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An open letter to UU youth of color and UU people of color who attended Fort Worth General Assembly and the broader UU community

July 6, 2005

At General Assembly in Fort Worth , there were several incidents that reminded us that we have much work to do in our journey to becoming an anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and multicultural association. We, the UUA Board of Trustees, want to express deep sadness and regret that these incidents took place.

Some of these incidents involved apparently disrespectful and racist treatment of our youth by Fort Worth officials. We will respond appropriately to these incidents. When we visit a city, we expect that all members of our Unitarian Universalist community should be treated with respect and hospitality. For this and future General Assemblies, our presence might provide a "teachable moment" for us to work with our host cities on issues involving race and youth.

But we have work do within our own community as well. We have been disturbed by reports of other unfortunate incidents during General Assembly within our own Unitarian Universalist family, in which some UU youth of color were made to feel that they were not welcome. There was an incident outside the hall during the closing ceremonies at the Fort Worth General Assembly. Based on the reports of witnesses, the incident involved several UU youth of color, a UU adult who questioned their right to be there, provoking an angry response from the youth, a UU minister who intervened in support of the adult, and another white youth who defended the youth of color and verbally attacked the minister, who responded in like fashion with similar inflammatory language. This was not the only incident. We have also heard that on several occasions in Fort Worth , white UUs assumed that UU youth of color were hotel service people and asked them to carry luggage or park cars. We are troubled that some UUs may have treated other UUs as if they did not belong among us. We can and must do better.

Sadly, this was not the first General Assembly to have incidents like these. After one of those past incidents, the UUA Board of Trustees committed to provide safe space to process issues and concerns around oppression and racism and chaplains who could help facilitate reflection, discussion, and learning. However, we as a Board regret that we have not done enough to provide that safe space. We cannot control the actions of individuals, but we can create venues where we can all learn and grow as a community. We apologize for failing to provide those venues and commit to remedy this at future General Assemblies.

As your UUA Board, we pledge to treat all these incidents as a wake-up call for our entire community. We understand that personal stories about individuals’ experiences at Fort Worth General Assembly have been recorded and we commit to hear these stories and learn from them. Also, we will work with the General Assembly Planning Committee and other groups to ensure that General Assembly in St. Louis and all future General Assemblies are more welcoming to all members of our Unitarian Universalist family.

In Faith,

Paul Rickter

Secretary

Congregations on the Journey
General Assembly 2004
Transformation Committee for Wholeness and Justice

Requests Along the Way
We asked participants in the two “Congregations on the Journey” workshops facilitated by the Transformation Committee for Wholeness and Justice and General Assembly 2004 in Long Beach, California to list some suggestions of things the Unitarian Universalist Association could do to assist them in their efforts. Here is what they said.

What the UUA Can Do:

 More Coordination with Transformation Committee (email list, bulletin board, something on website).
 CD or Video Training for churches that have committees (for new members) or for church that want to start a committee.
 Sharing of ideas for training and projects
 newsletter or link on website (UUA)
 Postings of trainings or training material
 localized or regional training
 Information and communication
 email, website, newsletter
 video trainings (alternatives for small, far away groups).
 share ideas from others
 posting training dates
 more local/regional trainings
 more work on the basics of congregationally based organizing

General Assembly 2004
Transformation Committee for Wholeness and Justice

Snapshots from the Journey

Below you will find some brief stories from members of our congregations about best practices and challenges they have encountered on the Journey Toward Wholeness. These reflections were gathered during two “Congregations on the Journey” workshops facilitated by the Transformation Committee for Wholeness and Justice and General Assembly 2004 in Long Beach, California.

We had good support from JTW and then formed an anti-racism transformation team. We met with the committee for several months. We decided not to form a formal organization until we had developed a relationship and trust. Thinking of this as a transformation effort, we want the possibility of alternative forms of organization that are not derived from white traditions.

A big success of our anti-racism transformation team was that they worked on a rewriting of our mission statement to include a statement of identity as anti-racist, anti-oppressive and multicultural. But there is still a struggle of power and privilege with the straight white males.

Many congregants in a large community who moved through transformation training experienced a loss of support when ministers changed. We were marginalized to the point of not being able to stay in the community. We formed a new congregation based on anti-racist, anti-oppressive principles.

We are beginning a relationship with Country Black Baptist Church after an early schism in our congregation. One of the identified reasons for the split was “too much focus on ‘the Blacks’” We enjoy shared services which provide needed time for social sharing.

We engaged in a Ministerial search with a focus on candidates from marginalized populations. Our congregation has done Jubilee I and II, but we continue to be alarmed by comments from members that show they haven’t really taken in the trainings. We thought we were at a different level, but we are still pushing and getting hurtful personal comments. We had a recent collaboration between Rainbow and Journey Toward Wholeness on the importance of white people or straight people to take action.

