PBUUC Initiative for Diversity/
Anti-Racism Transformation

The mission and ministry of the Diversity/Anti-Racism Transformation Team (DARTT) is to raise awareness about racism and promote personal transformation and spiritual growth that will intentionally move our congregation to become a truly welcoming, multi-racial, multi-cultural community.

At the June 2007 annual meeting, members of Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church (PBUUC) signaled the congregation's readiness to undertake a journey toward greater diversity, inclusiveness and understanding by voting overwhelmingly to make Anti-Racism the congregation's principal social action initiative.

The DARTT Charter was approved by the PBUUC Board on April 10, 2008.

Paint Branchers are already involved or committed to becoming involved in developing and implementing this initiative in our congregation. At planning meetings in August and early September, the newly-formed PBUUC Diversity/Anti-Racism Transformation Team (DARTT) began its work. Long time Paint Branch member and leader Leo Jones will guide DARTT.

The Board of Trustees is fully committed to the success of this initiative and urges members and friends of PBUUC to join in with your ideas and energy for both planned and new projects. Our congregation is located in a minority-majority community in an increasingly diverse major metropolitan area. We need to reach out to and embrace those members of our community who are waiting to hear the good news of Unitarian Universalism. This is our calling. If not us, who? If not now, when?

We invite you to join us on this journey. Here's how you can get involved:

1. Join us by coming to one of the many activities related to this initiative
    
2. Start your own self-study on racism and diversity. We have links to many educational and inspirational materials related to diversity and understanding and healing racial division.
    
3. Attend monthly DARTT meetings, which are now scheduled for 7:30 pm on the second Tuesday of the month at PBUUC. The meetings are open to members and friends of PBUUC.

Transformation Programs and Activities

2009 Friday Night Journey Toward Wholeness Film Series

Join us Friday evenings at 7:30 pm for the following films and facilitated discussion:

• 3/27/09 — Part 2 of 4: The Rise & Fall of Jim Crow: Fighting Back (1896 - 1917)
• 4/5/09 — Part 3 of 4: The Rise & Fall of Jim Crow: Don't Shout Too Soon (1917 - 1940)
• 4/10/09 — Part 4 of 4: The Rise of Jim Crow: Terror & Triumph (1940 - 1954)
• 4/17/09 — Senator Obama in Africa
• 4/24/09 — Part 1 of 3: Race: The Power of an Illusion: The Difference Between Us
• 5/08/09 — Part 2 of 3: Race: The Power of an Illusion: The Stories We Tell
• 5/15/09 — Part 3 of 3: Race: The Power of an Illusion: The House We Live In
• 5/22/09 — Pip & Zastrow; an American Friendship

See the Film Series Flyer for more details.

Diversity & Anti-Racism Dialogues
Honoring the Inherent Worth and Dignity of Each Person

The next Diversity Dialogues, organized by DARTT (Diversity/Anti-Racism Transformation Team), will be held on the first Sunday of April, April 5, instead of the usual second Sunday (which is Easter this April). These monthly sessions provide the opportunity for personal reflection and discussion on issues of diversity and race in our own lives, our communities, our congregation, and our world.

The Diversity Dialogues focus on short articles, essays, speeches or books (to be selected in advance each month) as a starting point for deep conversation. The sessions stand alone and it is not necessary to commit to participate every month. The session will focus on the February speech by Attorney General Eric Holder, delivered to the Department of Justice for its African American History Month Program.

The text of the speech may be found at: http://www.usdoj.gov/ag/speeches/2009/ag-speech-090218.html

A Washington Post article on the speech may be viewed at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/20/AR2009022003643.html

By Googling "Eric Holder Speech" you will find many more articles that present varying views on the speech. Our aim in this session is to share our own perspectives on the speech and the issues it raises.

We welcome all to join in as we engage our minds and our hearts in exploring and sharing both the challenges and the opportunities of personal and collective transformation to embrace diversity in all its forms.

Please contact Cynthia Robinson or Theresa Brown Shute for more information.

---

Gathered Around the Chalice: Worship Service at Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church, August 10, 2008

Participants from the 2007-2008 Covenant Groups on Diversity and the 2008 Soul Work Book Discussion Group, presented a group dialog service on August 10, 2008 which offered a glimpse into the transformative process of PBUUC Journey Toward Wholeness work. Read a full transcript of the service.

