I’m starting a new series for a month or so based on the book Sundown Towns, and how we can use it to inspect the whiteness of our lives. It will feature several short posts, and hopefully it will give you a good feel for the book, especially for the people who don’t have time to read a 450 page book, or maybe your library doesn’t have it, but you still would love to know what it talks about. The questions that I wrote to go along with are I think a little uncomfortable, but I’m not asking you to think about anything that I haven’t thought through as well!  Numbers in parenthesis refer to page numbers in the book. While I hope this is helpful for all people, the questions are written for white (christian) people, and are intended to help undo the legacy of white supremacy present in our country .

[blockquote type=”center”]”In 1909, in the aftermath of a horrific nearby ‘spectacle lynching,’ Anna and Jonesboro [Illinois] expelled their African Americans. Both cities have been all-white ever since. Nearly a century later, ‘Anna’ is still considered by its residents and by citizens of nearby towns to mean ‘Ain’t No N****** Allowed.'” (3)[/blockquote]

What are some periods in history you don’t know much about? Is it possible there are experiences and stories that sit so far outside ourselves that we don’t even know what we don’t know?

What are you curious about?

[blockquote type=”center”]”Indeed, in about 1890, the South, or rather the white neo-Confederate South, finally won the Civil War. That is, the Confederacy’s ‘great truth’ – quoting Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, speaking on March 21, 1861: ‘Our new government’s foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man’ – became national policy…..After 1890, as in the South, Jim Crow practices tightened throughout the North.” (34)[/blockquote]

What are your foundations? What great truths does your life rest upon? Do your actions line up with that?

If an outsider analyzed your money, your career, your decisions, your home, would they be able to see those truths? Is there anything that could use an adjustment?

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This series is available in a handy 40 page pdf that includes journaling space for the personal questions.

Buy now

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An Integrated Life

a series studying the book Sundown Towns by James Loewen

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Part 1 – A Series
Part 2 – Our Racist Foundations
Part 3 – What Are We Taught Is Normal?
Part 4 – All Whites Are Responsible
Part 5 – What Are You Known For Supporting
Part 6 – What Makes You Stay Silent?
Part 7 – Gravitating Towards the Comfortable
Part 8 – Social Exclusion
Part 9 – Restrictive Covenants and Governments
Part 10 – Do You Live in a Sundown Town? Before You Say No…
Part 11 – Still Forming Sundown Towns Today
Part 12 – Sundown Suburbs = NIMBY
Part 13 – City Schools, Suburb Schools
Part 14 – What Are You Supporting With Your Way of Life?
Part 15 – Living In Fear
Part 16 – An Historical Comparison
Part 17 – Hidden Fault Lines
Part 18 – Reputations Are Important
Part 19 – Until We Solve the Problem of Sundown Neighborhoods…
Part 20 – The TL;DR Version

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