Interchange, Spring 2005
Interchange, Fall 2009
The End of Racism is Found in The Light
Members of the Baltimore Yearly Meeting Working Group
on Racism come from the following Monthly Meetings:
Annapolis, Bethesda, Friends Meeting of Washington,
Homewood, Langley Hill, Stony Run, and Valley, with
corresponding members (i.e., unable to attend meetings)
in Richmond. Five of those meetings have created local
versions of the "Working Group on Racism," some with
different names. We have profiled these local groups below,
to give an idea of their activities to other monthly meetings
thinking of forming a similar group.
Annapolis: The Deconstructing Racism group in Annapolis,
which is composed only of European American Friends,
meets about four times a year to review our experiences
with race. Several members of the group, though not all,
deal with race on a regular basis in their professional work.
We have become a valued support group for standing up to
racism wherever we encounter it; we often fall short, but we
help one another understand situations and find better ways
to respond in the future. We do not read books together,
but we sometimes share resources with one another. One
First Day after Meeting for Worship, we showed the film,
Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible to members
of the Meeting and a number of visitors.
This group grew out of a series of 2002 workshops
on diversity led by an African American member of
the Meeting, Marilyn Gilmore, who did this work
professionally. These workshops were well-attended.
Marilyn started the group to carry on the learning of the
workshops. Originally we usually had a predetermined
topic. When she moved away in 2005, we moved into more
of a personal sharing mode. We have been a dedicated
group of four with others attending occasionally. We are
open to anyone in the Meeting who wishes to attend.
We have no formal connection with any committee. We
simply meet together over our interest in race and our desire
to support one another in standing up to racist situations.
Langley Hill: I’d like to share the joy of having a working
group on racism at Langley Hill Friends Meeting. After
volunteering for the role of liaison person to BYM’s
Working Group on Racism, I invited Friends from our
Meeting to join me in thinking together. Four of us
have continued to meet monthly. We have become the
committed core. The work is not always easy and can
meet with resistance, so the core group of four of us has
been invaluable. The work has bound us together in that
way Jesus understood when he said "Wherever two or
three are gathered together in my name, there will I be
also." We experience the presence of the Light as our
small group continues to work collaboratively on this
important issue.
Since late 2008 we have come together at a coffee shop
on a weekday noon hour. We begin and end with shared
silence. At some point, we pause to eat lunch together. We
have two categories on our agenda: the first is personal
journeys in challenging white racism and reaching out to
others across racial, ethnic and class differences; the second
is generating corporate activities at our Meeting and in our
wider communities that serve the goal of ending racism.
We followed the BYM working group’s lead
in asking our Committee on Ministry and Worship
to be the committee to whom we report. This was not a
simple accomplishment. It involved our taking a persistent
stand that this issue is not about social action so much
as about the spiritual strength and inclusiveness of our
Meetings. Two of us are members of Ministry and Worship
and we work hand in hand with that committee to enrich the
life of our Meeting. Recent activities include: presenting
the film Making Whiteness Visible with a follow-up
discussion (and inviting the wider community to attend);
sending two of us to Kenya to work with Friends’ programs
there and hosting a Friend from Kenya in our community
to talk with many groups about the healing activities of the
African Great Lakes Initiative; and participating in bringing
Vanessa Julye and Donna Williams to this area to present
their book.
Maryhelen Snyder
Stony Run-Homewood: We began meeting at the
beginning of 2007, inspired by the activities of the BYM
Working Group on Racism (WGR). Just as the latter has
come under the care of BYM’s Committee on Ministry
and Pastoral Care, this "local WGR" is under the care
of Ministry & Counsel at Stony Run and Ministry and
Worship at Homewood. We have held monthly sessions
(except July and August) in the Stony Run dining room
on Sunday evenings. All our meetings are open to anyone
interested in attending. The core group of participants
consists of eight-ten European-Americans and two African-
Americans; there is a similar ratio among those who are
able to attend only sporadically. On occasion, participants
join us from Gunpowder and Patapsco Friends Meetings.
Special events have drawn from 20 to 50 people and have
included the showing of three films around issues of race
and racism; book discussions on Why Are All the Black
Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel
Tatum and White Like Me, by Tim Wise; and talks followed
by discussion. Friend Joy Zarembka spoke on issues faced
by multi-cultural families, based on her book The Pigment
of Your Imagination and the next year discussed her work
to end modern slavery and human trafficking in the US;
Fred Pincus of UMBC spoke on "Affirmative Action and
‘Reverse Discrimination,’" and Ray Winbush of Morgan
State University led a "Dialogue on Race and Education
in the Age of Obama." In May 2009 we will host a talk by
the authors of Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship.
The group attempts to keep issues of race and racism visible
in our monthly meetings by including a monthly newsletter
item entitled Thinking About Race and by drawing
Friends’ attention to inter-cultural,/inter-racial events in the
Baltimore area. At our monthly gatherings, we take time
for sharing personal experiences and concerns about race
and racism. We have found this to be a vital and needed
support in our attempts to learn how to intervene effectively
in helping to unmask and dismantle racism.
