Racial Justice Resources

Consult the list below for continued education on how we can build an antiracist world. Plus—for more in-depth analysis and a great way to support Middle as we rise—click here to purchase and watch Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis’ acclaimed antiracism seminars.

Stop APPI Hate Racism is public desecration. God loves Asian and Pacific Islander people, and weeps at rising anti-Asian violence: Each racist attack tears what God created, blessed and named good. We must name and uproot this evil. 

Reckoning With Violence
Michelle Alexander at The New York Times, March 3, 2019 — We must face violent crime honestly and courageously if we are ever to end mass incarceration and provide survivors what they truly want and need to heal.

Black Women’s Faith, Black Women’s Flourishing
Eboni Marshall Turman at The Christian Century, February 28, 2019 — Womanist theology proclaims a future beyond the strongholds of racism, sexism, and injustice.

E Pluribus Unum: Why Visible Diversity Is Many, Not Just One
Karmen M. Smith at Blavity, February 21, 2019 — “… if culture is a mirror, it’s time we removed the blindspots that are keeping SGL Black and brown men from being seen in leadership.”

Blackface Is Just One Part of the Problem
Jamil Smith at Rolling Stone, February 4, 2019 — The furor over Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s yearbook photo has America once again asking the wrong questions about racism.

Power & Heart: Black and Buddhist in America
Ruth King, Gina Sharpe, Myokei Caine-Barrett, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Kamilah Majied, Pamela Ayo Yetunde, Konda Mason, Gretchen Rohr, Venerable Pannavati, Lama Rod Owens, Ralph Steele, Jozen Tamori Gibson, and Chimyo Atkinson at Lion’s Roar, January 30, 2019

How the Poor People’s Campaign Is Building a ‘New Electorate’
Greg Kaufmann at The Nation, January 21, 2019 — A conversation with Reverend Liz Theoharis on the campaign’s broad agenda for 2019.

The Heresy of White Christianity
Chris Hedges at Truthdig, December 10, 2018  — “Christianity is essentially a religion of liberation,” Cone writes. “The function of theology is that of analyzing the meaning of that liberation for the oppressed community so they can know that their struggle for political, social, and economic justice is consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We Know the Love of God/Conocemos el amor de Dios: A Reflection On the Trans Day of Remembrance
Davíd E. Patiño and the Transgender Seminarian Cohort, November 19, 2018  — As trans people, we know the love of God. We feel it in our bones, in the very skin that lines our bodies, in the very nature of who we are. God is that voice within us that shows us the way to authenticity, to self-love, and to community.

Liberative Inculturation: Making Christianity Relevant in Urban Contexts
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis at Sacrum Testamentum, Vol. 1: Black Reflections on Christian Studies, October 2018 — As a womanist theologian, I rarely write without locating myself in context. I’m a Universalist Christian, a babyboomer born in 1959, an African-American clergy who is the senior minister in charge of a revolutionary congregation in the East Village of Manhattan. We are Black, White, Asian, and Latinx.

Why Jews Should Support Reparations for Slavery
Rabbi Sharon Brous at Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2018  — There is 2,000-year-old rabbinic dispute over what ought to be done if a palace is built on the foundation of a stolen beam. One rabbi, Shammai, argues that the whole structure must be torn down, the beam retrieved …

What Will We Do? A Faithful Response To Poverty In Advent
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis at HuffPost Religion, November 27, 2017  — Did you ever have one of those bracelets that said “What Would Jesus Do?” Maybe a bumper sticker? Did you get the T-shirt ― WWJD? This was all the rage in the 1990s. In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do?, a novel written by Charles Sheldon in 1896, grew out of sermons he preached about imitating Christ.

We Need To Talk: The Link Between Sexual Violence And Gun Violence
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, Rabbi Sharon Brous, and Valarie Kaur at HuffPost Religion, November 6, 2017 — As we mourn the loss of the twenty-six souls murdered in cold blood; as we pray for the 20 recovering from gun-shot wounds, 10 in critical condition, we are outraged at the circumstances. A man dishonorably discharged from the military for abusing his wife and child; …

In Case Of Emergency: Revolutionary Love
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis at HuffPost Religion, September 12, 2017 — “Mom, this is Welles. I want you to know that I am OK.” This is the calm voicemail that Welles Remy Crowther, an equity trader, left for his mother Alison after the South Tower of the World Trade Center was struck …

DACA, Harvey, and Charlottesville: This Is An Emergency
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis at HuffPost Religion, September 8, 2017 — I was just up on a mountaintop in New Mexico for a few days at an event called WIDEN. With five dozen young adults and five elders—my husband and I among them—we listened as Father Richard Rohr helped us imagine …

Confronting #WhiteSupremacy With #RevolutionaryLove
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis at HuffPost Religion, August 13, 2017 — I am horrified at the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. And I pray for the families of the two police officers who died on their way to help. I also pray for the family of Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old paralegal who was killed by a 20-year-old white supremacist, a terrorist whose name I will not speak, …

Deep Solidarity: Beyond Charity and Advocacy
Joerg Rieger at HuffPost Religion, February 19, 2017 — While charitable giving is widely appreciated, it is neither the only nor the most faithful response to the problems of the world. To put it bluntly: Jesus preached good news to the poor and freedom to the oppressed rather than charity.

An Open Letter to Christians
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis at HuffPost Religion, March 9, 2017 — Dear Christians Who Voted for Trump, I was on strike March 8, participating in #ADayWithoutAWoman. Yet I am tired today, because this is what keeps me up at night: Does this administration seem Christian to you?

