Black Lives Matter Educational Information

Dear Friends,

To Recap and answer to a question:

Last week I shared the history of nearly 6,500 documented lynchings,  that it happened until 1981 and also occurred in the North. I was asked how often it was prosecuted. The answer: To this day, there is no Federal anti lynching law.  Since at least 1900, members of the House and Senate have tried to make lynching a federal crime. The bills are consistently blocked. On June 4, 2020 the bill was considered by the Senate, but Senator Rand Paul by unanimous consent preventing the bill from passing. This means that it was up to State and localities to prosecute the crime. This means that almost no lynchings were ever prosecuted because the same people who would have had to prosecute and sit on juries either participated or were generally on the side of the action or related to the perpetrators in the small communities where they lived.   

There is always more to learn. One thing I just found out about is regarding one of the last lynchings in the North, in Marion, Indiana. It was the basis for Billy Holliday’s song Stange Fruit and the postcard of the event is widely circulated. It took place in Grant County and what I didn’t know was that at the time Grant County had a very large Quaker population (see below).  For more information on Quaker involvement in the KKK.  For those with internet access see https://tools4racialjustice.net/daisy-douglass-barr/. This site has very complete information https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/report/

This Week:

Our educational material continues this with examining  Black Codes, Slave Patrols and Policing Today. For those with internet access see :https://tools4racialjustice.net/black-code/ . Black codes were laws enacted through the South both during and after slavery that governed slaves and free people of color. They included things such as teaching or attempt to teach, any slave to read or write, he or she shall be sentenced to receive thirty-nine lashes on his or her bare back.  Different States had different Black codes but most were designed to restricted black people’s right to congregate, own property, conduct business, buy and lease land, and move freely through public spaces. After emancipation a central element of the Black Codes were vagrancy laws. Enforcement was done by the police. 

So since enforcement was done by police, how were the police organized? The common knowledge is that American law enforcement started in the early 1800’s as night watchmen systems moved into centralized municipal police departments beginning in Boston and soon cropping up in New York City and elsewhere. These were white, male and focused on disorder and controlling a “dangerous underclass” that included African Americans, immigrants and the poor. However that is only half the story. The other half is that policing in southern slave-holding states evolved from slave patrols made up of white volunteers empowered to capture runaway slaves as well as use vigilante tactics to enforce laws related to slavery and also to prevent further escapes by any means necessary including torture.

Knowing this history makes it easy to understand the situation of today’s policing in communities of color. The reasons unarmed people in these communities are killed today are as simple as Ronell Foster fatally shot by Vallejo, Calif., police Officer in 2018 after being stopped for riding his bicycle without a light. Sandra Bland for a broken tail light, Eric Gardner for selling single cigarettes from packs without tax stamps, Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, George Floyd suspected of using a counterfeit $20 bill, Dreasjon Reed running from a police officer, Breonna Taylor, sleeping in her own bed, the list goes on and on. But then there are the children; Police have killed more than 100 children since 2015 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago and 16-year-old Ma'Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio, 12- year-old Tamir Rice, 13 Year Old Tyre King,  then there was the killing of Kameron Prescott, 6 Year Old and Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7 Year Old, finally there is the killing of elders,  68 year old Eurie Stamps and 92 year old Kathryn Johnston. We don’t understand these victims as real people who had lives, loves, interests and family.  Another thing about all these killings and the thousands of others is we don’t talk about the ripple effects of the trauma of the families and communities that have lost loved ones, nor is any attention given to the ones who aren’t killed but are disabled by such encounters. See https://tools4racialjustice.net/mapping-police-violence/ and https://tools4racialjustice.net/dragon-panel-project/

There were only 27 days in 2019 where police did not kill someone. Imagine if this was the environment and reality that you and your children faced every minute.

Given the above, what is our spiritual responsibility?

thanks for listening,
Rachel

Dear Friends,

In the 1st unit of educational material on why Black Live Matter, on July 25th we covered the history of nearly 6,500 documented lynchings happening up to 1983 and in northern states as well as the south. On August 3rd we covered Black Codes, Slave Patrols and Policing Today, That was some very heavy material! I am really proud of the Meeting for slogging through it and deciding to continue! I continue to beamed and impressed by how you  individually and collectively make love real!

