America used the cruelest most inhumane system of slavery to build the richest most powerful nation. America, the land of the free, the home of the brave, but at what cost in human life, pain, cruel inhumane treatment, the effects of which are still being felt today? Does America owe a debt to black Americans, the descendants of African slaves: You bet! America owes a huge debt.
Quakers may not have slandered, persecuted or denounced blacks, but there was a coziness with racism that was certainly within the pivotal degrees of cooperation with the status quo. Racism is a virus that quietly lurks in the Society of Friends. … racism is a disease or disordered cause agent so deeply rooted in the fabric of our country that it has ruptured some of our religious and cultural cohesiveness.
This workshop is designed to help white people examine the racial barriers that separate us from other racial groups and individuals, barriers that interfere with truly bonding with that divine spark in everyone. The intended purpose is to increase the potential of creating deep, honest, and meaningful relationships.
How would the world look in 50 years with true racial and environmental justice?
How can a community be safe for ALL neighbors, friends, and visitors, especially in the context of the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman experience or other examples of a person of color being killed in situations in which if they were white, the killing probably would not have occurred?
Read the following statements:
Think about how they make you feel right now. Are they true for you?
* – I am not racist.
* – I don’t understand what you people are saying or what you want.
* – On the whole, the educated, the upper classes, the emotionally mature, and the deeply religious are much less racist.
* – Other ethnic groups have had to struggle. Why is this so different?
* – Angry people of color make me feel so helpless.
This workshop’s goal is to help people access their inherent brilliance and experience to use this toolkit to transform ourselves and our institutional policies and systems that perpetuate structural racism and oppression.