Elizabeth DuVerlie
Friends Meeting of Washington: Under the care of the
BYM Working Group on Racism, a pilot discussion group
on the meaning of race in our lives was formed at FMW in
May 2008. The group has met about once monthly Friends
have shared stories about the meaning of race and talked
frankly about how race has had an impact on their lives and
their faith. The group has been racially mixed. Two guest
speakers have come in from a similar discussion group in
the Arlington Public School system called SEED (Seeking
Equity in Educational Diversity). They have helped
maintain a balance of backgrounds and perspectives and
their experiences and helped the group explore and pierce
the veil of race that obscures our commonality. The group
will evaluate the effort and think about ways to help other
meetings implement similar pilots.
Janet Phoenix
Richmond: We have an occasional reading group that
gathers to discuss books. We read Tim Wise’s book, White
Like Me in 2008. In spring 2009 we are meeting to discuss
Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson, who was at
Union Seminary recently. I am hoping that we will consider
discussing the book by Vanessa Julye and Donna McDaniel
beginning this fall (2009). As we all know, intentions
need to be scheduled or they don’t evolve, so the critical
component is getting the book discussion scheduled. The
VERY few book discussions have been good -- the bug-
a-boo is the all too common “busyness.”
Elizabeth Smith
Advance Report - 2009
The BYM Working Group on Racism (WGR) pursued its mission this year with particular emphasis on one point from the WGR’s 6-point mission statement: “Raise the awareness of BYM Friends regarding the realities of racial and ethnic discrimination and oppression in America, including institutional and cultural racism, and the ways these phenomena affect all of us.”
The 11 active members of the WGR have offered to visit monthly meetings and Friends schools to consult and to participate in their efforts to enhance work on issues of race and racism. Individual members were invited to visit Valley and Patapsco Friends Meetings, and the Board of Sandy Spring School. At two locations, we facilitated the screening and discussion of the DVD “Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible,” and at the third we led a more general discussion. In addition, we have lent out books and DVDs from our growing pool of resources.
At the 2008 annual session, two workshops by the WGR drew a large number of participants: one “White in a Multicultural Society,” included the screening and discussion of the DVD above. The other, “Walking Our Talk: Diversity in Our Meetings and Becoming More Aware of Our Cultural Blinders,” gave participants the opportunity to experience the emotional, spiritual and intellectual depth that can come up when discussing race. It drew on existing ideas and generated new ideas about organizing sessions on race and racism at monthly meetings. In addition, the WGR designated one table at lunch each day for interested Friends to come by and discuss issues of race. The response to this table was modest in volume, but those who participated were very appreciative of this initiative.
We have collaborated on two occasions with William Penn House. We had co-sponsored a weekend-long workshop (Feb. 29-Mar. 2, 2008), White Friends Confronting Racism: Doing Our Work, led by Lisa Graustein of New England Yearly Meeting. On February 8, 2009, we facilitated a viewing and discussion of “Mirrors of Privilege” to a large group at WPH’s monthly potluck event.
We eagerly awaited the February 5, 2009, publication of the FGC book Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship – Quakers, African-Americans and the Myth of Racial Justice, by Vanessa Julye and Donna McDaniel. We are now scheduling events related to this book, with the authors and also with Friends who have received training from FGC to facilitate planning and discussions. We encourage all Meetings within BYM to obtain at least one copy of the book.
We initiated a long-range planning process in November 2008 to set future goals and activities. The plans include an effort, spearheaded by David Etheridge of Friends Meeting of Washington, to “prepare a history of the response of Baltimore Yearly Meeting Friends to slavery when it existed with legal sanction in the United States.” The results would be presented at the 2010 Annual Sessions. David is offering a workshop at the 2009 session, “BYM Slavery History Potluck,” to elicit stories and other material. The other workshop in 2009 will be a repeat of “White in a Multicultural Society.” We look forward to the presence at BYM this summer of David Zarembka of the Africa Great Lakes Initiative. We also look forward to continued collaboration with and support from the Committee on Ministry and Pastoral Care.
Elizabeth DuVerlie, Clerk, Working Group on Racism
Active members: Kathy Angell, Jean-Marie Prestwidge Barch, Jane Meleney Coe, Elizabeth DuVerlie, David Etheridge, Brian Gamble, Carol Phelps, Janet PhoenixPat Schenck, Maryhelen Snyder, Gail Thomas
Corresponding members: Jeanne Houghton, Elizabeth Smith, Sharon Smith
Interchange - Fall 2008
The BYM Working Group on Racism (WGR) was
pleased and excited to greet a large number of participants
at two workshops addressing issues of race at this
summer’s BYM gathering at Frostburg. The two workshops
drew over 20 participants each - larger numbers
than in previous years. We feel this growing interest is
attributable to several factors, including
- ongoing efforts
of the WGR to raise awareness of race issues and
to offer to Monthly Meetings means to address them;
- the ongoing efforts of the Friends General Conference
Committee for Ministry on Racism, including the
upcoming publication of the book Fit for Freedom, Not
for Friendship; and
- current politics in the US, with
the candidacy of Barack Obama.