This 2-3 part unit we are going to gently ease back into the material by beginning with some basic definitions. As we move forward in both understanding the context of the issue and what ordinary people can actually, practically do to change the dynamics of race in this country, it is important that we all have some common understanding of how terms are being used.  (For those who use the internet the links is here: https://tools4racialjustice.net/beginnings/definitions/ and https://tools4racialjustice.net/common-definitions/)

 So some of the questions I will be addressing are: What is racism or white privilege? Why is white supremacy relevant to us and the nice community groups we occupy or with which we interact? How is the attitude that "I don’t see a person's color/race and live MLK Jr. axiom to judge people only by the content of their character” problematic? But wait, I’ve had a very hard life, I’ve been very poor, or discriminated against because of my gender or orientation, am disabled, etc., how could I possible be privileged?  

The basic, commonly used definition of racism is prejudice with the power to enforce it. However, there are differences in what this actually means and there are a host of other terms used in this work.  Like the picture above that portray a wide range, a palette of colors (used in ceramic glazes); definitions are nuanced.  Just as you see many colors of green, there can be many definitions for “racism” and often the different definitions have distinct uses.   

In the summer of 2020, 22 year old Kennedy Mitchum  sent an email to Merriam-Webster not expecting any results. “I kept having to tell them that [the then current] definition is not representative of what is actually happening in the world,” she told CNN. “The way that racism occurs in real life is not just prejudice, it’s the systemic racism that is happening for a lot of black Americans.” While no racial group is immune to being or experiencing prejudice, bias or discrimination, racism is any attitude, action, or institutional practice backed up by institutional power that subordinates people because of their skin color. This includes the imposition of one ethnic group’s culture in such a way as to withhold respect for, demean, destroy or co-opt the cultures of other races.

What is meant by institutional racism? Systemic racism and institutional racism is organizational policies and practices at the structural level that indirectly target communities of color and maintain white privilege. This includes racism in the criminal justice system (e.g., police profiling based on race); racism in the educational system (e.g., all-white authors on a course reading list, “masters” in the arts or science all being of European descent), etc.

What about reverse racism? Since the term racism is defined as prejudice with the power to enforce it,  and people of color in the US and other countries where European people colonized, don’t have institutional power, they can be bias but not racist. But what about black police officers, or judges or even a President? While they might have more power as an individual then other people,  they still actually don’t have control over institutional power.  Institutional power exists in the context of who and how it was created, who it was designed to advantage, promote or protect and the stakeholders, people who have to power passively or overtly, to hold other’s accountable for violating the organization’s or institution's norms. 

For example, as we learned in the 1st unit session on Black Codes, Slave Patrols and Policing Today, since the police departments were put in place to catch runaway slaves or protect the white male owning class assets, there is a culture that is still imbued with these attitudes and assumptions. Therefore a police officer of color often can act in even more discriminatory ways then their white counterpart in order to prove they are a legitimate member of the team.   Even a President is accountable to the political institution that promoted them, their funding sources  and the shadow power of hidden stakeholders. (For those who use the internet the links is here: https://tools4racialjustice.net/the-legacy-of-jim-crow/ which has a video I produced soon after President Barack Obama was elected.  The video ends by saying: “The legacy of Jim Crow will not be over with the election of a man of color who is the best and the brightest. The legacy of Jim Crow will only end when average people of color have the same access, opportunities and privileges as average white person. Only then will we be able to create a peaceable world and fulfill our mandate as spiritual beings.” (hint: turn up your sound)  More on that in the next session. 

In closing I want to share  one of the streams of historic Quaker experience of the Divine with the following quote from George Fox:  “let not prejudice boil in any of your hearts, but let it be cast out by the power of God, in which is the unity and the everlasting kingdom;" 1658 Epistle. Yet many throughout Quaker history right up to today find it too disruptive to dislodge racism in themselves and our Society. The message has come to me strongly again and again over decades that we are all connected and are part of the same ecological system, that hurt done to others effects everyone’s souls. Immediately following this message comes the query “What does love require of thee”.  

