ERACISM MINUTE May 10, 2020, Mary Alden

Eracism Mother’s Day 2020

I am a mother who gestated and birthed out five beautiful babies. I never knew I had white privilege.

I am a mother who had good prenatal care and carried all those babies to full term. I don’t recall ever worrying about their future access to what they needed to lead a long and healthy life.

I am a mother whose babies were raised in a house that their father and I owned, partly because my parents who owned the home I was brought up in helped us.

I am a mother who sent her children to schools that were not failing, partly because the banks gave us mortgages in those good neighborhoods.

I am a mother whose children could dream dreams of becoming teachers, writers, engineers, nurses, and doctors, because those who came before them had.

I am a mother who sent my children out to play, out to school, out to life, not even dreaming that before I could do that we needed to have “the talk” about what not to say or do or where not to put their hands so that they could be safe.

I am a mother who never knew I had white privilege, who never knew that I passed on white privilege to those five beautiful babies.

I am a grandmother who is just beginning to grasp the enormity of my white privilege but has no idea really, REALLY, what my life or motherhood would have been like without it.

I am a mother and grandmother who shares this awful and vulnerable truth about my unknowing, hoping to be a part of the change.

Because I am a mother who mourns for the Black mothers and their children who were gestated and birthed and grew, just as mine did, with the very same hopes and dreams and cells and DNA and beautiful little bodies, and who were denied because of pigment, what I never even knew I had.

ERACISM MINUTE 4/26/2020 Claire Lending

Eracism Minute of April 26, 2020

I am Claire Lending. I participated in Beloved Conversations last year and I am here to present the Eracism minute.

As bad as the medical situation currently is for African Americans in this age of Covid-19, it is vastly better than it would have been if not for a heroic doctor, Dr. Montague Cobb. I first heard of Dr. Cobb when listening to the 1619 project podcast “Bad Blood”.

Hospitals were all segregated in 1947 when Truman gave his “State of the Union” address saying health care was the most pressing problem in America and proposed National Health Insurance-- the first proposal for universal healthcare.  At first it was widely supported. However, the all-white American Medical Association lobbied against the act as they were afraid it would hurt their profits. AMA’s ad campaigns said “Keep Politics out of Medicine” and called Truman a communist. Truman’s initiative failed. 

In the early 1960’s Kennedy and then Johnson tried to pass Medicare. This is where Dr. Cobb used his influence.

Dr. Cobb earned his medical degree at Howard University then earned a Phd in Physical Anthropology at Case Western Reserve University in 1932. He taught approximately 6000 medical and dental students over his 37-year career at Howard University. Dr. Cobb’s research showed the
impact of racism on the health of African Americans.  He believed in applying his research findings to social activism. 

Dr. Cobb became the president of the National Medical Association; this organization was formed as the American Medical Association would not admit black doctors. In 1963, the National Medical Association under the leadership of Dr. Cobb testified in Congress and lobbied for Medicare (while the AMA opposed it). Dr. Cobb viewed Medicare as a way to fund healthcare and desegregate hospitals. The segregation of hospitals had caused vastly inferior health care for African Americans. 

In July 1964, the Civil Rights Act passed making “separate but equal” hospitals illegal. Many white hospitals ignored the law. However, once Medicare passed a year later, only desegregated hospitals could reap the Medicare money so within three months all hospitals were desegregated. 

Dr. Cobb’s vision and efforts to establish a more equitable healthcare system have helped not only African Americans but those of all races to access healthcare.  Medicare might not have become law without the strong support of a group of physicians led by Dr. Cobb.

ERACISM MINUTE 4/19/2020 David Curley

I am David Curley, from the BUF Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team.

Today I want to use the wisdom of Chicago’s new black, feminist Mayor, Lori Lightfoot.

And I want to say why the Beloved Community is not Color Blind.

With Mayor Lightfoot’s leadership Chicago has begun to report Covid-19 deaths by race and ethnicity.

She said, “The results are “a call to action for all of us.”

With a third of Chicago’s population, black Americans have suffered 72% of the city’s Covid-19 fatalities. Latinex populations show similar disparites.

So far, color blind responses to Covid-19 have made existing health inequities fatal for minority communities in Chicago.

Mayor Lightfoot now is organizing the city to provide more resources to minority communities—better information about the disease, more testing, and earlier diagnosis and treatment.

We can take home a lesson for us in Washington State. As yet no government agency in our state is even reporting Covid-19 fatalities by race or ethnicity.

