BUILDING THE WORLD WE DREAM ABOUT
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Adults
WORKSHOP 7: RESISTANCE
BY MARK HICKS
© Copyright 2012 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 11:46:51 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
The work of building a just community means individually and collectively working in right relationship with people of historically marginalized groups and holding ourselves accountable for changing the things that create injustice. — Paula Cole Jones, contemporary Unitarian Universalist educator and antiracism trainer
This workshop presents contemporary stories involving Unitarian Universalist young adults that illustrate different approaches to resisting racism and systems of privilege and strengthening multicultural competency skills.
Participants work in groups to create skits that illustrate day-to-day scenarios involving issues of race and privilege, and consider how to become better able to respond to similar situations they encounter in their own lives.
Before leading this workshop, review the accessibility guidelines in the program Introduction under Integrating All Participants.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Three Strategies for Resistance | 10 |
Activity 2: Intentional Antiracist, Anti-Oppressive, Multicultural Community | 20 |
Activity 3: Prophetic Witness | 20 |
Activity 4: Practicing Resistance Through Skits | 60 |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: No More Deaths | 40 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Read Handout 1, Three Strategies for Resistance and reflect on the three strategies in your own life, using these questions:
Often, we have very strong opinions about the "right" way to do things, and this can lead us to believe that our way is the only way or the correct way. As you prepare to lead the workshop, consider how you will respond when participants value one approach over another.
WORKSHOP PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Light the chalice or invite a participant to light it while you read Leader Resource 1 aloud. Remind participants of the spirit of their covenant. Share the goals of this workshop.
ACTIVITY 1: THREE STRATEGIES FOR RESISTANCE (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Tell participants they will look at different approaches to resisting racism and systems of privilege based on ethnic and/or racial identity.
Distribute Handout 1 and invite participants to read it. Ask three volunteers to read the definitions of each approach aloud. Point out that the term "voice" can refer to either the voice of one person or the collective voice of a group representing one agenda.
Ask participants to recall the story of the Fort Worth incident from Workshop 6. Point out that the people involved in the task force and the UUA staff and Board used an "institutional" approach to resisting racism. They worked within established power structures to change them from within. Say:
We are going to explore the stories of two Unitarian Universalist young adults who used the other two strategies for resistance: the parallel and the prophetic.
ACTIVITY 2: INTENTIONAL ANTIRACIST, ANTI-OPPRESSIVE, MULTICULTURAL COMMUNITY (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Read the story "Highlander School" aloud or ask a volunteer to do so. Lead a discussion of the story, using these questions as a guide:
ACTIVITY 3: PROPHETIC WITNESS (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Read the story "The Audre Lorde Project" aloud or ask a volunteer to do so. Lead a discussion of the story, using these questions to guide you:
ACTIVITY 4: PRACTICING RESISTANCE THROUGH SKITS (60 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute Handout 2, Multicultural Competence Worksheet from Workshop 6, and call attention to the reflection group lists you have posted. Explain the activity using these or similar words:
Each reflection group is invited to focus on one practice that builds multicultural competence and to create a skit where this practice—or the lack of it—comes to life. You will have 20 minutes to create and practice your skit and prepare to lead a discussion afterward.
Distribute Handout 2, Procedure for Creating Your Skit. Invite each reflection group to create a skit and prepare to lead a follow-up discussion. Allow 20 minutes for this part of the activity.
Have each group present its skit to the large group. Invite the audience to view the skit with an eye toward learning something about the practice or skill.
After each skit is presented, invite the actors to lead a discussion.
After all skits have been presented, engage the group in further discussion by posing these questions:
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute Taking It Home. Invite participants to do the suggested activities before the next meeting. Offer Leader Resource 2 as a closing and extinguish the chalice.
Including All Participants
Prepare a large-print version of Taking It Home for participants who may be visually impaired.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Take a few moments right after the workshop to check in with each other. Ask yourselves:
TAKING IT HOME
The work of building a just community means individually and collectively working in right relationship with people of historically marginalized groups and holding ourselves accountable for changing the things that create injustice. — Paula Cole Jones, contemporary Unitarian Universalist educator and antiracism trainer
Notice in your own life where you participate—or could participate—in activities that promote multicultural competence. Explore and make a list of opportunities that present themselves and practical things you can do in order to accomplish the following:
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: NO MORE DEATHS (40 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute the story , "No More Deaths." Read it aloud, or invite a volunteer to do so. Update the story by saying, in these words or your own:
Emrys Staton was sentenced to 300 hours of community service shortly before he left for seminary. After he began the service work, he felt uncomfortable with doing it, and he sent the judge a letter, saying that he believed that his work with No More Deaths already constituted community service and that he would not be completing the court's sentence. The judge replied that Staton could choose to continue the community service, or he could spend 600 hours—about 25 days—in federal prison. In the fall of 2010, an appeals court overturned the conviction, stating that a gallon jug of water did not fit the legal definition of "garbage." Staton continues his humanitarian work with No More Deaths during his breaks from school. He graduated from seminary in May 2012.
