Written by Michael Worrall

The news of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Christian Cooper, and George Floyd has plunged our country into an important conversation about race and justice. While listening, reading, and watching alone can’t remove the poison of our prejudices they can show us we need curing. While they can’t educate us fully about the pains of injustice, they can help us to listen, learn, and empathize.

These mediums allow us to displace ourselves from our primary cultural and ethnic contexts and put ourselves in the shoes of those who are different from us. They recruit our imaginations so that we can hear, see, and perceive the world through someone else’s eyes.

I am by no means an expert in this conversation, but here are some of the albums, books, and movies that have helped me to imagine life through the eyes of my black brothers and sisters.

Here is week 8 of Quarantine Corner:

Listen - The Narrative by Sho Baraka

The Narrative is a beautiful and brilliant hip-hop album following the life of the metaphorical black everyman, James Portier. The album weaves through different moments of history and explores the impact they had on black life in America. “Foreword, 1619” “Here, 2016” and “Maybe Both, 1865” are all noteworthy tracks.

Read - Let Justice Roll Down by John Perkins
(Audiobook available on Hoopla)

Let Justice Roll Down tells the story of John Perkins’ life. Reading this book will bring you face to face with the injustice and evils of racism as experienced by a leader in the civil rights movement. Dr. Perkins has committed his life to forgiveness and reconciliation despite the pain and trauma he has experienced at the hands of white men.

Watch - Selma (for rent on Amazon)

Selma is the story of Martin Luther King Jr. and fellow civil rights protestors marching from Selma to Montgomery in a fight for voting rights. The story displays the violence and vitriol of racism in the desegregated south. It is frustrating and difficult to watch, but is a powerful portrait of suffering for the sake of justice.

Bonus Read - Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Homegoing is a fictional story beginning with the lives of two sisters born in an African village that take very different paths. One sister marries a British colonial governor who oversees a slave trading post in Africa, while the other is held captive in the same facility. The chapters follow their children and the following generations.

Bonus Watch - Just Mercy (Available on all platforms)

Just Mercy is the true story of Walter McMillian appealing his murder conviction with the help of defense attorney Bryan Stevenson. Though I haven’t yet read or watched Just Mercy I have had it recommended by multiple people. I wanted to include it on this list is because the movie is free to watch on all online platforms for the month of June.