Community Resoures (Links)


COS Anti-Racism/Reconciliation Resources

Church of the Servant has gathered a variety of antiracism resources to help us deepen our analysis of racism and encourage us as we become a congregation that dismantles racism within our church walls and in the community. These resources — movies, books, documentaries, and articles — are housed on a cart located near the welcome counter in the cafe area. You are invited to sign these items out.


Books and Articles


  • Anderson, David A. (2004) Multicultural Ministry, Finding Your Church’s Unique Rhythm. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI (ISBN: 0310251583)
  • Brandt, Joseph. (1991) Dismantling Racism: The Continuing Challenge to White America. AugsburgFortress Publishers (ISBN: 0806625767)
  • Multicultural Dynamics for Spiritual Formation. Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, MI (ISBN: 0801027438)
  • CRCNA. (1996) God’s Diverse and Unified Family
  •  DeYoung, Curtiss, Michael Emerson, George Yancey and Karen Chai Kim. (2003) United By Faith, The Multiracial Congregation as an Answer to the Problem of Race. Oxford University Press (ISBN: 0197177525)
  • Delpit, Lisa. (1995) Other’s People’s Children, Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. The New Press, New York (ISBN: 1565841794)
  • Delany, Sarah and Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth. (1993) Having Our Say, The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years. Dell Publishing, New York, NY (ISBN: 0440220424)
  • Derman-Sparks, Louise, Phillips, Carol Brunson. (1997) Teaching/Learning Anti-Racism, a Developmental Approach. Teachers College Press, Columbia University, NY (ISBN: 0807736376)
  • DeYoung, Curtiss. (1997) Reconciliation: Our Greatest Challenge–Our Only Hope. Judson Press (ISBN: 0817012567)
  • Emerson, Michael and Christian Smith. (2000) Divided By Faith, Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America. Oxford University Press (ISBN: 0195147073)
  • Fredrickson, George M. (2002) Racism: a short history. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ (ISBN: 069100899X)
  • Graves, Joseph L., Jr. (2004) The Race Myth: Why We Pretend Race Exists in America. Plume, a member of Penguin Books, NY, NY (ISBN: 0452286581)
  • Harris, Paul, and Doug Schaupp. (2004) Being White, Finding Our Place in a Multiethnic World. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL (ISBN: 0830832475)
  • Jensen, Robert. (2005) The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege. City Light Publishers, San Francisco (ISBN: 139780872864498)
  • Kozol, Jonathan. (2000) Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation. Perennial/Harper-Collins, NY (ISBN: 0060976977)
  • Kozol, Jonathan. (2005) The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. Crown Publishers, NY (ISBN: 140005440)
  • Law, Eric H. F. (1993) The Wolf Shall Dwell With the Lamb, Spirituality for Leadership in a Multicultural Community. Chalice Press. (ISBN-13: 978082724231X)
  • Lee, Enid, Deborah Menkart and Margo Okazawa-Rey, ed. (2002) Beyond Heroes and Holidays: A Practical Guide to K-12 Anti-Racist, Multicultural Education and Staff Development. Teaching for Change, Washington, DC (ISBN: 1878554174)
  • Lelyveld, Joseph. (2001) How race is lived in America: pulling together, pulling apart. Times Books, New York. (ISBN: 080506740X)
  • Locke, Raymond Friday. (2005) The Book of the Navajo. Mankind Publishing Company, Los Angeles, CA (ISBN: 0876875002)
  • Mulder, Alfred E., ed. (2006) Learning to Count to One. The Joy and Pain of Becoming a Multiracial Church. Faith Alive Christian Resources, Grand Rapids, MI (ISBN: 159255296X)