Thank-you for being part of this journey,
Rachel

posted Sept. 6, 2021

Last session we started this unit going over some basic definitions. Understanding how terms are defined; what they mean and what they don’t mean, is essential for the educational process. Two the most commonly misunderstood terms are white privilege and white supremacy. It can be hard, especially for people to understand how they are relevant to us as intelligent, good people. 

White Supremacy — affects all our lives (our spiritual Life included).  White supremacy, white supremacy culture and white supremacist are distinct terms with different meanings. 

* White supremacy is the belief, even if unconscious, that white people are superior to those of all other races, and they and their culture should therefore dominate society.

* White supremacy culture is the institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation for the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power, and privilege. 

*A white supremacist is an individual often associated with white nationalist groups, that espouse and often act on white supremacist or white separatist ideologies, (at times acting or condoning violence) often focusing on the alleged inferiority of nonwhites. 

While they might not be populated by white supremacists, every predominantly white organization, even the most liberal,  has a well-established system or culture that protects their white supremacy. This can be an overt and/or covert process, procedures, actions and attitudes.  The Society of Friends in the US is no exception as we are almost entirely white with few if any people of color in leadership. The mechanism that keeps this in place is for the most part invisible and subtle.  Therefore the more we learn about it the better. Not only is it important to learn to recognize the signs and understand our place in it, but its also important to understand the history of white supremacy because learning who we were, tells us the unconscious aspect of who we are. 

White Privilege — also affects all our lives (our spiritual Life included).    If we are of European descent, we benefit from advantages from very large to very small and everything in between.  Privilege is defined as an advantage, right, or benefit that is not available to everyone. It is often the flip side of bias. One example would be a statement such as “Since you and I don’t have red hair we are more suited to jobs where having an even temperament is important.”  i.e. implying that red haired people are more hot headed or impetuous.  Largely this is invisible to most members and is often kept in place by “that’s just the way things are” type attitudes. One of the most blatant privileges that white people have is to not have to see or consider how race impacts people and society. 

One thing many people don’t comprehend is that in many ways understanding  and working on white privilege within ourselves and society isn’t about giving up anything. Rather it is understanding and acting in ways that reinforce that the privilege should be something granted to every human being. Racial profiling is one clear aspect of this behavior. What can be done?  Some ideas are doing something like if you see a person of colors’ bags being searched at a store's check out line, ask why its happening. You will probably get lame answer, so then suggest they check your bag and another unrelated, random white person also. Note that the idea that people of color are more apt to steal or commit a crime is part of the White Supremacy mindset and is often codified in the White supremacy culture of an organization or institution. Regardless of our skin color we all have challenges. Many have disabilities, some mild and some extreme. Many have been or are poor, sometimes living in deep poverty. White privilege does not mean your life has been easy just that your race was not an added component making it every more difficult. (For those who use the internet this article is very useful: https://tools4racialjustice.net/white-privilege-broke-white-person/.)

(More on this another session but if you want to jump ahead for those who use the internet go to:   For those who use the internet below are some posts you will find on this page with a lot of material (art work I did in the 1980’s “where today”, The Magic Box” and" Meeting at the Lake"):  https://tools4racialjustice.net/understanding/white-privilege-supremacy/)

The hope of Tools for Racial Justice is that this section will help white people examine racial barriers and increase the potential of creating deep, honest and meaningful relationships. Beyond guilt, shame, blame, denial, and resistance, we examine how to take responsibility for challenging specific forms of white privilege and supremacy that are built around issues of decision making processes, unmasking hidden issues of hierarchy and self-identity. We also examine ways in which white privilege and supremacy has been woven seamlessly into our personal and community lives so that what some would identify as privilege, others would say is just the way things are.  In order to do this work effectively we recommend that you read and deeply consider the other sections of the Healing Racism Toolkit where we examine some of the visible and invisible wounds of oppression that are part of our inner landscape and relationships with other white people,  people of color and ultimately Creator.

