Racial Justice Workshop Part 1 Racism, Privilege, and Justice

1. Racial Justice Workshop Part 1 Racism, Privilege, and Justice

2. Introductions: Facilitators: Anthony Bailey and Julie Graham Host: Stephen Fetter Program Coordinator for Continuing Education

3. How to Use the Online System • How to ask a private question • How to report back on the flipchart • How to report a problem

4. Today's agenda: Part 1 • ★ Welcome, opening prayer, and introductions • ★ Why we’re here: Goals and commitments • Who are we? Who does our society say we are? Time in small groups introducing ourselves through our biographies • What we’re talking about: Definitions • Backpack of Privilege • Five-minute video: A personal reflection on racism and history. • ★Interactive history timeline: Legalized racism in Canada and the church. Small and large group reflection together.

5. Why this training? • It’s mandatory as a result of decisions made by the 39th General Council, but it’s more than that.   • Our understanding of the Word and the Gospel call us to racial justice; our theology and our faith nowhere accept the exclusion of anyone or any community based on identity. • Yet we humans exclude on these grounds all the time. How can we address this together?

6. Why this workshop? • This training is a space to bring our faith to bear on the very human sin of exclusion. • It’s a space to see our ministry, church and community contexts through a racial justice lens, grounded in our commitments to becoming an intercultural church. • This is an invitation to explore positive, creative and compassionate responses to racial justice that fit our ministry contexts and Canadian realities.

7. Our goals: •  Examine the systemic nature of racism within the church and wider society. •  Reflect on our own privilege and internalized racism.

8. Our goals: •  Stand on the holy ground of discomfort: • -Create a safe, but not necessarily comfortable, space for naming and learning about racism and its impact on the church and ministry. • -Invite and support the risk of respectful honesty with one another, in keeping with the prophetic witness and Gospel ministry to which we are called.

9. Our goals: •  Open up space for ongoing, transforming conversations. • This racial justice workshop is not a checklist for participants or part of someone else’s checklist. It is one part of our lifelong journey of transformation; one expression of our becoming part of the Body of Christ. •  Offer tools to assist you in beginning or continuing the work of racial justice in local ministry contexts.

10. Commitments for our time together • - We are on holy ground together. Sometimes that ground is uncomfortable. Try to stay in that space. (Jesus frequently made his listeners just a bit uncomfortable.) • -Confidentiality: What is said here stays here. • Respect: For each other. For our stories. For differing identities, needs, and experiences. • Space: If you are comfortable talking- step back. But if you’re reluctant to talk- step up. • Speech: Speak slowly and clearly: technology has its limitations. Many of us do not have English as our first language. -

11. Commitments for our time together What would you add? Use the flipchart to offer your thoughts.

12. Small groups 1 • We’re going to move into small groups now. We’ll look at how we self-identify as individuals, and how society identifies us.

13. Welcome back from your small groups. We hope the conversation was as rich as is ever possible over the phone. • Were there any words or terms that caused difficulty or challenges? We invite you to note these on the flipchart.

14. What we’re talking about today Race • Race refers to a socially defined group seen by others as being distinct by sharing external features such as skin colour, facial or bodily characteristics, hair texture, and/or a common descent. • There is no proven scientific basis for such categorization. We are all homo sapiens. • (From Ending Racial Harassment- Creating Healthy Congregations, edited)

15. What we’re talking about today Race (continued) • Historically, race is an arbitrary social category created by European colonists in the 15th century and used to assign human worth and social status. • (from Ending Racial Harassment, edited) • Race is thus a social construct; it’s a human creation. It’s much bigger than the individual. And it’s a powerful, frequently damaging construct. • That race is not “scientific” or biological does not make it any less powerful.

16. But what about differences? Difference is not inherently bad. From a faith and theological point of view, we affirm that God made difference and diversity, and that what God creates is GOOD. Being intercultural is about deepening our understanding of difference in our communities of faith; this is one of the many reasons for our church making a commitment to becoming intercultural. By contrast, when value is assigned to certain differences, we create inequalities and power imbalances.

17. Racism • “Racism is a system of oppression fed by individual and collective attitudes and by actions that discriminate against, oppress, exclude, and limit minoritized people on the basis of race and/or the colour of their skin. • It is systemic because it has the power to inhibit the realization of the full potential of humanness by those who experience racial discrimination. The struggle to eliminate racism is a justice issue.” • (From Taking Action Against Racism, http://www.united-church.ca/files/allages/families/program/racism.pdf )

18. What we’re talking about today:Racism • In the United Church’s racial justice workbook That All May Be One (2004), racism is defined as: • “A system of advantage and privilege based on “race,” in which one group of people exercises abusive power over others on the basis of skin colour and racial heritage. • A set of implicit or explicit beliefs, erroneous assumptions and actions based upon an ideology which accords inherent superiority of one racial or ethnic group over another or others.

19. What we’re talking about today:Racism • Racism is measured not by intent, but by its effect or impact on those oppressed. • Racism can be “in your face” or hidden; individual or systemic; intentional or unintentional. • Racism confers privilege on and sustains the dominant/powerful group. • Racism exists everywhere in our society, including all institutions and the church.

20. Prejudice versus discrimination • Racism is a form of discrimination. Prejudice is not the same as discrimination. Often the two terms are used interchangeably, but they are very different even when they are related. Prejudice is personal. It’s about behaviour and personal beliefs, including beliefs that are shaped by wider society. Discrimination is social and structural. It’s about which group has power and which does not, and which group has the power to impose its beliefs and preferences.

21. Racism versus prejudice Institutional powerand privilege + prejudice = discrimination For this workshop specifically: Institutional powerand privilege + prejudice = racism Racism can be acted on personally, but it always refers back to a bigger system of power, privilege, and related inequities.