  • Ortiz, Manuel. (1996) One New People, Models for Developing a Multiethnic Church. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 0830818820)
  • Perkins, Spencer and Chris Rice. (1993) More Than Equals, Racial Healing for the Sake of the Gospel. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL (ISBN: 0830813187)
  • Simon, Rita and Rhonda M. Roorda. (2000) In Their Own Voices, Transracial Adoptees Tell Their Stories. Columbia University Press, NY, NY (ISBN: 0231118295)
  • Takaki, Ronald. (1993) A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Boston: Little Brown and Company. (ISBN:0316831115) Takaki’s approach to history draws from various cultural themes in the American landscape, rather than separate streams of ethnic experience. Using historical sources, Takaki also gives voice to ordinary people through folk songs, poetry and memoir. While sometimes oversimplified, this book provides a good starting place for a serious reader, including excellent bibliographic notes.
  • Tatum, Beverly Daniel. (2003) “Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?” : and other conversations about race. Basic Books, New York (ISBN: 0465083617)
  • Tate, Greg. (2003) Everything But The Burden: What White People Are Taking From Black Culture. Harlem Moon, Broadway Books, Random House (ISBN: 076791497X)
  • Tutu, Desmond. (1999) No Future Without Forgiveness. Doubleday, New York (ISBN: 0385496907)
  • Villafane, Eldin. (2006) Beyond Cheap Grace, A Call to Radical Discipleship, Incarnation and Justice. Eerdmans Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI (ISBN: 080286323-X)
  • Volf, Miroslav. (2005) Free of Charge, Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI (ISBN: 0310265746)
  • Weary, Dolphus. (1997) “I Ain’t Comin’ Back”. Dolphus Weary and the Mendenhall Ministries (ISBN: 0842316094)
  • Woodley, Randy. (2001) Living in Color: Embracing God’s Passion for Ethnic Diversity. InterVarsity Press, Downer’s Grove, IL (ISBN: 0830832556)
  • Wu, Frank, H. (2002). Yellow, Race in America Beyond Black and White. Basic Books, New York (ISBN: 0465006396) Wu draws on all areas of his experience as a journalist, law professor and activist to show how changing ideas of racial identity will affect race relations in the new century. This book addresses issues from discrimination to immigration to globalization, and brings them home in narrative, legal research, history and reporting.
  • Yancey, George. (2006) Beyond Racial Gridlock, Embracing Mutual Responsibility. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL (ISBN-10: 0830833765)
  • Yancey, George. (2003) One Body, One Spirit, Principles of Successful Multiracial Churches. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL (ISBN: 0830832262)
  • George Yancy, ed. (2004) What White Looks Like, African-American Philosophers on the Whiteness Question. Routledge, New York (ISBN: 0415966159)
  • Zinn, Howard. (2001) A People’s History of the United States: 1492 – Present. New York: Harper Collins. (ISBN-13:978-0-06-083865) The book chronicles American history from the bottom up, focusing on the street, the home and the workplace. Hear from America’s women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor and immigrant laborers. Covering Christopher Columbus’s arrival through President Clinton’s first term, A People’s History (American Book Award nominee in 1981 after the first edition was published) reveals the grassroots efforts from which emerged fair wages, an eight-hour workday, child labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women’s rights and racial equality.