One workshop, “White in a Multicultural Society,”
viewed and discussed the timely and thought-provoking
documentary, Making Whiteness Visible, filmed by Dr.
Shakti Butler. The other workshop, “Walking Our Talk:
Diversity in Our Meetings and Becoming More Aware of
Our Cultural Blinders,” gave participants the opportunity
to experience the emotional, spiritual and intellectual
depth that can come up when discussing race. It drew on
existing ideas and generated new ideas about organizing
sessions on race and racism at Monthly Meetings.
The Working Group on Racism reminds Friends that its
members are available to consult with Monthly Meetings
interested in talking about these issues. It encourages
Friends to read the book Lifting the White Veil, by New
Jersey Friend Jeff Hitchcock. There are also many other
excellent books, and the WGR has a selected bibliography
of such books, as well as films on DVD or video.
The WGR has also prepared (and made available at
Frostburg) a “Cultural Education Resource List: Places
to Learn about African/African American, Asian/Asian
American, Latino/Latina, Native American, Jewish, and
Muslim Cultures and/or Connect with these Communities.”
For a copy of the bibliography, the resource list
or other information, contact the WGR through clerk
Elizabeth DuVerlie, eduverlie@jhu.edu.
Advance Report - 2008
The Working Group on Racism (WGR) strives to be a resource to Monthly Meetings and an active presence within the Yearly Meeting. It has identified one liaison person at each Monthly Meeting that has responded to us (list of meeting with liaisons below*) and provides items for Meeting newsletters and offers curricula and/or workshops to meetings. In late 2007, two members of the Working Group facilitated a workshop on “Being a Welcoming Meeting” using Appreciate Inquiry at Friends Meeting of Washington. We are collecting a resource pool of videos, DVDs and books on race issues that can be borrowed by monthly or quarterly meetings. We encourage BYM Friends to further their knowledge of non-dominant cultures in the BYM vicinity by visiting some of the cultural, historical, and educational sites on a resource list we complied this year. We are aware that there are at least three active local working groups, at Stony Run-Homewood in Baltimore, Annapolis, and Langley Hill.
We responded to a request from the group revising BYM’s Faith and Practice to propose queries, advices and voices related to the testimony of equality. In addition, we proposed questions for use by writers and reviewers of all the new queries, advices and voices proposed for revised Faith and Practice, to help assure a broad diversity of views and voices. The questions
ask Friends to consider how each section contributes to an understanding of the degree to which our Meetings are and are not diverse a variety of ways.
We struggled with a decision about whether to exclude from the Working Group a participant who advocates taking into account the perceived characteristics of the ethnic group to which individuals belong in deciding how to treat those individuals.
We concluded that advocating reliance on such stereotypes about groups of people is incompatible with the work we are attempting to do. Our discernment process included consultation with Ministry & Pastoral Care, under whose care the WRG exists, and with the meetings this individual attends.
A major endeavor of the Working Group during 2007 – 2008 was the co-sponsorship, with William Penn House, of a weekend-long workshop (Feb. 29-Mar. 2, 2008), White Friends Confronting Racism: Doing Our Work. It was led by Lisa Graustein of New England Yearly Meeting, who had developed the curriculum. All 16 Friends (and one non-Friend) in attendance felt it was a resounding success and the WGR hopes to share some of the exercises with monthly meetings. The WGR is also exploring the possibility of a workshop that would be open to all races and be co-facilitated by Ms. Graustein, who is white, and by a person of color.
Interchange - Spring 2008
One of the goals of the Working Group on Racism (WGR) is to “Listen to those who express concerns about ‘being made to feel guilty’ in order to create a more comfortable climate for discussion.” Members of one Monthly Meeting asked us to clarify what that means.
The phrase “being made to feel guilty” is in quotes because it is something that members of the Working Group have heard some Friends say. Quakers have done much throughout our history to promote equality,
including abolitionist work, participation in the Underground Railroad, and the civil rights movement. Friends today continue to try to practice the testimony of equality. That being the case, some Friends wonder whether urging Friends to work harder to abolish racism and its consequences within Quakerism, our communities
and country, even within the world, is to diminish the good things Quakers have done, and are still doing, in this regard, and to “make them feel guilty” about not doing enough, or about still engaging in racist behavior. The WGR believes it is these implications that cause the most anguish and objection.
