Dismantling Racism and Organizing Communities for Social Justice
|
Volume 1, Issue 2 |
June 2005 |
Restoring Hope: A Gathering on the Future of the Work
In March 2005 IDR/PC convened 27 remarkable community
activists, trainers, consultants, scholars, religious leaders, artists and
cultural workers from around the country in Clinton, TN,
for three days of
conversation at the Children Defense Fund’s Haley Farm. The subject: The State
and Future of Anti-Racist Community Building Work. The gathering was generously
underwritten by the C. S. Mott Foundation. From the outset a tone of deep
commitment to the work, warm collegiality and trust was established for the
retreat that prompted remarkably sustained, thoughtful analyses
and passionate concern offered through a mixture of personal stories, small
group reflections on lessons and challenges and collective considerations of
broad thematic issues.
One concern immediately expressed was that
anti-racism, in and of itself, is an essential but insufficient construct
for organizing a new vision of radical social justice. There was general
agreement
that we need a way to talk about the historical injustices of slavery and Jim
Crow, the dispossession and genocide of Native peoples, the foreign and domestic
policies of our central government based in assumptions of white superiority,
and the continuing economic and social
disparities experienced by people of color. However, while
racism certainly is a word that speaks to the nature of those realities,
the term
anti-racism is limited in its ability to
articulate and embody an alternative vision of just and compassionate social
relations.
The model of
Beloved Communities emerged as a
“candidate” for an organizing concept for the phase ahead. Key considerations
for the future were noted: 1) Necessity to transform and heal ourselves as we
work to transform our communities and nation; 2) Correlations among racial
justice work and
organizing for economic, immigration, gender and sexual orientation rights; 3)
The need to understand fully inclusively race, racism and racial justice
organizing in the United States, beyond a black/white paradigm; 4) Tensions and
complementarities between “training” and “organizing” in anti-racist work; 5)
Concerns for growing trends toward militant white nationalism in the aftermath
of 9/11, in the
context of the invasion of Iraq, and in the absence of a sustaining alternative
vision of the United States as inclusive, compassionate and fundamentally
connected to the rest of humanity; 5) Sense that a combination of
local/regional
grassroots work, national networks and vibrant international connections is a
sustaining formula for successful racial justice work; that if one remains
focused solely in the United States it is easy to become discouraged by
conventional media, politics and assumptions; 6) Recognition of the value of
spiritual and cultural resources, especially those of indigenous and grassroots
communities, in strengthening and re-conceptualizing racial justice work; and 7)
The necessity to characterize the work in words imbued with new meanings,
inflections and kinships required by the national and international social and
racial justice movements of the 21st century.
While remaining uncertain about the name for the next phase of this work (is Beloved Community too imbedded in Christian language and the 20th century Civil Rights Movement?), the Haley group projected a vision of just and compassionate communities connected to each other in a nascent movement.
You can read the comprehensive report on the Haley gathering here. Video segments, manuscripts and discussion guides from the gathering are being produced and will soon be available.
IDR / PC AWARDED MARGUERITE CASEY FOUNDATION GRANT
The Marguerite Casey Foundation awarded IDR/PC in late April a two-year grant totaling $200,000 “to assist IDR/PC to continue its core work.” The three interrelated initiatives that constitute IDR/PC’s work plan for the coming year perfectly mirror the Casey grant. The plan states: “In the coming year IDR/PC will be encouraging and supporting spirit/justice change agents; initiating new learning centers that support anti-racist community organizing; and encouraging connections between communities committed to inclusiveness, individual transformation and institutional restructuring.” General support grants such as the Marguerite Casey Foundation’s are vital to IDR/PC’s flourishing.
