Unlearning Racism on the Journey Toward Wholeness
Comments By The Rev. Susan Manker-Seale
January 23, 2005
It’s hard to share personal stories about racism. Emily and I agreed to share with you one thing having to do with racism that we experienced this year, but as I thought of each experience, I’d toss it out. I realized I felt uncomfortable telling a story someone might recognize. After all, this commentary is going to be posted on the internet, printed up and placed in the sermon rack—do I really want to share discomforts involving colleagues or parishioners, even in disguise?
I found this book, Soul Work, to be very refreshing, the little I got to read in it, because the responses to the essays are so frank, and I know all but eight of the thirty-two essayists and respondents. I can see them and hear their particular voices and accents and gestures as they confront each other and reveal their hearts around this difficult issue of racism. I felt like I was in the room with them there at our UUA headquarters in Boston. It’s good to read books by people you know; their works come alive in a way those by strangers fail to do.
In the book they share experiences and reflect on them, candidly. So why am I feeling reluctant? I think this year I felt especially stressed about race issues at several times. I’m a white, privileged female who doesn’t like that descriptive phrase. My Native American ancestry wants to be recognized and better understood. My Latina cultural experiences want to be valued and celebrated more. I want my non-whiteness to be seen, too.
Racism hurts. It hurts in so many ways, visible and invisible. It separates us from each other, and it separates us inside as well, categorizing who we are and valuing one part over another.
John Buehrens, former UUA president, says some people refer to racism as “America’s original sin,” along with slavery. (p. ix) In a theological sense, we all carry this burden of original sin, needing to find a way to wash it away and be cleansed. For a religion which doesn’t believe in original sin, this analogy seems strange. On the other hand, we do have a martyr who died for freedom and justice: the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. But his death could never absolve us of our inherited systemic evils; only our efforts to eradicate racism from our own hearts as well as our communities will do.
One of the essays I read was by the Rev. Dr. Bill Jones. He explored systemic racism and wrote that “the fundamental cause of social conflict is uncorrected oppression.” (p. 145) One way our society deals with racism is to replace direct institutional racism, or “classical” racism, with indirect institutionalized racism, or “neo” racism. He uses the educational system in South Africa as an example, but it reminded me of my own teaching experience in South Tucson in the early eighties.
In my predominantly Latino school, we had to scrounge for supplies and make do with what was around. I often wondered where the money was that was supposed to be funding the bilingual classes we taught. When I went up to the Catalina School District to apply for another position, I saw computers and fancy equipment and new books everywhere. I thought education was equal opportunity, I commented to my principal. She just rolled her eyes and patted my young shoulders. No matter how hard Alicia Serna tried, she couldn’t fight the inequities of unequal education by our district-controlled property tax system. In this case, direct institutional racism was replaced with the indirect means of denying an equal education to the mainly non-white people of South Tucson who already lived in poorer neighborhoods with less property tax to fund their schools. The rich got richer through richer educational opportunities. And today, I too, take advantage of a better school district.
I also feel guilty at complying with this original sin I inherited. I witness the evidence that “racial oppression has not died but has simply mutated,” as Bill Jones puts it. (p. 157) Here in the southwest we have our own version of racial profiling that seems impossible to eradicate as the people in Arivaca pointed out in their complaint to the Border Patrol not too long ago. Latino residents were repeatedly pulled over for inspection, again and again and again.
Racial profiling has come to the front of society’s attention in recent years with the reaction to 9/11. The Muslim community has had to endure extreme prejudice which has only seemed to abate a little, or go underground. We stood vigil around the Islamic temple near the U of A during the first few months after 9/11, but now that people are no longer shouting or throwing things, are the feelings of prejudice any less? I wonder.
We are still a society that operates on racial oppression. We in our congregation are mostly a privileged segment of that society. How we deal with unlearning our racism is a question for us not only to ponder, but to discuss and wrangle and then upon which to act. Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley, in her introduction to the book, writes that “all of us engaged in the struggle against racism and other forms of oppression—no longer need to fear or avoid conflict, for out of such tensions may come our most creative, collaborative, and productive efforts.” (p. xvii) I would like to hope that that is true, and that we can share our stories and listen with open minds and hearts, because that is what builds a strong bond of compassion and empathy that enables us to work together to make change.
And my story, well, an exciting and positive one is that I walked into my family room the other day to find my daughter, Kat, watching a movie entitled “Bamboozled,” about a screenwriter/producer, played by Damon Wayons, who creates a television show that is supposed to be so racist that he will be fired and can collect unemployment. It backfires as his show is so ludicrous that people take it on as a cult following focused on remembering and laughing at the last century of African-American stereotyping. The issues are great, and Kat said she first watched it at one of her YRUU conferences. She had two more to watch, both from Blockbuster, on race in America.
I’m grateful for all the efforts of education shared by our faith and friends over the years. It makes me hopeful for the changes we might embrace together with an honest sharing and courageous challenge, or should I say, an honest challenge and courageous sharing.
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Northwest Tucson