Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo
EENY, MEENY, MINEY, MO
CATCH A NIGGER BY THE TOE
IF HE HOLLERS LET HIM GO.
MY MOTHER SAID TO CHOOSE THIS ONE.
Raise your hand if this rhyme was part of your childhood experience. During my lifetime
it was cleaned up a bit by changing Nigger to Tiger -- but everyone knew what was
really
meant.
This little rhyme and other techniques have been used for generations to choose, to
separate out, to discriminate. Ostensibly the process was fair by being random;
in reality it encoded an underlying message of racism.
My sermon this morning is about choice, about the select and the not selected. It
is about the choice we have as individuals, as an institution and as a society to
move along the continuum from monoculture to multiculture, from racism to anti-racism.
If anyone thinks that racism was an issue that was settled in the 1970's, I can assure
you it was not. It has even been difficult to find time to write this sermon this
week because of my involvement with a person of color who has been the object of
systematic and continuous racial discrimination. The laws are in place, schools are integrated,
affirmative action is often promoted, yet the beat goes on. People of color are
denied housing and jobs and epithets are thrown in their faces. Legal recourse is available, but it is costly and brings its own level of retribution.
Our mission statement declares that we are "a welcoming and inclusive regional congregation."
In what does our diversity consist? Look around you. (Yes, my mother told me not
to stare, too; but in order to understand, we first must see.) We are different ages, genders, sizes and shapes; hair and eye colors vary; some are more dressed
up than others. We are differently abled: some walk with great difficulty and may
carry a cane, some are confined to wheelchairs, some cannot even get into this building. Some of us wear hearing aids, many of us wear glasses. On the other hand, many
of our differences do not show: some of us rank high on i.q. tests, some have rich
grandfathers, some struggled to be where we are. Some of us are bearing deep sorrows;
some of us are celebrating great joys.
This week on Thursday evening the Diversity Committee of the City of Summit is sponsoring
a Forum called "Valuing Diversity: Continuing the Dialogue." Marilyn Pfaltz wrote
a compelling article in the local paper recently of the need to talk across our differences to better appreciate the goodness and the strength in each other.
We can choose
to attend this forum and join with others to affirm the potential of Diversity..
WHAT IS DIVERSITY? - the sum total of the potential to be found in any group of people
because of their differences.
Appreciating diversity is an important place to begin. It is one of the lessons
of ecology that a multi-culture thrives where a mono-culture can only be supported
by artificial means.
Diversity has become a buzz word in many arenas, including our denomination. It has
led to the creation of greater awareness of the richness of cultures around the globe;
it has led to the writing of curriculum celebrating these differences; it has led
to assessments of our teaching and worshipping environments for faces, symbols, and
signs of non-white culture. This is good.
Diversity thinking contributed to the ecclectic nature of our new hymnal, intentional
inclusion of African, Latino, Asian, and Native American music.
Diversity as a solo value
, however, is demonic. This is the case when "diversity" is trotted out so the "good
white folk" can feel better and when persons of color in the congregation are seen
as trophies in the war against racism.
Alongside the concept of diversity I place the concept of tolerance.
TOLERANCE - the acceptance of people different from oneself, the allowance or permission
of variation from the norm
There are times and places when tolerance is hugely to be valued. A live and let
live attitude in Ireland, Bosnia, Syria, Ruanda and Zaire for example would be preferable
to torture, starvation, massacre, and genocide. However, I am speaking of us, of us here, of us here and now, in the United States, in the 1990's.
Tolerance as defined a moment ago and as practiced in our white dominated culture
has an arrogance about it, an assumption of white privilege, and power as its base.
To tolerate what and whom are different is to look down upon them, albeit benevolently.
To tolerate the other is to assume that what one is oneself is normative. To allow
or permit the other, the different, is done from a place of power.
Without doubt there is a need to celebrate Diversity and to practice Tolerance. But
where the positive aspects of diversity and tolerance end, is where racism begins.
Let's take a look at the term, "race" itself.
RACE is an arbitrary classification of the human family created to distinguish betwen
the variety of the human species based on presumed physical, historical, cultural,
national and/or geographic particularities.
The concept of race is a human construct, created by Europeans, to justify colonizing
the world. This pseudo-scientific classification of races fed into Hitler's anti-Semitism,
South African apartheid, and the justification of slavery.
The designation of races is part of Western European bi-polar thinking that tends
to classify in either-or categories. It is instructive to hear pairs of terms used
to describe racial characteristics:
dark qualities - white qualities
superstitious - scientific
subhuman - human
immoral - moral
tainted - pure
subjective - objective
sexual - chaste
disorganized - orderly
illegal - legal
abnormal - normal
One of the best books on the subject of racism that I have encountered is Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice
, by Paul Kivel. The generally accepted definition of any "ism" is prejudice plus
power. Therefore
"racism" is racial prejudice plus the systemic misuse of power
. Paul Kivel focuses on the 2nd half of the equation:
"racism [as] the institutionalization of social injustice based on skin color, other
physical characteristics, and cultural and religious difference
." He adds that "although we can and should all become more tolerant and understanding
of each other, only justice can put out the fires of racism."