How do we communicate with each other about race and racism? A core problem is that we often have different understandings of the same words. One excellent and brief definition of “racism” is that “racism is a system of advantage based on race.” Sometimes we may think
that any kind of discrimination among people of different
skin colors or ethnicities constitutes racism. In fact, that only constitutes prejudice (never a good thing, of course), whereas racism is about having the power to dominate and oppress another group. In the U.S. today, it is the white “culture” that still tends to dominate and oppress people of color. While many individual white people may not wish to dominate and oppress, those who are white still benefit from the effects of this racism—even when we are not aware of it. When we realize that it is true that white people have advantages that people of color do not (often referred to as “white privilege”), and that this is something we can not only recognize but also do something about, then we are ready, if we choose, to do the work still very much required to end, or at least diminish, racism.
We hope this is helpful. We are interested in any further reactions to what is, of necessity, a brief commentary. We fully realize that not all meetings, especially the smaller ones, are able to take on all the causes that they would like to or that others would urge them to. But the Working Group on Racism is committed to promoting awareness that racism is still very much a concern in the United States and that there is much Quakers can do both within Quakerism and beyond to improve the situation. Address any responses to Working Group on Racism, c/o Committee on Ministry & Pastoral Care.
Interchange - Fall 2007
The BYM Working Group on Racism conducted, facilitated,
sponsored or encouraged six workshops during
Yearly Meeting Annual Sessions in 2007. These workshops
addressed racial issues, focused on people of color,
or were of special interest to people of color:
Deep Listening to Issues of White Privilege and
Cultural Racism
Mel Snyder focused on the natural need to grieve as
participants felt the ways in which white privilege and
racism have disconnected them from belonging to one
another in the fullest possible way. Human beings have
an in-born desire and ability to love each other and the
oppressive realities of classism and racism interfere
in subtle and culturally pervasive ways. Participants
paired up for listening time with each other.
Pigment of Your Imagination
Joy Zarembka combined vivid anecdotes of her travels,
historical background, and oral histories from mixed-
race families to examine the notion of race and identity
to better understand the vastly different interpretations
of racial identity in different parts of the world. After
discussing Joy’s recently published book, Pigment of
Your Imagination, workshop participants discussed the
existing racial composition of their home Meetings and
steps that are being taken or could be taken to reduce
barriers that apparently limit the involvement of people
of color in their Meetings.
Engaging Diversity and Difference
Jean-Marie Prestwidge Barch asked the multiracial
participants in her workshop to imagine a story behind
the photographs that she gave each participant as a way
to explore their responses to difference and to listen to
each others’ experiences.
Nurturing Peace and Reconciliation among Friends
and Others in the Great Lakes Region of Africa
Participants
in this workshop led by Linda Heacock learned
about the grassroots projects of Friends Peace Team’s
Africa Great Lakes Initiative (AGLI) and its Quaker
partners in East and Central Africa. They learned from
the personal testimonies of African participants in the
AGLI-sponsored workshops on alternatives to violence
and on healing and reconciliation. Linda, an embraced
Friend from Richmond Meeting, has been to Kenya
twice since 2005 to conduct Alternatives to Violence
workshops.
Modern Slavery Where We Live
Joy Zarembka shared with workshop participants her
experience and knowledge gained as Executive Director
of the "Break the Chain: Campaign, which works
with persons who have been brought into the US to do
domestic work mostly for embassy and World Bank
employees, and who are being held against their will
in the homes they clean. Using a law school case study
approach, Joy helped participants learn what facts are
needed to establish that a worker is being held against
her will. Joy said that when her organization succeeds in
extracting these individuals from the home where they
are working, they like to provide them with a computer
with web access to help restore the access to the outside
world that was denied them when they were enslaved.
Persons who have a computer to donate can get in touch
with her organization at 202-234-9382.
Walking our Talk: Diversity in Our Meetings and
Becoming More Aware of Our Cultural Blinders
Unfortunately, this opportunity to “walk our talk” did not
happen this year. The workshop facilitator and clerk of
the Working Group on Racism, Elizabeth DuVerlie, was
riding her bike July 24 in Keene, New Hampshire when
she was struck by a car. Injuries to her head, left arm
and torso required a week of hospitalization and home
recovery that is expected to last through September.
Advance Report - 2007
During the past year, the Working Group on Racism (WGR) undertook two major changes: 1) it came under the care of the Committee on Ministry and Pastoral Care (M&PC) to reflect the spiritual emphasis of its anti-racism work, and 2) it shortened its name to “the Working Group on Racism.” It also created a Mission Statement (attached to this report), which M&PC endorsed at March Interim Meeting. Comments from committee members: “It’s a beautiful statement, and very necessary.” The Working Group has welcomed the participation of a member of M&PC at its monthly meetings. A core group of eight or nine WGR members attends regularly, including the M&PC liaison. One final transition of this year was the passing of the clerkship from Patience Schenck, who has led the group since its inception in 2002, to Elizabeth DuVerlie.
