"Healing Ourselves, Healing Our World: White Privilege and Accountability in Social Justice"
In many places of worship across the U.S. you will find that white members share space with black and brown congregants and yet they have little understanding of the different experiences with and around racism. The description of last Wednesday's workshop, led by VCU professor Dr. Archana Pathak, was simple: "This workshop explores privilege, particularly in terms of race and also as it intersects with other social identities such as nationality, religion, gender, sexuality, class, ability status, etc.; explains how examining privilege is a necessary first step in dismantling oppression, explores the ways in which whiteness, white privilege and white supremacy function in our world; engages in critical self-reflexivity and facilitates the creation of commitments/practices that vision a just world."
The workshop's impact, however, was deeply profound.
Father opened the evening with the St. Francis Prayer for Peace. This beautiful prayer was a foreshadowing for how the evening would end. There were many uncomfortable moments to the night but as Dr. Archana Pathak taught us, using stories, to better understand how white, class and gender privilege function, we were able to do some of the self-reflection she called us to do and that led to a palpable shift that seemed to bring more peace to our little corner of Richmond.
As one congregant said: "Archana Pathak, you led me to really touch, taste, see and feel a perspective I had never in a billion years considered. While I try to live my life and teach my children to live their lives in such a way that prioritizes that which is just for all, I hadn't considered the ways in which our experience on every level is inherently different from that of our brothers and sisters of color... and it pointed me towards the ways in which I personally, albeit unintentionally, contribute to the problem through both action and inaction."
Thank you, Archana Pathak and God Bless! Please use the attached resource list created by Archana Pathak to deepen your understanding of white privilege and racism and let's keep the conversation going!
~ Article by Kat Haines
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Anti-Racism
Internet Resources Compiled by Dr. Archana Pathak:
“The Day I discovered I was a Racist,” published by Daily
Kos on July 10th, 2016.
“Another Day, Another Hashtag. White People, You Gotta Get
to Work NOW,” published by Awesomely Luvvie on September 21, 2016.
“Why I’m Prejudiced & So Are You,” published by
Momastery on October 28th, 2015.
“It’s Time to Get Over Your White Feelings and Start Taking
Action for Black Lives,” published by NY Mag on August 3, 2016.
“Why I’m a Racist,” published by Huffington Post on July 15,
2016.
“To My
White Friends Who See Tragedy in the Black Community and Say Nothing, Make it
Personal,” published by Huffington Post on June 26, 2015:
‘We need
co-conspirators, not allies’: how white Americans can fight racism,” published
by The Guardian on June 26, 2015.
“My
Take: Why is Blackface Back Again” published by Richmond Magazine on October
31, 2016.
“It’s
Incredibly Scary to Be a Transgender Woman of Color Right Now,” published by
Mother Jones on June 26, 2015.
Books:
Eduardo
Bonilla-Silva: “Racism without Racists” published 2003.
Howard
Zinn: “A People's History of the U.S” published 1980.
Michelle
Alexander: “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness”
published 2010.
James
Baldwin: “The Fire Next Time” published 1963.
TA-Nehisi
Coates: “Between the World and Me” published 2015.
bell
hooks: “Ain't I a Woman: Black women and feminism” 1981.
Claudia
Rankine: “Citizen: An American Lyric” published 2014.
Beverly
Daniel Tatum: “Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria”
published 1997.
Mab
Segrest: “Memoir of a Race Traitor” published 1999.
Paul
Kivel: “Uprooting Racism: How white people can work for racial justice”
published 1996.
Paulo
Freire, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” originally published1968.
Films:
The
Color of Fear (1994)
~ Photo by EJCooley
Labels: racial justice, social justice, Social Ministry, workshop
