The first in a series of Learning Letters to the congregation of the First Unitarian Church of Hamilton from Rev. Victoria Ingram
Becoming Better World Citizens
As Unitarian Universalists, we pledge ourselves to a faith tradition that demands we engage with the world, no matter how we find it. We commit to work together to make it a better place – a beloved community in the image shared by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A place filled with greater justice and equity, where white supremacy no longer creates systems of oppression. A world filled with compassion, respect, and dignity for all, including the Earth, itself. A place where all can live with peace, safety, and liberty and everyone gets a chance to find their potential and live it to the fullest.
The White Bias of UU
As a part of our chosen faith, a part of living a life of searching and working to create a better world, each of us has an obligation – I think it is a positive and joyful obligation – to engage in a search of our own thoughts, actions, and assumptions, and to make affirmative changes in ourselves that help us be better citizens of the world. Just because this work is ultimately positive and joyful, it is far from easy work. The process can be challenging, painful, and difficult. However, if we say we hold our Unitarian Seven Principles as our values, then our actions, intentions, and impacts must reflect that set of values. UUs, like all people, often fall short. We have work to do.
We live in a world dominated by white supremacy and privilege. Sometimes, because of our constant immersion in this environment, we aren’t even aware of its existence. Confronting the issues of racism in UU is not easily addressed on-line. I wish we were together to continue to listen, learn, reflect, and grow in anti-racism and anti-oppression. However, this isn’t work that can wait. Its work we’ve consistently put off “to a better time” for years in our denomination. We can delay no longer. The time has come to take committed action.
Learning More
The place we start is opening our hearts and minds to LEARNING – to dispel our lack of awareness and open our eyes to the systems and processes, behaviors and assumptions that put so many of our relations around the world at a disadvantage. We make a commitment to finding out what is really going on in the world, in others’ experience, so that we can move from being clueless to informed, from ignorant to aware.
I will be sharing with you a series of “Learning Letters.” I’m going to offer my perspectives and insights, not from a place of expertise, but from a need to learn and change my perspectives and behaviors, as well. I’m going to suggest resources and options for you to begin to follow your own learning journey. Those of us who identify as White need to learn to be anti-racist, not only for ourselves, but for the benefit of UU and world society, at large.
Its a great time to begin or expand our learning process. There are so many amazing resources to explore – books, videos, TED Talks, television specials, news reports, and in the arts, in theatre and music. We have more and more reports of witnesses and the people engaged in addressing systems of inequality and oppression. Find a place to dive in and make yourself available to awareness, insight, reflection, and knowledge.
Intent vs. Impact
One aspect of understanding our interactions with others experiencing racism is grasping the difference between our INTENT and our IMPACT. The vast majority of us who identify as White have no conscious intention of hurting, belittling, negatively impacting, or hindering the lives of people who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Colour (BIPOC.) But we do create impacts that differ from our intentions, usually because we just don’t know any better.
Because we are largely unaware of the dynamics of racism, and of the underlying inequities created by the system of white supremacy, we are completely (or at least marginally) unaware of the IMPACT of some of the things we say or do, of our assumptions and actions, and the messages we speak. We are clueless about what we inflict on others through our ignorance of how what we do is actually experienced, seen, and interpreted by others.
In the words of Maya Angelou –
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better.”
RESOURCES:
One of our first steps toward becoming more anti-racist is to EDUCATE ourselves so that we become more aware of how what we say and do potentially impacts others.
Dismantling Racism Works www.dismantlingracism.org
Tema Okun, From White Racist to White Anti-Racist – the Lifelong Journey
This website offers a variety of information on white supremacy culture, working with our assumptions, definitions of racism, and how we internalize and incorporate racism into our lives.
How To Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism, by Robin Diangelo
These two recent books have provided insight and guidance to many who are trying to explore and expose hundreds of years of racist conditioning in “western” (white) culture.
www.ChristianCentury.org
Acting Against Racism: A Conversation Guide
This resource offers a view of working against racism from a more Christian-centric point of view. The study guide includes articles and questions to help you explore your own experience.
Next Steps
Starting in February, Tim Versteeg and I will facilitate a series of sessions on Widening the Circle, a UUA study guide that examines the ways our UU culture and norms limit our ability to truly be a welcoming and affirming place for BIPOC, Two Spirit and LGBTQI+, and other marginalized people. I hope you will join us for these important conversations.
With love, Rev. Victoria