Engage & Understand

I am not separate from the deaths, the demands,
and the dealings, the disasters, the deceits,
the demagogues, and the diplomacy.

This is our incompleteness, our separation,
our greed at work. Let me own my part.
The world’s hunger is mine.
The world’s helplessness is mine.
The world’s failure to love is mine.
Sober me to this connection in my life.
Let the news be printed on my conscience.
Help me bear it. –Gunilla Norris

Learning about systems of oppression and pathways for transformation is an important way to engage and understand the issues affecting communities locally and abroad. Listening with open hearts and minds is key. Below find some resource suggestions to help you on the journey of expanding your heart and mind.

Send us your suggestions too as we continue to learn and engage in understanding: info@liftupthevulnerable.org and please revisit this page as we will grow our resource list in the weeks to come.

RESOURCES FOR ADULTS:

• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

• How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

• My Grandmothers Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem

• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

• The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

• White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

• White Rage by Carol Anderson

• The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter

• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

• A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne

• Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire

• Let Justice Roll Down by John Perkins

• The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong Can Be Made Right by Lisa Sharon Harper, Walter Brueggemann

• From the Inside Out: Reimagining Mission, Recreating the World by Ryan Kuja

• The Poisionwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

• SLAVE: My True Story by Mende Nazer and Damien Lewis

• Not For Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade-and How We Can Fight It by David Batstone

RESOURCES FOR CHILDREN:

• A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

• Child Soldier: When Boys and Girls Are Used in War by Michel Chikwanine, Jessica Dee Humphreys, Claudia Davila

• Coming Together: Standing Up To Racism – A CNN/Sesame Street Town Hall For Kids and Families

• Children’s Book Suggestions 

  • 27 Books to help you talk to your kids about racism

  • 31 Children’s books to support conversations on race, racism, and resistance

  • Black Boy Joy: 30 Picture Books Featuring Black Male Protagonists

  • Black Girl Magic: 33 Picture Books Featuring Black Girl Protagonists 

  • Black Books Matter: Children’s Books Celebrating Black Boys

  • 30 Books that Inspire Black Boys to Create and Build Their Dreams 

• Articles

  • Your Kids Aren’t Too Young to Talk About Race 

  • Why #BlackLivesMatter in Your Classroom Too

  • Anti-Racism for Kids 101: Starting to Talk About Race

  • Supporting Kids of Color in the Wake of Racialized Violence (Part 1)

SOLD WHERE ALL FINE BOOKS ARE FOUND.