Working for Racial Equity and Justice
In the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown, Jr. in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri an interracial group of leaders from churches in our community came together to address racial issues that we were concerned about as people of faith. We made the decision to dedicate 3 hours on two Saturdays each month to share our experiences and perceptions about racial issues with the goal to develop mutual understanding, trust, and hopes for creating better race relations in our town. This sharing of personal histories and experiences with racial issues led to an ongoing racial equity and justice initiative that we called Courageous Conversations Georgetown. Over the next several years, our Courageous Conversations group expanded when we invited other community leaders and citizens to participate with us in community racial awareness forums, cultural competency training, book reads on racial topics, and action teams aimed at addressing issues regarding race that impact public safety, affordable housing, public education, living wages, as well as community debates about removing our local Confederate monument from the county courthouse lawn and confronting white supremacy.
Over the past seven years our Courageous Conversations initiative has made significant strides in raising the awareness and engagement of our local community in racial equity and justice issues. This organization is guided by a Core Team of volunteers representing a variety of faith communities, non-profit partners, educators, and community activists who come together each month to address ongoing racial justice matters that emerge in our community.
The mission of Courageous Conversations Georgetown is “to promote a culture of justice and compassion in Georgetown for people of all races; and economic, religious and ethnic identities”.
The Vision of Courageous Conversations Georgetown is “to create locally the Beloved Community of compassion characterized by cross-cultural communication, collaboration, celebration, and courage” as expressed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Our ongoing work is guided by this affirmation inspired by Dr. King–
I refuse to believe that we are unable to influence the events which surround
us.
I refuse to believe that we are so bound to racism and war, that peace,
brotherhood and sisterhood are not possible.
I believe that there is an urgent need for people to overcome oppression and
violence, without resorting to violence and oppression.
I believe that we need to discover a way to live together in peace, a way that
rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of this way is
love.
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word
in reality. I believe that right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil
triumphant.
I believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies,
education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for
their spirits.
I believe that what self-centered people have torn down, other-centered
people can build up.
By the goodness of God at work within people, I believe that brokenness can
be healed, “And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and everyone
will sit under their own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid.”
You can learn more about Courageous Conversations Georgetown at:
https://courageousconversationsgtx.com/
Today’s White Grievances Indicate that Racism is Still Alive in America
For those of us paying attention to the dynamics of race, the public outcry now being voiced by many whites about the teaching of critical race theory in schools, the institutional unfairness of affirmation action policies, and concerns about white replacement in America all sound like the latest versions of white racism. As a Brookings Institute article in August of 2021 noted, conservative news outlets have focused a lot of their commentary this year on the topic of Critical Race Theory (CRT). They claim that those who are teaching this theory are accusing all white people of being racist oppressors while portraying all Black people as hopelessly oppressed victims of racism. However, CRT is not a curriculum nor is it a model for teaching about race relations in America. As the sociologist, Joe Feagin, points out, “CRT originated in and is still mainly taught in law schools” and not in local elementary or high schools. The term was developed by two law professors in the 1980s to describe a perspective to explain why civil rights court decisions and racial justice laws in the 1960s-70s had not brought about the kind of racial desegregation and equality that was hoped for. Instead of emphasizing individual racist acts, CRT became a lens for the legal community to focus on how institutional structures and social systems perpetuate racist public policies. In the hands of conservative media like Fox News, however, CRT has become a culture war issue that needs government action. So, this term has essentially been hijacked by social and political ideologues to object to educational efforts to teach the racial history of the U.S. in public schools and to address the impact of slavery, Jim Crow laws, racial segregation, and notions about white supremacy on people of color in our nation. I am among those who see this controversy over CRT as the desire of conservative whites to protect the dominant white narrative about America’s virtues from the scrutiny of honest history and to maintain, indirectly, the sense of white privilege as America becomes more racially diverse.
Likewise, the complaints of whites today about institutional affirmative action practices and the replacement of a white dominant culture only add to the list of white grievances being expressed by those who seeking to protect perceived white virtues and privileges. Rather than exploring how institutional racism has kept this nation from realizing its ideals of equality and justice, those issuing white grievances today reflect the same kind of white anxiety that erupted in the 1950s and 1960s when the civil rights movement was in full swing. Here’s a picture that says it all-