BELOVED COMMUNITIES: GROWING OUR SOULS
Assume that we have in mind key characteristics of the kinds of compassionate, cooperative communities we seek. We know that they are:
Radically inclusive
Profoundly justice oriented
Fully democratic
Creative and flexible
Committed to social as well as individual transformation
Aimed toward health and wholeness
Assume also that there are a number of places in the world where such communities are being realized. Assume further that a team of veteran spirit-activists could be formed to visit these communities, learning through them how the essential elements that ground their work are concretely realized and how these elements might be realized in other communities.
Imagine then, after such visits, a gathering for the connecting of the change agents/ practitioners of these and other communities for the sharing of their stories and the establishment of benchmarks and guideposts for building other such communities and the conversion of this network into the beginnings of a movement.
That’s where IDR/PC is at the moment. A six-person exploratory committee has been created and has planned three inquiry/participation trips to communities elsewhere called Beloved Communities: The Boggs Center/DETROIT SUMMER in Michigan in July; the Tewa Women’s Conclave in New Mexico in September; the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Greensboro Beloved Community in North Carolina in November. These trips are being underwritten by a generous travel grant from the Ford Foundation. This initiative is moving front and center in IDR/PC’s work. Visit www.belovedcommunitiesnet.org for more information.
Final Project Change Evaluation Report Completed
The
final two pieces of the evaluation of Project Change
(Lessons Learned III)
have been completed. This evaluation was commissioned by the Levi Strauss
Foundation in 1997, prior to PC’s partnership with IDR. This final evaluation is
in two parts: The first, entitled
*On the Ground: Struggles and Lessons for Anti-racism Work,
offers insights about
what
people experience as they do this work. It was developed from interviews with a
number of participants in the Project Change initiative, a review of program
documents and previous evaluations, and the experiences of the authors (Mark
George, Sally Leiderman and Shirley Strong) with this initiative and other
anti-racism and anti-oppression efforts. A companion report,
*Looking Back: Project Change From 1991-2005,
explores the history, model and accomplishments of Project Change and its
implications.
*Pending publications can be pre-ordered from IDR/PC.
MONOGRAPH DONE ON IDR/PC
As a special contribution to the support of selected grantees, the Marguerite Casey Foundation commissioned to do what has become a comprehensive 18-page organizational profile of IDR/PC. In addition to IDR/PC’s formal mission and vision, the profile comments on its organizational culture and renders explicit the venture’s theory of change. The report commends the sophistication of IDR/PC’s “reflective practice” and declares, “IDR/PC has tapped into a great need in this nation that must be met if we are to live up to our promise of freedom and equality for all. IDR/PC is like the proverbial small cog that helps turn a very large wheel. It is an effective and powerful initiating force in an ambitious effort to build a movement.” The report concludes with three particular challenges: 1) IDR/PC will need expanded staff if it is to realize its ambitious vision; 2) It will need a clear sense of its boundaries if it is to flourish as an intermediary organization, being clearly marketed as a key venture that brings other organizations into networks and connects those networks into larger systems; 3) IDR/PC must rigorously review and regularly recast its strategic plan, not only to guide its own development but to make a compelling case for the increased resources its work will require.
Entering its seventh year on the web,
AntiRacismNet.org continues to
serve as an online news source for the activist community and the general
public. As a resource for activists,
AntiRacismNet
provides a part of the needed infrastructure for a global online community by
providing a news digest listserv and news portal on antiracism issues. As a
public portal, it features news that
presents present-day racism and highlights actions in the fight against racism
in context. To see the collection of prior postings to the list, visit the
News Archives.
(The archive is available
only to list members.)
New additions to this website features Discussion Starters, a category devoted to new ideas and concepts to provoke discussions among racial and social activists, scholars, and others interested in anti-racism work. Visit this new section on our website to see a provocative list of Questions to Ponder and learn more about Movement Building. A host of anti-racist community building publications and online resources are available at your fingertips. Remember to send us your comments.
Project Change’s website features a dynamic flash presentation on Symbols of Hate and Oppression and offers a history of the local Project Change sites as well as Project Change-produced anti-racist publications.
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