The Quaker Coalition for Uprooting Racism, or QCUR, is a coalition of six Quaker organizations and independent Friends. The work of QCUR is to undo white supremacy culture and to create spaces for beloved community.

For two years, the coalition has recruited Friends who form a cohort together. This community of practice meets for nine months of mutual support and learning. The 2024 cohort of QCUR will be wrapping up next month. Here is a behind-the-scenes look at some of the brave, collaborative work that happens at cohort meetings. It’s from the perspective of Johanna Jackson, FGC’s Communications Associate.

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Last March, Friends in the Quaker Coalition for Uprooting Racism met virtually. Unlike many Quaker groups that I have been part of, we began with a game. Dwight Dunston a facilitator for QCUR who led the game, reminded us: “People who don’t play together don’t stay together.” Starting with a game brought us to laughter, presence, release, and joy.

We then moved into small groups to hold prayer requests. Knowing that we may be uncovering some difficult content in our time together, we anchored in tenderness and grace. Small groups gave us time to share about our spiritual condition, our physical condition, and to hold space for one another. We asked people in our small group how they would like to receive prayer. We then returned to the big group.

We had prepared for this online session by researching events in Quaker history. Each person examined a key moment or theme in Quaker history. Independently, we had asked ourselves: What patterns of oppression are present in these moments? How are these patterns showing up today? We gathered to share back with one another about what we had learned.

Friends had researched:

• Quakers running Indian boarding schools
• Quaker schisms in the 1820s
• Friends’ creation of solitary confinement
• George Fox visiting the British colonies
• The Richmond Declaration of Friends

We agreed to be present with our emotions for this hefty work. Lisa Graustein, a facilitator for QCUR, set the stage by saying: “We are going to give time, care and attention when we share back this work. We are not going to do what many of us have experienced in our home Quaker communities: of treating this like an intellectual discussion and then moving quickly onto the next item.” As a group, we took time to process feelings and reactions.

We also stayed rooted in our bodies. After two Friends shared about George Fox’s silence on slavery, we focused on what we were feeling in our bodies. Some of the responses included:

 [Image description: a collage of words with green and orange boxes. Some of the boxes overlap. The words in the boxes say I feel… “deeply disappointed,” “heaviness in my body,” “tightness in my chest,” “sweaty all over,” “so angry,” and “frozen.”]

We practiced noticing patterns of oppression and faithfulness as we moved through more content. The concept of noticing patterns comes from Niyonu Spann. Niyonu is a Quaker and a former facilitator for QCUR. She is also co-founder of 4 Circles Beyond. Niyonu was present in spirit as we named patterns from the past.

As a class, we explored the history of “reading people out of meeting,” or forcing them out of the community. A white Friend shared visual art they had made about kicking people out of meeting. They speculated on the unspoken fears that lay behind this exclusion. A Friend of Color shared about his experiences of getting shut out, and shut down, in Quaker spaces. He had researched early racism in Quaker spaces. The Friend concluded: “This makes me wonder if the Society of Friends is a society that’s friendly to me.”

Other Friends held this reality and its pain. “I hurt for you,” one Friend said in reply. Another Friend offered: “I want to hold you in grace for the power that you are, in sharing this and helping us grow.”

[Image Description: An arrangement of dark green boxes that overlap. The words “I hurt for you” are spread across the boxes, floating through them.]

Later, a white Friend shared a poem, and the group listened. The poem was about whiteness. Here’s an excerpt, shared with permission from the author:

Hold on a minute;
I just need a minute.
System’s not broken, see, I’ve just got to climb inside it…
Just not all the right people inside yet.”

But the structure doesn’t change. The devil has won.
The gatekeepers have won.
The point was never to keep you out,
the point was for you to believe you had to get in.

The Friend later said that in writing this poem, “I noticed my own fear of change.” They described this fear as “disruptive or overwhelming” in their own life.

Part of the work of QCUR is about building beloved community in multi-racial spaces. A Friend of Color shared a summary of their experience at the online gathering. In an email to the group, shared here with permission, they said:

Learning these hard truths about our past help us to humanize our ancestors, which I hope will humanize us as well. We won’t be perfect, but we can take the most faithful next step

More information about the Quaker Coalition for Uprooting Racism is available online. Friends may donate to Niyonu Spann’s work, which gave birth to the pedagogy of QCUR. Friends General Conference is currently accepting donations to sustain this program in future years. To earmark your donation for QCUR, click the first dropdown arrow on the donations page.