Minutes: April 6, 2020

Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team

Minutes of Meeting - April 6, 2020

 The meeting convened at 6 pm on Zoom. Present: Amoret Heise, Henry Ohana, Lauralee Carbone, David Curley, Mary Alden and Cat McIntyre

Agenda:

1.    Eracism minutes

2.    April 13 and May 11 programs

3.    8th Principle and SEJC

4.    Beloved Conversations

 1.  Eracism minutes. 

·     April 12          Easter - Paul requested no Eracism minute

·     April 19          David Curley

·     April 26          Claire Lending (Henry will request)

·     May 3             Mary Alden

 The services are now broadcast via Zoom. If you will be giving the Eracism minute, be sure to contact Rev. Paul by Wednesday, because there will likely be a rehearsal that you will have to attend. Last Saturday, I was at the rehearsal for about an hour.

2. April 13 and May 11 programs.These meetings will be on Zoom. David will host the 4/13 meeting on Part 2 of Episode 5 of 1619 project. Cat will get the meeting into MWU. Cat asked Mary to give the 5/11 meeting recounting her recent experience in South Africa. Some suggestions for her presentation included: how the white church she attended handled integration of black South Africans; music; how South African black persons differ from U.S. black persons.

3.  Eighth Principle & SEJC.  Cat and Deb Cruz presented the current draft of the 8th Principal resolution to the April 5 meeting of SEJC. Lauralee praised the committee who wrote the final draft (Deb Cruz, David Curley and Michael Betz). Everyone wanted a copy; Cat sent the latest draft out to the SEJC mailing list and asked for their comments.

Mary Alden reported that Karen Nuckles-Flinn shared the draft 8th Principle draft with the Healthy Relationships Team. Mary has previous experience and materials that she used  with Deb Cruz on resolutions for the congregation; she will work with Karen on future congregational meetings Cat will send Mary the current draft. She also asked to participate in the next 8th principle meeting on April 16 at 1 pm via Zoom.

Deb Cruz wrote a letter/script to accompany requests to the community groups for review and comments on the 8th principle draft. Henry has already contacted Whatcom Peace and Justice representative.  Cat notified the congregation about the 8th principle effort during the Eracism minute at the April 5 BUF Sunday service; and Lauralee posted a link to the BLUU 8th principle resolved on Zoom during the service.

Beloved Conversations. We now have a summary of the costs of the first Beloved Conversations program.  Cat did not ask SEJC for money.

Expenses of Beloved Conversations I:  

Contract with FAHS collaborative	$2,200.00
Retreat supplies	108.50
Retreat dinner	131.00
Retreat, food and kitchen help	193.53
Easels, markers, etc.	109.64
Retreat facilitator hotel/mileage	331.29
Total	$3,073.96

Next meeting: May 4, 2020, via Zoom.

Respectfully submitted

Cat McIntyre, co-facilitator

BUF Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team

MINUTES 3/2/2020

Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team

Minutes of Meeting - March 2, 2020

The meeting convened at 6 pm in the BUF Library. Present: Amoret Heise, Henry Ohana, Lauralee Carbone, David Curley and Cat McIntyre

Agenda:

1. Eracism minutes
2. Beloved Conversations
3. Eighth Principle
4. March 9 program
5. Review of Feb 9 service and future services
6. Other community programs

1. Eracism minutes.

• March 8 Amoret Heise
• March 15 Claire Lending or Murray Bennett (David will ask)
• March 22 Barbara Gilday
• March 29 Daria Haynes
• April 5 Cat McIntyre

The person giving the minute shall call Rev. Paul by Wednesday of the week preceding the Sunday service at which they speak. Those who give an eracism minute shall also send the eracism minute script to Mike Betz to be included in the BUF BLM blog.

2. Beloved Conversations 2. Cat spoke to Rev. Paul, who advised that there is not enough money in the budget for next year to pay for Beloved Conversations. There was shortfall from last year that had to be made up this year. We need a broad-based congregation base who want to take the course in order to make Beloved Conversations 2 a priority. We are already incorporating actions spurred by Beloved Conversations 1 in eracism minutes and the Sunday services we create. We should also consider charging some tuition for the program.

3. Eighth Principle. Representatives from Native American Connections, Immigrant Rights and Black Lives Matter met on Feb. 12 and 18. Following that, as subcommittee (Deb Cruz Mike Betz and David Curley) have met twice to refine the wording of the resolution and make sure that other forms of oppression in addition to racism are addressed. The resolution will be reviewed again before presenting it to the BUF Board of Trustees on or about March 16. We will also plan a series of congregational meetings facilitated by the Healthy Relations team. Their representative, Karen Nuckles Flinn has been very helpful in the first two large meetings. David will make sure it is on the Board agenda for 3/16.