DARTT Participants' Sharings

The following articles appeared in the PBUUC Bramches Newsletter.

• Racist? Not Me; I’m a Good Liberal!, by Mary "Tyrtle" Rooker (September 2009)
   
• It’s Not Black and White, by Theresa Brown Shute (August 2009)
   
• Inspiration for Our Journey Toward Wholeness, by Tricia Most (July 2009)
   
• Bragging Is In Order, by Carol Carter Walker (June 2009)
   
• Toward "Inclusive Excellence", by Tricia Most (May 2009)
   
• Hidden Racism, by Renee Katz (April 2009)
   
• Inauguration Day, by Margaret Morrison (March 2009)
   
• Kwanzaa Values Any Time of Year, by Patricia Most (February 2009)
   
• Imagine No Longer, by Evangeline Wells (January 2009)
   
• Educational Justice, by Leo Jones (December 2008)
   
• Extending a Warm Welcome, by Carol Carter Walker & Tricia Most (November 2008)
   
• In It for the Long Haul, by Bonnie Hurley (October 2008)
   
• Reflection on Race, by Muriel Morisey (September 2008)
   
• Soul Work: Reflections on a Book Discussion, by Jonathan Mawdsley, Vice Chair, Paint Branch Board of Trustees (August 2008)
   
• Being More Inclusive, by Tricia Most (June 2008)
   
• Toward Wholeness, by Bob Baker (May 2008)
   
• Increasing Awareness about Racism and White Privilege, by Tricia Most (April 2008)
   
• Why I Do this Work, by Bob Rand (March 2008)
   
• A Voice On Our Anti-Racism/Diversity Initiative, by Carol Carter Walker (February 2008)

History of Racial Diversity Initiatives at Paint Branch Unitarian Universalist Church

• 1980-1991 — "Worth and Dignity" RE curriculum developed, led four times by Marj Donn, Director of Religious Education (DRE), over a period of ten years, then published
   
• 1990s — Two Racism STUDY CIRCLES at PBUUC, and additional ones in conjunction with Greenbelt Baha'is
   
• 1990s — Numerous MLK, Jr. weekend celebrations and programs with Greenbelt Baha'is and Sojourner Truth UU Congregation in DC
   
• 1990s — UUA curriculum: "How Open the Door?" led by Ann Irvine and Carol Carter Walker
   
• 1990s — Racial Justice Task Force, led by Dennis Dryden and Ann Irvine (mostly book discussions; one period of inviting people in to tell their stories)
   
• 1990s — Related workshop led by Ann Irvine (attended by at least Adeline Wilcox)
   
• 2002 — "Rainbow Families" gathering, led by Jennifer Brooks, intern minister
   
• 2002 ongoing — Supportive adoption of Suitland High School Visual and Performing Arts Program, led by co-minister Barbara Wells ten Hove and Sylvia Lagerquist
   
• 2004 — "Soulwork" discussion group (8 sessions), led by co-minister Jaco ten Hove and DRE Natalie Fenimore; led to a summer lay Sunday service
   
• 2007 — "Race: the Power of an Illusion" video discussion series (3 sessions), led by co-minister Barbara ten Hove and Leo Jones; led to a dialogue sermon by those two.

Journey Toward Wholeness

The path toward this initiative began 10 years ago with the passage of a resolution to move the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) toward becoming an anti-racist, anti-oppressive, multicultural association of congregations. That resolution, passed virtually unanimously at the 1997 General Assembly (GA), the denomination's Annual Meeting. As shown through the following excerpts, that resolution calls for us to recognize and strive to overcome racism in our thinking, lives, and community:

• Unitarian Universalist principles call us to affirm and promote "justice, equity, and compassion in human relations" and "the goal of world community"
   
• our history as Unitarian Universalists includes evidence of both great commitment and individual achievement in the struggle for racial justice as well as the failure of our Unitarian Universalist institutions to respond fully to the call for justice
   
• racism and its effects, including economic injustice, are embedded in all social institutions as well as in ourselves and will not be eradicated without deliberate engagement in analysis and action…

• we realize we need to make an institutional commitment to end racism
   
• we are called yet again by our commitment to faith in action to pursue this anti-racist, multi-cultural initiative in the spirit of justice, compassion, and community
   
• Unitarian Universalists [are urged] to examine carefully their own conscious and unconscious racism as participants in a racist society, and the effect that racism has on all our lives
   
• [the UUA], its congregations, and community organizations [are urged] to develop an ongoing process for the comprehensive institutionalization of anti-racism and multi-culturalism, understanding that whether or not a group becomes multi-racial, there is always the opportunity to become anti-racist."

