Category: Race

My Journey Towards Wholeness is Learning to Embrace the Discomfort

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CileBy Lucile (Cile) Beatty- involved with both the Bay Area Solidarity Action Team working in solidarity with Black Lives Matters in Oakland, CA

How many people have had to endure discomfort when healing from a physical injury or illness? How many people have experience discomfort in their spiritual practice – perhaps watching the clock when mediating, or struggling with an unanswered prayer? I want to share with you how embracing discomfort around racism and white supremacy has been a necessary healing force in my life.

First, a little about me. I am an introvert who grew up in an alcoholic home. My father was a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde drunk. I learned from my mom how not to rock the boat in order to “keep the peace.” Continue reading “My Journey Towards Wholeness is Learning to Embrace the Discomfort” →

Workshopping Historical “Response-Ability” among Settlers

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Elaine 2010By Elaine Enns, Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries. This piece was originally printed in Geez Magazine’s Decolonization Issue.

History, despite its wrenching pain,
cannot be unlived,
but if faced with courage,
need not be lived again.”
— Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of the Morning,” 1993

Facing painful history is indeed wrenching. In North America, we Settler descendants often avoid hard conversations about past and present relationships with Indigenous people. In my ethnic community, Mennonites in Saskatchewan, I have been exploring our resistances to “response-ability” in doctoral research, through interviews, focus groups and workshops. This piece summarizes two —selective memory and distortions in our communal narrative—which obscure the whole story and the truth that alone can lead to reconciliation. Continue reading “Workshopping Historical “Response-Ability” among Settlers” →

Drumming and Jack-o-Lanterns

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pumpkinBy Lydia Wylie-Kellermann

Late at night, I would sneak into our living room, lie on the floor, and put my ear to the ground. I could hear the drumming and catch the tune to the chants that had for years drifted me into dreams. If I really pushed my ear close, I could make out my mom’s voice as she joined with the circle of women monthly sharing song, dreams, and summer vision quests deep in the woods.

My family was deeply Christian. My mom loved incense and the sacraments. But she was also starved for a spirituality that rooted itself on the ground- in the trees and the hawks and the snow. She longed for rituals that connected her body to the waves and the changing moon. She clung to the tension of multiple traditions knowing that she needed them both. Continue reading “Drumming and Jack-o-Lanterns” →

Reflections on the road with NAACP

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philReflections on the road with NAACP from Selma to Washington, DC by Phil Dage, life-long Detroiter, works to integrate music, social activism, historical studies, and faith in the pursuit of peace.

August 4, 2015:

My involvement with the NAACP began in Rosebud, MO. Driving my car in Detroit, last December, I heard an interview with the president and CEO of the NAACP, Cornell William Brooks. While marching to the capitol, Jefferson City, Mr. Brooks gave a phone interview broadcast on NPR shedding light on the murder of Michael Brown and encouraging all sympathizers to join in the march from Ferguson to the Capitol. Like a strike of lightning, the words of the NAACP leader hit me. His words reverberated down into my soul and reinvigorated my passion for justice. And so I gathered a few of my friends and drove down to Missouri. We met the march in Rosebud (a story which deserves its own telling) and needless to say, the experience was profoundly impactful. After witnessing the NAACP’s firm commitment to nonviolent action firsthand, I became a strong supporter of the organization. Continue reading “Reflections on the road with NAACP” →

Black Churches Burning in the South

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wesleyBy Wesley Morris, Union Theological Seminary and Beloved Community Center

I still think about Charleston, SC and the Mother Emanuel Church. I still think about the dozens of black churches burned in the south during the following days and weeks and the slow movement of the federal government to deem the fires hate crimes.

I love my mother and father and they still go to bible study. The Pastor, other members and visitors join them seeking a good word and study to encourage them through the week. Some travel over thirty miles to make it there at 7:00PM, Raleigh, NC, every Wednesday. That good word over the years has added to the church, our refuge, our peace and those walls.
Continue reading “Black Churches Burning in the South” →

Campaign Zero

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Campaign Zero#BlackLivesMatter is homing in on ten specific proposals. Read the entire article here for a helpful update on the movement and a lot of really profound research.

