplesToday.org has a page devoted to commentary on current issues like race and injustice, among other topics. NEW – A Biblical Response to Racism – an article by Wayne Antione, a professional counselor in the NYC church.
• NEW – since my initial post of these resources, the Greater Baltimore church has posted an excellent set of resources on God, Grace and Race. Many of the video and article references below are included.
• NEW – A letter from the elders of the Hampton Roads Church was read to the congregation at services between July 1 and July 5 – see it read here.
• NEW – the New York City church has posted videos with teaching on Biblical Justice.

Books

I recently finished reading “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism” by Robin DiAngelo. I heard it recommended a few times and purchased the Kindle version after it was mentioned by a speaker on the ICOC Leadership Diversity training meeting (6/6). I’m currently reading So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. (Links are to Amazon and are not affiliation links). I posted some initial thoughts on Defining Racism based on three criteria mentioned in the book for determining with something is about race.

I also plan to read Michael Burn’s book “Crossing the Line: Culture, Race and Kingdom”. Michael is on the ministry staff of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Church of Christ and is a member of the ICOC Social, Cultural, Unity and Diversity (SCUAD) team. He has spoken on racism at many ICOC churches and events.

The Virginia Beach Public Library maintains a list of books on Racism and Advocacy. The page contains links to lists for adults, teens and youth. The Virginia Beach schools also has a list of recommended books.

Here is an article on “16 Books By Black Authors Everyone Should Read” – it includes both non-fiction and fiction.

If you’ve read a book on racism, white privilege, injustice or other related topics, please leave a comment below with the title and a few sentences on how it impacted you, or contact us to discuss it.

Videos

There are some great resources available via video to become more educated on issues of race and injustice. Here are some recommendations:

• Two recent sermons by Ed Anton and Tony Millett in the Hampton Roads church addressed our unity and how to deal with our feelings in a godly way.
• Chip Mitchell, lead evangelist of the Greater Philadelphia church (and my former mentor/leader too many years ago in the Worcester, MA church) recently recorded a great message.
• Scott Davis, lead evangelist in the Greater Baltimore church, recommended this list of videos that they used when addressing issues after the unrest in Baltimore in 2015:
  • White Privilege
  • Let’s Get to the Root of Racial Injustice
  • White Privilege and Empathy
  • Systemic Racism Explained
  • Allegories on race and racism (Dr Camara Jones) 
• Michael Burns recorded a lesson on Crossing the Line.
• The ICOC Diversity Committee hosted a Unity Devotional.
• The Bible Project offers this look at Justice (glad I’m not married to a praying mantis 🙂 ).
• Defining Social Justice by Dr. Voddie Baucham – I ran across this video by chance (it was next up after the Bible Project one above when I played that one). I don’t know Dr. Baucham’s background or what the occasion was, but he explains the difference between God’s definition of justice and the world’s definition of social justice – very thought provoking.
• Robin DeAngelo discusses her book “White Fragility”, and a shorter talk on Deconstructing White Privilege, and an even shorter video on Debunking Myths White People Tell About Race.
• NEW – From Google Talks, Ijeoma Oluo reads from her book “So you want to talk about race” and talks about race issues
• Have you seen any other videos that help with understanding injustice from a Biblical perspective? Please leave a comment and mention how the video impacted you.

Articles

Note – I’ve moved some of the older archives to another post – the links below are from articles added since June 29. Those posted since July 1 are marked NEW.