With its creation of the Anti-Oppression-Anti-Racism Transformation Task Force, the UUA began what they named a Journey Toward Wholeness (JTW). This ten-year journey resulted in JTW reports at each GA, workshops on various facets of the initiative, periodic regional diversity conferences, and other activities sponsored by UUA Districts, affiliate organizations, and congregations. The Anti-Racism Initiative has produced some institutional and personal changes, but there is still more work to do.

• Anti-Racism, Anti-Oppression, Multicultural (ARAOMC) Resources (uua.org)
   
• The Journey Toward Wholeness Path to Anti-Racism (uua.org)
   
• UU Allies for Racial Equity
   

Other Resources

• The Failure of Diversity (sermon by Rev. Joshua Mason Pawelek, January 22, 2006, UU Society East, Manchester, Connecticut)
   
• Project Implicit (Take this online self test to assess your conscious and unconscious preferences regarding race and other topics.)
   
• A.D.O.R.E. — A Dialogue on Race & Ethnicity in Prince George's County (Davies Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church, Camp Springs, Maryland
   
• White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, by Peggy McIntosh ("I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group.") Available from the author, or ask someone on DARTT to share their copy.”
   
• A Religious Liberal Examines His Heart (April 10, 2005 Sermon by Rev. Robert M. Hardies, senior minister at All Souls Church, Washington, DC)
   

Books

• Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by James W. Loewen. This carefully researched book tells the story of how thousands of towns, sections of cities, and rural villages in every state in the union became exclusively white over the past nearly one hundred years is enraging, depressing and enlightening. See also Loewen's web site with a more information on Sundown Towns in the United States including a state by state database.

• Soul Work: Anti-racist Theologies in Dialogue, edited by Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley and Nancy Palmer Jones (Papers and discussion transcripts from the UUA Consultation on Theology and Racism held in Boston in January 2001. Addresses such questions as: What theological or philosophical beliefs bind us together in our shared struggle against racism? What are the costs of racism, both for the oppressors and the oppressed?)
   
• Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice By Paul Kivel
   
• Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man? by Charles Barkley
   
• Learning to Be White: Money, Race, and God in America by Thandeka
   
• On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-first Century by Sherrilyn A. Ifill. Nearly 5,000 black Americans were lynched between 1890 and 1960, and as Sherrilyn Ifill argues, the effects of this racial trauma continue to resound. While the lynchings were devastating, the little-known contemporary consequences, such as the marginalization of political and economic development for blacks, are equally pernicious. Ifill traces the lingering effects of two lynchings in Maryland to illustrate how ubiquitous this history is, and issues a clarion call for the many American communities with histories of racial violence to be proactive in facing this legacy. (review comments by Derrick Bell, author of Faces at the Bottom of the Well, copied from Amazon.com)
   
• In Between: Memoir of an Integration Baby
   
• Black Pioneers In A White Denomination — Portraits of racism in liberal religion tells the stories of two pioneering black ministers. Includes accounts of some of today's more integrated UU congregations and biographical notes on past and present black Unitarian, Universalist and UU ministers.
   
• Been In The Storm So Long — first published in 1991, this stirring volume features more than 40 selections from the spirited voices of 29 African-Americans. Contributors include David H. Eaton, Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley, Rosemary Bray McNatt, Thandeka, Egbert Etherlred Brown and more.

Videos

• Race — The Power of an Illusion
   
• Blue-eyed
   
• The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
   
• Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible
   
• What's Race Got to Do with It? Social Disparities and Student Success.

---

If you have questions, comments or want to get more involved, please contact Patricia Most at Patricia_most@msn.com.