So, what does Racism have to do with us? with liberal, un-prejudiced, tolerant UU's?
We must move from being un-prejudiced and tolerant, past non-racist to being pro-actively
anti-racist. We must move from complicity in a system that is racist to a truly anti-racist stance. And what is anti-racism?
ANTI-RACISM - is a perspective rooted in a moral and systemic analysis of racism,
with the goal of developing a movement to dismantle racism in its individual, cultural,
and institutional expressions.
Just a few weeks ago, I attended the annual LREDA or Liberal Religious EDucators Association
Conference. The title was: Anti-Racism Training for Religious Educators. It was
led by Tracey Robinson-Harris, Jacqui James, and Bill Sinkford, all members of the UUA staff, two women and one man, two black and one white. We participated in
many hours of defining "racism," getting in touch with our own experiences of oppression,
and examining what it would take to move toward being an anti-racist, anti-oppressive multicultural institution. It seemed that they were preaching to the converted;
the energy was positive and high.
Then, on the third day, it happened. Someone stood up and said she had HAD it with
all the politically correct language, she didn't see how saying she was in a "black
mood" could have any effect whatever on someone else. Another person took umbrage
that Bill, a black man, and said, "You are a credit to your race" to Tracey, a white woman.
Others said they had experienced real tension, people walking on egg shells when
small groups discussed how to become anti-racist.
Well, there we were, stuck in all the thorny complexities of racism.
So, what can I do? If I am to be effective in becoming anti-racist there are some
things I must do. First, I must look at myself, at my whiteness, at white privilege.
Second, I must acknowledge and not deny the racism that exists. Third, I must become an ally in creating an anti-racist society.
First of all, I must look at myself. I must acknowledge my white privilege for what
it is. I must acknowledge my own level of fear and resistence to change. I must
deal with my own discomfort with anger and with actions that disrupt the status quo
that I am comfortable with. Did you experience any discomfort with the number and
unfamiliarity of the hymns this morning? With singing in Spanish? With signing?
While race as a category may be a fiction, it is a dominant fiction in our culture.
If normal is white, we must examine our whiteness, something many of us have a reluctance
to do.
Whiteness as a positive value is embedded in our language usage. Just think about
the subliminal meaning imparted by black deed, blacklist, black market, black hearted,
blackmail, black sheep as opposed to white lie, white hope, white knight, and the
guys in the white hats.
We have a tendency to deny our complicity in racism by being color blind. "I don't
see color, I'm color blind." absolves us of the responsibility for racism because
racism is the problem of people who see
color. If we accept our whiteness we must accept that we are part of the problem
of racism.
We are often reluctant to identify and admit the benefits that accrue to us simply
from being white. In a long checklist including educational, housing, social,
and occupational advantages, we must include that race is not automatically a factor
when we walk into a room. We can usually move into a group of people without wondering
what effect our color will have.
It is also an important element of white privilege that we assume it is alright not
to know the history and heritage of a culture other than our own. My wellbeing
in this culture will not be hindered if I do not know about the diverse cultures
that surround me. My friends of color, however, must know white history, culture, traditions,
heroes and heroines, music, poetry and literature in order to succeed. FOR ME IT
IS A CHOICE TO LEARN ABOUT PEOPLE WHO ARE DIFFERENT FROM ME.
Perhaps most important of all, we do not need to think about race and racism every
day. We and our children can live, work, shop, and enjoy recreation daily without
considering the effects of racism. People of color do not have that privilege.
WE CAN CHOOSE WHEN AND WHERE WE WANT TO RESPOND TO RACISM.
Second, in addition to looking at white privilege, I must acknowledge the prevalence
of racism in our culture. I need to know that "inner city" is a code word for where
African Americans and Latinos/Latinas live. I must own that the function of racism
is to divert attention away from the source of abuse which is misused white power.
In opening ourselves to the real racism that is embedded in our culture, we can follow
the lead of our youth.
In late October, the youth of the NY Metro District YAC-SAC (the Youth Adult Committee,
Social Action Committee) held a conference, here in our Unitarian House, in support
of Teaching Tolerance. At their opening worship service, in a room lighted only
by three small candles in the center of the floor, 30 youth, many dressed in Hallowe'en
costumes, shared their experiences with racism in their high schools. Every person
there was white, Anglo-European; but everyone had a story to tell about discrimination they had witnessed: teachers who treated blacks differently from whites, peer pressure
unfairly applied to hispanics, Asians treated with disdain.