22. What we’re talking about today:Privilege From the Oxford Dictionary: Privilege: A special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group of people. The privilege we’re talking about in this workshop is social privilege: Privilege handed to certain groups, and individuals within those groups, on the basis of their identities.

23. What we’re talking about today:Privilege “Privilege is an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in every day, but about which I was “meant” to remain oblivious.” - Dr. Peggy McIntosh

24. What we’re talking about today:Privilege, and Whiteprivilege • One of the most important points about any privilege, including White privilege, is that it’s generally invisible to those who have it. This makes is very easy to deny. • “If you can design structures of oppression which are invisible, which seem natural, they will be more effective than structures which are visible.” • “If you can convince everyone, but especially members of the oppressed group itself, that way things are is natural or unavoidable, people will be less likely to challenge the ways things are.”– Kendal Clarke

25. What we’re talking about today:WhitePrivilege White privilege is an institutional and social set of benefits granted topeople who physically resemble the people who dominate the powerful positionsin our society and in its institutions. Because of Canada’s historical ties to European empires and to their long process of colonization, people of northern European descent and/or appearance (i.e., White Canadians) have social privileges and power that Canadians of colour and Indigenous peoples do not. The ability to speak English fluently and with a “Canadian” accent is also part of White privilege in our context.

26. What we’re talking about today:WhitePrivilege Going back to Kendall Clark’s point, above: Invisibility makes it very easy to deny that privilege exists. For example, many of the most basic Canadian cultural assumptions do just that: “We’re all equal.” “Everyone has the same opportunities.” “Canada is multicultural; no one group has more power than any other.”

27. What we’re talking about today:WhitePrivilege • When you think about race and discussions of race in Canada, what other common responses come to mind? How do these reinforce the invisibility of White privilege? • For example: If you raised the question of race in your congregation or with your family, what responses might you hear? • Use the flipchart to note some ideas.

28. Learning to see White privilege This exercise was developed by Dr Peggy McIntosh, a White American feminist. She began to notice parallels between sexism and racism, then asked herself why it took her so long to recognise these. Her questions led to reflections on the “invisible knapsack” of privilege North American White people wear. She then wrote this exercise, which has been edited for this workshop and context.

29. Seeing White Privilege On a piece of paper, draw three columns marked “never”, “some of the time”, and “all the time”. As each phrase is read, note which of the three best applies to you. We’ll count the check marks at the end. If your phone connection is good, and you’re not having any trouble hearing or understanding, we invite you to ignore the scenarios printed on the slides and concentrate on the words being spoken.

30. If I need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live. I can be pretty sure that my neighbours in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed. I can turn on the television or open the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented. When I learn about our Canadian heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown that people of my colour made it what it is.

31. When I say I am from Québec, or Saskatchewan, or Canada, I am rarely asked where I'm really from or “what” I am. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a “credit to my race”. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group. I can talk about racism without being seen as oversensitive, over-reacting or biased. If a traffic cop pulls me over, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race.

32. I can choose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” colour and have them more or less match my skin. I can be sure that if I need a loan, or legal or medical help, my race will not work against me. When I am at worship in my home congregation, I see many pictures and symbols that represent my race and culture. Sermon illustrations and children's stories in the church I attend are usually about people of my race.

33. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without co-workers on the job suspecting that I got it only because of my race. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to “the person in charge,” I will be facing a person of my race. If my week is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it has racial overtones. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling part of the community, rather than isolated, out of place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance, or feared.

34. Scoring • Add up how many checks you have in each column. • Count 1 point for checks under “never”, 3 points for checks under “some of the time”, and 5 points for “all of the time”. • The higher your total number, the more you benefit from White privilege here in Canadian society. 90 is the maximum score for this version of the exercise. • A reminder that this is a social, structural privilege that is given to some and denied to others based on social perceptions of race. It is not personal, even though it has an impact in our personal lives. It’s part of our society and culture and thus part of the church too.

35. “I repeatedly forgot each of the realizations on this list until I wrote it down. For me, white privilege has turned out to be an elusive and fugitive subject. The pressure to avoid it is great, for in facing it I must give up the myth of meritocracy. If these things are true, this is not such a free country; one’s life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own.” - Peggy McIntosh, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack

36. Following the White privilege exercise, what is one question you are sitting with so far? Please note these on the flipchart. The facilitators will read these aloud for those who prefer to hear rather than read.

37. We’re going to watch a four and a half minute video clip to set the stage for our final small group time today.We will see part of a presentation by Dr. Katalina Tahaafe-Williams at Behold!, the United Church of Canada’s first intercultural conference, in 2009. This is her personal reflection on how white privilege was promoted by some of the greatest European philosophers – and the impacts this has had on our understandings of race. Dr. Katalina Tahaafe-Williams is the Uniting Church of Australia’s Mission and Education Multicultural/Cross-Cultural Consultant. She was formerly the Director of Communitas: Contextual Mission and Theology Program at United Theological College, and previously the United Reformed Church in the UK's Assembly Secretary for Racial Justice and Multicultural Ministry.

38. The History Timeline This interactive exercise will be done in small groups. It reviews some key moments in the history of legalized racism in Canada and the church, and resistance to it. You’ll see pairs of slides about particular moments in Canadian history. When you see the first of each pair, try to guess the year (or decade) in which the event occurred. The answer will be shown on the second slide.

39. For reflection, back in the large group: • What new fact or learning challenged you in this exercise? • Please share your responses and questions on the flipchart as you wish.

40. Questions to reflect on overnight: • When you think of discussing race and racism in your ministry context, what fears or possible barriers surface for you? • What opportunities or spaces?

41. See you tomorrow! Remember: Resources from our session will be posted at www.united-in-learning.com/racialjustice