As your program states, I intend to offer a "positive and courageous approach to overcoming racism" We will need courage and a positive approach in order to make any real progress in healing racism.
Like most of the challenges given in my sermons, the expectation isn't that any of us will do it perfectly, but that by focusing on a common value we will naturally find ways to move toward it.Part of the positive and courageous nature of our UU approach is that it's always a work in progress.We realize that we don't have the final answer.We realize that we aren't perfect, and therefore we seek to be willing to learn continually.
I can't promise that everything I have to say will be positive.In our task of growing beyond racism, I ask that you grant me, and that we grant each other room to experiment, room to make and learn from our mistakes.
Much of what I'll share about racism concerns national patterns. I hope you'll find it helpful to step back and get a wider view. Then we will talk about what we can do individually.
One thing that is fun and exciting about raising the question of how to heal racism, is to remember the progress that has been made.I suppose my positive attitude about this subject has to do realizing how much goodness came out of the civil rights period. The precedent set in civil rights struggles, led to many other social progress movements including the anti-war movement, a surge of women's liberation movement, labor and migrant workers campaigns in the 70's, anti-nuclear movement of the 80s.The victories of the civil rights era helped lead through a chain of events to fall of the rule of Apartheid in South Africa.
That accounts for much of my optimism. But I suppose I don't actually know all of the reasons why I have such an affinity for this topic.It probably has something to do with the fact that I was born in the middle of the civil rights era, and that I was was coming of age in the time of Nixon's reelection. I was, at that time a reluctant participant in the struggles of a boy's world, trying to find peace and finding that my place in the pecking order was constantly challenged. I was also having what psychologists call a religious identity crisis resulting from how I was treated as a person of mixed religious heritage. I was struggling to make sense of the world.
One day in the public library, I discovered tape recordings of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.My life changed that day!If I had to pick one thing that attracted me to these two Negro leaders, it would have to be the self dignity that they both expressed. What they said made sense to me in in a way that nothing - with the possible exception of some things written in the Hebrew prayer book had.
As a young adult, I read all of the published sermons and speeches written by Dr. King.These led to my study and practice of nonviolence.
Dr. King demonstrated that attempts to overcome racism shake the foundations of society, and lead to greater transformations. For this reason, I am confident that great forces for social progress will be unleashed as we strive to heal racism. As we Unitarian Universalists take to heart the challenge to become anti-racist, we will be moving toward fulfillment of many of our greatest values and principles.
It's an exciting time to consider racism. For the first time in American history, we are looking at the likelihood of an African American as president. This is certainly a milestone indicating tremendous progress toward eradicating the anti-African sentiment in our country.
But issues of race are far from over. A good attitude tell us that positive changes are likely to be in store for us. We have come this far. Why should we stop now? How would society look if relationships are characterized by a love of life? That's what may be needed to heal racism.
I am also encouraged because my experience has taught me the value of facing the effects of past trauma. I have known very many people who seemed to repress or simply cope with the long term effects of trauma. Each instance resulted in a noticeable dullness in these people's life and demeanor. I have also known many people who have faced and healed from trauma.Earlier Veronica mentioned the great need for prayers and encouragement visiting someone in a state mental hospital.I have the great fortune to know or have known hundreds of survivors of psychiatric hospitalization that went on to lead amazing lives without psychiatric control or treatment.Their doctors suggested no recovery was possible, and yet they live free of the symptoms that led to their hospitalization.
Whenever people have done the work of facing and learning from the pain they were carrying as a result of trauma, they then experienced miraculoustransformations.These results have been consistent.People who wrestle their demons and win bring something so precious to this world. They seem more whole, more alive than they had been prior to the trauma. Something good and strong and beautiful gets unleashed when people heal in this way. Therefore,we can expect miraculous transformation as we continue to move forward in healing the racism of our society.
And as a nation we have failed to come to terms with our history. We have avoided considering what karmic debt we owe for the accumulated wealth built upon the theft and genocide of indigenous people, capture and slavery of Africans, and brutal exploitation of underclass people.Some would desperately urge us to forget about the past.If you ask these same people about current patterns of dominance, poverty, child prostitution, slavery and near slavery, theyprobably would not see a link to our history of brutality upon Africans and American Indians.
Similarly, we have been in denial as to the reasons there is so much resentment and hatred of America.We dismiss it as jealousy.
Where in the public debate has there been acknowledgment that many of our relationship problems stem from the fact that we are a small percentage of the world's population consuming the majority of its resources?! We claim to be the world's greatest advocates of democracy and human rights. Many see us as the rich and powerful nation that shapes their destiny in order to feed our addiction to consumption.Where in public debate has there been discussion of the way we have undermined democracy and self determination throughout the world?
We will likely continue to fail to recognize these patterns as long we continue to deny and repress the racism that got us here.Since world war II, we have waged war after war on brown skinned people.Unwillingness to face our history of racist colonialism leads to denial of our current colonialism.