……………….From the Talmud (Shabbat 7) (a collection of oral traditions that predates, link to and contextualize the Judeo-Christian Bible, providing a running commentary on scripture.) 
"And if you say: The bits are suitable for the poor. We will explain that the value of an object is determined not by its context, but by its intrinsic value. Wasn’t it taught that there is a difference with regard to the ritual impurity between garments belonging to poor people, which can become ritually impure even if they are very small, and garments belonging to the wealthy, which are not considered significant unless they contain a larger amount of fabric? Apparently, the significance of an object is determined by its context and its owner.”


Look
At the stained clothes
At the old toys half broken
At the bits of unused spice
And the bruised fruit
Maybe to you they are nothing
just the debris of life
But there are those
For whom they are significant
Who don’t have spice or fruit
Who’s children have sticks for toys
And have no “nice” clothes
Look again at what you discard
See the value in each
Significance is determined by need
Not by privilege [or supremacy].
Poem by anonymous from Talmud Shabbat 47


 Thank-you for being part of this journey,
Rachel

Dear Friends,
For the last two units,  we looked at some basic definitions. To finish up this section we will examine what “Critical Race Theory” means.

"Critical Race Theory” (CRT) actually is an academic concept, mostly taught in law schools, that studies U.S. policies and institutions. It started in the 1970s as a framework for legal analysis, when law professors including Harvard Law School’s Derrick Bell, Alan Freeman, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Richard Delgado,  Patricia J. Williams, and Cheryl Harris (for those who use the internet see: “Whitness as Property” in the Harvard Law Review https://tools4racialjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/harvard-review-on-race.pdf), began exploring how race and racism have shaped American law and society. A good example is when, in the 1930s, government officials literally drew lines around areas deemed poor financial risks, often explicitly due to the racial composition of inhabitants. Banks subsequently refused to offer mortgages to Black people in those areas. (For those who use the internet see: https://tools4racialjustice.net/tag/housing/ and https://tools4racialjustice.net/tag/racial-covenants/)  CRT does not attribute racism to white people as individuals or even to entire groups of people.

From Wikipedia: "Critical race theory (CRT) is a body of legal scholarship and an academic movement of US civil-rights scholars and activists who seek to critically examine the intersection of race and US law and to challenge mainstream American liberal approaches to racial justice. A tenet of CRT is that racism and disparate racial outcomes are the result of complex, changing, and often subtle social and institutional dynamics, rather than explicit and intentional prejudices of individuals.” NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. has an excellent resource explaining the FAQs of Critical race theory; see: https://tools4racialjustice.net/naacp-ldf/

Virtually no one teaches CRT below the college level yet in 2020 conservative journalists latched onto the term to define any anti-bias training happening in federal agencies. This then morphed into any and all teaching or discussions about racism, "white privilege" or diversity initiatives particularly in U.S. public schools. Conservative lawmakers and activists have used the term "critical race theory" as a catchall phrase for nearly any examination of systemic racism.  

Critics charge that the theory leads to negative dynamics, and divides people into “oppressed” and “oppressor” groups; and urges intolerance. The Heritage Foundation attributed a whole host of issues to CRT, including the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, LGBTQ support groups in schools and diversity training and even the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17. . “When followed to its logical conclusion, CRT is destructive and rejects the fundamental ideas on which our constitutional republic is based,” the organization claimed. Fox new contributor and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, (a conservative think tank) Christopher Rufo said “We have successfully frozen their brand — ‘critical race theory’ — into the public conversation and are steadily driving up negative perceptions,” wrote Rufo, a s. “We will eventually turn it toxic, as we put all of the various cultural insanities under that brand category. The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think ‘critical race theory.’”

This has led to parents cross the country bombarding school board meetings with complaints that CRT is being taught.  (see: https://tools4racialjustice.net/tag/teachers/) They believe that racial sensitivity training for teachers and allege that biased curricula indoctrinates impressionable children.   At least eight Republican-led states have passed legislation restricting how the concept of race can be taught. In Tennessee, where legislation was signed into law in May 2021, lessons cannot make students feel “discomfort, guilt [or] anguish” because of their race. This has led teachers to being unsure how to teach accurately about slavery and other painful chapters of American history  Tennessee's Department of Education has proposed revoking the teaching licenses of instructors who repeatedly run afoul of the law. In a public presentation this month, a member of Utah’s state school board offered a long list of words that she said were euphemisms for critical race theory, including “social justice,” “culturally responsive” and “critical self-reflection.”