The Working Group On Racism strives to be a resource to Monthly Meetings and an active presence within the Yearly Meeting, particularly at the summer gathering. In 2006, it provided the leadership for the opening retreat, led by Jean-Marie Prestwich-Barch and Michael Cronin, and offered the following workshops: 1) “Raising Our Children of Color” – Jean-Marie Barch; 2) "After the Guns Have Stopped," about the African Great Lakes Initiative - Anna Sandidge, the coordinator for Friends Peace Teams; 3) "Confronting Slavery Today: Lessons from the Abolitionists” - Gerri Williams and Joy Zarembka; 4) "What Does Racism Have to do with Hurricane Katrina?" - David Robinson of the AFSC/SERO Katrina Response Assessment Team; 5) "Raising Non-Racist Children" - Pat Schenck.
In 2007 it will offer the following workshops: 1) “Engaging Diversity and Difference” (for Young Friends) – Jean-Marie Barch; 2) “Modern Slavery Where We Live” – Joy Zarembka; 3) “The Pigment of Your Imagination” – Joy Zarembka, based on her 2007 book of the same title; 4) “Walking Our Talk on Diversity in Our Meetings: Becoming More Aware of Our Cultural Blinders” - Elizabeth DuVerlie; 5) “Applying the Skills of Deep Listening to the Experience of Cultural Racism and Elitism” - Mel Snyder.
Four members of the WGR attended a Pendle Hill Workshop in March 2007, “White People Working to End Racism.” We were reminded of the value of role-playing responses to difficult, yet often common, situations regarding issues of race, so as to be better prepared to respond in “real life.”
The WGR held a planning session on “Where do we go from here?” on May 7 with a second set for June 11, at Stony Run Friends Meeting. Members of the Committee on Ministry and Pastoral Care were also invited to attend, and one was able to participate. The results of this session will inform both the work of the Working Group during the coming year as well as the BYM workshop on “Walking Our Talk.”
The WGR will also reach out to identify one liaison person within each Monthly Meeting within BYM, and to be a resource to Monthly Meetings through articles in Interchange, items for Meeting newsletters, and offering curricula and/or workshops locally and other ways as appropriate.
Elizabeth DuVerlie, Clerk
Interchange - Spring 2007
Those of us who participate in the Working Group
on Racism Among Friends are sometimes asked. “Why
are you trying to make us feel guilty?” While our group
has not yet completed work on its mission statement, no
one has proposed “making Friends feel guilty” as a goal.
Nor does it seem to me that creating feelings of guilt
are required to achieve any of the goals we are considering.
For example, one of our proposed goals is to “Create
a climate in our Meetings that embraces people who
are drawn to Friends beliefs and worship, regardless of
racial or ethnic identity.” To achieve that goal Friends
need only identify what we need to do differently in
order to create that climate and then do those things.
To take a non-racial example, several years ago I
was at an anti-war rally when it started to rain. I put up
my umbrella, but was advised by someone sitting next
to me that a rib of my umbrella was poking him in the
face. Without taking the time necessary to feel guilty
about anything, I apologized and moved my umbrella
away from my neighbor. That action apparently satisfied
my neighbor who had no discernable interest in
whether or not I felt guilty.
Once my neighbor told me I was causing him a
problem, there were many ways for me to respond to
end the problem–moving the umbrella, moving to a less
crowded spot, offering to share the umbrella so that we
were both kept dry and neither was poked, or even putting
the umbrella up and getting rained on. None of those
was likely to happen, however, until I realized there was
a problem and decided to do what I could to solve it.
While, for some of us, feelings of guilt might cause
us to take constructive action, guilt can also inspire unhelpful
responses. In the umbrella example, feelings of
guilt might have caused me to challenge my neighbor’s
version of events, say that I did not intend to poke him
but not do anything about it, suggest to him he was being
overly sensitive, or tell him he should have noticed
my umbrella going up and moved out of the way.
Guilt, at best, is optional and can often get in the
way. The desire to solve the problem is all the motivation
we need.
David Etheridge
Interchange - Fall 2006
Reflection on Asking Questions About Race at BYM
“Why should we care if our meetings are diverse?”
The setting was a BYM workshop on “The Realities of Racism” held in Chambersburg in August 2005. Immediately some people started rolling their eyes and looking shocked, as if to say, “You shouldn’t ask a question like that!”
I thought it was a great question. Those of us who are working to make our meetings more welcoming are not doing so to be “politically correct.”
We are doing it because some people whose hearts respond to finding God in the silence, and who happen to have darker skin than the majority in BYM are unable to find a comfortable home in our meetings.
We are doing it because as long as we are culture bound by a society that is racially skewed, we have a false understanding; we live in error, separated from a part of Truth.
We are doing it because the broadened vision we will have together as diverse people will allow us to better discern God’s will for us.
There are answers to our questions, and the way we learn is by asking.
I would like BYM not to be a place where we need to be “politically correct;” rather, I’d like it to be a place where we can ask “dumb” questions without fear of censure, where we can learn from one another and, in this way, become a more welcoming community. We all can contribute to creating this safe place.
