The General Commission on Religion and Race has just begun a powerful video series about racial justice, diversity, and effectiveness in your congregation or community. GCORR began this series In October with Dr. Robin DiAngelo. Watch the first video here.
The UMC looks to GCORR to facilitate, resource, guide, and support discussions on how to move to efficacy, justice, and courageous, positive action. It is our hope that these videos transform lives, congregations, and communities. Participation in our Vital Conversations: A Video Series will jumpstart the conversation about racial justice, diversity, and effectiveness in your congregation or community. GCORR begins this series with Dr. Robin DiAngelo.
Dr. Robin DiAngelo is the author of What Does it Mean to Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy and has been an anti-racist educator, and has heard justifications of racism by white men and women in her workshops for over two decades. This justification, which she calls “white fragility,” is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation.
CONVERSATIONS ON RACISM: Suggested READINGS
From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces: A New Way to Frame Dialogue Around Diversity and Social Justice, by Brian Arao and Kristi Clemens. This text explores the practices of establishing guidelines for conversations that seek to promote diversity and racial justice activities.
Conversation Guide for Cracking the Codes: The System of Racial Inequity by Shakti Butler, PhD. This conversation guide and glossary is designed to support organizations that are using this film to introduce the concept of systemic inequity to a diverse audience and deepened the conversation on race.
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/17/books/review/ta-nehisi-coates-between-the-world-and-me.html?_r=0
The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration, by Ta-Nehisi Coates http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/the-black-family-in-the-age-of-mass-incarceration/403246/
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander. http://newjimcrow.com/
The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege, by Robert Jensen. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5539692
The Strange Career of Jim Crow, by C. Vann Woodward. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/97484.The_Strange_Career_of_Jim_Crow
White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son. Using stories from his own life, Tim Wise demonstrates the ways in which racism not only burdens people of color, but also benefits, in relative terms, those who are “white like him.” Wise explores the ways in which whites can challenge their unjust privileges, and explains in clear and convincing language why it is in the best interest of whites themselves to do so.
The movie, White Like Me, shown at the October MFSA meeting, is available to use with your Sunday School class or other group. It is very informative about how white privilege is embedded in our institutions and systems. Contact Anne Mund at ennadnum@hotmail.com if you are interested in borrowing the movie.
Come to the November meeting of the Rio Texas chapter of the Methodist Federation for Social Action to get a glimpse of reality for our black sisters and brothers. A panel of three African-American United Methodists (Willie Johnson, Adama Brown, and Jarell Wilson) have agreed to talk about some of their personal encounters with racism in recent years. Under the skilled facilitation of Jeremy Solomons (http://jeremysolomons.com/info/), the panelists will educate all of us about the discrimination and prejudice they continue to experience.
Rio Texas Methodist Federation for Social Action 