BUF Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team BUF Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team Minutes – May 3, 2021 Business/Planning Meeting

 BUF Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team

Minutes – May 3, 2021 Business/Planning Meeting

 

Present: Murray Bennett, Lauralee Carbone, David Curley, Barbara Gilday, Amoret Heise, Bharti Kirchner, Tom Kirchner, Cat McIntyre, Henry Ohana

 

Anti-Racism Minutes:

            May 9              Cat (Ann Stevenson demurred for this Sunday)         

            May 16            David will ask Pam Graham    

            May 23            Bharti Kirchner            

            May 30            Henry will recruit        

            June 6              Henry will recruit

 

Remember to alert Rev. Paul on or before the Wednesday before the service where you will speak that you’re giving the anti-racism minute at the service.

 

Program Planning:  May 10:  Beginning of five monthly meetings where we watch and discuss “Amend,” available on Netflix. Lauralee and Cat will practice the technology to make sure we can show it on zoom.

 

Beloved Conversations 2:  

Evaluation of Beloved Conversations:  Cat summarized evaluation response: sent to 36 people, six of whom had been facilitators; nine people who had been participants responded. Ratings on a 1-10 scale averaged 7.1, rather positive. Asked whether they recommended a second offering of this program, 1/3 said yes, 1/3 said no and 1/3 had no response.

The $1,000 in the budget is there for next fall. We will continue to explore local alternatives. Some preferred multiple meetings over a single session, to grow cohesion among participants. Lauralee will assess feasibility of Kim Harris presenting the program. Cat will continue searching for the presenter for Fall 2019 How to talk to your Racist Uncle. Barbara suggested Louise Wilkinson, who does diversity training in at a Bellevue church. 

 

ABC:  Barbara Gilday reported ongoing discussions with WWU social justice arm of the School of Education. They have asked students to propose mentorships that will be reciprocal for BUF and for the students.  Genia has suggested enlisting young people from BUF for dialogue on how BUF can achieve the Beloved Community. Tom Kirchner reports that they have received commitment for financial support for one Black male student for four years, including dorm. They have additional offer of tuition and fees, without room and board. They continue with negotiate this with University of South Florida.

 

Phone Tree and BUF Banner:  Response to recent Anti-racism minute that reported on Rapid Response phone tree included two people who asked to be added to the list, and some voiced confusion about how to get on the phone tree. Cat will send out a request to BUF-News to solicit additional people who want to be called.  If a banner exists, it cannot be found in the SEJC closet because there is no light in the closet at present. Henry will explore with a lightbulb or a flashlight to see if there is a banner which can identify BUF people at community vigils or demontrations.

 

Next Business Planning Meeting:  June 7, 6 pm

Next Program Meetings:  May 10 and June 14, 7 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted

 

Cat McIntyre, co-facilitator

Minutes – May 3, 2021 Business/Planning Meeting

 

Present: Murray Bennett, Lauralee Carbone, David Curley, Barbara Gilday, Amoret Heise, Bharti Kirchner, Tom Kirchner, Cat McIntyre, Henry Ohana

 

Anti-Racism Minutes:

            May 9              Cat (Ann Stevenson demurred for this Sunday)         

            May 16            David will ask Pam Graham    

            May 23            Bharti Kirchner            

            May 30            Henry will recruit        

            June 6              Henry will recruit

 

Remember to alert Rev. Paul on or before the Wednesday before the service where you will speak that you’re giving the anti-racism minute at the service.

 

Program Planning:  May 10:  Beginning of five monthly meetings where we watch and discuss “Amend,” available on Netflix. Lauralee and Cat will practice the technology to make sure we can show it on zoom.

 

Beloved Conversations 2:  

Evaluation of Beloved Conversations:  Cat summarized evaluation response: sent to 36 people, six of whom had been facilitators; nine people who had been participants responded. Ratings on a 1-10 scale averaged 7.1, rather positive. Asked whether they recommended a second offering of this program, 1/3 said yes, 1/3 said no and 1/3 had no response.

The $1,000 in the budget is there for next fall. We will continue to explore local alternatives. Some preferred multiple meetings over a single session, to grow cohesion among participants. Lauralee will assess feasibility of Kim Harris presenting the program. Cat will continue searching for the presenter for Fall 2019 How to talk to your Racist Uncle. Barbara suggested Louise Wilkinson, who does diversity training in at a Bellevue church. 