4. March 9 program meeting. Topic will be 1619 Project, Episode 5 part 1. David will lead the discussion; Cat will make up some questions based on the podcast. Program will be announced in Midweek Update, on BUF News and on the BUF Black Lives Matters Facebook page. There will be one more 1619 podcast to discuss (Episode 5, part 2) at the April meeting. Cat suggested the May program may be Mary Alden talking about her experience in Republic of South Africa.

5. Review of Feb. 9 service and future services. We had much positive feedback about the Feb. 9, especially the Privilege Exercise. We will ask Rev. Paul when we might do another service this year, perhaps summer?

6. Other Community Programs. Henry and Lauralee described a notable activity at Garden Street Methodist. It is a large bulletin board with information on white supremacy that includes pockets for various handouts. We will ask the Garden Street Methodist church secretary when we might visit to see this.

Henry reports that the CAST program, which serves sandwiches to homeless and other hungry folk, has moved its service to behind the library at noon.

Respectfully submitted

Cat McIntyre, co-facilitator

BUF Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team

ERACISM MINUTE 3/8/2020

Creola Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson

Good morning! I’m Lauralee Carbone, here to present an E-Racism Minute, a moment of consciousness raising organized by BUF’s Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team.

Following up on last week’s theme of the intersectionality of race and gender, today’s eRacism minute, written by Amoret Heise, is about Katherine Goble Johnson, who died on February 24 at the age of 101. Although living to that age is a notable achievement, it is far from what she is best known for.

She was born in a small town in West Virginia, the youngest of four children. Although her father had only a 6^th grade education, he was known to be a math whiz, and she showed similar talent as a young girl. While a student at West Virginia State College, she was fortunate to have excellent African-American math professors. After graduating summa cum laude at the age of 18, she was one of only three African-Americans, and the only woman, selected to integrate West Virginia State College’s graduate school after the 1938 US Supreme Court ruling that states providing public higher education to white students also had to provide it to black students. She chose to marry and raise a family rather than complete the graduate program, a decision she never regretted.

Although she had previously worked as a teacher, when Johnson looked for work again after her children were older, she aspired to something more challenging. She learned in 1952 that the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was hiring mathematicians to work at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia, and they hired African-Americans as well as whites. She got a job there and continued to work for them later as the agency was superseded by NASA.

As an African-American, and a woman, she had to be careful reporting the results of her work in the segregated lab, especially when review of an engineer’s calculations showed an error. She asked if the calculation might not be correct, which brought the desired acknowledgment, math being exact and not a matter of judgment or debate. Over time her work became so respected that before John Glenn’s 1962 orbit around the earth, he refused to fly until she had manually verified the computer’s calculations.

Katherine co-authored 26 scientific papers, although women’s names didn’t go on the reports then, so she didn’t get recognition in the usual way. Belatedly, NASA named a building after her, and in 2015, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. A book and movie, both named Hidden Figures, were written about her and other African-American women who worked behind the scenes in the Mercury space program, making sure the trajectories would get the astronauts where they were supposed to go and, even more importantly, bring them safely home.

Katherine Johnson is a hero because of her confidence and passion, two traits that enabled her to rise above the limits of segregation and discrimination, and become an inspiration for other female mathematicians of color.

ERACISM Minute 3/1/2020

ERACISM Minute 3/1/2020

Lauralee Carbone

Good morning. I’m Lauralee Carbone, here to present an ERACISM Minute, a moment of consciousness raising, organized by the BUF Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team.

Yesterday ended Black History Month and today begins Women’s History Month, so I thought I would speak on the intersectionality between racism and sexism. In both months, by the way, we study blacks’ and women’s achievements as if they occurred separately from all US history. While I am not against these history-themed months, it does illustrate how white history and men’s history is the norm, and the contributions of blacks and women lie outside the norm.

Robin DiAngelo, in WHITE FRAGILITY, points out that women’s struggle for the vote illustrates how institutional power transforms prejudice and discrimination into structures of oppression. Everyone has prejudice and discriminates, but structures of oppression go well beyond individuals. While women could be prejudiced and discriminate against men in individual interactions, women as a group could not deny men their civil rights. But men as a group could and did deny women their civil rights. Men could do so because they controlled all the institutions. Therefore the only way women could gain the right to vote was for men to grant it to them; women could not grant the vote to themselves.