• NEW – Fatal Encounters: One man is tracking every officer-involved killing in the U.S. – the total number is actually very small, but important because these deaths “symbolize systemic racism”.
• NEW – How Racial Inequality Manifests In The U.S. Banking System – the problem of shrinking numbers of Black-owned banks.
• NEW – The Backstory: There is more to the Frederick Douglass story. Her name is Anna Murray Douglass. – the story of the woman behind the successful abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and how her sacrifices enabled his important work.
• NEW – Three Words. 70 Cases. The Tragic History of ‘I Can’t Breathe.’ New York Times essay on the history of “I Can’t Breathe” and the counter-response of “If you can talk, you can breathe”.
• NEW – Here’s What You Need to Know About Elijah McClain’s Death – the story of how Elijah McClain was arrested last summer, held in a chokehold, and died on the way to the hospital – very similar to George Floyd’s death.
• NEW – The problem with the ‘Hamilton’ movie – an opinion article on CNN about the contradictory message of #HamilFilm, including Black actors portraying historic slaveowner founders of our country, and the parts of Alexander Hamilton’s story that weren’t part of the popular Broadway hit.
• NEW – Jack Johnson: The Black boxer who sparked race riots after world heavyweight win – the amazing story of Jack Johnson, from 110 years ago.
• NEW – Jonathan Irons, Helped by W.N.B.A. Star Maya Moore, Freed From Prison – Maya saw injustice while serving with a prison ministry, and took action.
• NEW – Here Are The Shows—From ‘The Simpsons’ To ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’—Making Big Changes In Wake Of Anti-Racism Movement – White actors asking for Black actors to voice Black characters in animated movies and TV shows.
• NEW – ‘Two Black guys were walking around my property …’ – so began my own journey of self-revelation – a story on realizing social prejudices
• NEW – Dear White People: Here Are 10 Actions You Can Take To Promote Racial Justice In The Workplace – some interesting and reasonable ways White people can take action – who will join me in attempting to do all 10?
• The Black Lives Matter Protests Have Taught Us More About The Coronavirus – interesting analysis of why the recent protests don’t seem to have added to coronavirus case numbers.
• The Lost Cause’s Long Legacy – Ever wonder why so many military bases are named after Confederate generals? It has a strong connection to racism and white supremacy movements in America.
• See Injustice Articles – Archive for links to other articles.

Movies

• Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, HBO, major networks and movie studios are making movies related to social injustice available for streaming free of charge in support of Black Lives Matter – log in to your favorite site for more information.
• CNN posted about the sudden popularity of the movie “The Help” and how it and some other popular movies like “The Legend of Bagger Vance” and “Green Book” are not good representations of Black lives and history in America since the stories are told from a White viewpoint. Bryce Howard, a white actess from “The Help” offered a list of movies that may be more helpful (see what I did there 😉 ). Note that some of these movies are rated R or TV-MA, may have disturbing images, and that we haven’t screened them or know details about thir content:
  • 13th ⁣(Tom watched part of this so far – has some disturbing content and rated TV-MA, but it’s a thought-provoking documentary on use of the criminal justice system to oppress Black Americans.)
  • Eyes on the Prize⁣
  • I am Not Your Negro⁣
  • Just Mercy⁣
  • Malcom X⁣
  • Say Her Name: The Life And Death Of Sandra Bland⁣
  • Selma⁣ (Mary recently watched this and recommends it. Update: Tom was able to watch this and also recommends it.)
  • Watchmen⁣
  • When They See Us ⁣
• One quick comment: some movies from before the Civil RIghts movement in the 1960’s are being pulled from streaming services, for example “Gone With The Wind” from HBO Max and “Song of the South” from DisneyPlus. There are undeniable racist references in these and other movies from that era. HBO Max has stated that the move is temporary and that they plan to “recontextualize” the movie by adding commentary with assistance from TCM (Turner Classic Movies), who have been doing this with classic movies for many years.

Next Steps

At our Tidewater Midweek Prayer Vigil on June 3rd, Mary and I shared about compassion (the text of our message is here). Compassion means to “suffer with” and calls us to take action. One of the actions Mary and I are taking is to have more discussions with others about how the current situation is affecting their awareness and feelings. We’ve talked with some about past hurts, tensions in current relationships over injustice issues, and many other topics. If you’d like to share your feelings and perspectives, please contacts us and we’ll set up a time to talk.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8 (New International Version – NIV)