Sermon
July 2, 2017
Rev. Emily Wright-Magoon
This is a stolperstein – a concrete block installed into the sidewalk, and bearing a brass plate. The plate is inscribed with the names and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination or persecution. It is set into the ground at the last place the person lived – of their own choosing. Over 50,000 stolperstein have been laid in 22 European countries.
Stolperstein means “stumbling stone” – or a stone to “stumble upon.” The artist who began the project says that, in contrast to central memorial places, which can be easily avoided or bypassed, stolperstein represent a much deeper intrusion of history into our everyday life.
REPORT FROM GENERAL ASSEMBLY – OUR UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FAITH
Last week, I attended General Assembly, the annual gathering of Unitarian Universalists.
The famous Ware lecture was given by the attorney Bryan Stevenson, author of the book Just Mercy about which our own member Glen Aaron led a book discussion last year.((Bryan Stevenson’s Ware lecture was not recorded or transcribed, but you can find a similar presentation he gave here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FINmQ0lmXGM))
Bryan Stevenson said: if you go to Germany, you will stumble on these stones, and they will take you to the Holocaust Memorial. If you go to Rwanda, they will tell you about the genocide. In South Africa, they will make you hear about the history of apartheid.
But here in the United States, we don’t talk about the genocide of the indigenous peoples. By 1691, the population of indigenous Americans had declined by 90-95 percent. We made 400 treaties with the indigenous peoples of these lands, and broke every single one.
The European settlers here looked at Central and South America with fear, because there the Spanish and Portuguese had sent no settlers, just conquistadors – so there was more mixing, creating “mestizos.”
Benjamin Franklin – believe it or not – said (paraphrased): “This is such a beautiful white country. What can we do to keep it that way?”((This quote was shared at the Undoing Racism workshop by the facilitators from People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. He might not have used the word “white” but certainly referred to “Anglo-Saxons” and their ideal complexion. You can find similar quotes by Benjamin Franklin here: https://qz.com/904933/a-history-of-american-anti-immigrant-bias-starting-with-benjamin-franklins-hatred-of-the-germans/))
BUILDING A NARRATIVE OF RACIAL DIFFERENCE INTO LAW
The United States was unique in its strategy to build racism into law in order to keep people of color from attaining power.
When the white property owners in the 1600s saw that the black slaves and white indentured servants kept organizing to escape together, they created a law that said if a Dutch man runs away with a negro and gets caught, the Dutch man will have added years to his indentureship and the negro will get lifetime servitude.
This is an example of just one of the many ways race was and is used as a wedge.
In 1790, the Law said that only “white” persons could come here and become citizens. Of course, originally it was only the Anglo-Saxons who were considered white. Gradually, other nationalities: the Irish, the Germans, the Italians – each of them once considered non-white – gained their status as white, and all the legal privileges that went with that. And in order to do so, they all had to do their part – like that Dutch servant – to keep the black people down.
Our laws were made to benefit those people who were becoming white.
THE EVOLUTION OF RACISM
But those of us who became white often like to console ourselves about this history by celebrating the Civil Rights movement – we changed all the laws, right?!
But our Ware lecturer Bryan Stevenson cautioned us again, saying two things:
First: We have not had a Truth and Reconciliation Process in this country. Systematic racism caused injuries – injuries to the heart, mind and spirit; and centuries of lost generational privilege…
(it’s like inviting your friends to a Monopoly game after you’ve been already playing for two hours: you can’t make it around the board!)
We have in no way healed the wounds of slavery and racist terror. We still won’t even talk about it!
You probably heard about the textbooks right here in Texas that called people brought over from Africa “workers,” downplayed slavery as a reason for the Civil War, and didn’t require mention of Jim Crow segregation laws or the Ku Klux Klan. So, Stevenson is starting a project to memorialize in this country all the places where there were lynchings.
Second: He says, as many others do, that systematic racism has not ended in the United States.
We created a narrative of racial difference, of white supremacy, in order to justify slavery. That narrative has not evaporated just because we changed the laws. That narrative is deep and strong and has allowed slavery to evolve into segregation, and then into the “New Jim Crow”: mass incarceration and all the related systems of parole and enforcement.
1 in 3 black male babies born in this country is expected to go to jail or prison in its lifetime. And if we start in on all those defenses about black male criminality, or broken black homes, we need to dig deeper. The facts, the studies, the STORIES of people of color in this country are all there to back it up: it’s systematic racism – a narrative of racial superiority, of white supremacy.
LOOKING WITHIN OURSELVES
That term “white supremacy” is one that has surged to the forefront of Unitarian Universalist conversations for the past several months, because of events that have happened within our movement that have forced us to acknowledge that we are not immune to this narrative.
When I say that we in the U.S. often don’t talk about our painful history of racism; it’s also true that Unitarian Universalists also often don’t talk about our painful history of racism. When we do, we call it “the Black Empowerment Controversy,” but many have shifted to call it instead “the White Controversy over Black Empowerment.” I don’t have time to adequately describe those dramatic and painful events at the General Assemblies in 1968 and 1969, and what followed.
As a result of the treatment of the Black Affairs Council, thousands of black people LEFT Unitarian Universalism. It was an exodus. And we were made poorer in so many ways because of this loss.
And we will never recover if we do not talk about what happened and what still happens.