 

ABC:  Barbara Gilday reported ongoing discussions with WWU social justice arm of the School of Education. They have asked students to propose mentorships that will be reciprocal for BUF and for the students.  Genia has suggested enlisting young people from BUF for dialogue on how BUF can achieve the Beloved Community. Tom Kirchner reports that they have received commitment for financial support for one Black male student for four years, including dorm. They have additional offer of tuition and fees, without room and board. They continue with negotiate this with University of South Florida.

 

Phone Tree and BUF Banner:  Response to recent Anti-racism minute that reported on Rapid Response phone tree included two people who asked to be added to the list, and some voiced confusion about how to get on the phone tree. Cat will send out a request to BUF-News to solicit additional people who want to be called.  If a banner exists, it cannot be found in the SEJC closet because there is no light in the closet at present. Henry will explore with a lightbulb or a flashlight to see if there is a banner which can identify BUF people at community vigils or demontrations.

 

Next Business Planning Meeting:  June 7, 6 pm

Next Program Meetings:  May 10 and June 14, 7 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted

 

Cat McIntyre, co-facilitator

Anti-Racism Minute 5/2/2021 - Daria Kurkjy

 

Guilty On All Charges

Dan Rather and Steady Team Apr 20 287 130

Guilty. On all charges.

A surprise? It shouldn't have been. We all saw the video of a murder taking place before our eyes. The jury, a multiracial assemblage of Derek Chauvin's peers, saw the same thing. And it didn’t take long for them to come to that conclusion. 

The history of how power, race, and the will of the state have played out over the course of our nation's history did mean that this verdict, unanimous and complete, carried some currents of surprise. No facts or video were enough for millions of Americans watching the verdict in real time, with pits in stomachs, to feel the luxury of taking this outcome for granted.

We have been here before, far too many times. We have seen pictures of our past, of lynchings and slave auctions, but also of more recent times, to understand the fraught shadows that hung over this trial. And yet, we have a guilty verdict. Three of them. On all counts.

While this provides justice for George Floyd, what it means as a larger symbol is something that we cannot know at this time. Is it an inflection point, or a blip? Is it a further bending of the arc of the universe towards justice, or is it a detour? 

I have lived long enough as an optimist to cling to that lens through which to view today’s news. To be sure the system often doesn’t work, especially for Black Americans and other marginalized communities. But today, the system worked. It worked because of the bravery of the young woman, Darnella Frazier, who shot the unflinching video. It worked because of the peaceful protests in the streets. It worked because the Minneapolis Police Department made it clear that this is not who they want to be. It is rare to see a chief of police testify against a fellow officer, but Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo took to the stand and condemned the actions of Derek Chauvin as a violation of their policy, training, values and ethics. It worked because of the prosecutors and the jury.

I think you can consider today’s verdict as something that will strengthen police forces not weaken them. We need law enforcement that is accountable. We need good officers lauded and bad officers punished. We need a system that prosecutes people like Chauvin to the full extent of the law, which must apply as equally to those who wear the badge as it does to the citizens they should be serving and protecting.

We cannot wash ourselves of the sins of the past. And we cannot allow ourselves to ignore them. But we also cannot allow ourselves to lose our hope and sense of purpose. I recognize it is easy for me, with the privileges I carry, to make such a statement. So I turn for inspiration to the leaders in the past and present who fight on in hope to align the reality of America to the noblest of our founding ideals. I pray for a continued march of progress, recognizing that each step forward can only be accomplished with great grit, resilience, and determination. 

Today America took an important step. It is but one step and many more remain. It is no assurance that we will continue to stride forward in justice. But it is also a day to pause and reflect that a better, more just, more equitable America, a more perfect union for all our citizens, is indeed possible. We cannot, will not, be perfect. We can, we must be better —ever improving. Today’s verdict has made the embers of hope glow a little brighter.

—Dan

Anti-Racism Minute 4/25/2021 - Lauralee Carbone

 

Good morning,

I’m Lauralee Carbone. I use she/her/hers pronouns.

I’d like to talk about the intersectionality of race and gender. There is no pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.

Centering the lives of trans and gender diverse BIPOC is the only way to achieve our collective liberation. At the core of this belief lies our commitments to racial and economic justice, intersectionality, accessibility, inclusion, and sex positivity. The work is about reducing state harm and violence, increasing sustainable employment, and engaging in advocacy and education work with service providers to create safer, affirming, and affordable care for all trans and gender diverse people. Achieving these goals is not possible without an explicit anti-racism lens that closely examines and resists anti-Blackness and uplifts Indigenous sovereignty.