Submitted by Patience Schenck, Clerk, Working Group on Racism Among Friends
Advance Report - 2006
The working group sponsored a number of workshops at BYM annual sessions in 2005, including one on The Reality of Racism led by Vince Buscemi of New York Yearly Meeting. This workshop gave new ideas and energy to the working group. One insight is that racism is a spiritual issue, in that it is about how we perceive the world and our fellow human beings. It is about us, not about social change outside ourselves. While the working group has, since its inception in 2001, reported to Peace and Social Concerns, we came to believe as a result of this insight that reporting to Ministry and Pastoral Care would be more appropriate. At this writing, working group members have met with Ministry and Pastoral Care, but discussion has been held over until the next meeting.
Committee members have submitted a number of articles to the Interchange.
Several members of the committee and a number of Friends not on the committee attended the Conference for Racial Justice & Equality Within the Religious Society of Friends, held in Burlington, New Jersey, on March 31-April 2. This conference was an opportunity to share ideas among yearly meetings.
All meetings have been asked to designate someone as a liaison to our working group. These people do not attend committee meetings but they announce events to their monthly meetings. Fourteen meetings have responded.
The working group contacted the Search Committee for a New General Secretary, asking that one of the criteria for the position be a concern for and experience with diversity.
The working group is taking responsibility for the pre-BYM retreat this year. A unique part of the retreat will be a jazz concert to be followed by worship. The leaders are Michael Cronin and Jean-Marie Barch.
Workshops sponsored or promoted by the working group this year include the following topics: Raising Quaker Children of Color, Raising Non-racist Children, New Orleans and the Response to Katrina, Modern Slavery, and The African Great Lakes Initiative.
Patience Schenck, Clerk
Interchange, Spring 2006
Annapolis Friends Deconstructing Racism
Support Group
Have I colluded lately? If so, how?
These are the opening questions a group of Annapolis Friends
ask ourselves when 7-9 of us meet once a quarter. Our group is made up of
Friends who earlier participated in a series of workshops entitled
"Deconstructing Racism," held at our meeting.
Collusion is defined as: Cooperating with others, knowingly
or unknowingly, to reinforce stereotypical attitudes, values, behaviors and/or
norms. We collude in various ways, some of which are: (1) remaining silent
when, for example, someone tells a racist joke or calls a group a racist name;
(2) laughing at a racist joke, or otherwise by our own behavior, reinforcing a prejudice or a negative stereotype; (3)
denying that a problem of discrimination exists, despite compelling evidence to
the contrary.
Until she moved to Colorado, Marilyn Gilmore led the group,
first by facilitating our sharing,
and then by leading us in cultural competence skillbuilding.
We will now attempt to continue without her leadership.
The purposes of the group are to continue to grow in our
awareness and sensitivity to racial issues and to support one another as we
handle difficult racial situations in our daily lives. Ultimately, our goal is
to make our meeting a welcoming and comfortable place for people of color who
are drawn to our form of worship.
What I have noticed over time is that we have become less
defensive about our own struggles with racism; rather, we notice the ways in
which we have been conditioned to think and behave, which allows us to change.
I, personally, am more comfortable handling difficult situations, and it is my
hope that our personal work contributes to helping people of color feel more
comfortable in our meeting.
Other meetings that would like to follow a similar path are
invited to contact the BYM Working Group on Racism Among Friends at
pschenck@toadmail.com.
Pat Schenck
Annapolis Friends Meeting
Clerk, BYM Working Group on Racism Among Friends
Advance Report - 2005
Because the theme for the Annual Sessions in 2004, "Inclusive or Exclusive-Meeting God in Everyone," directly addressed our mission, we arranged for Donna McDaniel and Vanessa Julye to talk about the history of Quakers and African Americans at the Tuesday plenary session last year. Our working group also co-sponsored with the Ad-Hoc Committee on Gender and Sexual Diversity Concerns a workshop entitled, "Bayard Rustin: How one Quaker devoted his life to meeting that of God in everyone." In addition, we conducted a workshop on teaching anti-racism in First Day School.
The Working Group wrote an article that appeared in the fall 2004 issue of the Interchange that reported on efforts by Meetings within the Yearly Meeting to become more welcoming to people of color.
We assisted the Quaker Arts Committee of 15th Street Meeting in New York City, where Bayard Rustin worshipped for many years, with a showing of the video on Bayard Rustin's life, Brother Outsider, in Washington, DC on the day of the Presidential Inauguration. Our group provided guides for leading discussions about the video and flyers offering for sale CD's, tapes, and books from the Bayard Rustin Fund. The Working Group also arranged for Barbara Nnoka of Friends Meeting of Washington, who was a colleague of Bayard Rustin when she worked for the Friends Committee on National Legislation and the American Friends Service Committee, to be one of three panelists discussing his life after the video presentation.
We met with fifteen people from Takoma Park Friends Meeting to consider possibilities of outreach to their neighborhood. A deeply moving discussion arose from the responses to questions from our 2003 Listening Project on Outreach and Diversity and the sharing of information about what other Meetings have been considering.