Eight states (Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Iowa, New Hampshire, Arizona, and South Carolina) have passed legislation banning the teaching about anything that in anyway would  teach about racial disparities from slavery to Jim Crow. . The legislations mostly ban any discussions about conscious and unconscious bias, privilege, discrimination, and oppression. These parameters also extend beyond race to include gender lectures and discussions. Nearly 20 additional states have introduced or plan to introduce similar legislation. The state school boards in Florida, Georgia, Utah, and Oklahoma introduced new guidelines barring racism related discussions. Local school boards in Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Virginia are on similar tracks. Some say that you can’t teach about slavery without also teaching how it benefited African Americans.

Teaching half of a story, like those opposed to teaching “critical race theory”, is teaching a lie. It is indoctrination into the white supremacist system. Why do so many of us deny and attack those who bring the issue forward rather then work to undo our own white supremacist system?
“When all of God’s children can finally breathe free
We can celebrate being a true democracy.
Imagine the joy and delight we will share
When we recover the oneness already there.” James Forbes

………………...

From 1985 NEYM Faith and Practice pg. 131 through 132
 “Friends concern for education has been stimulated by the Quaker search for truth. For Friends, new knowledge has not threatened religious faith but rather has confirmed their believe in the continuing revelation of God to human beings.” (Introduction) … “To believe that truth is continually being revealed, to expect that one can approach perfection, and to commit oneself to live in truth is to experience divine discomfort.” Douglas Heath 1979

Lets together seek for truth be revealed and for that “divine discomfort”.

Thanks for Listening,
Love Always,
Rachel

posted October 9, 2021

Dear Friends,

We have gotten through two modules, one on WHY Black Lives Matter and a second on WHAT are the definitions for the terms we are using.  Recently I received a comment relevant to the educational material on definitions. Following is the question and my reply.  We then are going to finish these first 2 Modules with a feedback form.  Please respond when and however you are able.
(Please cut, paste, and send feedback form to mattquakers@gmail.com)

In a week or two we will move on to identify WHERE the attitudes and behaviors are present that today keep in place the structures and systems that make it important to say “Black Lives Matter!” This will give us the ability to know where to put our our hearts and minds in order to changes things to the point where “all lives matter" is truly sufficient; where “beloved community” includes everybody and are more then just pretty words,  that in fact this is the lived reality for everyone.  We have a ways to go.


I pray that all our imperfections can be useful for creating a tapestry of Light and Oneness,
Rachel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I received the following message from  someone from the "Stop Neo-Racism" website (stopneoracism@theworld.com):
Most of this website’s content is neo-racist and doing more harm than good. Please stop trying to divide everyone into racial categories and instead try and unite us.

neo-racism noun
neo-rac·ism | \ nē-ō-ˈrā-ˌsi-zəm \
1a. : a belief that race is a real and inescapable social construct that determines an individual’s identity, agency, beliefs, ability, or culture, such that members of different race groups can never understand each other due to intrinsic and insurmountable cultural differences.
1b. : prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, or antagonism directed against a person or people based on this belief.
2 : discrimination, behavior or attitudes toward individuals or groups that reflect and foster the belief that members of some race groups are permanently subordinate to members of other race groups."
……………………...
My response:
Thank-you for your comment. Yes, the truth is that the color of one’s skin is no different than the variety of various colors of eyes, hair, etc.(see “Walking in My Shoes“ https://tools4racialjustice.net/walking-in-my-shoes/) Unfortunately our history for the last 500 plus years and still operating today HAS made race a real and inescapable social construct that determines an individual’s identity, agency, beliefs, ability, or culture. Saying that is not true, that there is no such social construct operating in our society, will not bring people closer together in fact it divides us even more.
Some articles that explain the problem with this attitude of people who say that they “don’t see color,” are:

