Several weeks ago I was handing out flyers about the YWCA’s Race against Racism. I gave one to an older white man who took it but rolled his eyes while saying; quite tongue in check, “You know, all whites are racist.”
Later that week I was watching TV and a black comedian commented on the difference between white people and people who happen to be white.
All of this made me pause and reflect again on my own racism. I like to think that I am not racist, that I am one of those people who happens to be white. After all, I came of age in the 70s and the residual spirit of the summer of love continues to ring loud and true in my heart.
I belong to the NAACP and The American Civil Liberties Union. I read books like The New Jim Crow and White Fragility. I do my best to be culturally sensitive. My son is married to a beautiful black woman and their sweet bi-racial daughter is one of the lights of my life. Surely I cannot be racist, can I?
Being the person that I am, I turned to the dictionary to see how the word racist was defined and the common definition describes a racist as someone who shows or feels discrimination or prejudice against other races, or who believes that a particular race is superior to another.
Well, that got me off the hook, right?
But I looked a little deeper at the definition of systemic racism and this kind of racism is defined as a form expressed in the practice of social and political institutions. Systemic racism is reflected in disparities regarding wealth, income, criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, political power and education, among other factors.
And here I got stuck. While I personally did not create those systems, every day I benefit from them and far too often I do so without giving it little if any thought at all.
By virtue of things beyond my conscious choice or control I have benefited in ways that many of my siblings of color have not. And I have to own that.
And I have to own that this Beloved faith tradition of ours has its own history with helping to perpetrate these same systems. That – my friends is another service in and of itself.
So what are we to do? How do we find our way to the world that our principles profess?
What do we need to do to adopt a proposed 8th principle that states:
“We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.”
One way, and we will need to employ countless ways to do this work,
One way is to be intentional about doing our own work to look at how we show up in the world and to find ways to engage in conversations about all of this. We need to have deep and honest conversations with other white folks and others of all kinds of ethnic and racial backgrounds.
Shawn, Corrie, Bob and Matt will be reading the words from both black and white perspectives, for we need to hear all perspectives – we need to be courageous enough to share them and willing enough to truly listen.
Conversation 1
It hurts to witness a world in which fear separates us from each other. It hurts to see that kind of separating fear inside ourselves.
Yet, until we are willing to hear each other’s stories and acknowledge our own complicity in the continuation of oppressive systems we cannot begin to do the work that will lead us to the Beloved Community we long for.
Conversation 2
Let’s us all keep singing. Let us keep lifting up our voices and the voices of all who have gone before us, all who have worked tirelessly and all who have given their lives to the cause of freedom for everyone.
Let us sing and cry and pray.
Let us commit our prayers to the kinds of actions that bend our small piece of the arc toward justice for everyone.
What is at stake here? In a very real way, our very souls are at stake. The lives of children of color are at stake. By dealing with our own discomfort head on, by being willing to speak up, you might be the person who makes a difference.
The more that we can have real conversations, the kinds of conversations that allow our fears and worries, our imperfections to arise - the more we can then hope to accelerate change in the world.
This fall you are offered an opportunity to engage in some of this deeper work through the Beloved Conversations program. There is an insert in your order of service with more details. Additional information will be forthcoming. Matt can be contacted for any questions you may have.
I believe this work is essential and I hope you will join with me in doing this labor until all of our work is truly done.