Location: 190 W. Winter Street
From reflections on redesigning the DUUF.org website to conversations and debates at General Assembly, words mean a lot to us. Buzzwords like “queer” or “nasty” may be reclaimed and understood differently by different generations. Why would we want to use the word “worship” on our website? And what’s all this talk about microagressions, implicit bias, and white fragility? If we want to be allies to marginalized and oppressed members of our community, we need to come to terms with how we speak about and with them. We can start by building a vocabulary.
Some additional info from this lively conversation…
The Opening music was Pink Floyd’s Talkin’ Hawkin’, from their 2014 album, Endless River, and featuring the words of Stephen Hawkings.
Gopika Nair’s OPINION piece in the Friday, September 1st issue of the OWU Transcript was read, The New York Times’ mistake brings attention to diversity issue.
Brief excerpts from these articles in the Fall 2017 issue of the UU World were read:
- Unpacking Whiteness, by Elaine McArdle, “…actual ‘white supremacists’ are not required in order to uphold white supremacist culture.”
- To those who are tired, by Pam Rumancik, “…are we becoming a “one-issue” church?”
- For appropriate seasonal seediness, by Jinny Batterson
- (Of course, I’m racist, by Doug Muder –this one was skipped in the interest of time.)
- Ministry and the literacy of being human, by Sara M. Fawcett, on “minister” v. “administration”
The vocabulary list and general behaviors that are helpful for allies are from White privilege: Let’s Talk–A Resource for Transformational Dialogue, by Blackmon, Dorhauer, McCallister, Paddock, and Ray.
And anyone can take the Implicit Association Test on race at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html to check for implicit bias. It takes less than 10 minutes, and can be very eye-opening.
Let us know if you have questions, comments, or suggestions.