Our anti-racism transformation team worked on a new vision statement. Most work has been internal – years ago we had an Interfaith Council (projects with churches that formed alliances).

We are a new congregation that hasn’t done too much yet.

We haven’t done any projects but we are interested in reaching out.

A high percentage of whites in our congregation are “In Denial.”

We are new learners. In five years we have 63 members. We are focused inward. People of color and other diversity groups have been scared away by over interest in them (tokenizing).

We are a retirement community, primarily white. There are two people of color plus kids. We do not like the Journey Toward Wholeness model which has marginalized racism by putting all oppressions together. DRUUMM is “segregationist” – shared identities, women’s groups, etc… whites are threatened. Journey Toward Wholeness supports DRUUMM in every arena. The white allies group doesn’t know how to be allies. Stay with what it means to be white in America.

We had a serious incident: a multiracial family in our church had their 15 year old son harassed and beaten in school. He was called a “fucking nigger.” The administration of the school took no action. We had questions of whether we should act on behalf of the congregation or as individuals. This resulted in our passing a resolution re: becoming AR/AO/MC and anti-sexist, anti-homophobic congregation. We are working on staying engaged beyond the crisis.

Our church had a schism because of anti-racism. We held a “Religious Exploration Sunday” to lead a mini-service and discussion. There was a local incident where a noose was hung in front of a black church, UUs went to the church. First 5, then 13. The African American church wanted to reciprocate and came to worship with us.

We have an “All Church Great Day of Service.” Our congregation is part of the Coalition for Equality which works with schools, the NAACP, and the police department.

We do our own thing for the Journey Toward Wholeness. After two years we still do not have a transformation team. There is a real contradiction in being white and anti-racist. Is this a deficiency of the program? It is too black/white, we need room for multiracial ideas.

We have assumptions about race. We are proud of our stance on Gay Rights issues. But we are unable to “hear” on anti-racism, or anti-oppression issues. There is defensiveness. We need accountability in the form of listening.

We have a congregational DRUUMM chapter. In 1998 we formed a JTW Transformation Team. We have done almost everything we know to do. Yet Martin Luther King Sunday always feels like it’s the first time we’ve talked about it.

We had an interim minister of color and saw real racial division. Things that would have been forgiven of a white minister were not of this interim. I had a hard time realizing that our congregation was not as far along as I thought and I found some prejudices that I had myself.

I have been part of our anti-racist team from the beginning. The problem has been that it is all males leading and women have had a hard time having all male trainers. I have been doing feminist work for 25 years but felt that, while it was acknowledged, I was seen primarily as a male.

In 1997 our antiracist committee began. We felt the UUA didn’t move fast enough for our training. We hired an organizer on our own. Now we feel we have run out of steam.

We sponsored Jubilee I and II trainings. Then we decided to form an anti-racism transformation team. We decided to get new people and there has been some stumbling without enough experience. There is a real leadership vacuum. Our Confronting Racism Committee has become inactive.

We are a sponsoring organization of IAF (grassroots organizing). There were problems with a school board which left GLBT students vulnerable. We learned the importance of making connections with the Christian left. We need money. IAF provides training and help with getting started. We did a Crossroads training in 1998, but previous anti-racism activities petered out. Our co-ministers started them up again. They asked the Board of Trustees for policy commitment for anti-racism work to be a major focus. We utilized a consultant from the UUA.

We have a service collection to fund our Transformation Committee. The funds have been used for the development of a DRUUMM group and a white allies caucus. White allies need to answer questions about the legitimacy of the work.

There is denial in our church – “we did that in the 60s!” We tried a film series without prior knowledge of resources. All of the stories dealt with marginalized groups in America (U.S.): Mi Familia, American History X, Real Women Have Curves. The most important part was the discussion afterwards.

We had a multicultural film series, guest speakers, field trips, and an anti-racism action network (an email list). We worked on building relationships with local chapters of groups (NAACP, MICA) focusing primarily on coalition building. We held a criminal justice and prison reform field trip and movie screening with a guest panel. The motivation of our congregation was “breaking outside of the cocoon and making the house ready.” We really need some consultancy.

We recently removed antiracism language from our mission statement. People felt it was covered by “social action and social justice.” We need to educate the leadership of our board.

Fez over at Chrysalis has a very interesting review and discussion of a recent lecture by Cornel West. (Scroll down to “White Girl Sings the Blues.” How can our committee help UU congregations hit all the notes that West elucidates?

Go here to find out more about the “internet arm” of ARDC - the Anti-Racism & Diversity Committee of the Unitarian Universalist District of Metro New York.