Racial Justice

Our Unitarian Universalist faith asks us to join the journey to honor the truth of human diversity and dismantle entrenched systems of white supremacy that benefit some at the expense of others. For those of us who are white, our tasks are to stop harm, to change institutions, and to heal ourselves. We are all called to imagine and build a world that we have never known, a world where all of us are free.

As members and friends of the Unitarian Church of Sharon, we are invited to get involved and stay involved in racial justice work through learning, relationship-building, action, and reflection.

To learn more, check out some of the resources we have listed here, attend an upcoming Racial Justice event listed on the calendar or on our Working for Social Justice page.  To join our Anti-Racism Program Planning Team, contact Barbara Nelkin-Rose.

Racial Justice Resources

Summer 2023 Reading/Listening Suggestions

A favorite James Baldwin quote challenges us to take our blinders off and openly and honestly see the differing realities that comprise America: “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” We can speed change along by delving into the lived experiences of peoples with which we are less familiar. We can listen and learn. These recommendations were responses to the question: What was the one book/ movie/TV program that inspired you or made you think more deeply on a certain topic related to oppression?  
  • Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent (Isabel Wilkerson)
  • So You Want to Talk About Race (Ijeoma Oluo)
  • Between the World and Me (Ta- Nehisi Coates)
  • The Sum of Us (Heather McGhee)
  • Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer)
  • Men We Reaped: A Memoir (Jesmyn Ward)
  • Home Place-Memoirs of A Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature (Drew Lanham)
  • I’m Still Here- Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness (Austin Channing Brown)
  • Stand Your Ground- Black Bodies and the Justice of God (Kelly Brown Douglas)
  • The Fire Next Time (James Baldwin)
  • Personal Librarian (Heather Terrell)
  • Born a Crime (Trevor Noah)
  • Me: Gender Queer, A Memoir (Maiai Kobabe)
  • Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, & the Rise of Jim Crow (Henry Louis Gates)
  • Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden (Camille T. Dungy)
  • Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria… (Beverly Daniel Tatum)
  • South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation (Imani Perry)
  • Eyes on the Prize (PBS Series)
  • Basic Black (PBS weekly series, Friday nights)
  • Seeing White (Scene on Radio podcast)

UCS Anti-Racist Resources AUG20  Created by Social Justice committee members in 2020 and includes a more comprehensive and extensive list by celebrant Danna Schmidt. 

Resources on Racism and the Black Experience in our church library collection. 

Learn more about the UUA’s 8th principle here.