Book, Movie and Other Media Recommendations
Recently published:
“Begin Again” by Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. (book discussion February 26, 2021)
“Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson
“How To Be An Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi
“So You Want to Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo. This was a Ridgewood, Glen Rock, and Fair Lawn community read. The book was discussed the week of 10/11/20.
Books we’ve read, discussed, and strongly recommend:
“Dismantling the Racism Machine – A Manual and Toolbox” by Dr. Karen Gaffney
“Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race” by Debby Irving (who also
presented an evening at USR spring 2017)
“Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
“Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson
“The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander
“White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo, published by Beacon Press (UU) (subject of a
service and discussion May 5, 2019)
“The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” by Isabel
Wilkerson
Books the Team, other USR members, and others have read and recommend:
“So You Want to Talk About Race” by Ijeoma Oluo.
“Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race” by Beverly Tatum, edited and revised 2018.
“When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir” by Patrisse Khan-Cullors. This book is published by St. Martins Press. George Witte, a member of USR, is
the editor.
“White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide” by Carol Anderson.
“Give Us The Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America” by Ari Berman
USR sponsored Berman at an event at the Ridgewood library March 2020
“The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America”
by Richard Rothstein
“The Third Reconstruction” by William Barber
“When Affirmative Action Was White” by Ira Katznelson
“Birth of a White Nation, The Invention of White People and Its Relevance Today”
by Jacqueline Battalora
“The Selma Awakening: How the Civil Rights Movement Tested and Changed Unitarian
Universalism” by Mark Morrison-Reed (a UU minister)
“Hidden Figures” by Margo Lee Shetterly (also a film of the same name)
UU Common Read 2-16-17:
“Centering: Navigating Race, Authenticity, and Power in Ministry” edited by Mitra
Rahnema
and “Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning and Connection for the
America We Want” by Frances Moore Lappe and Adam Eichen
“In Between: Memoir of an Integration Baby” by Mark Morrison-Reed
“We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
“From Black Lives Matter to Black Liberation” by Keeanga-Yamahta Taylor
“Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong” by
James W. Loewen (updated 2018)
Television
“Reconstruction: America After the Civil War” 2 segments aired on PBS April 2019
“The Black Church” PBS 2021
For youth:
Books: “Small Great Things” by Jodi Picoult
“The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas
An MTV program: “White People”
Articles:
“What is Owed” by Hannah Nicole-Jones in the New York Times Magazine Sunday, June 28, 2020
“The 1619 Project” New York Times August 14, 2019
“The First White President” by Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic October 2017
“The Black Hole in the UU Psyche” UU World Fall 2017
“The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic June 2017
Current and relatively recent films that may be available on streaming:
“MLK/FBI”
“Just Mercy”
“Harriet”
“American Son” on Netflix
“Hidden Figures”
“I Am Not Your Negro”
“Get Out”
“Mudbound” (Academy Award nominee)
“13th”
“Black Panther”
“If Beale Street Could Talk”
“Green Book”
Revised February 17, 2021
Racial Justice Team of the Unitarian Society of Ridgewood