The Working Group is planning to lead an interest group at the BYM Young Friends Conference in late May 2005 to explore whether young Friends would be interested in conducting their own Listening Project about racial issues
For the 2005 BYM Annual Sessions we have invited Vincent Buscemi of New York Yearly Meeting to conduct a workshop on Friday August 5 and Saturday August 6 entitled, "The Reality of Racism." The first day of the workshop will start with sharing about historical and current racism within BYM. On Saturday workshop participants will focus on community empowerment and movement toward healing the injustice of racism. Vincent Buscemi has earlier conducted this workshop in New England Yearly Meeting, New York Yearly Meeting, and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting as part of an effort by Friends General Conference to enhance racial and ethnic diversity and eradicate racism within FGC affiliated Yearly and Monthly Meetings.
Several individuals accepted requests by the Working Group that they conduct workshops at the 2005 BYM Annual Sessions on matters of concern to us. These include Eric Sterling's workshop on racism in the criminal justice system, Peta Ikambana's presentation on the work of the American Friends Service Committee DC Peace and Economic Justice Program, a workshop by David Zarembka on US Quaker interaction with African Quakers in the Great Lakes region of Africa, and a workshop entitled "HIV/AIDS and the Impact on Children in Africa - Making a Difference" presented by Gloria Molenje.
We are also making arrangements for the bookstore at BYM annual sessions to include a display of First Day School curriculum materials on race.
David Etheridge
Interchange, Spring 2005
To the accompaniment of helicopters overhead monitoring movements
of demonstrators and inaugural ball attenders, about 40 of us gathered
the evening of January 20 to remember and be inspired by the life
of Friend Bayard Rustin. Producer/director Bennett Singer presented
the video he helped create, "Brother Outsider." documenting
Bayard Rustin's life.
A gay African-American Quaker from Chester, Pennsylvania, Bayard
Rustin followed his leadings to federal prison in World War II for
refusing to cooperate with the draft, to India to learn the principles
of nonviolence, and to Montgomery, Alabama, to tutor Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King on those principles. In 1963, with more than 20 years
of organizing experience behind him, he brought his unique skills
to the crowning glory of his civil rights career—organizing
the historic March on Washington, the biggest protest America had
ever witnessed.
The Quaker Arts Committee of 15th Street Meeting in
New York, where Bayard Rustin worshipped, conceived of showing the
video as an inaugural event . The venue was the Provisions Library
Resource Center for Activism and Arts on Connecticut Avenue, NW,
three blocks from Friends Meeting of Washington.
Baltimore Yearly Meeting's Working Group on Racism Among Friends
provided guides for leading discussions and flyers offering for
sale CD's, tapes and books from the Bayard Rustin Fund. The Working
Group arranged for Barbara Nnoka of Friends Meeting of Washington,
a colleague of Bayard Rustin when she worked for FCNL and AFSC,
to be one of three panelists discussing his life. Lawrence Guyot,
a Mississippi civil rights activist and former field secretary for
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, was also on the panel.
The third panelist, Bennett Singer, had also collaborated on the
PBS series Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years and Voices
of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement.
Meetings interested in borrowing a copy of "Brother Outsider,"
a selection of the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, should call Jane
Coe at (301) 320-5083.
David Ethridge
Interchange, September 2004
How Are Meetings Becoming More Welcoming to Diverse People?
Many Monthly Meetings are discovering ways of becoming more welcoming
to people of color. The BYM Working Group on Racism plans to report
periodically on some of these attempts.
After some members of Bethesda
Meeting had participated in the BYM Listening Project, they
decided to have their own Project. People were interviewed and asked
what had attracted them to the Meeting, why they had stayed, how
important they thought racial diversity in the meeting was, and
related questions. The questions were about outreach in general
as well as welcoming diversity. The responses were summarized, providing
a snapshot of the Meeting. Friends then held a number of discussions
on the summary and discussed next steps.
One of the suggestions that came out of the Project was to look
at what is said about diversity in Introduction to Quakerism courses,
and it was discovered that beyond stating that there is a testimony
about equality (mostly with reference to women, Indians, and slavery),
very little is said at all. Friends went on to develop a set of
motivating queries on present-day racial and ethnic diversity.
The video on Bayard Rustin which was so popular at Annual Gathering
this year and the audiotapes of the Racial Justice Series at Pendle
Hill 2002-2003 are available in the Bethesda Friends Meeting Library.
Those in other meetings wishing to borrow them may contact Jane
Meleney Coe at 301/320-5083 or bethesdafm@igc.org.
Friends Meeting of Washington
has provided a home for the monthly Worship Group for Friends of
Color, which is under the care of Langley
Hill Friends Meeting. In addition, a small group of Friends
has been meeting periodically at FMW to learn more about racism
as it affects the Meeting and the larger community, For many months
the group focused on Friend Jeff Hitchcock’s book Lifting the White
Veil, which reviews the history of racial divides in the U.S., explores
the characteristics of a truly nonracist multiracial society, and
proposes a roadmap for building such a society. Then the group went
on to consider other writings such as Peggy McIntosh’s paper, “White
Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” and the report of the
Working Group on Racism Among Friends on its recent Listening Project
on Diversity and Outreach in BYM.