Explain that you will listen to a podcast of Emrys Staton's sermon, "Life or Litter? The Value of People and Hope," delivered at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tucson on July 19, 2009, and let them know that at the time Staton was using the first name "Walt." Play the podcast.
Discuss the podcast as a group, using these questions to guide you:
BUILDING THE WORLD WE DREAM ABOUT: WORKSHOP 7:
STORY: HIGHLANDER SCHOOL
By Elandria Williams, a Black Unitarian Universalist.
The Highlander Research and Education Center is an 80-year-old popular education center in the mountains of East Tennessee, which serves as a catalyst for grassroots organizing and movement-building in Appalachia and the South. The center supports the efforts of those fighting for justice, equality, and sustainability to take collective action to shape their own destiny. It was founded in 1932 by young adult radical ministers who wanted to start a school in the South modeled on the Danish folk school movement of the early 1900s, which showed students that they could make change and love their communities. The center has been and is at the forefront of movement and social change work in the South, Appalachia, the United States, and the world.
I first came on to Highlander's land as a kid playing at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church picnics. Myles Horton, the founder of Highlander, was a member of our church. I attended the children's camp one summer and other events over the years. For the past five and a half years, I have worked at Highlander, which has afforded me the opportunity to learn from, grow, and build multiracial progressive organizations and movements for positive social change. I am now an Education Team member and the coordinator of Seeds of Fire (at highlandercenter.org/programs/leadership-and-organizing/seeds-of-fire/), our youth, young adult, and intergenerational program.
Highlander's mission since the beginning has been to bring grassroots leaders together across race, age, and community to build a broader movement for change. In the early years the focus was on economics, which included building cooperatives and labor unions. During the civil rights movement, Highlander trained leaders in the citizenship schools. In the 1970s and '80s, Highlander brought together people working against toxic waste dumping and strip mining. In the 1990s, the focus shifted to NAFTA and the impact of globalization and immigration. In the 2000s, the organization has reaffirmed the importance of youth development and organizing as well as the power of those who are directly impacted when they work together across identities to develop community power and act to shape their communities.
We who are part of Highlander believe that through popular education, participatory research, cultural organizing, and language justice we can have a profound impact, helping to create the world we wish to see. Popular education is a type of education that leads to action, based on the idea that education is not neutral. You are either teaching in deference to the status quo, or you are engaging in liberation education and critical analysis. Following the model of educators Paulo Freire, Howard Zinn, and Myles Horton, popular education encourages local community leaders to work with their community to research problems and issues in their community, and then to work to build their community's capacity to advocate for changes in policies and practices that benefit the community as a whole. Community leaders work strategically with art and culture so that organizing campaigns honor and credit the base community from which they arose. Leaders practice intergenerational organizing and build multilingual capacity so that all members of the community can participate, regardless of language and age. All of these practices support the development of antiracist, anti-oppressive, and multicultural communities that engage in political education, promote social healing, and serve to accompany those who are oppressed as witnesses and allies.
When I think about all of the programs, workshops, and opportunities to serve as a witness and ally of which I have been part during my time at Highlander, what stands out to me is not just the campaign wins that organizations have achieved, but how movement "family" has been built as people come together across divides that they never thought they could break and connections are formed—not just within communities, but between and among them.