Being Church in the Trump Era
Brian McLaren on YouTube, February 21, 2017
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfMtENFtHxk
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnKXnFqCHsk

A Spirituality for Hot Mess Times
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis at HuffPost Religion, February 15, 2017 — I’m not a yoga, sit-on-a-mat cross-legged kind of gal. I want to be; I’m just not. And because I am not, I tell myself that I am not a mystic. I like mystics, some of my best friends are mystics. I admire them! Me?

Race, Money and Politics: Connecting Some Dots
Rev. John Janka at MiddleProject.org, April 6, 2016 — Race-based bigotry and violence has been a festering wound now exposed to the light of day by a series of deaths resulting from police action against people of color. One may understandably wonder, did the civil rights movement of the ’50s and ’60s really change anything?

Where Are the White Churches?
Rev. John Janka at MiddleProject.org, March 5, 2016 — During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s numerous Black clergy, including Martin Luther King, Jr. appealed to the white church for support and active engagement. The movement hoped for financial, political and moral support from the white church. Much of the white church responded with either silence or outright disdain that King and other leaders were threatening the status quo.

Hope in the Unexpected Common Ground: Moving Past Hatred
Rev. Dr. Katharine Henderson at Patheos, October 13, 2015 — Last week, when my colleagues and I learned of the shooting at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College, there was an emotion that none of us expressed. Yes, we expressed our grief, outrage, sadness, and frustration over yet another mass shooting that is one of nearly 300 that have occurred across our country since January …

Being Brown While Black Lives Matter
Rev. Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre at Our Lucha, August 29, 2015 — Yes – black lives matter. But for centuries they haven’t. Killing black folk was considered sport, as documented by early twentieth century souvenir postcards of lynchings, where good Christians looked into the camera as that “strange fruit” swung from the trees behind them. The police, with a history to “protect and serve” …

Profiling Act
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis at HuffPost Religion, August 10, 2015 — When Mike Brown was killed one year ago, in the midst of tears and grief we prayed with our hands up, as tempers flared and fires burned. When we saw Eric Garner die on camera, it took our breath away. When Sandy Bland died in custody, we saw the lethal consequences of racism behind bars.

I Am Black, and Black Lives Matter
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis at HuffPost Religion, August 10, 2015 — There was a sense of urgency in this call. I was on the phone with a multiracial group of faith leaders—Christians, Muslims, Jews, Unitarian Universalists—strategizing about what to do about the Black churches burning in the south.

I Am Muslim and I Am Black Lives Matter
Linda Sarsour at HuffPost Religion, July 16, 2015 — Black lives don’t matter. We need to own that as the current reality for millions of Black Americans. Every 28 hours a police officer, security guard, or Zimmerman-type vigilante kills a Black person, most of who are unarmed. Black children can be kicked out of pools and physically harassed by police while their white counterparts watch.

More Articles

The Economics of Racial Equity in the Church, by Curtiss Paul DeYoung, 2021

Stop Blaming History for Your All-White, All-Male Movie by Aisha Harris, February 6, 2020

The Fight Over the 1619 Project is Not About Facts by Adam Serwer, December 23, 2019

The Fight to Redefine Racism by Kelefa Sanneh, August 12, 2019

The 1619 Project, August 2019

Reckoning With Violence by Michelle Alexander, March 3, 2019

Black Women’s Faith, Black Women’s Flourishing by Eboni Marshall Turman, February 28, 2019

Blackface Is Just One Part of the Problem by Jamil Smith, February 4, 2019

The Heresy of White Christianity by Chris Hedges, December 10, 2018

Why Jews Should Support Reparations for Slavery by Rabbi Sharon Brous, March 7, 2018

DACA, Harvey, and Charlottesville: This Is An Emergency by Rev. Jacqui Lewis, Ph.D., September 8, 2017

Confronting #WhiteSupremacy With #RevolutionaryLove by Rev. Jacqui Lewis, Ph.D., August 13, 2017

Race, Money and Politics: Connecting Some Dots by Rev. John Janka, April 6, 2016

Being Brown While Black Lives Matter by Rev. Dr. Miguel De La Torre, August 29, 2015

Profiling Act by Rev. Jacqui Lewis, Ph.D., August 10, 2015

I Am Black, and Black Lives Matter by Rev. Jacqui Lewis, Ph.D., August 10, 2015

The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates, June 2014

Letter From Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr., April 16, 1963

Books

America’s Original Sin, Jim Wallis

Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X and Alex Haley

Borderlands, by Gloria Anzaldúa

Beloved, Toni Morrison

Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

Can We Talk About Race?, Beverly Tatum

Citizen, Claudia Rankine

Coming Together in the 21st Century, Curtiss DeYoung

The Cross and the Lynching Tree, James Cone

Dismantling Racism, Joseph Barnett

The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin

How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, Austin Channing Brown

The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander

Race Matters, Cornel West

Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God, Kelly Brown Douglas

The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson

White Rage, Carol Anderson

White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo

 

Art/Film/Television

Purchase Rev. Jacqui’s widely acclaimed racial justice workshops in our online store!

Watch PBS Chapter and Verse series on race. Jacqui Lewis interviews national faith leaders.

Documentary 13th on Netflix

Loving

Moonlight

Selma

Fruitvale Station

Do the Right Thing

If Beale Street Could Talk

Podcasts

Women. Talk. God.

1619 Podcast

The Stoop

The Nod

Hope and Hard Pills

Sermons

400 Years: A Reflection on Liberty by Jacqui Lewis

What’s Love Got to Do with It? by Jacqui Lewis

A Conversation on Race by Traci Blackmon

#StayWoke by Otis Moss III

Holy Blackness: The Matrix of Creation by Wil Gafney

Organizations

Advancement Project

Black Lives Matter

Color of Change

NAACP

SPLC

Standing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)

Live Another Day