• “Being “Color Blind” Doesn’t Make You Not Racist—In Fact, It Can Mean the Opposite“: https://www.oprahdaily.com/life/relationships-love/a32824297/color-blind-myth-racism/
• “When People Say They Don’t See Race, ‘I Ask Them If They Don’t See Me’“ :  https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-when-people-say-they-dont-see-race-i-ask-them-if-they-dont-see-me/2019/09
• “Color Blindness Is Counterproductive“: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/color-blindness-is-counterproductive/405037/ 

• American Psychological Association’s “The Myth of Racial Color Blindness“:  https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/The-Myth-of-Racial-Color-Blindness-Intro-Sample.pdf,


_______________________________________________________………………………………………………..
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Dear Friends,
First some good news and something you might not know about. Approximately 1.2 million Black Americans served in the military during World War II but most were blocked from receiving the benefits of the GI bill that provided four years of college tuition, cheap low interest, zero-down-payment home loans etc. Of course this denial radically impacted the accumulation of wealth, professionalism and prosperity for future generations. The good news is that Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., and Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., introduced the GI Bill Restoration Act Thursday. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., is expected to introduce the bill in the Senate. If passed, it would extend access to the VA Home Loan Guaranty Program and the Post-911 GI Bill’s education benefits to the surviving spouse and/or certain direct descendants of Black WWII veterans.

….

We now will start to examine WHERE the attitudes and behaviors come from in the past and where they reside here and now that demonstrate the importance of saying publicly that Black Lives Matters.   

This module explores the places and spaces in our society and ourselves where things started and were incubated to grow into where we are today.  History is important as it can tell us where we have been, the lessons we don’t have to repeat, and something about the likelihood of where we are heading, especially if we are able to see different perspectives, including the nuance and the shadow.  It’s important to understand the history of white supremacy because learning who we were, tells us the unconscious aspect of who we are.
It is also important to remember that history is now. When Harriet Tubman was born, Thomas Jefferson was alive and Ronald Reagan was alive when she died. For those with internet access see: https://tools4racialjustice.net/understanding/history/

ALL OF US are affected. We are like fish swimming in an ocean who would be unable to identify themselves as wet, just so it’s hard for white America to understand how deeply white supremacy is a part of who we are.  For those with internet access see the video the Legacy of Jim Crow (you might want to think about playing it after Meeting for Worship sometime: https://tools4racialjustice.net/the-legacy-of-jim-crow/

White Supremacy has been woven into the very fabric of the United States existence from the first beginnings up to today. This is clear when we examine the ideas of the one person that generation after generation has looked to as a role model, an exemplary individual who parents hope their children will emulate, a person who sets the moral compass for the country; the President of the United States. Few people can name even one famous athlete or singer from the 1800’s but almost everyone can name at least a couple of the Presidents during that period.  Below is an edited version. For a more complete list see https://tools4racialjustice.net/documenting-white-supremacy/

1st President — George Washington 1789-1797 kept slaves who he rotated between Philadelphia (the capital at that time) and his plantation in Virginia every six months, because of a Pennsylvania law that allowed slaves to sue for freedom after more than six months in the state.  He ordered General John Sullivan to “destruct” and “devastate” as many Native American settlements as possible. “It will be essential to ruin their crops in the group and prevent their planting more”. (see the Journey of Healing Section about the consequences) Eleven Presidents following Washington owned slaves.

7th President  — Andrew Jackson 1829-1837 founded the Democratic Party with a large coalition of southern slaveholders.  To protect slavery, Jackson called on Congress to pass a law prohibiting “under severe penalties, the circulation…of incendiary publications.” referring to antislavery tracts. 

11th President Polk 1845-1849 leaned on the racist idea of the "Monroe doctrine” (5th President  — James Monroe) when his administration waged the Mexican American War (1846-1848), framed as bringing freedom and civilization to the backward Mexicans. The outcome was that U.S. seized from Mexico nearly all of what is now the American Southwest.