I remember my first Seeds of Fire camp in 2007, where youth and adult allies from across the South gathered to work together. Although members of the group committed to working across identity and against oppression both at the camp and back home, at first everyone stayed in their own cliques and worked with those who were comfortable for them. As the camp experience began, people were nervous about sharing a dorm or group activity with people who were not from their organization. This was especially true around language and culture: The Latino and Latina kids bunched together, the Black youth bunched together, and the queer youth of color had a clique. Although gathering in affinity groups had some benefit (for example, most of queer youth of color came from rural spaces and needed to see and be around other queer youth of color), the Seeds of Fire staff were committed to helping young people find common experiences that would ground their work together. Common ground emerged through a workshop that Power U of Miami, Florida, led about the criminalization of youth in schools. Every single one of the young people at the camp had been criminalized for wearing a rosary or a hoodie, for being perceived as a threat, or because of their sexuality and gender identity. Finding commonalities through sharing stories of how they had each been treated in schools created a sense of togetherness. That togetherness was enhanced by sharing dances, songs, food, and stories of their community work over the following days. At lunch times, YouthPride out of Atlanta held a GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) session, and JASMYN from Jacksonville challenged everyone about Transgender rights. During the middle of the week, after a powerful workshop about immigration and the Dream Act led by undocumented youth fighting to change laws, some of the adult allies in their 20s and early 30s proposed dialogue about oppression and healing through theater. With my support, youth ensemble members of Carpetbag Theater, an African American theater troupe from Knoxville, Tennessee, led a process whereby people bore witness to each other's stories, supporting each other and singing through pain. The personal and the political were both brought into the room; the process allowed a young woman from Palestine to share her experiences with the Intifada, a young woman from El Salvador to share what it meant to live through the civil war as a youth fighter, another young man from Guatemala to share about his mother's and his possible deportation, and a young man to share about sexual assault that occurred in his home. That first round of stories led to many more rounds of growing together in community.
Now, when I go to North Carolina and see one of the leaders in the Dream movement, I recall him in that room five years ago. I think of the many other amazing young people that are running community organizations and moving the work forward—building community that stopped repressive legislation 287(g) [federal legislation authorizing law enforcement officers to identify, process, and detain immigration offenders] in counties throughout the South, stopped youth prisons from being built, started Gay Straight Alliance-type meetings in rural Mississippi, and more. That work of that one Seeds of Fire experience has multiplied out so many times that sometimes I just sit back in amazement and think about the many connections, relationships, and changes that have occurred—and also the changes that still need to happen.
Highlander believes, and I believe, that the main job of a popular educator is to get the right people in the room and to create a space whereby people quickly get out of their comfort zones and go deep in powerful and profound ways. In order to create liberating communities, it is crucial to develop youth and young adult leaders that critically analyze the world around them, get politically educated, both in congregations and in community organizations, and build movements for social change. While Unitarian Universalist communities that I work with do not always share the life situations of the leaders at Highlander, some of the most powerful leaders and organizers that I have worked with are Unitarian Universalist young adult leaders who are pushing toward the Beloved Community and working to create multiracial, anti-oppressive, antiracist communities both in congregations and out in the world.
I close with a quote from Septima Poinsette Clark, who was the Education Director at Highlander during the early civil rights movement. She said:
I am not weaving my life's pattern alone. Only one end of the threads do I hold in my hands. The other ends go many ways, linking my life with others.
BUILDING THE WORLD WE DREAM ABOUT: WORKSHOP 7:
STORY: NO MORE DEATHS
From "UU Convicted of Littering While Supplying Humanitarian Aid" by Jane Greer, UU World, June 15, 2009. Used with permission. The subject of the story is a White Unitarian Universalist who currently uses the name "Emrys Staton."
Next fall, Walt Staton will be starting divinity school to become a Unitarian Universalist minister—or in jail for littering.
On June 4, the 27-year-old UU was convicted by a federal court in Tucson of "knowingly littering" for leaving water jugs in the 118,000-acre Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona. Staton is part of a humanitarian aid group called No More Deaths, which supplies water, food, and first aid to migrants walking across the desert.
Founded in 2003, No More Deaths [NMD] is a ministry of the 300-member UU Church of Tucson. In addition to congregants, the organization also draws members from the community. NMD's mission is two-fold, including advocacy for migrant rights as well as the distribution of water and other supplies.
NMD operates from a base camp in the Sonoran Desert that was donated to the organization for its use. Desert conditions can be harsh, with daytime temperatures in the summer rising over 100 degrees and winter temperatures falling below freezing at night.
NMD volunteers stay at the camp and go out twice a day to distribute water and supplies. Each water bottle is dated and marked with its GPS coordinates. Volunteers note how many bottles have been used, where they've been found, and whether they see migrants on their rounds.
"A few years back, we would rarely come across migrants," Staton said. "They traveled mostly at night. But around a year and a half ago, the border patrol completed a new section of the wall. Literally, as soon as it was done, it funneled people into the area we actively patrol. We began seeing nearly a hundred people a week."