We have been living in age where such deep healing hasn't been encouraged.We have lived in a time of quick fixes.The response to every social issue has been to ride the wave of population expansion that brings more jobs and more tax revenue.We have lived in a time when allopathic medicine became so effective at treating symptoms, that nobody noticed how sick we were becoming.We use pesticides and fertilizers for quick and pretty yields, and we have barely begun to measure the extent of the harm we are causing from the accumulation of toxins in or environment.We have lived in a time when profit has been the main determinant of every social decision.We have lived through years questioning what we did in Vietnam, but quickly turned to a new patriotism, an insistence in the political realm that we would never question the assumption that we are the greatest nation in the world. We've agreed to never consider our role in creating the world's problems. The world's problems were caused by the communists, and the muslim extremists, and those evil drug cartels of Central America.We are the good guys, keep that straight!
So when I talk about a positive approach to overcoming racism, you might think I am advocating that we forget about the past, stop whining and simply celebrate the progress that has been made.
Celebrating our progress is important.Part of maintaining a positive attitude means finding reasons for hope.We can celebrate each and every victory toward liberation.
There can be no doubt that America has been the land of opportunity for wave upon wave of immigrants.Catholics and Jews once at the bottom of the heap now enjoy a solid share in the affluence of this country.African Americans, hispanics and asians have achieved high ranking positions in government and commerce.
Whether you see it as half full or half empty, the question remains:"What does any of this have to do with us individually?"I've been talking about national patterns of racism, but racism is more often thought about as a personal attitude.
One word racism gets used to mean very different things. In an email posted to cuuc-discuss, Henry Halff suggested some of the different definitions.
Racism is much bigger than any one person's prejudice. Racism has power because of social or collective realities.All of us participate in these.We can decide to remove our support for racism.We won't do it perfectly, but our efforts will always be worthwhile.
A positive approach to racism would keep in mind that virtually no one wants to be racist. Children do not decide that just for the fun of it they will begin fearing or hating a group of people. As the South Pacific songs told us "you've got to be taught to hate and fear." A positive approach takes issue with racist beliefs and behaviors, but does not demonize someone as a racist. If you call someone a racist you think of them as a static thing, rather than a dynamic human being.Let's leave room for people to learn from mistakes and new information.
Include yourself in this number.No matter how far you may have evolved away from the societal ill that is racism, given time and support you can grow further.
Let's imagine that you have progressed so far that you are completely free from any prejudice or participation in social structures that promote racism.Now imagine that you encounter someone advocating for a policy that seems to you to promote racism.What do you do about it?Call the proposal racist?Run away?How effective do you wish to be in supporting the healing of racism?
The key to being really positive is to use everything in your life as a force to fuel your spiritual growth. Rather than curse what is, be with it and listen to what your heart yearns for. There is no way to avoid participation in racism completely. Since we can't avoid it and can't make it go away, what do we do, It may help to distinguish between prejudice, discrimination, bigotry, and racism.
Prejudice is something we all have. We pre-judge people and situations based on our past experiences and collected data. The ability to discriminate is a central part of our intelligence. "That's wet. That's dry, that's hot. That's cold." Discriminating in this sense helps us to survive.
One thing we can do to support our spiritual growth is ask ourselves how long we will remain attached to our pre-held beliefs when new experiences don't match our picture.We can also challenge ourselves to remember that generalities may not apply to the person in front of you.
You see yourself as someone who is loyal and generous to your friends. You have no intention of harming others.You simply keep to your own. You like the people you like. It's not your fault if they are all Caucasian. Prejudices don't have to be intentionally harmful in order to do harm.
Bigotry means being intolerant of opinions, lifestyles or identities different from our own. Perhaps we can't imagine that we could be intolerant."How can religious liberals be intolerant?!" If we don't think we could be intolerant, we will likely talk down to people.After all we know better, don't we? Separating ourselves from people that we judge as inferior, this is the same dynamic that fuels racism.Racism is a spiritual disease.
We can develop the courage needed to become positive in our attitudes.We can see in the task of overcoming racism, a vehicle for our spiritual growth.The question isn't whether or not you are a racist. The question is what do you need to do to heal your own wounded heart?What do you need to do so that you can experience and express love, peace and joy for all the people that belong to our one beautiful human race?
What do you need to do in order to forgive yourself and/or God for putting you into a world where the soul, spirit and humanity of individuals often gets ignored?What do you need to do to be able to celebrate the life force that flows through men and women of all racial heritage?to see and honor that soul in every person be they of african, european, asian or indigenous decent? What is your gift to this world? Will you find the courage to break from the past, day by day, little by little or leap by leap, celebrating every forward step, accepting that it takes whatever it takes for us to be able to learn what we need to learn?
We did not kill Indians or own slaves.Neither were we slaves or indians driven from our land.But what beliefs have we inherited that keep us from knowing our interdependence?
Our Unitarian Universalist tradition began with white European Protestants, many of whom changed the course of history by their valuing of liberty.Some of our ancestors were abolitionist leaders.Are we willing to accept the torch of liberty, and hold as sacred the quest to grow beyond racism? More than words, may our lives give an affirmative answer.
Blessings to you!