Good Shepherd is commited to providing resources for people to expand their knowledge and understanding of social issues that affect our community.  While these resources are a good place to start your personal journey on issues surrounding race, class, and other social justice topics, these are not a subsitute for conversations and real-world experience.  Expanding your breadth of experience, whether volunteering with organizations or having conversation with family and friends, is going to go a long way in helping form and shape your views and understanding of the world around us.  We encourage everyone to explore the resources, have conversations, and be an active participant in change in your communities.  

For some perspective on race and racism in America:

Why Anti-racism?

Anti-racism calls people to be active participants in our communities when it comes to the subject of race.  It's not enough to remove racism from our hearts and minds if it doesn't translate into some kind of action.  Anti-racism encourages not only awareness of the issues, but for each person to consider the ways that they can remove racism in their own sphere of influence.

What's Next?

If you are interested in furthering your understanding of race and racism in America, or how the current events and racial unrest are related to years and years of racial oppression, consider taking one of Pastor Alice Connor and Matthew Petersen's Courses on Anti-racism.

 "AntiRacism 101" is an introduction-level course that will guide participants through discussions regarding racism, anti-racism, and how our Christian faith calls us to act in the face of injustice.  This three-session course meets weekly.  Future class dates are in the works and will be posted when they become availalbe.

"AntiRacism 201" is a more in-depth look at racism and the concepts of reparations, appropriation, internalized racial oppression, tokenizing, and intersectionality.  Classes are on-going.  Future class dates are in the works and will be posted when they become available.

Anti-racism resources are listed resources below so that members can further their education on race in America through self-study.  These resources range from YouTube video series to books.  We hope you find these useful as you look to increase your education and understanding of the complicated interplay of race in our society.

Finally, our Pastoral Staff is always open to having discussions and answering questions.  Do not hesitate to reach out to one of our pastors by calling (513) 891-1700.

Web Resources (click link to access resource)

• ELCA's 1993 Social Statement on Race and Culture
• Southern Ohio Synod's Council Statement on Racial Injustice
• "The Origin of Race in America" - A PBS web documentary that goes into detail on how race and how peoples are classified as evolved throughout the history of America.
• Emmanuel Acho's "Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man" - A web series where former NFL linebacker and current Fox Sports 1 analyst answers viewer-submitted questions about race and racism.
• "Letter From a Birmingham Jail", Dr Martin Luther King Jr (The Martin Luther King Jr. Reasearch and Educational Institute)
• "Becoming Joshua" - A road map for renewal for the Black community, as seen by Cincinnati native Rev. Damon Lynch III.

Movies & TV

• 13th - A compelling look at the mass incarceration of black men, the drug war, and the historical thread from slavery to Jim Crow to today. Written and directed by Ava DuVernay.
• A Time for Burning - A Documentary and classic Lutheran film from 1966 about a pastor attempting to build bridges in Omaha.
• Do the Right Thing - Spike Lee’s classic, critically acclaimed film about a couple of hot summer days in Brooklyn in the 1980s. Eerily relevant to this summer.
• Malcom X - biopic starring Denzel Washington chronicling the life and transformation of a polarizing and misunderstood civil rights leader.
• Moonlight - Academy-award-winning, intimate portrait and “coming-of-age” story of a black man. 
• 42 - A biopic of Jackie Robinson biopic, a good entry-point for those unfamiliar with critically conscious film: Harrison Ford as Branch Ricky. Could be watched as a family (contains brief graphic racist language).
• 12 Years a Slave - A raw look at the horror of slavery.
• Blackkklansman - A “comedy” based on the true story of a black detective who infiltrated the KKK in the 1970s. Contrasted with tear-jerking footage from 2017.
• When They See Us - "In the Spring of 1989, five boys of colour are arrested, interrogated and coerced in to confessing the vicious attack of a woman in Central Park."
• Selma - Critically-acclaimed and Oscar-winning biopic of a particular moment in the Civil Rights movement.
• Dear White People -  Both a movie and a series, black students on a college campus navigate the white world that thinks of itself as colorblind.
• One Night in Miami - A film about a fictionalized meeting of Malcom X, Muhammed Ali, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke in a room at the Hapmton House in February 1964.

​Books & Literature

• FOR FAMILIES - Blue Manatee offers a list of books that discuss race, inclusion, and acceptance in an age-appropriate way.  CLICK HERE.
• Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates - A deeply personal letter to his son about how to be a black man in America, how to deal with trauma, and how that trauma came to be. Painful and beautiful and difficult.
• The Cross and the Lynching Tree, James H. Cone - An accessible look at the history of American Racism and black spirituality; perhaps a Letter from Birmingham Jail for our generation; by the grandfather of Black Liberation Theology. 
• How to be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi - A raw look at American Racism from multiple disciplines and how to become a better ally. (Also available: How to be an Antiracist Workbook)
• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism, Robin DiAngelo—Another hard read because DiAngelo challenges readers to examine their own actions and intentions; you will come away from this book changed.
• Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the US, Lenny Duncan - Duncan is an ELCA pastor in New York calling the Lutheran Church to account with love and ferocity.
• White Allies in the Struggle for Racial Justice, Drick Boyd - Read one chapter at a time of this hopeful book and let it settle for a bit: stories from the last 400 years of white folk seeing the injustice of racism and doing what they can with what they have to help.
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander - A history of how we have arrived in an era of mass-incarceration and its connection/continuation of slavery. Excellent book, a little bit more on the academic side.
• “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” Peggy McIntosh, (https://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/mcintosh.pdf) - An essay that helps us understand the word “privilege,” what it means on the ground, and how we might begin to see it more clearly.

Podcasts (click podcast name for link)

• Code Switch, NPR - It's the fearless conversations about race that you've been waiting for!
• Pray with Our Feet -  a progressive Christian podcast, hosted by writer / creative, Emelda De Coteau, founder of the PWF community, and her Mom, Trudy Leocadio, a retired educator and prayer warrior. We believe deeply in the power of conversations to spark change.
• Still Processing, New York Times - Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham are working it out.
• It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders, NPR - Join Sam as he makes sense of the world through conversation.
• Throughline, NPR - The past is never past. Every headline has a history.