An Extra Effort

By Steve Smith

“I brought some of my [African-American] friends to Meeting. They loved the quiet, deep silence, and appreciated the meeting’s involvement in social justice. People greeted them very nicely—but the greetings did not feel sincere. My friends decided not to come back because, they said, ‘They don’t really want us there.’ It would take an extra effort to reach out to the black community and show them that they are really welcome at Quaker meeting.”

The speaker was the only African-American member of my home meeting—a woman of immense heart, generosity and honesty, much loved by others. The words were said without rancor or reproach, simply as a statement of fact. The speaker allowed that her friends might have been overly sensitive because of their own past history of rejection. Still, her words pierced my heart. I recalled one such visit when the speaker was accompanied to meeting by two black women, both very friendly, both looking a bit uncertain of themselves. I remembered going up to them and shaking their hands, welcoming them to the meeting. I also remembered my own feelings of awkwardness, arising from an assumption of their difference from me and my uncertainty about how to relate to them. I did not talk to them further, but quickly moved on.

At the time she spoke, the speaker and I were participants in a workshop led by Vanessa Julye, a member of Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and the Coordinator for the FGC Committee for Ministry on Racism. The workshop focused on issues of race and racism within the Religious Society of Friends, opening a disturbing window on Quaker history—which on racial matters is often presumed to be above reproach, but is not. With some moments of defensiveness but also much good will, we engaged in challenging consciousness-raising discussions around a variety of topics. Several other African-American Friends who attended the workshop made it clear—again, without rancor or blame—that encounters with racism among Friends were not solely incidents of the past, but had infected their present experience.

My home meeting is in many respects a microcosm of liberal, unprogrammed Friends’ meetings in the United States. In some ways, we are distinctive: Sunday morning attendance at meeting for worship typically averages between fifty and sixty persons, probably well above the national average. The demographic profile of residents of Claremont, which is home to several colleges and retirement communities, also differs from that of many other places where Friends meetings are located. But in other respects, I suspect that Claremont Friends Meeting is fairly typical of liberal, unprogrammed meetings across the United States:

• Members and attenders tend to be well-educated and highly articulate.
• An exceptionally-high proportion of members and attenders had or have careers in challenging service professions. Most of us are actively engaged in the community.
• Politically, we are an overwhelmingly liberal, progressive, even radical crowd.
• The size of our meeting has slowly declined over the past few decades.
• We are almost all “white”—i.e. of European descent.

We are blessed with the regular presence of a few persons of color, including some who have been a part of our community for many years. If the question were put to them, I am certain that our white members and attenders would express sincere gratitude for this presence. Members and attenders often testify to the strength of our community. Indeed, our 2006 State of the Meeting Report included these words: “A new attender declares that ‘everything people do here shows the love and care meeting members and attenders share—doing dishes, laughing, greeting each other . . . a fundamental strength.’ Another observed, ‘There is tenderness here as a core— in our ways of doing things and our ways of being together. Our greatest wealth lies in the love we share with one another.’”

Yet, surrounded by a Southern California population of immense ethnic and racial diversity, we are a relatively homogeneous group. We need to ask why this is so.

At the workshop, I thanked our black member for her candid words. At my next opportunity, I asked her to think about what an “extra effort” by our meeting to reach out to persons of color might be. She looked at me intently, and promised to get back to me. A few days later I received a thoughtful card from her, suggesting a process of “soul searching” and outreach. She wrote, “The wider community needs to know that all are welcome. This is a good season for peace and healing, and getting better acquainted, and spreading the Light.”

We have now embarked on that process of soul searching and outreach, of “peace and healing, and spreading the Light.” Our first steps have been to look more deeply into ourselves, exploring our own personal experiences of race and racism. We began with two powerful worship-sharing sessions in response to the following queries:

• What have been my most important experiences of race and racism?
• Do I have wounds from these experiences?
• Am I aware of “blind spots” that I may have on questions of race?

The first of these worship-sharing sessions was marked by heart-felt personal sharing, with a number of remorseful confessions of unenlightened behavior. In a later conversation with Vanessa Julye, I asked her what advice she might have for us in this process. Her response was both striking and liberating: she said, in effect, “Get past the guilt. We have all grown up in a society that is deeply tainted by patterns of racial bias. We acquired our own attitudes through many subtle, indirect means, without having the opportunity to evaluate them. It is not helpful to blame ourselves for this involuntary enculturation. Put the guilt behind you, and move ahead to promote healing, equality and justice.” Perhaps because of this key message, our second worship-sharing session was not only even more powerful, but also marked by good feeling, boisterous laughter, and hope.

As I write, we are in the middle of an ongoing process, proceeding “as way opens.” Possible future steps include: a meeting-wide threshing session on “Welcoming Persons of Color and Others,” and then a meeting Open House on the topic “What Is Quaker Worship?” supported by an “extra effort” to reach out to persons from local churches and interfaith groups to join us. Please hold us in the Light.

About the Author(s)

Steve SmithSteve Smith is a member of Claremont Monthly Meeting in Pacific Yearly Meeting. He may be reached by e-mail at ssmith@cmc.edu.