Social Justice Spotlight — Racial Justice Steering Committee

Begining in January (2016) we have begun taking a moment at the begining of our Sunday morning sactuary worship, on the first Sunday of each month, to highlight one of our own, internal, social justice efforts.  (Much as on the third Sunday of each month we highlight the work of a group in the community as part of our Social Justice Collection.)  This is the text of our spotlight for this month:  the Racial Justice Steering Committee.

For quite a while, now, on the third Sunday of each month we take a special collection – our Social Justice Collection – to support a non-profit in our area that is doing work we believe in and would like to support.  As part of that service we invite a representative of the group to come up at this point and tell us about what it is that they do and, for many of us, even more importantly they try to give us a little flavor ofwhy they’re doing what they’re doing.

Well, we have some groups, within our congregation, that are doing some really cool things too, things we believe in and would like to support.  And so, beginning with the New Year, on the first Sunday of each month we’ll take time for a Social Justice Spotlight – not a special collection, but an opportunity for us all to learn about the good things that some of us are doing and, again, get a flavor of the why.

Last month I told you about the IHS Meal Packets ministry.  This month the spotlight is on our Racial Justice Steering Committee.  This group, begun just this year, is in some ways a resurrection of the Undoing Racism Committee of several years ago.  It serves as a coordinating and support group for a variety of things we’re doing under the umbrella of racial justice.  There’s a group that is working to bring to our attention a public witness statement in support of, and solidarity with, the national Black Lives Matter movement.  There are those who make sure that there’s a table in the Social Hall each Sunday where people can get articles, blog posts, and other sources of information to keep up to date with how the discussion of race and racism in our country continues to unfold.  There are people working to develop and deepen relational partnerships with people and groups of color in the wider community, and there are people looking at ways to offer us opportunities for deeper learning about systemic racism, white privilege, and things we can do both internally and externally to address conditions of oppression.  (The Beloved Conversations program that about 25 of us are currently engaged with is an excellent example.)

There are many, many people involved in all of these efforts, and any one could provide the why of this work.  Sara Gondwe is the convener and facilitator of our Racial Justice Steering Committee, so I’m going to quote from something she wrote to me:

At the first [UU] service I [ever] attended [as a child] I was amazed that two greyhound buses had been chartered to take UU’s to the white only suburb of Ciscero, outside of Chicago, to demonstrate for open housing.  I did not go but I was impressed that here was a church that not only took a stand against racial justice but was moved to action also.  I watched on t.v. as they peacefully marched down the streets.  I was shocked at the hatred spewn at them, as well as spit and bricks.  I have been a UU ever since.”

 

[… A]s a University student, racial injustice continued to bother me. My UU faith comforted, encouraged and sustained me as I participated in civil disobedience exercises.  I engaged in everything as I thought we could change the world.  Anti-war demonstrations, learning from anti-apartheid group about the gross injustice in South Africa, fighting for African-American academic departments, learning about the Black Panther Movement, being so aware of our history …

 

I do this work, because I can not NOT do it and my UU Faith compels me to take a stand against any kind of injustice.