In the course of the weekend, the youth watched a video documenting the persecutions
attending each new influx of immigrants into the U.S. In this Land of the Free and
Home of the Brave, group after group withstood the atavistic hatred of difference
that was manifest toward: Native Americans, Irish, Italians, Jews, African Americans,
Chinese, Japanese, Germans, Hispanics, and Southeast Asians. It was a powerful
film and in the stunned silence following, one young woman asked, "How is it possible
that I have studied American history for all these years and I never knew any of this?"
In addition to acknowledging my whiteness and the racism in this culture, the third
thing I must do is to become an ally. An ally is a source of support and encouragement.
An ally is not in charge. An ally works with a partner to create a better world.
Some denominational history is relevant here. In the 1960's and 1970's Unitarian
Universalists, freshly merged into one denomination, threw their energy, commitment,
and enthusiasm into the struggle for racial justice. UU's were active everywhere.
We took stands, marched in rallies, demanded integration of whole communities and walked
hand in hand with our black sisters and brothers toward the promised land. Our churches
swelled in numbers, as people flocked to these religious communities professing and acting upon principles of freedom, justice, and equality.
There developed a rift, however, over the allocation of money. BAC, the Black Affairs
Council, believed in black empowerment and the commitment to put money in the hands
of black Unitarian Universalists, no strings attached. BAWA, Black And White Action, believed that blacks and whites should work together and that whites should have
a say in the ways the money was spent. A promise was made to BAC of $1 million
dollars to support black empowerment efforts over a period of 4 years. The UUA fell
on hard economic times and only 1 and 1/2 years of this commitment was honored. The conflict
in the denomination was furious; the annual General Assemblies were tumultuous.
People left the denomination in droves: some felt betrayed, that the UUA budget was
balanced on the back of racial justice; some felt threatened by the level of acrimony.
White UU's felt that giving up the power of the purse was more than they could tolerate.
Our move toward racial justice was in a shambles.
We have now been given the opportunity of a second chance! We are being offered a
choice to move beyond issues of prejudice, tolerance, and diversity toward anti-racist
multiculturalism.
We can begin to understand that anti-racism is not
about individual prejudice; it is
about systemic injustice. It is not about feeling good or bad; it is not about guilt.
We individually did not cause the system that exists. We are, however, part of
that system. Being anti-racist is possible whether there are people of color in
the chairs beside us on Sunday morning or not.
Our second chance consists in learning to become allies with persons of color in creating
an anti-racist society. What does being an ally mean?
First of all, it means being able to suspend judgement, to give up control, and to
just listen. This is not an easy task for people who are accustomed to being in
charge, to having the right answers. In "What can the white man say to the black
woman?", Alice Walker assumes the voice of a white man and answers, "I will cease trying to
lead your children, for I can see I have never understood where I was going. I will agree to sit quietly -- for a century or so -- and meditate on this
."
This is a revolutionary idea for those of us who are used to giving commands, or advice,
or suggestions. From the paternalistic white missionaries to those responsible for
welfare mothers, WE have thought we knew what was best for THEM.
We have an opportunity to try listening, more than talking, at the Valueing Diversity
Forum on Thursday.
We have an opportunity to try out this new role when we participate in the Interfaith
Network for the Homeless in December. Not only can we share our space, our food
and our time with people who are temporarily homeless. We also have the opportunity
to listen, to learn from those who know in ways we never can what it is like to be poor,
homeless, and in most cases black in this culture.
Then, we must support the empowerment of people of color, not with our own agenda,
but with theirs.
This second chance represents an issue of life and death for persons of color, of
every color, including white, and for our movement. It means nothing less than saving
the soul of our Unitarian Universalism!!
I would leave you with a hopefull image. To make progress we will need to listen,
not only to people of color, but also to our own children. Last Sunday I was the
teacher for one of our groups of 6-and 7-year-olds. They were about to play a game
and needed to choose the person to be IT. Quick as a wink Wyatt Cohen and Alex Zimmer
had everyone put their toes into a circle and counted off. Their rhyme, new to me,
was:
DONKEY, DONKEY, DIAMOND
STEP RIGHT OUT.
Mark Morrison-Reed
Mark Morrison-Reed reminds us that Homer Jack described Sunday morning as "the segregation
hour"
Mark Morrison-Reed writes, "... since the advent of black power, when the emphasis
in the Afro-American struggle shifted from human rights to black consciousness and
to political and economic power, the once sacred principle of integration is held
up ambivalently, if at all. . . . In this post-black empowerment era, most liberal religionists
are no longer clear enough about their values or perceptive enough in their thinking
about race to be able to move decisively. It seems the assimilatioon of the rapid changes that occurred in the sixties and seventies is a slow process. There comes
the humbling realization that we in the church do not stand above the social attitudes
of our times, but rather flounder among them with everyone else."
The sermon in a Unitarian Universalist setting is never the last word
on any subject, but rather an invitation to further dialog.
You may want to read other visitors'
comments on Carol Haag's "Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo"
.
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Bill Griffeth
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