Movies

  • Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery. Nearly ten years in the making, this is a 4-part series (6 hours) that exposes truth through surprising revelations, recreations, archival photography and first-person accounts using a wide range of scholarly voices.
  • Black Indians: an American Story. To build the future you must know the past. But what if that past has been hidden, lost or denied? This film brings to light a forgotten part of America’s past – the cultural and racial fusion of Native and African Americans. Narrated by James Earl Jones. 60 minutes. Not rated.
  • Color Adjustment. Marlon Riggs brings his study of prejudice and perception begin in Ethnic Notions into the Television Age and looks at over forty years of race relations through the lens of prime time entertainment. 87 minutes.
  • The Color of Courage. Linda Hamilton and Lynn Whitefield. This movie, based on a true story about Detroit in 1944 and a community taking civil action to evict a family because of their skin color. PG
  • The Complete Blue-Eyed with Jane Elliott. It includes 4 parts: (1.) a 30 minute Blue Eyed, (2.) The Essential, Blue-Eyed, the trainer’s edition, (3.) “Blue Eyed” – the original 93 minute version and (4.) The Trainer’s Manual – suggestions for using Blue Eyed in your diversity training program.
  • Crash. This compelling urban thriller tracks the volatile intersection of a multiethnic cast of characters struggling to overcome their fears as they careen in and out of one another’s lives. In the gray area between black and white, victim and aggressor, during the next 36 hours they will all collide.
  • A Day Without a Mexican. Yareli Arizmendi and John Getz. The California Dream is threatened when all by one Mexican, a TV news reporter, mysteriously disappears. R
  • Cry the Beloved Country. James Earl Jones. The beautiful heart-wrenching story of racial injustice, sorrow and healing in the context of South Africa.
  • Cry Freedom. Denzel Washington and Kevin Kline. The tension and terror of 20th century South Africa is powerfully portrayed in this story of black activist Stephen Biko and a liberal white newpaper editor who risks his own life to bring Biko’s message to the world.
  • Do the Right Thing. A film from Spike Lee. This movie combines humor and drama with memorable characters while tracing the course of a single day on a block in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. It’s the hottest day of the ear, a scorching 24-hour period that will change the lives of its residents forever. Starring Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito and Spike Lee. 1989. R (for language). 2 hours.
  • The Edge of America. When new man in town takes a new job as an English teacher at the Three Nations Reservation in Utah, he finds it difficult to fit in with the close-knit Native American community. By taking on the challenge of coaching the women’s high school basketball team, both the girls and he learn some important things. Starring James McDaniel. 2003. 106 minutes. Rated G.
  • Good Fences. Mabel (Whoppi Goldberg) and Tom (Danny Glover), an African American couple, just moved into an upscale neighborhood and the cost for them is great. R
  • The Long Walk Home. Whoopi Goldberg is Odessa Cotter, a quietly dignified woman, who works as a housekeeper for Miriam Thompson (Sissy Spacek). When Odessa honors the 1955 Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott by walking an exhausting nine miles to and from work, Miriam offers her a ride. 98 Minutes. Rated PG.
  • Race: The Power of an Illusion. This documentary series challenges one of our most fundamental belief: that humans come divided into a few distinct biological groups. This definitive three-part series is an eye-opening tale of how what we assume to be normal, commonsense, even scientific, is actually shaped by our history, social institutions and cultural beliefs. Produced by California Newsreel 2003.
  • Rabbit Proof Fence. Everlyn Sami, Tianna Sansbury, Laura Monaghan and Kenneth Branagh. At a time when it was the Australian Government policy to train aboriginal children as domestic workers and integrate them into white society, young Molly Craig decides to lead her little sister and cousin in a daring escape from their internment camp. PG
  • A Time for Burning. A documentary that examines a white middle class congregation in the mid 1960’s in Omaha, Nebraska. It looks at prejudice, hypocrisy and racism and forces us to ask ourselves, “What time is it now?” 58 minutes.
  • The Trail of Tears: Cherokee Legacy. A documentary that examines President Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act and the forced relocation of the Cherokee Nation to Indian Territory in 1838. Presented by Wes Studi. Narrated by James Earl Jones and others. 115 minutes.
  • Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives. Narrated by Whoopi Goldberg with Angela Bassett, Michael Boatman, Don Cheadle, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Robert Guillaume and more. This HBO Documentary breathes the voices of the living into these transcripts of the past, bringing to life the pain and suffering, the fear and yearning, the pride, the spirit and the deep resonating sadness of those who had been born into slavery. Not rated. 75 minutes.
  • White Man’s Burden. This is a movie that will change the way you see the world. Set in a time where color roles have been reversed where prejudice keeps the white man in his place, this is a different America. Starring John Travolta, Kelly Lynch and Harry Belefonte. 1999. Rated R.

(Compiled by Janice McWhertor, 2006)