Annapolis Meeting passed
a minute that when someone is hired to do any job: provide accounting
services, cut the grass, clean the building, repair the furnace,
or any other task, hiring will be done with attention to affirmative
action.
Following a series of Saturday morning workshops on race and racism,
Annapolis Friends continues to hold a quarterly gathering called
the Deconstructing Racism Support Group. Here Friends reflect on
experiences they have had since the last meeting, especially noticing
times when they colluded with racism. Then there usually is a topic
for the day, such as how to respond to racist comments and jokes.
Finally, in celebration of the 50 th anniversary of Brown v. Board
of Education, The Annapolis Outreach Committee hosted a talk by
three elderly retired African American teachers who had taught in
the county both before and after the integration of schools. The
event was given wide publicity, and it drew a large number of guests
from outside the Meeting, both African-and European-American, interested
in this local history.
For a future Interchange article on what your Meeting has done,
please send information to Pat Schenck at pschenck@toadmail.com
or 410-263-4529.
Programs on Diversity Offered to Monthly and Quarterly Meetings
The BYM Working Group on Racism Among Friends offers programs
for Monthly and Quarterly Meetings on Diversity, Creating Welcoming
Meetings, and related topics. If interested, contact Pat Schenck
at 410/263- 4529 or pschenck@toadmail.com.
Annual Report 2004
Listening Project At its October 20, 2001 session, the Baltimore
Yearly Meeting Interim Committee empowered the Yearly Meeting Peace
and Social Concerns Committee to provide a home for a group focused
on issues of diversity and associated injustice. As those of us
who were part of that group, which we named the Working Group on
Racism Among Friends, began to meet and ponder our next steps, we
decided we needed to learn what we could about the existing views
and attitudes of Quakers in BYM on diversity among Friends. It also
seemed to us that Friends’ attitudes concerning outreach generally
would also be particularly relevant to any effort to address racial
diversity in our Meetings.
We decided to do very detailed and deliberate listening to Friends
throughout the Yearly Meeting by undertaking a “Listening Project”
to ask questions about Friends’ thoughts on Quakerism, their Monthly
Meeting, racial diversity in the Monthly Meeting, outreach to their
neighbors, what, if anything their Meeting should do about any of
these matters in a manner intended to stimulate ideas and deepen
discernment. We listened to 70 Friends from 25 different Monthly
Meetings in Baltimore Yearly Meeting.
We distributed the final report and gave an oral report at the
2003 BYM Annual Session. We wrote an article about the Listening
Project that was printed in the Fall 2003 Interchange. The report
is posted on the BYM Web Site for viewing at www.bym-rsf.org/Racism/listening_project_on_diversity.htm
and for downloading in PDF format
at www.bym-rsf.org/quakers/committees/Listening%20Report.pdf. We
also gave presentations about the Listening Project at the Fall
Interim Meeting at State
College Friends Meeting and at Bethesda
Friends Meeting and Friends
Meeting of Washington.
Resource documents
We have prepared two resource documents for use by Meetings and
individual Friends interested in addressing barriers to racial diversity.
One is a list of books, videos and one Web Site that address racial
issues in the U.S. The other is a list of things individual European
Americans can do to address racism. For things that Meetings can
do, we use the webpage “Seeking Racial and Ethnic Diversity” prepared
by Committee for Ministry on Racism Friends General Conference and
posted at www.fgcquaker.org/cmr/seeking.html.
Outreach to individual Meetings
We have conducted sessions on racism for Langley Hill Friends Meeting,
Adelphi Friends Meeting and Nottingham Quarterly Meeting and responded
to requests for assistance from Takoma Park Preparative Meeting
and Herndon Friends Meeting. We prepared queries on racism for Friends
Meeting of Washington and hosted a series of discussions based on
audio tapes from Pendle Hill at Bethesda Friends Meeting.
Preparing for 2004 BYM Annual Sessions
Because the theme for the Annual Sessions in 2004, “Inclusive or
Exclusive— Meeting God in Everyone,” directly addresses our mission,
we have worked to develop program for those sessions. We have arranged
for Donna McDaniel and Vanessa Julye to give a presentation on Quakers
and race at a Tuesday plenary session, Our working group is co-sponsoring
with the Ad-Hoc Committee on Gender and Sexual Diversity Concerns
a workshop entitled, “Bayard Rustin: How one Quaker devoted his
life to meeting God in everyone.” Another workshop will focus on
teaching anti-racism in First Day School. Additionally, in response
to our suggestion, the Friends in Education Committee is offering
a workshop on the experience of Friends schools in achieving racial
diversity.
David Etheridge
