No Nonsense or Fragility about Racism and Oppression
The congregants of UUCB approved the Confronting Racism and Oppression Project to make deep dives into books, films, discussions, plays, poems, events, history and protests to identify the root causes of systemic racism, indigenous disenfranchisement, immigrant inhumanness, climate justice, oppression, religious intolerance in our United States. As a participant you are within a loving and safe environment to talk about and come to grips with the realities that many people face. Email socialjustice@uucb.org to get information and notifications of the activities within the Confronting Racism and Oppression Project.
The current projects are:
- The Literature, Film, Drama and Music Contingent (LFDMC) meets quarterly on Zoom to read and discuss books, attend or create relevant plays, watch films, and share personal moments of awareness of unconscious bias. This is a courageous group that talks openly about race, culture, genderism and oppression and its solutions.
- People of Color Caucus (POCC) meets monthly on Zoom to provide a safe space for racial and ethnic minority members to name, heal and reconcile past and current personal and group racial wounds. Members, who come from and reflect the richness of the cultural, racial and ethnic traditions of people of color, act to build partnerships with the congregation and wider community.
- Working to Overcome White Supremacy (WOWS) meets the fourth Sunday of each month on Zoom from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. and is a group at UUCB whose open dialogues increase awareness of the “preference for whiteness” and the systemic nature of racism in society. Everyone is welcome.
- Building Community with Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church and Richmond Muslim Mission Center
- Honoring Indigenous Peoples Group (HIP) meets monthly to engage in deep learning of Indigenous peoples’ history, acknowledging the harms, including genocide and land theft, done by settler colonialism and to take action. We plan and offer educational and cultural experiences to the congregation and wider community, provide consultation to the minister and congregation, and partner with Indigenous communities and local groups supporting those communities.
Click here to visit the HIP blog.
Confronting Racism Workshop (History)
On June 3, 2015, UUCB’s Social Justice Council was proud to hold the Confronting Racism Workshop. 96 people attended! Ferguson killings of African Americans had just happened and the Reverends Ben McBride and Donnell Jones facilitated interactive exercises through which participants were able to speak about their personal racial biases and systemic racism. From attendees’ evaluations: “Made it really—tactile—observable.” “Made me more aware of them.” “I looked deeper.” “I’ve had a lot of experience in education in this. It comes better from a Black reverend who knows love.” “I was already aware [of personal biases], but the workshop heightened what was there: the internalized feelings of being ‘less than’ in America.”
Evaluations also informed the organizers that the workshop was missing the Female Voice, was missing youth and more people of color, and that too much was packed into two hours (and we did run over).
The purpose of the workshop was not just to build on self-awareness of one’s own biases and systemic racism, but to energize people and set a foundation for the work the Confronting Racism Project will do in the Fall and into next year. Forty attendees want to actively participate either in creating the next dialogs or actions, inform and invite others to participate, or lead or participate in a book group or film series. Organizers are thrilled to have this support in moving the confronting racism agenda forward!
Confronting Racism Project Approved by Congregation
At the May 17, 2015 Congregational Meeting the Social Justice Council recommended that the congregation approve the Confronting Racism Project as a sponsored project. The motion was unanimously approved.
Now is the time to Confront Racism. “Black Lives Matter” has found that every 28 hours a black person is killed by a police officer, vigilante, or a security guard. African American Deacon Reggie Lyles from Oakland has said this is like returning to the lynchings of the 1920s.
We can’t let this go on. We have had enough. Now is the time to act! We can thank social media for helping us get to this point of being ready—35 states supported the people of Ferguson.
Over the next year, the Confronting Racism Project invited our congregation to begin to understand systemic racism and implicit bias. We engage in actions that lift up these issues. We participate in dialog, workshops, activities and community actions. We do work that will transform each of us as well as those in nearby communities as we build bridges.
It is now almost ten years later and we are still seeing the killing of African Americans who are jogging, walking away unarmed, pumping gas, just being human. We have watched the murder of George Floyd, wept at the slaughter of Breonna Taylor in her own apartment, and so many more since Ferguson in 2014. So many of us are taking to the streets and won’t stop until the police are reformed and the killings stop.
The Confronting Racism Project was originally coordinated by our beloved and fearless Nancy “Kelly” Kelly, who died in 2018. The Project has been carried on by other members of the Social Justice Council. We have learned much and are doing the work of anti-racism.
Two other groups formed under the Confronting Racism & Oppression Project (renamed in 2019), “Whites Opposed to White Supremacy (WOWS), renamed in 2021 to “Working to Oppose White Supremacy (WOWS),” whose work involves meeting monthly and learning about, tearing through and tearing down the biases of supremacy thinking. The other group formed is “The People of Color Caucus (POCC).” Their work is to help and inform the congregation and minister in choices of music, readings, quotes and homilies that are intentionally inclusive of People of Color. This group includes African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Haitian, Native Americans, East Indian, and mixed race. The POCC and WOWS collaborate in scheduled events to share their experiences and next steps in their anti-racism work.
The Honoring Indigenous Peoples Group started in 2020.