The group collects the empty bottles and then cleans and reuses them. Although the ministry began by supplying water during the summer months, it now has groups that go out weekly during the rest of the year.
At their camp, NMD offers basic first aid services, clean socks, food, water, and information. One of the things they warn people about is drinking contaminated water from water tanks in the desert. The group will also arrange medical evacuations, if necessary, and will call the border patrol if people decide they would rather be repatriated. "We once met a Mexican policeman who had gotten laid off," said Fran Brazzell, president of the church's board of trustees and an NMD volunteer. "He was walking across the desert in his boots, which were inadequate, and had gotten horrible blisters. He came into our camp for humanitarian aid—to have his blisters treated and get rehydrated. He asked to go back. He was very cheerful but emotional. It was a difficult decision."
"Many migrants don't realize how harsh conditions are in the desert," she continued. "Many of them live in a tropical climate with plenty of water and shade."
But hazards are not all environmental. Brazzell said that it was not uncommon to come across a tree in the desert with a bra hanging from it. "They're called trophy trees," she said. "Because a woman was raped by a guide there."
Many of the migrants making the crossing are hoping to be reunited with their families, Staton said. Immigration raids have resulted in the deportation of thousands of undocumented workers. "People who have lived their whole lives in the United States are just trying to get back to their families."
NMD also advocates for custody standards and treatment of migrants. NMD members go to court in Tucson every Tuesday morning to observe "Operation Streamline," which are mass deportation hearings. They also volunteer at repatriation centers along the border.
"We've had a lot of people come up to us and ask, 'Are you the people who put the water jugs out?'" Staton said. "And then they say, 'I thought I was going to die and I found your water. We really feel lucky we found your water.'"
Dan Millis, another NMD volunteer, was convicted of littering in September 2008. His case is currently under appeal at the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Staton will be sentenced August 4. The maximum punishment is a fine of $10,000 and up to one year in jail. Staton is planning to appeal.
NMD plans to continue its work, despite Staton's conviction. "We don't believe that we're doing anything illegal [by] providing humanitarian support for people who are dying," Brazzell said. "We don't see how that can be illegal."
BUILDING THE WORLD WE DREAM ABOUT: WORKSHOP 7:
STORY: THE AUDRE LORDE PROJECT
By India McKnight, a Black Unitarian Universalist.
"Honey, those girls were being chased for at least half a mile once school got out," Ms. Myra recalled. I shook my head knowingly. We had just walked out of the subway station across the street from Boys and Girls High School and were listening to the owner of Cafe 258, one of our original safe spaces.
She went on: "Since business was somewhat slow, I was standing in the doorway and saw them down the block, running toward me. I heard the boys yelling, 'Dyke,' 'You think you a dude', cursing and carrying on. When the girls got closer I opened the door of the shop, pulled them inside, and locked the door. Those boys banged on my windows so much I thought they would break them. After about 15 minutes they left. I fixed the girls some hot chocolate and called their parents. I don't know why folks act out like that, but not on my block!"
Not on my block, not in my neighborhood, not if I am aware of what is happening. This is the aim of the Safe Neighborhood Campaign created by the Audre Lorde Project, a New York City-based community organizing center for people of color who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and gender-variant. The Safe Neighborhood Campaign was started by the Safe Outside the System collective, one of three working groups at the Audre Lorde Project. Its mission is to work within People of Color communities to end violence against LGBTQ people. The Safe Neighborhood Campaign engages communities in developing a deeper level of accountability for one another. We recruit local businesses and community nonprofits as safe spaces and safe havens for the neighborhood. A "safe space" is one in which the employer and employees are willing to intervene in the harassment of LGBTQ people inside as well as outside of their place of work or business. A "safe haven" is a place in which community members can seek refuge from the threat of harassment and physical violence. Ms. Myra turned her coffee shop into a safe haven that day and continues to do so.
Audre Lorde Project members have gotten somewhat used to the looks or comments directed toward them as they walk through the neighborhoods together. The most negative interactions have not been about our perceived sexual orientation or gender identity but rather about the shades of our skin. Our multiracial group can definitely stand out in racially homogeneous neighborhoods whose demographics are slowly shifting. Most of our members identify under the umbrella term People of Color, a term that implies a solidarity across cultures for people who are marginalized by race or ethnicity. We also have to acknowledge the ways in which internalized racism still divides us, both within our specific racial or ethnic groups and across groups.
