Many Roads, One Journey to Beloved Communityalliesforracialequity.wildapricot.org/Resources/Documents/Many...Many Roads, One Journey to Beloved Community Welcome and Introductions

7/16/14

1

Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly

Providence, RI 2014

Many Roads, One Journey to Beloved Community

Welcome and Introductions

Jan Taddeo Josh Pawelek Jacqui C. Williams Jyaphia Christos-Rodgers

Jan Taddeo

7/16/14

2

How this Workshop Came to Be

 UU Commitment to Anti-Racism, Multiculturalism: 1992 Calgary GA (Recommend The Arc of the Universe is Long)

 Council on Cross-Cultural Engagement  Confusion when new programs introduced,

previous programs apparently set aside

Intercultural Competency and the Intercultural Development Indicator

 UU Minister’s Association  Not the next best “right” way  New insights about past work  Additional tools for our toolkit  Make new friends, keep the old…

Assumptions of the Intercultural Approach

 About perception

 Developmental

 Differences that make a difference

Beth Zemsky MAEd, LICSW www.beth.zemsky.com

7/16/14

3

 Communication is the creation of shared meaning.

 Intercultural communication is the creation of shared meaning across cultural contexts.


In intercultural contexts:

 Shared meaning can not be assumed  Shared meaning must be:

 Negotiated, Discovered and Created


Culture…

“It’s just the way we do things around here”


7/16/14

4

Culture: It’s a Matter of Perspective


The Iceberg Model of Culture

Verbal and Non-Verbal Symbols

Primarily in Awareness

Primarily Out of

Awareness

Incentives to Work Concept of Justice Patterns of Relations Patterns of handling emotions Patterns of Group Decision Making

Conception of Cleanliness Conception of Status Mobility Eye Behavior Attitudes toward the Dependent

Fine Arts Food

Traditional Dances Clothing Language

Cultural Symbols

Approaches to Problem Solving Ordering of Time Patterns of handling conflict Body Language

Roles in Relation to Status: age, sex, class, occupation, kinship, etc Notions of Leadership Nature of Friendship Conception of Past & Future Tempo of Work

Theory of Disease Notions of logic and validity Preference For Competition /Cooperation

Social Interaction Rate Patterns of Communication Facial expressions Arrangement of physical space

and much much more . . . . Beth Zemsky MAEd, LICSW www.beth.zemsky.com

Key Intercultural Skills…   Cultural self-awareness   Empathy   Curiosity   Tolerance for ambiguity   Flexibility   Courage


7/16/14

5

Monocultural Mindsets

Denial

Polariza,on

Minimiza,on

Acceptance

Adapta,on

Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensi,vity

Mindsets Intercultural

E x p e r i e n c e o f D i f f e r e n c e


Ethnocentric Stages Ethnorelative Stages

Denial/

Defense

Minimization

Acceptance/

Adaptation


DAMN!

WOW! That’s really

BAD!


7/16/14

6


The Iceberg Model of Culture

Verbal and Non-Verbal Symbols

Primarily in Awareness

Primarily Out of

Awareness

Incentives to Work Concept of Justice Patterns of Relations Patterns of handling emotions Patterns of Group Decision Making

Conception of Cleanliness Conception of Status Mobility Eye Behavior Attitudes toward the Dependent

Fine Arts Food

Traditional Dances Clothing Language

Cultural Symbols


Approaches to Problem Solving Ordering of Time Patterns of handling conflict Body Language

Roles in Relation to Status: age, sex, class, occupation, kinship, etc Notions of Leadership Nature of Friendship Conception of Past & Future Tempo of Work

Theory of Disease Notions of logic and validity Preference For Competition /Cooperation

Social Interaction Rate Patterns of Communication Facial expressions Arrangement of physical space

and much much more . . . .

Jyaphia Christos-Rodgers

7/16/14

7

One path on the Journey towards racial justice, a strategy to dismantle racism.

We who do this work owe much credit to Crossroads Antiracism Organizing and Training and the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond for long term mentorship on this ever evolving path.

Anti-Racist Organizing for Systemic Change

Since the mid 1990’s this methodology for racial justice has been embodied in the UU Journey Toward Wholeness initiative, largely shared through two of the Association’s AR/AO organizing/training programs:

 The adult-oriented Creating a Jubilee World  Youth and Young Adult-driven Groundwork

Collective

What’s Unique About this Approach?   A movement-building strategy for systemic change through

institutional and community organizing

  Assumes that Racism:   Is more than just overt discrimination,

  Is largely shaped by laws and also by practices

  Is more than just black and white, but a multiracial reality,

  Is a social construction that dehumanizes the privileged and the oppressed.

7/16/14

8

Skills for the Work   Learn from history and pay attention to dynamics of power.

 Have to talk about why people are poor to understand it.

  Racism is a strategy to keep class arrangements in place.

The Analysis: Race OR Class? – Wrong Question   Racism manifests at the Institutional, Cultural and Individual

levels. To do this we need:   Skills for identifying racism at work – a common analysis that

addresses layers of history, culture, and power in the U.S.

  Skills for organizing to make change in our communities and institutions

Institutional Level Racism   Since the nation’s inception, racial bias was built into the

structure and function of all U.S. institutions

  Because of this “baked-in” quality of racial bias, our societal systems and institutions often “Feet of Oppression” for people of color communities and “doors of opportunity” for whiter communities.