We recognize that in order to move the trans community towards liberation, we must address the violence and oppression that targets trans BIPOC, and especially Black trans women and femmes. If we can solve these injustices for trans BIPOC, it will solve things for all. Because our work must dream of a world where all trans people have what is needed to survive and thrive, we need to explicitly center the dismantling of anti-Blackness in all of our work. Defunding police, prisons, and other structures that uphold racism and colonial systems of power and leveraging our power and resources to topple the structures that uphold white supremacy and lead to grave disparities and death is necessary.

The numbers are in. Every issue and experience with transphobia is dramatically exacerbated by the additional intersections of racism and anti-Blackness. These experiences are compounded further for those with additional intersections, including queer and disabled people, women, immigrants, and sex workers, among others. 

The 2015 U.S. Trans Survey highlights these disparities. Black trans and gender diverse respondents reported experiencing homelessness, poverty, violence, and mental health distress at significantly higher rates than white trans people and cisgender Black communities nationwide. They also experience significantly higher rates of police harassment, violence, arrest, and incarceration among Black respondents, with Black trans women being four times more likely to be incarcerated than trans people generally. Since the COVID pandemic, it has only gotten worse for our beloved communities. 

Lack of secure and affordable housing, policing and the prison industrial complex, medical racism and healthcare access issues, and increasing gentrification and generational wealth disparities, among other issues, contribute to the systemic violence that trans and gender diverse BIPOC communities face. Systemic and structural racism and oppression exist alongside interpersonal violence, and both severely impact BIPOC, especially women. In 2020, 44 trans people were murdered in the US, an all time high, the majority of whom were Black and brown trans women. I mourn these valuable lives lost, and celebrate the trans and gender diverse communities across WA State that tenaciously survive, and fight for collective liberation from these structures that seek to destroy. 

Prioritizing and committing to anti-racism and resisting anti-Blackness requires thoughtfulness, intention, resources, transparency, and accountability: this is why we need an expansive anti-racism action plan to infuse and prioritize anti-racism throughout our organization and all of our programming. This is what the work of building Beloved Community is about.

AntiRacism Minute 4/18/2021 - Cat McIntyre

 I would like to give you an update from Beloved Conversations: Meditations on Race and Ethnicity, a program held here BUF in spring 2019. At the end of the twelve-week program, the group of 30 participants came up with a list of goals for BUF. One goal was creation of a rapid response network to mobilize congregants to boldly respond with actions for justice when racial justice issues arise in the community, the state and the nation.

 

Possible projects included vigils for momentous events, especially events affecting people of color.  To this end, Henry Ohana and Genia Allen drew up a Rapid Response phone tree with 57 people from our congregation who said they wanted to be involved. Ten of the people on the list would call the others. 

 

We recently used the BUF Rapid Response Phone Tree to alert congregants of a candlelight vigil  held at Maritime Heritage Park on April 3 to recognize Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders recently murdered. The vigil was organized by the Whatcom Peace and Justice Center, Whatcom Focused Youth Movement, Whatcom CARE and Whatcom Human Rights Task Force.

 

A good—sized group of BUFsters assembled that evening at the vigil. We sat together, with our candles and listened to several local speakers of Asian American and Pacific Island heritage. They described their personal experiences of racism in Whatcom County.  The vigil began and ended with songs by William John, from the Lummi Nation. 

 

If you were not called for this vigil, and would like to be notified by phone of similar, future events, please let me, Genia or Henry know of your interest.

Anti-Racism Minute 4/11/2021 - Barbara Gilday

 

My name is Rev. Barbara Gilday. I am a member of the Black Lives Committee and the recently created ABC’s – Actions for Beloved Community, committee. Today I’m sharing the anti-racism moment.

I recently came across a prayer given by Rev. Dr. Randy Becker 9 years ago, at the 2012 GA. In it, I heard the battle fatigue between good intentions, hard work and outcomes. Today I’ll read Excerpts from the prayer with my responses as a representative of our new Actions for Beloved Community group.

Rev. Randy said: The General Assembly has opened, and I am waiting –

listening to past injustices

enduring jingo-istic rhetoric about justice

hearing historical songs about visionary struggles with oppression.

And I Barbara, say: Out of the ashes of the past, the work of the many faithful ones on the journey, and the continuing horrors we have witnessed this past year, a new consciousness and broader determination is evolving.

Randy said. . . I am waiting . . . for someone to say that our Universalist heritage calls upon us all to a radical vision: trusting the whole of humanity and the earth to be of one creation that transcends all humanly created systems of nations, people, and cultures.

And I say: out of our studies, our good intentions, our successes and failures, comes a radical new vision for the future.

Randy said: I am waiting . . .for us to begin to be part of the creation of the future, by proclaiming more than repudiating, by inviting more than condemning, by focusing on connections more than differences- believing that compassion is a greater force of transformation than pain, regret, or shame.

