Overview
White supremacy and racism are embedded in our society and institutions and recreated constantly. We breathe them in like air pollution, so while the origins are not our specific fault, like air pollution there are various strategies that people, communities and institutions must engage in to mitigate and clean up the mess. This week we will be exploring the spiritual and practical tools we can call upon to transform, interrupt, and heal white supremacy in ourselves, our meetings, and in the world.
Through racial equity work and healing white supremacy, we reclaim our full humanity. Especially for white people, this work encourages a communal, non-individualistic mindset, which can restore connections and build a sense of solidarity. We must be prepared for hard conversations and hard work, but it can also be fun, loving, and enlivening. We are all in it together.
Reflecting on the challenges we face as a nation, Sikh activist and lawyer Valarie Kaur offers a message of hope and love, asking, What if all of our grandfathers and grandmothers are standing behind us now, those who survived occupation and genocide, slavery and Jim Crow, detentions and political assault? What if they are whispering in our ears “You are brave”?
VIDEO: Address delivered at a Watch Night service on December 31, 2016 (6 minutes)
Video source and transcript: Washington Post
Key Definitions: Liberation
Liberation
The creation of relationships, societies, communities, organizations, and collective spaces characterized by equity, fairness, and the implementation of systems for the allocation of goods, services, benefits and rewards that support the full participation of each human and the promotion of their full humanness.
Liberatory consciousness
A way of living in a world characterized by oppressive systems with awareness and intentionality. It enables us to maintain an awareness of the dynamics of oppression without giving into despair and hopelessness and an awareness of the roles played by each individual in the maintenance of that system without blaming them for the roles they play. And it enables humans to live outside the patterns of thought and behavior learned through an oppressive socialization process to support us in being intentional about our role in working toward transformation.
Empowered Person of Color / Multiracial Person
A person of color who understands racism and its impact on their life, and can respond in strategic and self affirming ways to racist events and circumstances encountered through living in a racist society. Empowerment includes having pride in oneself and one’s social group, understanding racism as systemic, and and asserting one’s rights in strategic and persistent ways.
White Ally
A person who actively works to eliminate oppression. An ally is motivated by self interest, a sense of moral obligation, or a commitment to foster social justice and does not patronize or assume to “help” people of color in paternalistic ways and has explored the ways that whiteness and internalized dominance impacts their everyday existence. A white ally may engage in anti-racism work both in collaboration with other white people and in collaboration with people of color.
If you have five minutes…
Watch this QuakerSpeak video: Advice to White Men featuring Niyonu Spann
“Bring it. Bring it. Bring yourself more fully.”
If you have fifteen minutes…
Read this Friends Journal article: Hope for the White Supremacist Within by LVM Shelton, which presents white supremacy as an addiction and offers a 12-step framework for recovery.
Some individual spiritual practice for self‐examination is needed for progress in becoming whole. However, community—indeed, communion—is an essential feature of practicing a 12‐step program. Even those steps that are not explicitly interpersonal rest on the support and noticing of others around us. Joining in recovery with others who are willing, we can be patterns and exemplars of equality and integrity.
Source: Friends Journal, September 2016
Queries for Conversation
- Please share the spiritual practices that ground you and give you strength and energy, so that we all can learn from each other
- Who inspires you, that you can call to mind when you need to be reminded that others have worked hard to get us this far, and others are working hard right now to dismantle white supremacy?
- What would liberation look like for you?