The Sankofa Moment

1
The Sankofa Moment

• Sankofa is a word in the Akan language of Ghana
  that translates as "reach back and get it."

2
Opening words

• I do not wish to breathe another breath
• If it is not shared with others.
• The breath of life is not mine alone.
• I brought myself to be with you
• Hoping that by inhaling
• the compassion, the courage, the hope
• found here
• I can exhale
• the fear, the selfishness, the separateness
• I keep so close to my skin.

• I cannot live another moment,
• At least not one of joy,
• Unless you and I find our oneness.
• Somewhere among each other
• Somewhere between the noise
• Somewhere within the silence
• Of the next breath.
• Kristen Harper

3

• Gather here in the mystery of this hour.
• Gather here in one strong body.
• Gather here in the strong and the power.
• Spirit draw near.
• Words and tune Phil Porter

4
The Nature of Racism

• And how racism effects us.

5

• What is your earliest memory of becoming aware of
  race?

6
Our Fundamental Nature

• No one is born a racist. What we need is to be
  held, fed and feel the world is absolutely
  delighted with you.

7

• Children are by nature curious about everything.
  Difference only momentarily frightens them. They
  will adjust if there is no danger and their fear
  is not reinforced.

8

• Children are naturally emotionally attuned to
  fairness and protest the first time they see
  prejudice acted out.

9

• If a child knows nothing else it will come to
  accept racism as normal.

10
Prejudice is Learned

Prejudice is something that must be
systematically taught and culturally reinforced.

11

• A parents response to a childs openness,
  abandon and curiosity reflects that parents
  fears both real and fictitious.

12

• A parents response to a child's moral protest
  can be anger ranging from violence, hushing,
  shaming, scolding, and the withdrawal of
  affection.

13

• The child faces a dilemma, since the child needs
  and idolizes their parent(s), as well as needing
  to feel they belong to a group.

14

• The child experiences moral confusion and
  emotional pain when faced with this dilemma.

15
In response to the dilemma, the child may

• Remain silent, and sacrifice their sense of
  justice and fair play.
• Join-in in order to win back approval.
• Narrow their lives to avoid a repeat of the
  situation and the unbearable sense of shame they
  carry.
• Become fearful of difference.

16
Mis-Education

• Falsehoods, distortions and omissions reinforce
  the sense of confusion and further promotes
  isolation.

17

• White Privilege

18

• You do not know what DWB means.
• Clerks dont follow you around the store.
• You take pride in your heritage and believe your
  behavior and mores are normal.
• You do not feel that you represent your race and
  must be credit to it.
• People do not assume you got your job through
  affirmative action.
• You do not have to educate your children about
  the Black Code in order to keep them safe.

19

• What is the Black Male Code?

20
The Black Male Code

• Always pay close attention to your surroundings,
  son, especially if you are in an affluent
  neighborhood where black folks are few.
  Understand that even though you are not a
  criminal, some people might assume you are,
  especially if you are wearing certain clothes.
• Never argue with police, but protect your dignity
  and take pride in humility. When confronted by
  someone with a badge or a gun, do not flee,
  fight, or put your hands anywhere other than up.
• Please don't assume, son, that all white people
  view you as a threat. America is better than
  that. Suspicion and bitterness can imprison you.
  But as a black male, you must go above and beyond
  to show strangers what type of person you really
  are.

21

• Whites, since it isnt a problem for them, dont
  see at as a problem and to not talk about it.
• Whites are ignorant and confused about race.
• Blacks frequently experience micro-aggression.
• Blacks have a tendency to see ever problem as an
  issue of race.
• Ergo Whites feel Blacks are exaggerating.

• Because African-Americans and Euro-Americans
  everyday experiences vary so much from one
  another

22
the new face of racism is Micro-aggression

• Microaggression is a form of unintended
  discrimination. It is depicted by the use of
  known social norms of behavior and/or expression
  that, while without conscious choice of the user,
  has the same effect as conscious, intended
  discrimination.
• From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

23
Liberals

• In an attempt to bolster our egos, we often find
  our value in our actions, rather than our in our
  own inherent worth and goodness.
• I am good, because I do good
• rather than
• I am inherently good
• It is a form of neo-Puritanism.

24
Guilt

• Bill Schulz wrote, Guilt deals cruelly with
  vision.
• Guilt may initiate action, but we cannot sustain
  the work, if we remain mired in feelings of
  shame.
• Eventually we will either distance ourselves from
  the ego-corroding acid of shame or become
  addicted to the moonshine of feeling holier than
  thou.

25
Healing

• The real issue is healing. Our motivation is to
  feel whole.
• Again, not doing good for them but healing ones
  self.
• This is spiritually rooted in the intuition that
  we are deeply connected, and that in healing
  ourselves, we work to heal the world as well.

26
Fall On Your Face

• In this work, mistakes are inevitable.
• So enjoy making them.
• See them as the learning opportunities that they
  are.
• It is the only way to learn.

27
Your Approach

• Be led by your heart, and a desire for
  connection, rather than by ideology.

28
At the close of the UUA Board meeting in Selma
Donald Harrington read these words from Howard
Zinns SNCC The New Abolitionists

• Finally it all boils down to human
  relationships. It is the question of . . .
  whether I shall go on living in isolation or
  whether there shall be a we. . . . Love alone is
  radical. Political statements are not programs
  are not even going to jail is not. Love alone
  is radical.

29
Build Relationships!!!!!!
30

• We can cherish all our individual diversities as
  we like, but it will be those essentials we share
  in common that will empower us to transform the
  world as we wish it to become.
• - Robert Latham

31
Be Hopeful

• Knowing that the arc of the moral universe is
  long, but it bends towards justice, work in
  complete confidence, rather than earnestness.

32
A Prayer for Living in Tension

• If we have any hope of transforming the world and
  changing ourselves,
• we must be
• bold enough to step into our discomfort,
• brave enough to be clumsy there,
• loving enough to forgive ourselves and others.
• May we, as a people of faith, be granted the
  strength to be
• so bold,
• so brave,
• and so loving.
• Joseph M Cherry