7/16/14

9

The Individual Level of Racism  We are all racialized at birth in this country when a race is

assigned to us

 Our socialization tells us who we are in the social order. We inherit either white privilege, or oppression as People of Color

 Consciously or unconsciously, we live out these identiites

Organizing For Change  Working inside and outside ourselves, our communities, and

our institutions

 Develop teams and networks that strategically act to dismantle the specific ways racial inequity shows up

  These efforts must focus on developing accountability to anti racist People of Color if they are to be effective at creating racial equity

  This path invites us, in Ghandi’s words” to “be the change we want to see in the world”

Transformative Culture  Organizing across race lines, with real commitment to

address our individual and collective racialization, we develop relationships that can transform our communities and institutions

  Racism fosters a culture of competition, scarcity, secrecy and rigid, dichotomous logic*

  Antiracism infuses deep values of collaboration, transparency, abundance, and affirmative, “both/and” thinking. It is intentional but focuses on impact, not intent to identify the presence of racism*

  * Credit goes to Crossroads Antiracism

7/16/14

10

No Quick Fix

 Our job is to infuse our communities with transformative values by co-creating institutions that are anti-racist, diverse and inclusive.

 Given the harm that has occurred across generations, it will take a generational effort to restore the human family to beloved community. It is a long haul.

Pair Share: Discuss with a Partner

 Choose a single social system or instution (i.e. schools, the police department, grocers, etc.) and discuss specific ways that they can be the “feet of oppression” for POC communities and “doors of opportunity for whiter communities.

The Long Haul is a Fourfold Path

 Identity work  Lenses and analyses  Organizing and witness  Infusion

7/16/14

11

Jacqui C. Williams

7/16/14

12

7/16/14

13

7/16/14

14

UUA Multicultural Growth and Witness Staff Group www.uua.org/multiculturalism

Engaging in Multicultural Ministry Multicultural Leadership Institute

Beyond Categorical Thinking www.uua.org/careers/ministers/transitions/bct

Social Justice Empowerment Workshop www.uua.org/action/empowerment

UUA Tapestry of Faith www.uua.org/tapestry

Building the World We Dream About: A Tapestry of Faith Program for Adults Dr. Mark A. Hicks and Gail Forsyth-Vail www.uua.org/re/tapestry/adults/btwwda

Examining Whiteness: An Anti-Racism Curriculum Rev. Dr. William Gardner www.uua.org/multiculturalism/curricula/whiteness

Beloved Conversations: Meditations on Race and Ethnicity Dr. Mark Hicks www.meadville.edu/beloved

Rethinking Multicultural Education: Teaching for Racial and Cultural Justice, Edited by Wayne Au www.rethinkingschools.org

Resources: On-Line

7/16/14

15

Beacon House and Skinner House: Wide selection of books on anti-racism, anti-oppression, and multiculturalism

Mark Morrison-Reed Black Pioneers in a White Denomination

Been in the Storm So Long

In Between: Memoir of an Integration Baby

Darkening the Doorways: Black Trailblazers and Missed Opportunities in Unitarian Universalism

The Selma Awakening: How the Civil Rights Movement Tested and Changed Unitarian Universalism

Learning to Be White: Money, Race and God in America, Thandeka

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander

The Arc of the Universe is Long: Unitarian Universalists, Anti-Racism, and the Journey from Calgary Leslie Takahashi-Morris, James (Chip) Roush, Leon Spencer

Rethinking Multicultural Education: Teaching for Racial and Cultural Justice, Edited by Wayne Au

Resources: Books

Atlanta Monthly June issue Ta-Nehisi Coates, May 21, 2014 The Case for Reparations: Two hundred fifty tears of slavery, Ninety Years of Jim Crow, Sixty Years of separate but equal, Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.

UUA Multicultural Growth and Witness Staff Group, Video Lending Library www.uua.org/multiculturalism/discuss

Buzzfeed Videos: If Asians Said the Stuff White People Say

If Black People Said the Stuff White People Say

10 Conversations on Racism I’m Sick of Having with White People

The White Privilege Pop Quiz: The Test You Can’t Fail: Molly Secours

Resources: Videos, Articles, Curricula

•  Diverse and Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM)

•  UU Allies for Racial Equity (ARE)

•  Transgender Religious Professional Unitarian Universalists Together (TrUUsT)

•  Equual Access

•  Southern Poverty Law Center: Teaching Tolerance Project

•  Colorlines: On-line, Magazine & Facebook

Resources: Organizations

7/16/14

16

History does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are consciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.

- James Baldwin

You feel like a drop in the bucket? Who asked you to fill the bucket – especially all alone? …

Persistence depends on patience, on keeping at it when there is little to reassure us. It would be too bad to give up, to sit, bemoan the sorry state of the world and wonder why somebody, anybody, everybody (but not me, thank you) doesn’t do something about ‘it.’

After all, the Grand Canyon was fashioned by drops of water as ordinary as they seem.

- Rev. Gordon McKeeman

Josh Pawelek

7/16/14

17

A Better Way Foundation Connecticut Mobilizing for Drug Policy Reform

www.abwfct.org

Questions?