1. End broken windows policing. This refers to a style of policing that goes after minor crimes and activities, based on the notion that letting minor crimes go unaddressed can foster and lead to even worse crimes in a community. In practice, this tactic has disproportionately impacted minority Americans — in New York City, the vast majority of stops in 2012 were of black or Hispanic people.
Continue reading “Campaign Zero” →

Detroit Spirit and Roots Reflection

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Photo taken by Andrea Ferich. Created by participants bringing with them their ancestors to this place.
Photo taken by Andrea Ferich. Created by participants bringing with them their ancestors to this place.

Kate Foran reflects on Detroit Spirit and Roots, a project of Word and World and local organizers in Detroit.

An ancestor chose to survive because they saw this—you, us—coming. – A Detroit Spirit and Roots Participant, to the young people of color at the table

Some 11 years ago: my husband Steve and I are interns for Word and World, living in Greensboro, NC and working under one of the founding W&W board members Nelson Johnson. Word and World is struggling (as one way or another most organizations do) with white supremacy culture. We have a diverse board and we have rigorous goals for anti-racism and anti-oppression at our week-long schools. Everyone is making a good faith effort to unpack internalized privilege and internalized oppression, to “do our own work.” Still, as can be expected when you’re organizing so many moving parts, tensions run high and everyone brings their own default cultural assumptions to the table. At the time (and still) Nelson is involved in many organizations nation-wide. Steve and I ask him if he has ever been part of a truly multi-racial organization. He thinks long and hard for a minute and says no. He says the closest he’d ever come was with the Communist Workers Party, where ideology was so strong it trumped other dynamics. He says Word and World is different because at least folks are willing to have some honest conversation about race. But, he said, his experience as an African-American organizer is that white people either take over or they leave. Continue reading “Detroit Spirit and Roots Reflection” →

A Reflection on the Wild Goose Festival

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By Wesley Morris, Union Theological Seminary and Beloved Community Center, wild gooseGreensboro, NC

I saw two amazing black women Rev. Traci Blackmon and Bree Newsome share time and space yesterday at WGF. Their hug and exchange of words was a course in miracles itself. Cutting through Q and A’s to the grace that only they may know the height and depth of. I am grateful to have heard so many of the presenters and been in concert with the folks at Wild Goose this year. This was and is very important work, but this moment, this reunion of sorts is my lasting image of Christ’s love. Continue reading “A Reflection on the Wild Goose Festival” →

Some Things We’ve Learned

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dsrThis past weekend was the Detroit Spirit and Roots Gathering. Over the next few weeks we will post some reflections from the weekend. This event began with the idea from Word and World to host a Land and Water School in Detroit. Over almost two years of plannings and conversations, it shifted into a collaborative event called Detroit Spirit and Roots. This was a process with lots of struggle and learning along the way. This document is a list of things we learned in that process which we used as part of our framework for the event.

“Some Things that We have Learned”
Detroit Spirit & Roots Gathering
Summer 2015

The Local Committee has agreed that this will be the framework that will guide our participation in DSR

What are the spiritual resources that our movement needs? Continue reading “Some Things We’ve Learned” →

Learning from Laughter: Speaking Truth to Innocence

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, RaceLeave a comment

lydia die inBy Lydia Wylie-Kellermann. First published on Geez’s blog.

The sun hits my face hard as I listen to the water from the fountain. As I look up and around, I am aware how little this downtown resembles the city I know anymore. The faces are all young and white (not unlike my own) playing beach ball, listening to live bands, sipping mid-day cocktails, and eating from food trucks. I look down at the 25 black bodies lying on the cement draped with signs and names of those killed at the hands of the police. On my lap sits the one-and-a-half year old who is my constant companion and teacher these days. He watches intently holding an air of seriousness in his body. Continue reading “Learning from Laughter: Speaking Truth to Innocence” →