The UUCN Racial Justice working group holds regular informal discussions about race and privilege, as we strive to make changes in our thinking, our interactions, and our world.

Archives

• April 2019
  Garvin shared the varied history of Black UUs and missed opportunities, compiled by Mark Morrison-Reed.
• March 2019
  We watched and discussed Levittown from the videos “Race: Power of an Illusion“
• February 2019
  We shared aloud a powerful poem by Scott Woods, and reflected upon continuously “scooping the racism out of the boat of our lives”.
• January 2019
  A hardy group met with Gillian and reflected on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.
• November 2018
  Microaggressions take many forms, as we saw in cartoons here and here, performed by Sadie and Jodie. Then we discussed third-party interventions that we ourselves can take to interrupt microaggressions.
• May 2018
  We closed the year in song, as Vengerflutta shared the teachings of the recent BLUU Revival.  Listen to the powerful words of the Black National Anthem and explore Rolling Stone’s 22 Protest Anthems of Black Lives Matter.
• April 2018
  We practiced courageous conversations about racial matters: What do you say when someone mentions Black Lives Matter? Make it personal, keep it short and powerful. Facilitated by Craig.
• March 2018
  Voting restrictions today threaten the rights of minorities, students, the low-income, the elderly, and the disabled. We reviewed some of the SPLC’s modernization recommendations and discussed related issues with Sylvia.
• February 2018
  Reflected on the affordable housing crisis as it relates to racism, with videos from Matthew Desmond (author of “Evicted”), and from FrontLine about McKinney Texas and Marin CA. Facilitated by Paul.
• January 2018
  Listened to the funny yet insightful Trevor Noah, Stories from a South African Childhood, and discussed its relevance to America’s white privilege and unequal education system, facilitated by Gillian.
• December 2017
  Talked about racism and how it relates to dental hygiene, through the funny and insightful work of Vu Le.  We also reviewed the work of activist Paul Kivel, specifically “Guidelines for being Strong White Allies”, guided by Harry.
• November 2017
  Conversation about “White America’s privileged perspective on racial realities” from a video by Tim Wise brought by Jodie.
• October 2017
  Many thanks to Vengerflutta for walking us through the awesome short MTV video “Five Things You Should Know About Racism.”

This ongoing conversation was inspired by 2017’s UUCN seminars “Being White in a Racist World,” from the UUA’s GRACE team.