The divisions are made apparent by our interactions with business owners or community organizations as we recruit them for our Safe Neighborhood Campaign. I have a pretty good relationship with the owner of a local bookstore, so I thought it would be great to recruit the bookstore as a safe space. At the time, I was training one of our new members in the process of recruiting safe spaces, so I asked him to come along. Although Thomas and I arrived together, the owner stopped me as I began to speak about the campaign and said, "Are we actually going to talk about this in front of him? He's the problem." "What? What do you mean?" I asked. The bookstore owner replied, "Those white folks are moving in here, bringing the police and causing the violence against our people." Thomas identifies as Hapa, meaning that he is both Asian (Japanese) and white. I identify as African American, as does the bookstore owner. Thomas interjected, "Sir, I'm not white, I'm bi-racial, half Japanese, and I'm very invested in ending the violence against folks in the community. It's where I live." The owner silently shook his head, so we decided that we would follow up another time. Although it would have been easy to dismiss him, we realize that meeting folks where they are and continuing the dialogue is a vital part of the process of creating safer neighborhoods. Thomas and I debriefed our experience, discussing the way that assumptions about our racial identities have affected our ability to make cross-cultural connections. We made sure to share this experience with the other members of the collective and learned to intentionally identify our members as invested community leaders when introducing them to safe space owners.
As I work on the campaign, I'm reminded of what Tracy, another safe space owner, says about the neighborhood:
In this community, we are not going to all look the same, go to the same church, or eat the same food, but we have a responsibility to look out for one another regardless.
This organizing campaign at the Audre Lorde Project calls us to redefine community across identities and cultures. We have learned that we need to engage one another in order to survive as business owners, as community organizations, and as human beings.
BUILDING THE WORLD WE DREAM ABOUT: WORKSHOP 7:
HANDOUT 1: THREE STRATEGIES FOR RESISTANCE
Adapted from Resistance and Transformation: Unitarian Universalist Social Justice History by Rev. Colin Bossen and Rev. Julia Hamilton.
Not all change is effected in the same way. There is more than one way to resist racism and systems of privilege, and more than one way to work for the transformation of our world.
This workshop explores three approaches commonly found in social justice leadership and organization, including resistance to racism and privilege: the prophetic, the parallel, and the institutional:
Prophetic voices speak out or act publicly against what they perceive to be wrong or unjust. They are often marginalized or considered ahead of their time, with a strong vision of a better future.
Parallel voices advocate for an alternative to the established structure, a new system to replace that which is deemed broken.
Institutional voices seek to work within established power structures to change them from within.
Each of these approaches may be voiced by an individual, a group, or a movement, and individuals, groups, and movements may employ different approaches at different times. All three strategic approaches are grounded in the shared Unitarian and Universalist conviction that a free faith demands critical engagement with the world.
BUILDING THE WORLD WE DREAM ABOUT: WORKSHOP 7:
HANDOUT 2: PROCEDURE FOR CREATING YOUR SKIT
BUILDING THE WORLD WE DREAM ABOUT: WORKSHOP 7:
LEADER RESOURCE 1: KINDNESS
By Naomi Shihab Nye, from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems (Far Corner Books, Portland, OR, 1995).
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
What you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
You must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
Like a shadow or a friend.
BUILDING THE WORLD WE DREAM ABOUT: WORKSHOP 7:
LEADER RESOURCE 2: THE SINGING OF ANGELS
By Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, author, philosopher, theologian, educator and civil rights leader.
There must be always remaining in every life some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathlessly beautiful and—by an inherent prerogative, throwing all the rest of life into a new and creative relatedness—something that gathers up in itself all the freshets of experience from drab and commonplace areas of living and glows in one bright light of penetrating beauty and meaning, then passes. The commonplace is shot through with new glory, old burdens become lighter, deep and ancient wounds lose much of their old, old hurting. A crown is placed over our heads that for the rest of our lives we are trying to grow tall enough to wear. Despite all the crassness of life, despite all the hardness of life, despite all the hard discords of life, life is saved by the singing of angels.
FIND OUT MORE
The UUA Multicultural Growth & Witness staff group offers resources, curricula, trainings, and tools to help Unitarian Universalist congregations and leaders engage in the work of antiracism, antioppression, and multiculturalism. Visit www.uua.org/multicultural (at www.uua.org/multicultural) or email multicultural@uua.org (at mailto:multicultural@uua.org) to learn more.