In preparation for my Rosh Hashanah (5776) morning sermon, I read a number of books and essays on the themes or racism and white privilege.
Here are some of the sources I consulted that I deem worthy of your consideration:
BOOKS
Between The World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates (Spiegel & Grau, 2015)
A searing memoir, in the form of a message to his teenage son, in which Coates writes of the ways in which America has built an empire on the idea of "race". Coates is a national correspondent for The Atlantic.
Fire Shut Up In My Bones: A Memoir, Charles M. Blow (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015)
Poverty, the South, racism, sex, fear, rage and love. These are the themes that Coates explores in his powerful memoir. Coates is a columnist for the New York Times.
Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America, Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (Rowan & Littlefield, 2014)
A scholarly book that explodes the belief that America is now a color-blind society.
ARTICLES
I, Racist (by John Metta) Click here.
12 Things White People Can Do Now Because of Ferguson (Janee Woods) Click here.
Why It's So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism (Dr. Robin DiAngelo) Click here.
Sounding the Alarm in America: The Legacy of Ferguson (Rabbi Irwin Kula) Click here.
The Truth of 'Black Lives Matter' (NYT editorial 9/3/15) Click here.
The Architecture of Segregation (NYT editorial 9/5/15) Click here.
Black Lives Matter's Heart-to-Heart With Hillary Clinton (Todd Gitlin) Click here.
What My Bike Has Taught Me About White Privilege (J. Dowsett) Click here.
Sensible Responses to White Nonsense (Mary) Click here.
Our Racial Moment of Truth (Isabel Wilkerson) Click here.
Secession, the Confederate Flag, and Slavery (Paul Finkelman) Click here.
The Black Lives Matter policy agenda is practical, thoughtful--and urgent (Radley Balko) Click here.
The Subtle Linguistics of Polite White Supremacy (Yawo Brown) Click here.