Anti-Racism Work in Northern Yearly Meeting
NYM created a worship-based, spirit-led working group in fall of 2019 to look at the work on racism that has been done within our yearly meeting, to consider available resources, and to seek allies and ways forward to further the ongoing anti-racist work of the Northern Yearly Meeting faith community.
Participate in the Anti-Racism Discussion Group
This NYM Google Group allows participants to share resources (books, videos, podcasts, events) to support our anti-racism work. The Group is also used to publicize educational and discussion opportunities developed by the NYM Anti-Racism Working Group.
Join the Anti-Racism Working Group!
Help guide NYM’s efforts to become an anti-racist faith community. The small group of folks who were part of the working group welcome additional and diverse perspectives to further our work.
To be added to the discussion group or join the working group, contact: antiracism@northernyearlymeeting.org
Northern Yearly Meeting begins all of our business meetings with this query, to be considered throughout our business process: “How does this decision support our goal for this NYM session to be actively anti-racist in our faith and practice?”
Learn more about racism
Watch
Why People Are Angry: 18 minutes; Author and filmmaker Phil Vischer (VeggieTales, What’s In The Bible?) breaks down the issues of racial injustice that have progressed throughout America’s history to put in perspective why racism against Black Americans is not a thing of the past. https://www.100blackmenmadison.org/changing-the-black-reality
Segregated by Design Watch: 17 minutes; Segregation just didn’t happen. This video goes beyond redlining to explain how our cities became segregated; https://vimeo.com/328684375 If you want to learn more about this process read The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein.
These two powerful videos were used in AFSC’s ecourse, Radical Acting in Faith:
- Kimberly Jones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkedkvNn5V0&feature=youtu.be
- Sonya Renee Taylor: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CA1HrO1gWyL/?igshid=5dln2rrgn3wm
Listen
Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Some of this feels new, but in truth it’s an old story.
Why? Where did the notion of “whiteness” come from? What does it mean? What is whiteness for?
Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen took a deep dive into these questions, along with an array of leading scholars and regular guest Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, in this fourteen-part documentary series, released between February and August 2017. The series editor is Loretta Williams.
Read
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, by Resmaa Menakem (https://www.resmaa.com/books)
What It Means to be an Anti-Racist: https://www.vox.com/2020/6/3/21278245/antiracist-racism-race-books-resources-antiracism
White Supremacy Culture http://www.cwsworkshop.org/PARC_site_B/dr-culture.html
Layla Saad
- http://laylafsaad.com/poetry-prose/white-women-white-supremacy-1
- http://laylafsaad.com/poetry-prose/white-women-white-supremacy-2
75 Things White People Can Do For Racial Justice
Okay, that sounds like a lot, but one White person doesn’t have to do them all. Ideas here for political and person actions, what you can read, what you can watch to educate yourself further. Scan and find someplace to start:
https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234
Teaching Tolerance
Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators—teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners—who work with children from kindergarten through high school.
https://www.tolerance.org/topics/race-ethnicity
Some Quaker anti-racism resources
- Friends General Conference Ministry on Racism program provides opportunities for Friends of Color to gather and build community together, and offers assistance and support to FGC affiliated meetings and yearly meetings that want to develop their racial and ethnic awareness, increase their diversity, and strive to address the impact of the institution of racism on our Society.
- New England Yearly Meeting offers videos on how to approach racial justice work from a spiritual basis, among other resources.
- New York Yearly Meeting provides resources for Families, Youth, and First Day School.
- Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting: Uplifting Racial Justice Committee