And we in the ABC’s group are acting: With a vision of creating educational initiatives and a mission of collaboration with Western and other students for our mutual transformation. Currently, we have 2 projects:

First: we are inspired by the 8^th principle and are discovering new ways to manifest radical visions for racial and social justice. We are working cooperatively with Western’s Woodring College and students in its social justice minor, to develop a cooperative, transformational mentoring program which will open doors in the desired careers of these young people working for social and racial justice and transform us in the process.

And Second: We are doing our own reparations with African Americans and other people of color through the Call Me Mister mentoring program for teachers. We are beginning supporting a couple of African American students at Southern Florida University, throughout their studies to allow them to graduate debt free. Our long range vision for this project is to expand it, to invite greater numbers of UU congregations to follow our lead in the future and thus grow the numbers of teachers of color in our classrooms.

Randy said: I am waiting . . .for a General Assembly

which is filled with a spirit of vision, values, and hope

which builds on a thoughtful and spirit-filled

theology of possibility, inviting all the world and all her people to

a new community -to a new unity.

And we say: We are committed to being those people, working with one another organically: listening, questioning, supporting and being patient with one another. We are being awkward in the not knowing places, brave enough to take first steps without knowing what next steps will be and kind to each other, bringing the best out of each of us. We are inspired in the knowing that together, we are enough to create meaningful transformation, equally, in us and in those we are companioning. This is the work that the new ABC’s – Actions for Beloved Community, aspires to, to bring forth racial and social justice with trust, vision and lived values.

Minutes of April 2021 BUF Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team business/planning meeting

 

BUF Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team

Minutes - April 5, 2021 Business/Planning Meeting

 

The meeting, on Zoom, began at 6 pm. Present were: Murray Bennett, Lauralee Carbone, David Curley, Barbara Gilday, Amoret Heise, Tom Kirschner, Claire Lending, Cat McIntyre and Henry Ohana

 

Anti-Racism Minutes:

            April 11           Barbara  Gilday – Report on ABC

            April 18           Cat McIntyre, on Rapid Response      

            April 25           Lauralee Carbone

            May 2              Henry Ohana will find someone  

 

Remember to alert Rev. Paul on or before the Wednesday before the service where you will speak that you’re giving the anti-racism minute at that service.

 

Program Planning: 

April 12 – Activity to write letters on Resolution 1 (filibuster), and HR 40 reparations. We will state brief description of each and encourage those attending to write together to Congress people. Hank will send article on reparations. The Faith Action Network has a list of important legislation that is in the offine.  We will also discuss whether to use other means to advise congregation to write

 

May 10:  Beginning of five monthly meetings where we watch and discuss “Amend,” available on Netflix

 

Beloved Conversations 2:  

Evaluation of Beloved Conversations 1 –a short eval questionnaire sent out today to 35 people, six responses already.  Other resources, possibly local: Kim Harris, WCC, WP&JC; and the speaker at Fall 2019 How to talk to your Racist Uncle. We need to assess cost of each

 

ABC:  Lauralee, scholarship at USF, mentorship program at WWU, Erica Malllin and Barbara Gilday co-chair

 

Phone Tree.  Working well; we will request additional interest as part of April 18 anti-racism minute.  We also want to ascertain the condition/adequacy of BUF banner; the one used on April 3 is small and plain. Is there another in the SEJC closet??

 

Next Business Planning Meeting:  May 3, 6 pm

Next Program Meetings:  April 12, 7 pm and May 10, 7 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Cat McIntyre, co-facilitator

BUF Black Lives Matter Ministry Action Team

Anti-Racist Moment 3/28/2021 - David Curley

Good morning. I’m David Curley, a member of the BUF Black Lives Matter ministry action team. 

Two weeks, two more mass murders. Two very troubled young men, armed and armored, play-acting violent power—power utterly absent in their actual lives.

We want to explain.

“We know racism when we see it”—Senator Raphael Warnock about targeting Asian Americans, and true in the Atlanta event, but not true of all mass murders.

“It’s a problem of toxic masculinity in American culture”—overgeneralized, perhaps true in some sectors, but not of all men. To me, this statement ignores changes that women have made in our community.

Still, across and within racial boundaries, we perform the same roles in the same grieving, horrific, and terrifying play.

Can we imagine a new play? Can we model new roles of courage?

What would self-aware soul-gardening look like? 

What would a diverse, antiracist, Beloved Community response be?

Can we sing a new song?

 

P.S. This antiracism moment took me in an unexpected direction. Comments and criticism are welcome.