16th President Abraham Lincoln in 1858 at his fourth debate with Stephen Douglas in Charleston, Illinois. “I am not, nor even have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races—that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people…and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.”

26th President Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1909 believed that blacks were, in his own words, “altogether inferior to whites.” He argued in North American Review that “a perfectly stupid race can never rise to a very high plane; the negro, for instance, has been kept down as much by lack of intellectual development as by anything else.” “Every colored man should realize that the worst enemy of his race is the negro criminal, and above all the negro criminal who commits the dreadful crime of rape; and it should be felt as in the highest degree an offense against the whole country, and against the colored race in particular, for a colored man to fail to help the officers of the law in hunting down with all possible earnestness and zeal every such infamous offender. He spoke of the need to pick up the “white man’s burden” to “civilize” and “colonize” non-white populations. He also refused to enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments or curbing lynching.

31st President Herbert Hoover (a Quaker) 1929-1933 laid the foundation for disaffection of blacks from the Republican party during his presidency. In his Principles of Mining, Hoover argued that white workers, were of a higher “mental order” and possessed higher “intelligence” than “Asiatics and Negroes [sic].” They were, better “coordinated” and more likely “to take initiative,” and for this reason, it was cheaper and more efficient to hire white rather than nonwhite workers. “Much observation,” he continued, “leads the writer to the conclusion that, averaging actual results, one white man equals from two to three of the colored races, even in the simplest forms of mine work such as shoveling or tramming.”  

33rd President  Harry Truman 1945-1953 “I think one man is just as good as another so long as he’s honest and decent and not a n***** or a Chinaman.” Truman added, “Uncle Will say that the Lord made a white man from dust, a n***** from mud, then He threw up what was left and it came down a Chinaman. He does hate Chinese and Japs . . . So do I… I am strongly of the opinion that n****** ought to be in Africa, yellow men in Asia, and white men in Europe and America.”

39th President Jimmy Carter 1977-1981 spoke against “black intrusion” into white neighborhoods saying that the Federal Government should not take the initiative to change the “ethnic purity” of some urban neighborhoods or the economic “homogeneity” of well‐to‐do suburbs.

42nd President Bill Clinton 1993-2001 played golf at a “whites only” country club in Little Rock, Arkansas even though he established the One America in the 21st Century: The President’s Initiative on Race.

45nd Donald Trump 2017-2021 called for a ban on all Muslims coming into the US,  regularly retweeted messages from white supremacists and neo-Nazis.  He said “We have people coming into the country or trying to come in ...These aren’t people. These are animals.”, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” He then reportedly suggested that the US should take more people from countries like Norway. Trump’s criticism of a Black accountant: “Black guys counting my money! I hate it.  … I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault, because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.”  

Particular incidents of note can be seen here: https://tools4racialjustice.net/white-supremacy-colonization/. Some of the more recent ones are: 
1964: The Democratic Party refuses to seat the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in place of the Segregationist Mississippi Democrats at the party’s convention in Atlanta.
1969-1972:  raids on Black Panther Party offices, assassination of leading panthers, imprisonment of  hundreds of others. FBI agents incitement of internal fratricidal struggle resulting in destruction of the black panther party.  Many prisoners such as Geronimo Pratt are still in prison.
1973: Federal and State police and FBI launch military assault on  American Indian Movement activists and traditional indigenous leaders of the Lakota Nation at Wounded Knee. 
2017-2018: data from ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) shows white supremacists’ propaganda efforts increased 182 percent, with 1,187 distributions across the U.S. in 2018, up from 421 total incidents reported in 2017.
2003-2016: there were no ADL-documented white supremacist events in U.S.
2016-2017: there were 77
2017-2018: there were 172
2019: there were 2,724
2020: there were 5,125
(among the list of resources from the above facts are : https://www.adl.org/education-and-resources/resource-knowledge-base/adl-heat-map
https://www.adl.org/white-supremacist-propaganda-spikes-2020)

Clearly we have a lot of work to do to counter the forces that are in play to divert us from a path toward beloved community. Lets hold this work in prayer gaining wisdom and energy from that source of all goodness and then as Bayard Rustin said,  lets become “angelic troublemakers”  to realize the dream of a truly peaceful and just world for everyone.

