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:

• • The 29th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Breakfast, Monday, January 21st, 2019 at the Minneapolis Armory, with keynote speaker Don Lemon
  • Join the Dismantling Racism Working Group to hear Mary Moriarty, Chief Public Defender for Hennepin County, speak on “A Public Defender’s View of Race and the Criminal Justice System” at  2:00 p.m. on January 21st, 2019 at Carondelet Village. 

Book suggestions:

• Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler.  Described as a dystopian novel about the future (and one that has already begin 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   

 

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

 

Exhibits:

• “Race:  Are We Really So Different?”  Minnesota Science Museum’s Race Exhibit.
• Hennepin History Center: Owning Up: Racism and Housing in Minneapolis, 2303 3^rd Ave. South
  Now through January 20, 2019 (Call for daily hours of when exhibit is open)
• Somalis in Minnesota, Minnesota History Museum
  Now through June
• Minneapolis Institute of Art: Throughout February, Celebration of African American Art History.  Discover African American Artists’ contributions to art history in the United States.  Free public tours daily at 1:00 p.m.

 

Theatre:

• Penumbra Theatre: benevolence, the second play in a trilogy about Emmett Till.  February 12 – March 10, 2019

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)

 

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