Dismantling Racism Working Group

Mission and Goals

The Dismantling Racism Working Group is dedicated to raising awareness of the effects of racism in ourselves, our systems, and our society, and discerning how we are called to build the Beloved Community, based on love, justice, and equal opportunity for all.

We encourage exploration of these resources:

Some Resources on Dismantling Racism 

Events:

Attending events such as the following can be helpful to learn more about the effects of systemic racism:

• Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice: Lent 2019 Resource: Recommit to Racial Justice
• Below, hear Mary Moriarty, Chief Public Defender for Hennepin County, speak on “A Public Defender’s View of Race and the Criminal Justice System” (from January 21, 2019 at Carondelet Village). 

Theatre:

• Pillsbury House Theater presents Athol Fugard’s Blood Knot, May 17 – June 16, a parable of two brothers who share a one-room shack near Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Equally important today as it was at the time of its 1961 premiere, Blood Knot is a poignant, piercing metaphor for racial tension, powerfully acted by James A. Williams and Stephen Yoakam.

 

Book suggestions:

• Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler.  Described as a dystopian novel about the future (and one that has already begun to come true), Octavia Butler notes that she wrote about humanity:  “All struggles are essentially power struggles.  Who will rule?  Who will lead?  Who will define, refine, confine, design?”  The characters, particularly Lauren, the lead character, give us examples of how to discern and respond to the callings in our lives, especially when we are disoriented. Events related to Octavia Butler’s book, Parable of the Sower at St. Catherine University.  See also website for the upcoming opera based on the book.
• Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race and Being, by M. Shawn Copeland.  A powerful book that asks us to consider the Body of Christ from the perspective of where Christ lived: among marginalized people.  Dr. Copeland records the voices of African American women after their enslavement, bringing to life their dehumanizing experiences.  Dr. Copeland’s book is a call for Christians to take Eucharistic Solidarity seriously, to turn toward each other and transformation.
• “Dear White American” by Professor George Yancy (https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/12/24/dear-white-america/) Even though Professor Yancy’s December 2015 article was written with compassion and care, in turn he has received death threats and agonizingly vile responses.  In 2018, Professor Yancy published a book, Backlash, which discusses those responses and the critical need for those of us who are silent and complicit in the ongoing racist systems to dismantle racism.
• White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, by Carol Anderson:   Louise Erdrich’s blog on the Birchbark Books website discusses the book.  https://birchbarkbooks.com/blog/white-rage   
• My Grandmother’s Hands — Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, by Resmaa Menakem
• White Fragility, by Robin DiAngelo

 

Website Resources:

• Dismantling Racism.org
• Equal Justice Initiative (https://eji.org/racial-justice) with noted author Bryan Stevenson (Just Mercy,) provides helpful information about racial injustices, along with information about The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama
• Minnesota Historical Society: helpful information about three African-Americans who were lynched in Duluth, Minnesota: Duluth Lynchings
• Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice: Resources on Acknowledging Systemic Racism and Unpacking Whiteness

 

Exhibits:

• Minnesota African American Heritage Museum & Gallery – Founded in 2018, the Museum’s purpose is to preserve, record and highlight the achievements, contributions and experiences of African Americans in Minnesota.  This mission is carried out through exhibits, workshops and events that educate and inform the public about the history, culture, and art of African Americans in Minnesota. Read MPR’s story about the new MAAHMG.
• “Race:  Are We Really So Different?”  Minnesota Science Museum’s Race Exhibit.
• Somalis in Minnesota, Minnesota History Museum
  Now through June

Video and Audio:

• “The Fierce Urgency of Now” M. Shawn Copeland’s address at Boston College on the 50^th Anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z34KlYy8Bo
• “Redeeming the Soul of America” with Fr. Bryan Massingale, STD.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhFyaNYkK
• Eula Biss, Let’s Talk about Whiteness https://onbeing.org/programs/eula-biss-lets-talk-about-whiteness-jan2017/
• NPR’s On the Media podcast, “Africatown” (aired January 5, 2019)
• “Jim Crow of the North” on Minnesota Experience, Twin Cities Public Television

 

For more information contact Marty Roers at mroers@csjstpaul.org.