A recent article by Mark Morrison-Reed in UU World, the Unitarian Universalist Association magazine, about the “black hole” in UU history, got me thinking about the connection between UU worship and race. According to Morriso-Reed, for all our proclaimed progressiveness, it seems we UUs have not really ever taken the lead in the fight against racism–internally or externally. I’ve been thinking about this history a lot lately, as my own UU congregation is discussing whether to display a “Black Lives Matter” sign on the church property. One part of Morrison-Reed’s article in particular jumped out at me:
Category Archives: Racial Justice / Systemic Racism
To The Man Who Spit On My Black Lives Matter Sign
A version of this article was previously published at Huffington Post. It has been republished here as part of a 5-part series for Black History Month.
Dear Sir,
This past Sunday, I was standing on the sidewalk in front of my Unitarian church, holding a “Black Lives Matter” sign, when you drove up in your pickup truck, stopped abruptly, and rolled down your window to yell profanities at me.
In between insults, you said you believed that more White people are killed by police than Black people. A friend who was with me tried to calmly explain that Black people represent only 12 percent of the population but are between two and three times more likely to be killed by police than White people.
In response, you exited your vehicle and approached me to continue your verbal abuse. You then spat on my “Black Lives Matter” sign. After observing the results of your defacement ― and apparently deciding it was insufficient ― you drew up a larger piece of phlegm and spat on my sign again. You then returned to your vehicle and drove off in the same reckless fashion as you drove up.
Continue reading To The Man Who Spit On My Black Lives Matter Sign
Our Fear of Black Men is Racist
A version of this article was previously published at Huffington Post. It has been republished here as part of a 5-part series for Black History Month.
Ask most White anti-racism activists how they got involved in anti-racism activism and they will probably tell you about seeing the police kill a Black man on TV or the internet. Eric Garner. Michael Brown. Tamir Rice. Walter Scott. Alton Sterling. These are just a few of the high profile police killings in recent years.
For me, it was Philando Castile. I had been involved in anti-racism work before Castile was killed by a police officer, but seeing that murder had a profound impact on me. It prompted me to take up a vigil outside my Unitarian church with a Black Lives Matter sign on Sunday mornings, while church services were going on, for several weeks in the winter. Standing in the cold while passing drivers yelled at me was all I could think of to do with my outrage.
Bursting the White Bubble of Colorblindness
A version of this article was originally published at Huffington Post. It has been republished here as part of a 5-part series for Black History Month.
The White Bubble
My entire life, I have lived in a bubble — a bubble of White privilege.
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The Real Reason White People Say “All Lives Matter”
This essay was originally published at Huffington Post. It has been republished here as part of a 5-part series for Black History Month.
Why “Black” Makes Us Uncomfortable
Dear fellow White people, let’s have an honest talk about why we say “All Lives Matter.”
Continue reading The Real Reason White People Say “All Lives Matter”
Anti-racism 101
This post was originally a tweet thread, but quite a few people wanted me to turn it into a blog-post, so here it is. I haven’t changed the order I wrote this in, just added relevant links.
Anti-racism 101. A thread.
— Yvonne Aburrow (@vogelbeere) 21 August 2018
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Harmony Day, CC BY 2.0, photo by DIAC Images.
Rituals for moving home
[originally published at Dowsing for Divinity]
I have just moved from Oxford, England, to Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. As you can imagine, this will cause some emotional upheaval. I feel very rooted in England, and am concerned about the issue of land stolen from Indigenous people in Canada, and the effects of colonialism on their wellbeing and way of life.
“An Inescapable Network of Mutuality”: Martin Luther King’s Ecological Thought
“A Single Garment of Destiny”
In his penultimate sermon, delivered on March 31, 1968, at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke of our interconnectedness:
Continue reading “An Inescapable Network of Mutuality”: Martin Luther King’s Ecological Thought
Chocolate Milk and White Supremacy
Last week, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner participated in an object lesson about diversity which had an unintended lesson.
Pray With Your Feet 