Chalice Lighting – 

“Justice is the ongoing, never-ending journey to remake community by strengthening relationships.” Marvin Ellison

Opening activity- Introduce yourselves and share 3 things that you consider an important part of your identity.

Idea to consider:

“You may think of truth as a quantity, a thing, almost an object… Yet…what we consider [the truth] is highly colored by the story we are living, the culture in which we live, and our state of knowledge and our purposes – all of which might be quite unconscious and slanted…”~ Thomas Moore, Parabola, Winter 2003

We have an opportunity, in being a part of South Church, and in choosing to participate in this learning journey, to increase our consciousness- about ourselves, about one another, and about the history of our country. We are beginning with an exploration of our own identity, and an opportunity to hear about each other’s sense of identity because buiding this awareness is an essential part of building our capacity to practice anti-racism and anti-oppression.

What is your Identity?

Resource sent out to be read in advance: https://uucsj.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/The-Complexity-of-Identity.pdf

[In small groups] begin by opening your journal or on a blank piece of paper, write your name in the center of the page. Take some time to think about the various identities you hold. Common factors to consider include race, class, gender, religious affiliation, age, or affectional orientation.

You might also consider roles that you identify with (i.e., child, sibling, parent, spouse, student, teacher..) as well as experiences (i.e., cancer survivor,).

Write the things that come up for you around your name in a web-like fashion, those that feel more important can be larger print– less important with a smaller font.

Next, with your own identity maps in mind- as a group, take some time reflect on the article ‘The Complexity of Identity’. I have printed out a few highlights from that article here. In your small groups, please designated a person to write down highlights from your conversations. 

Some points from the article: 

• People are more likely to be aware of and name aspects of their identities that stray from the ‘norm’ or ‘default’– we tend to name the otherness, rather than sameness.
• There are at least seven categories of “otherness” commonly experienced in U.S. society. race or ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, and physical or mental ability. Each of these categories has a form of oppression associated with it: racism, sexism, religious oppression/ anti-Semitism,4 heterosexism, classism, ageism, and ableism, respectively. 
• When we think about our multiple identities, most of us will find that we are both dominant and targeted at the same time. But it is the targeted identities that hold our attention and the dominant identities that often go unexamined.”
• “The dominant group holds the power and authority in society relative to the subordinates and determines how that power and authority may be acceptably used. Whether it is reflected in determining who gets the best jobs, whose history will be taught in school, or whose relationships will be validated by society, the dominant group has the greatest influence in determining the structure of the society.”
• Dominant groups generally do not like to be reminded of the existence of inequality. Because rationalizations have been created to justify the social arrangements, it is easy to believe everything is as it should be. 
• When the perspective of the subordinate is shared directly, an image is reflected to members of the dominant group that is disconcerting. To the extent that one can draw on one’s own experience of subordination – as a young person, as a person with a disability, as someone who grew up poor, as a woman – it may be easier to make meaning of another targeted group’s experience.
• Our ongoing examination of who we are in our full humanity, embracing all of our identities, creates the possibility of building alliances that may ultimately free us all.

Questions:

• What did you notice in your own identity map, about the different aspects of your identity and how they relate to power/privilege in our culture?
• In what ways can identity be a barrier to building a more just world? 
• What are some ways that you find helpful for navigating shame or discomfort that often comes with having privilege?

Questions:

• What did you notice in your own identity map, about the different aspects of your identity and how they relate to power/privilege in our culture?
• In what ways can identity be a barrier to building a more just world? 

What are some ways that you find helpful for navigating shame or discomfort that often comes with having privilege?

Closing question: Share with one another your personal reason why you have chosen to participate with this learning journey.

Return to large group- 

Report back some of the highlights of what was discussed in each small group

Closing Reading

“In every age, no matter how cruel the oppression carried on by those in power, there have been those who struggled for a different world. I believe this is the genius of humankind, the thing that makes us half divine: the fact that some human beings can envision a world that has never existed.”

Anne Braden

For Next time:

Pick something from this list to read or watch (or pick your own book/ movie/ poem/ etc, that relates in some way to our Racial Justice learnign journey). Write down one take-away (you may have many, but choose one) and bring it with you to our next learning session.

Books

• Between the World and Me by, Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson – Also read by author on Audiobook, there is an adaptation for Young Adults as well,  
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Elizabeth Wilkerson- (this is excellent on Audiobook- read by the author)
• Stamped from the Beginning- Ibram X. Kendi -OR- (adapted for young people) Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
• The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
• Citizen~ an American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

Movies: 

• Descendant – a documentary about the last slave ship (on Netflix)
• Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America. (on Netflix)
• Just Mercy (on Amazon Prime)

Articles/websites/Other media

• Some Thoughts on Mercy, by Ross Gay https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/451/some-thoughts-on-mercy
• Under Our Skin- a project of the Seattle Times https://projects.seattletimes.com/2016/under-our-skin/#
• TED talk by Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy:

Content Credit: Much of this content in this learning session was drawn from the thoughtful work of the UU College of Social Justisce- https://uucsj.org/study-guide/