I. Can't. Even.
I was going to respond directly to Rev. Don Southworth, but after a good night's sleep I decided that I have already talked enough about Unitarian Universalist cluelessness and tone-deafness; why keep pointing out examples? They just make me mad. So I'm going to tell a story.
The one thing you need to know as I start is that my mother is not a worrier. I am the worrier. anyway.....
It was November, 2014. And all of St. Louis was waiting for the Grand Jury's decision as to whether or not Darren Wilson is going to be charged with anything in relation to killing Michael Brown.
I was going to a meeting that was movement-related. Before my parents left out I had told my mother that by the time they got back to the house, I would be gone. I wasn't out a particularly long time, but it was long dark by the time I came back to the house. And my mother picked. And picked. And picked. Until she went to bed. I couldn't figure out why she was picking. It finally came to me as I went to bed; my mother was worried about me being out in St. Louis after dark.
When I'm in St. Louis, I live 8.5 miles from Ferguson.
During the first month, I could tell you what time of day it was because the police helicopters flew over the house at particular times of the day.
Some mornings, we could smell the remnants of the tear gas that has released in the overnight hours.
My mother was worried because we live close to Clayton, which is county seat and where the announcement of the Grand Jury's decision would be announced. If the decision came down that night, there's a strong possibility that I wouldn't have been able to make it home.
That is what St. Louis was like in those months. But I'm not finished.
Did you know there was a UU minister on the streets in Ferguson, EVERY DAY?
Did you know that there was a UU minister of color who had just moved to Ferguson one month before Mike Brown was killed? And this minister was just starting an interim position at the congregation that is closest to Ferguson? That some members of said congregation live in or around Ferguson?
Wanna know what we, the St. Louis area UU ministers, heard from institutional UUism (Board or Administration)? Not a damn thing.
Wanna know how many people from Administration came to St. Louis during Ferguson October? One, and that was because of a personal friendship. And that one was NOT the President of the UUA.
Wanna know how many members of the UUA Board of Trustees came to St. Louis during Ferguson October? NONE.
Do you know that we in the St. Louis area begged for an "all hands on deck" call for Ferguson October like the call that was given out for UUs to go to North Carolina for the Moral Mondays protest? Betcha didn't.
So when I read letters like the one Rev. Don Southworth wrote, I have two reactions. One is to cry. The other is to do like Jesus and flip over some temple tables.
I'm not going to do either in this case. But I will make a comment on one paragraph in Rev. Southworth's tragically conceived and executed letter.
"It seems clear that the board believes the most important issue and priority in our faith today is empowering our black siblings to have a more active and effective leadership role. I also believe it's important. And I also believe it's important to lower the debt for our religious professionals, and especially ministers, who sacrifice their financial well being to serve our faith; it's important that all religious professional organizations and formerly affiliated groups such as DRUUM to have enough to do their important work; it's important that our most innovative ministers and ministries - many of whom are people of color - have enough money and resources so they can a) have enough money to live on and b) have the resources to give their ministries a chance; it's important our seminaries, congregations and UUA staff have enough resources to be strong and healthy in the future; it's important that we find funding for more community organizing, more speaking out against environmental devastation and immigration justice - especially given the insanity we have seen since the election; and it's important that we deepen, strengthen and articulate our theology more powerfully in the world, so we can find new ways to connect with those spiritually hungry people in our communities who don't know about us or don't think we have something to offer them."
It always fascinates me when white people don't get that all these things are direct descendants of white supremacy. Environmental devastation? Ever heard of Flint? (they still don't have clean water) Immigration justice? Shall we talk about how they are rounding up people who are darker skinned and leaving the undocumented Irish immigrants here in the Northeast alone? The "insanity we have seen since the election"? Let's talk about voting rights and voter suppression, which is all about keeping people of color from voting. Community organizing? Let's talk about how white organizers get paid but organizers of color are expected to organize for free. And that when they try to get paid, they are called everything but a child of God.
I'm done with white fragility today. More later, I think.
*-if you don't know what I mean when I say my mother picked, email me. I'll tell you.
