Question 1
Debby Irving writes, “Cross-racial
relationships are essential to racial healing. The kind of contact and connection they engender is indeed the antidote to the centuries-old pattern of segregation and avoidance.”
She also writes, “White people must learn how to listen to the experiences of people of color for racial healing and justice to happen.”
- Have you tried to form relationships across racial lines? If so, were you successful? If not, what has held you back?
- Have you ever found yourself “not believing” a person of color when a story of discrimination was told to you?
Debby Irving writes, “I couldn’t have known at the age of five that by thinking a fellow human being less human, I made myself less human, or that by disconnecting from my human family I began the process of disconnecting from my natural intuition and ability to love.”
- What is the cost of racism to white people? What do we lose?
Question 3
Debby Irving writes: "One of the most important things we, as white people, can
do to dismantle racism is talk to other white people about race."
- Have you ever been an all-white setting when a racist comment was made? What did you do? What was helpful and what wasn’t?
- What strategies might you use in the future in these types of situations?
A final quote from Debby Irving (page 228)
Sharing the burden of social discomfort is not simply a matter of helping someone else feel good. It’s about leveling the playing field in pursuit of nurturing individual and collective potential. My colleague Verna Myers puts it this way: “diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.” Have you ever been invited to a party but not known many people and not been reached out to and included? I have. It makes me wish I’d never accepted the invitation. Hiring an employee or admitting a student of color and then “tolerating” them and/or “celebrating” their food and holidays without understanding their cultural norms in the context of the dominant culture is a setup for underachievement. Too often the result is discomfort and disengagement on the part of the person of color, which results in poor performance, which then gets blamed on the person of color, not on the dominant culture’s lack of awareness or inability to be truly inclusive and multicultural.
Additional Resources:
A Time for Burning: Robert E.A. Lee produced for the Lutheran Church back in 1966. This film is a 1966 American documentary film which explores the attempts of the pastor of Augustana Lutheran Church in Omaha, Nebraska, to persuade his all-white congregation to reach out to "negro" Lutherans in the city's north side. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujw_KJzTF8k
Racism in America: Resources to Understand America's Long History of Injustice and Inequality
The Washington Post has compiled "deeply reported stories, videos, photo essays, audio and graphics on black history, progress, inequality, and injustice." https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/06/08/understanding-racism-inequality-america/?arc404=true
Fresh Air Podcast - The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity. A 47 minute interview with Robert P. Jones, author of the book White Too Long, looks primarily at the Southern Baptist Convention, the denomination in which he grew up. https://www.npr.org/2020/07/30/897164585/the-legacy-of-white-supremacy-in-american-christianity
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP4iY1TtS3s
National Museum of African American History and Culture - Talking about Race https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/whiteness
Suggested Books to Dive Deeper:
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