A Memoir · Christian Nonfiction · Race & Social Justice

I Need To Tell You About My Racism

A Letter of Repentance and a Call Towards Healing

Before you can heal what you didn't cause, you must face what you carry.

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by Rev. Michael Young — pastor, NAACP member, and community organizer in Michigan

The Pitch

A white pastor confronts his own racism —
and invites you to do the same.

"This is not a book for those who have all the answers. It's for readers ready to stop deflecting and start healing."

You know racism is wrong. You believe in equality. But somewhere deep inside, there is a discomfort you cannot name — a nerve of vulnerability that fires whenever the conversation turns personal. You deflect. You disengage. You say the right things while avoiding the harder truth: that the racism woven into our culture has also been woven into you.

In I Need To Tell You About My Racism, Rev. Michael Young does what few white Americans have been willing to do publicly. He traces the racism he inherited from a family he loved and admired, confronts it with unflinching honesty, and charts a path toward an expanded theology of connection grounded in Christian faith — not a lecture, but an invitation to sit in the discomfort and discover that antiracism is a way of being that rehumanizes us all.

A deeply personal model for examining inherited racial bias with truth and vulnerability

Historical context that reframes what you were taught about race, slavery, and white supremacy in America

A spiritual framework for moving from guilt and fragility toward genuine repentance, empathy, and healing

Clear definitions of personal, interpersonal, institutional, and structural racism

In the tradition of White Fragility (Robin DiAngelo) and White Too Long (Robert P. Jones) — and books on antiracism as a daily spiritual practice.

About the Author

Rev. Michael Young is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and a graduate of Chicago Theological Seminary's certificate program in theological studies. A passionate advocate for racial healing, he draws on his own journey of confronting inherited racism in his memoir, I Need To Tell You About My Racism.

Raised in a small town in southern Illinois, he discovered his love of writing and photography before finding his calling into ministry in his early thirties. He began his pastoral work at St. John's UCC in Jackson, Michigan, and now serves as Pastor of Leslie Congregational United Church of Christ in Leslie, Michigan — where he also writes a monthly blog, Pastor's Porch, exploring faith and justice.

His commitment to racial justice extends well beyond the pulpit. He serves on the executive committee for the Jackson County Branch of the NAACP, facilitates antiracism work within the Michigan Conference of the United Church of Christ, and sits on the boards of Partial to Girls and Serenity Sober Living House. He and his wife, Elizabeth, live in Jackson, Michigan, with their two sons.

Ordained Minister, UCC Chicago Theological Seminary NAACP, Jackson County Branch Author of Pastor's Porch

I Need To Tell You About My Racism

A white pastor confronts his own racism —and invites you to do the same.

Join the conversation before the book arrives.

Available September 1, 2026

A white pastor confronts his own racism —
and invites you to do the same.