This is the book: The Hate U Give. The picture is linked. You can buy the book today. You can be finished with it by Saturday. At the latest. And when you’re finished, you will have read a powerful first-person fictional narrative about a 16-year-old named Starr who is in the car when a police officer… Read More
RevGals Anti-Racism Project: Waking Up White, Week 8
“Do I remain a bystander and stay silent? Or do I become an ally and ask the hard questions about how this might affect the range of people in our community or organization? Do I dare ask explicitly if it will further advantage white people while simultaneously disadvantaging people of color? Do I dare suggest that… Read More
RevGals Anti-Racism Project: Waking Up White, Week 5
Where were all the black moms and children? Three blocks from my house sat Rindge Towers, three enormous subsidized apartment buildings full of families of color. Why weren’t we going to the same playground? Were they, like the First Night boy, uncomfortable around crowds of white people? Were my friends off-putting to them? Was I?… Read More
RevGals Anti-Racism Project: Waking Up White, week 4
“People were good. My family was good. I was good, right?” Here we have the crux of the problem that white people have with racism. We have been taught that racism is bad…but we are not bad people, and the people we know are not bad people, so therefore we cannot be racist. In chapter… Read More
RevGal Anti-Racism Project: Waking Up White, Week 2
This week covers “Midlife Wake-Up Calls”, chapters 6-11 (approx. 40 pages). How do you feel about pain? Let’s assume that, in general, you don’t like pain. Which bothers you more- the idea of you being in pain or the idea of someone else being in pain? Do you have additional questions, perhaps is the person… Read More
RevGals Anti-Racism Project: Waking Up White, week 1
Waking Up White is the second book in our RevGals anti-racism project. I encourage you to also read the posts and discussion about the first book, Trouble I’ve Seen, though of course it is not a pre-requisite for this book. In fact, Waking Up White is intentionally written for those of us white people who… Read More
RevGals Anti-Racism Project: Waking Up White
The next book for our anti-racism book discussion will be Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race, by Debby Irving (Elephant Room Press, 2014). We’ll start our conversations next Wednesday, November 16, with the first section, “Childhood in White,” which comprises the first five chapters of the book. The discussions will be led by Martha… Read More
RevGals Anti-Racism Project: “Trouble I’ve Seen,” Conclusion
We’ve come to the final chapter and epilogue of Drew G.I. Hart’s Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism (Herald Press, 2016). In the last chapter – “Where Do We Go From Here?” – Dr. Hart suggests seven anti-racist practices for the church: Share life together – “The practice of sharing life… Read More
RevGals Anti-Racism Project: “Trouble I’ve Seen,” Week 8
“The more that white people killed and displaced Native Americans, the more they sought to shackle and bring over black bodies. The presence of the original hosts of the land constituted a threat to white identity and the sense of America as a ‘white country.’” Drew G.I. Hart, Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views… Read More
RevGals Anti-Racism Project: “Trouble I’ve Seen,” Week 7
“Money, power, respect” is a fundamentally American doctrine. The LOX, in this song, merely put a black aspirational twist on an old and familiar tune. The song holds a mirror to dominant society’s internal motivations and exposes the real lure these dominant cultural values have on those within subcultures of American life. All of American… Read More