May our imperfections can be useful for creating a tapestry of Light and Oneness,
Rachel

Dear Friends,
While it was less then 2 weeks since I sent the last Educational material email, given the timeliness of this information on Thanksgiving I thought it good to share.  

As Friends our tradition placed a high value on speaking only truth.  Fictional storytelling was okay if and when everyone understood it as fiction as they recognized that allegory can covey a larger truth and today we understand the value of recreational activities.   A place where truth telling is severely compromised, where we engage without thinking about the lies we are tell ourselves is the celebrating of holidays and traditions that have been part of our personal and collective heritage for years if not generations. Most of us tell stories or myths about the day which reinforces and unites us in our identity of being strong, successful and good.  Our society as a whole has been making progress with the myth around Columbus day but the lies we tell ourselves and teach our children about Thanksgiving are even more pernicious because of the importance of the day for most of us. 

First contact between Europeans and Indigenous populations was apocalyptical for Native people. This is true whether it was Columbus and Taino or basically every other tribe on the American continents. (See https://journeyofhealing.net/healing/thanksgiving/) Each has its own story but none as etched into the US psyche than the encounter between the Pilgrims and the “Indians". 

"The myth is that friendly Indians, unidentified by tribe, welcome the Pilgrims to America, teach them how to live in this new place, sit down to dinner with them and then disappear. They hand off America to white people so they can create a great nation dedicated to liberty, opportunity and Christianity for the rest of the world to profit. That’s the story—it’s about Native people conceding to colonialism. It’s bloodless and in many ways an extension of the ideology of Manifest Destiny.” 

see:The Myths of the Thanksgiving Story and the Lasting Damage They Imbue - https://journeyofhealing.net/the-myths-of-the-thanksgiving/.  Instead the true reality is epitomized in the episode of Myles Standish carrying the head of Wituwamat back to New Plymouth. His soldiers were “received with joy.” Hailed as a hero, Standish mounted the severed head of the Indian warrior on a pole and displayed it on the roof of the fort. (see: https://journeyofhealing.net/murder-by-myles-standish/  ) 

So where do we go from here?  If we let go of the myth and start speaking truth can we still have a meaningful Thanksgiving? In all this work it is vital to understand that its not about taking anything away from anybody that is of any value. Rather, its to make our experiences in life and with each other stronger and more, not less meaningful. This can happen if we choose to tell the real story, framing in a way that is age appropriate for those gathered for a family celebration. (For more resources see: https://journeyofhealing.net/american-indian-perspectives-on-thanksgiving/.)   We can talk about the real lives of the Wampanoag (or whatever other people are indigenous to our locale). We can acknowledge that the Pilgrims were European immigrants and often didn’t behave in loving or respectful way. We can consider how we can do better. We can talk about the real reason Thanksgiving was started which had nothing to do with Pilgrims and Native people; that in 1789 George Washington called for national day of thanks to commemorate the end of the Revolutionary War and the ratification of the Constitution. We can share that the first official national Thanksgiving holiday didn’t come until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln called  (see: https://tools4racialjustice.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/transcript_for_abraham_lincoln_thanksgiving_proclamation_1863.pdf) for an annual Thanksgiving celebration with words still most relevant today : 

“my fellow-citizens…  set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness [persistent or obstinate in what is wrong] and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”  

Here and now we can consider the widows and mourners of today’s civil strife, the parents of the people killed by Rittenhouse, the family of Ahmaud Arbery and all the others, named and un-named.  And today we also can talk about and express gratitude and joy at being together as we call upon the Source that Lincoln so eloquently suggested we praise. 

Although a lot of the time its hard for me to believe, I have to trust that together we can build "a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility". The truth is that the earth rotates so the sun and moon appear to set and to rise as do the stars, all part of a whole, one with us in the universe. The only true path is through truth; a truth that we acknowledge, explain and teach our children. In this way we can make this an authentic and real Thanksgiving. 

Have a joyous and meaningful holiday,

Love Works,

Rachel