Racial Justice Resources

• Prayerfully reflect on and discuss the issue of racism, including its individual and societal manifestations, by utilizing key resources such as:
  • USCCB Backgrounder on Racism
  • USCCB Special Task Force to Promote Peace in Our Communities: Report and Recommendations (2016) and U.S. Bishops Establish New Ad Hoc Committee on Racism (2017)
  • U.S. Bishops' Pastoral Letter on Racism, Brothers and Sisters to Us
  • Additional resources are at USCCB.org/Racism

• Advocate for police brutality accountability. Campaign Zero is a great place to learn more about legislative issues. U.S. Representative Justin Amash, a conservative independent from Michigan, won support from a Minneapolis Democrat on Monday for his “Ending Qualified Immunity Act.”

• The National Bail Fund Network has a full directory of bail funds by state, and ActBlue has also set up a secure donation link that will let you simultaneously send money to up to 37 nationwide bail funds.

• Support a black-led social justice organization.

• Join SURJ DC, a chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), a national network of groups and individuals organizing white people for racial justice. Members of the HT Migrant Team have been collaborating with SURG on immigration issues. We can do more.

• Participate in the Washington Interfaith Network Freedom School Fridays. In the spirit of Freedom Schools during the Civil Rights Movement, the WIN Freedom School Fridays, offer a deep public inquiry in the form of weekly one-hour sessions at 12pm.

• If you have the desire to join a protest, be safe. Wear a mask, bring hand sanitizer, and water. Don’t feel safe protesting? Drop off a supply of water and snacks.

• In December of 2018, Dr. Marsha Chatelain spoke at Holy Trinity as part of the Toolbox for Justice series. I had the benefit of attending, and the experience was challenging and transformative. If you missed it or even if you attended, it is worth revisiting the video.

• Talk to your children about racism:
  • Guidelines for parents
  • Listen to Kojo For Kids: Young Adult author Jason Reynolds Talks About Racism and the Protests
  • 31 Children’s Books to Support Conversations on race, racism and resistance

• Anti-Racism Resources

• Further suggestions for books, movies and more

• Justice in June curriculum (choose 10, 25, or 45 minutes per day)

Articles

• After George Floyd’s Suffocation: A Litany for Oxygen From a Black Jesuit by Patrick Saint-Jean, S.J.

• To fight racism, Catholics must hunger for justice like we do for the Eucharist America Magazine

• How Can Catholics Help Lead the Fight Against Racism by Olga Segura. Fr. John of the Church of Saint Francis Xavier New York also shared a powerful homily yesterday (begins at 27:21).

• The Assumptions of White Privilege and What We Can Do About It by Fr Bryan N. Massingale, professor theology at Fordham University

Books

• How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Uluo

• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo

• Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi

• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

• Raising White Kids by Kennifer Harvey

• Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

• The Next American Revolution by Grace Lee Boggs 

• 13th, directed by Ava DuVernay

• Just Mercy, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton

• Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap

• When They See Us Now

• LA 92

• BlacKkKlansman, directed by Spike Lee

• The Hate U Give, directed by George Tillman, Jr.

• Dear White People