Friends,

The Christian Action Team for Racial Equity invites you to engage in this 21 Day Race Equity Challenge. The 21 Day Challenge comes to us from our sisters and brothers in Christ worshiping at the Meyers Park Presbyterian Church in Charlotte North Carolina. We join them in our search for a Christian approach to deal with racial inequities in our Country and community. This 21 Day Challenge will by no means be the end of the work we need to do, instead it is a humble beginning on a long and important journey. The killing of George Floyd has only highlighted the immediacy and need of this work. The racial inequity that divides us is a part of our history that we cannot hide from, and to ignore this history is to go against the will of Christ which is “to unite all things in him” (Ephesians 1:10).

The Christian Action Team for Racial Equity invites you to participate in our 21-Day Race Equity Challenge, a first step as we explore together how we might better love all our neighbors. In engaging, participants will be exposed to different voices and perspectives through articles, videos, and podcasts. Each day you will choose one way of engagement and reflect in a journal. At the end of the challenge, we will gather together to share our reflections.
-The 21 Day Challenge was created by Rev. Dr. Eddie Moore Jr.

The Challenge

Pick one of the resources listed every day for 21 days.

Diversify your understanding by doing some of each.

Track and reflect by using the planning tool below.

Share your reflections at the end of the challenge.

Pray for the places you are challenged and for those you are learning about whose lives may be different than yours.

List of references listed on 21 day challenge  

 

This is Us, Dr. Eddie Glaude explains why blaming current racial tensions on Donald Trump misses the point. (3 minutes)

Confronting ‘intergroup anxiety’: Can you try too hard to be fair? Explores why we may get tongue tied and blunder when we encounter people from groups unfamiliar to us. (5 minutes)

CBS News Analysis: 50 states, 50 different ways of teaching America’s past, Ibram X. Kendi reviews current history curriculum production and use across the U.S. (5 minutes)

The Disturbing History of the Suburbs, An “Adam Ruins Everything” episode that quickly and humorously educates how redlining came to be. (6 minutes)

What Kind of Asian Are You? Humorous two minute YouTube video that illustrates the utter silliness of the way many white Americans interact with Asian Americans. (2 minutes)

Birth of a White Nation, Keynote speech by legal scholar Jacqueline Battalora, offers a blow-by-blow description of the moment the idea of, and word for, “white” people entered U.S. legal code. (36 minutes)

13th, Netflix documentary by Ava DuVernay about the connection between US Slavery and the present day mass incarceration system. (1 hour, 40 minutes)

How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them, TED Talk by Vernā Myers, encourages work vigorously to counter balance bias by connecting with and learning about and from the groups we fear. (19 minutes)

The danger of a single story, TED Talk by Chimamanda Adiche, offers insight to the phenomenon of using small bits of information to imagine who a person is. (18 minutes)

How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time, TED Talk by Baratunde Thurston that explores patterns revealing our racist framing, language, and behaviors. (10 minutes)

Indigenous People React to Indigenous Representation in Film And TV, Conversation with a diverse range of Indigenous people by FBE about  media depictions of Indigenous people, Columbus day, and Indigenous identity. (15 minutes)

What Being Hispanic and Latinx Means in the United States, Fernanda Ponce shares what she’s learning about the misunderstanding and related mistreatment of the incredibly diverse ethnic category people in U.S. call Hispanic. (12 minutes)

Tyler Merrit Project: Before You Call (3 minutes)

READ

21 Racial Microaggressions You Hear on a Daily Basis, by Heben Nigatu

Climbing the White Escalator, by Betsy Leondar-Wright

Explaining White Privilege To A Broke White Person, by Gina Crosley-Corcoran

Guide to Allyship, Created by Amélie Lamont

It’s Not Just the South: Here’s How Everyone Can Resist White Supremacy, by Sarah van Gelder

Making America White Again, by Toni Morrison

What White Children Need to Know About Race, by Ali MIchael and Elenora Bartoli

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, by Peggy McIntosh

Presbytery of Charlotte letter from Antiracism Team

My President Was Black, by  Ta-Nehisi Coates

Caught Up In God, by Willie James Jennings

Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?, by Ibram X Kendi

LISTEN

Code Switch, hosted by journalists Gene Demby and Shereen Marisol Meraji

Black Like Me, host Dr. Alex Gee

Scene on Radio – Seeing White Series, host John Biewen and collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika

TED Radio Hour – Mary Bassett: How Does Racism Affect Your Health? host Guy Raz speaks with Dr. Mary T. Bassett, Director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University

Here & Now – Without Slavery, Would The U.S. Be The Leading Economic Power? host Jeremy Hobson and author Edward Baptist

NPR Morning Edition – You Cannot Divorce Race From Immigration journalist Rachel Martin talks to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas

Pod Save the People, Activism. Social Justice. Culture. Politics. On Pod Save the People, organizer and activist DeRay Mckesson