The GOOD NEWS is that we finally ARE talking about it! Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism – BLUU (pronounced “Blue”) for short – is a new group within Unitarian Universalism. They were given the annual President’s Medal at this year’s General Assembly. They are taking up the torch, and other people of color and white people are responding to their leadership.
This year’s General Assembly was absolutely electrified with energy when to the stage came Dr. Sanyika, one of the powerful black UU leaders who left in the 60s and stayed away. Here he is 50 years later, encouraged enough now by what is happening in Unitarian Universalism to come back and speak with us.
Here are some of Dr. Sanyika’s words that day last week:((You can find the full video of Dr. Sanyika’s address here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DG1A-rjvik))
Unitarian Universalism at its best is a transformative agent for justice and liberation and peace in the world. … It begins with you believing that the virus of racism and white supremacy is still around us, and it metastasizes. It sneaks up on you when you’re not looking. .. We must always be vigilant and look first within ourselves. …Eliminating white supremacy is an uncomfortable business. Because White privilege has existed for so long that cognitive dissonance is a part of our culture. We must dig deep into our human spirits and say, absolutely we are the new humanity becoming, so we can’t tolerate the old world as it exists.
Like I say, leading up to this General Assembly, there was anxiety.
The last few months had seen a series of dramatic events, one after the other: UUs of color had begun pointing out institutional racism within the UUA…and instead of being able to respond from our principles that lift up things like right relationship, compassion, justice… our leaders, for the most part, fumbled – and when called out on it, they resigned. The President of the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Chief Operating Officer, the head of Congregational Life, the President of the UUMA (UU Ministers Association). All resigned within weeks of each other. And then, just coincidentally, and very tragically, Jim Key, the Moderator of the UUA (a major position) was diagnosed with aggressive cancer and died. And then it was discovered that two of the leaders who resigned voluntarily were given exorbitant severance packages, going against numerous policies.
So, the months leading up to General Assembly were full of anxiety, uncertainty, and anticipation. During that time, though, two-thirds of UU congregations, including our congregation, participated in the #UUWhiteSupremacyTeachIn. An Undoing Racism intensive workshop was planned for the two days prior to General Assembly, and hundreds of UUs signed up.
And, then, the spirit at General Assembly was one of courageous conversation, bold reflection, and decisive actions. In a statement on their site this week, Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism said
For those who were able to make it to General Assembly this year, the energy was different this time around [from even just a year ago]. Something is changing in our denomination.
AND …We know there is work to do. A harsh reminder of that fact came the last night of General Assembly, when two UUA staff people were robbed and attacked on their way to their hotel, allegedly by four young black men, at least one of them homeless. The attack was caught on surveillance video and circulated on major news networks. The four men believed guilty are now in police custody. One of the UUA staff remains hospitalized in critical condition.
Two days ago, the brand new (just elected!) President of the Unitarian Universalist Association, Susan Frederick-Gray, put out a message of care and support for the two men and their families. She continued with the following pastoral message:
Throughout the General Assembly, we reflected on the narratives and wider systems of oppression that perpetuate both systemic and personal violence. This week, those reflections became personal and proximate.
As I have listened to Unitarian Universalists reflect on this situation, I have been moved by the connections made to Bryan Stevenson’s powerful message to us at General Assembly that “simply punishing the broken—walking away from them or hiding them from sight—only ensures that they remain broken and we do, too. There is no wholeness outside of our reciprocal humanity.”
May we hold the young adults who are accused of carrying out the robbery…with the universal love that we hold Tim …and James…. This is so very important. Many voices have lifted up hope for a process of restorative justice.
These are our Unitarian Universalist values calling us to live in the reality of the heartbreak of our world, while remembering that no one is outside the circle of love – that compassion is always our guide, and that as a religious community, we seek the well-being of all people and the dismantlement of systems of oppression that undermine our collective humanity.
That was two days ago. And today the following information appeared in a news article about the four young men’s hearing in court:
Unitarian Universalists packed a row … as the four men accused of taking part in the attack appeared in court. Several of the observers wore “Black Lives Matter” T-shirts. After the hearing, one of the Unitarians said they had hoped the young men would receive lower bails. She and several other Unitarians present said they had been in touch with the victims’ families before attending the hearing.
‘We wanted to show up for restorative justice. We wanted to advocate for a reasonable bond for all four…We don’t want these young men thrown away.’
DOING THE WORK: THE PROMISE AND THE HOPE
This is the work. It is not always easy. It is rarely comfortable.
That’s the purpose of the stolpersteins – to make us uncomfortable. To make us stumble. An African proverb says:
To stumble is not to fall but to move forward more quickly.
Past President (and until just recently Interim Co-President) Bill Sinkford says this of our current focus on the disease of white supremacy:
[Other liberal religious traditions] are watching [us] because they are looking for hope. They want us to succeed because they know that our struggles will soon be their struggles. Both for us and for those around us, this time is not fundamentally about our problems but about our promise. It is fundamentally about hope. (my emphasis)
So let us stumble our way forward.
It’s much better than staying still, especially while people’s lives are at stake. We have no time – and no reason – to be hopeless.
– Rev. Emily Wright-Magoon
P.S. There’s SO MUCH MORE that happened at this year’s General Assembly. Check out UUWorld’s reporting here. And you can find links to videos and other information here on the UUA site.
Finally, find your on-ramp to the conversation in the UUA about white supremacy: 