In February 2021, our church did a survey of the membership regarding our social justice mission. Racial Justice / Dismantling White Supremacy was identified as the #1 social justice area of interest.

With this knowledge, in fall 2021, when our social justice committee reorganized into a social justice council with several individual teams, a racial justice team was created. This team began meeting in November and we are just beginning to get into our work.

Our first order of business was to develop a mission statement. It is the following:

“Believing in the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and justice, equity and compassion in human relations, we commit to racial justice and the dismantling of a white supremacy culture within ourselves, our congregation, our faith, and our community.”

We also identified two primary goals:

1) “To facilitate opportunities for our team members, First Unitarian Church members, and friends to learn about racism and white privilege and its intersectionality with social justice issues.”

2) “To support and strengthen relationships with local communities most affected by systemic and institutional racism, which are already doing anti-racism work in our community.”

We hope you will join us in doing the critical work of dismantling white supremacy in our congregation, our community, our country, and our minds.

Want to get involved? The Racial Justice Team meets on the second Wednesday of the month at 11:00 am. If you are interested, please send an email to: info@1uc.org

Racial Justice Resource List:

BOOKS:

• The 1619 Project by Nicole Hannah-Jones
• Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
• White Fragility by Robin Diangelo
• My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem
• There There by Tommy Orange
• On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed
• Coates, Ta-Nehisi (2015). Between the World and Me
• Kendi, Ibram X. (2019) How to Be an Antiracist
• Oluo, Ijeoma (2019). So You Want to Talk About Race
• Tatum, Beverly Daniel (2017). Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations about Race (2017)
• Tisby, Jemar and Moore, Lecrae (2019) The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism
• Wilkerson, Isabel (2010). The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration
• The Nation Must Awake by Mary E. Jones Parrish
• Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad

PODCASTS:

• 5 Podcasts To Listen To If You Really Want To Know About Race in America – From WBUR
• Can One Person Change the Criminal Justice System?
• Code Switch
• Still Processing, a New York Times culture podcast with Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morrison
• Seeing White –  a Scene on the Radio podcast
• Jemele Hill is Unbothered, a podcast with award-winning journalist Jemele Hill
• Pod Save The People, organizer and activist DeRay McKesson explores news, culture, social justice, and politics with analysis from fellow activists Brittany Packnett, Sam Sinyangwe, and writer Dr. Clint Smith III
• The Appeal, a podcast on criminal justice reform hosted by Adam Johnson
• Justice In America, a podcast by Josie Duffy Rice and Clint Smith on criminal justice reform
• Brené Brown with Ibram X. Kendi, a podcast episode on antiracism
• Come Through, a WNYC podcast with Rebecca Carroll
• The Kinswomen, conversations on race, racism, and allyship between women, hosted by Hannah Pechter and Yseult Polfliet

DOCUMENTARIES, VIDEOS, & MOVIES:

• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo 
• 13th By Ava DuVernay.
• Let’s get to the root of racial injustice| Megan Ming Francis|
• Black in America: And Still I Rise Henry Louis Gates
• Racism and the Soul of America
• Kendi, Ibram X. How to be an Antiracist
• Dr. Kendi at the Aspen Institute
• Dr. Kendi on the Colbert Show
• The difference between being “not racist” and antiracist | Ibram X. Kendi