Alline Beutler
Site Manager, JFON MI Traverse City
[email protected]
Randie Clawson CLM
NWD Peace with Justice Coordinator
[email protected]
231.649.0930
Peace With Justice Ministry Team Reports
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2021
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December 2020, PWJ Ministry Team Report |
Of Special Interest
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A Book Suggestion by Laurie McKiven-Copus, PWJ Ministry Team Member
Ibram X. Kendi
One World, Penguin Random House LLC: New York, 2019
Ibram X. Kendi is the founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University, a professor of history and international relations, a frequent public speaker, a columnist at The Atlantic, and a New York Times bestselling author. In July 2020 he became the director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, a continuation of his work at the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University.
In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi begins by explaining that antiracists locate the roots of problems in power and policies, and they actively support antiracist policies through their actions or speech. Racists locate the roots of problems in groups of people, suggesting that one racial group is inferior or superior to another racial group. “Antiracist” is not the same as “not racist”. Someone who is “not racist” is neutral; that person is not a racist but is not aggressively against racism.
Kendi illustrates various types of racist ideas in anecdotes from his childhood in Queens, New York; teenage years in Manassas, Virginia; college at Florida A & M; and grad school at Temple University in Philadelphia. One example is assimilationism. This is the belief, held by many people throughout history and even today, that if only Black people could better themselves to become like Whites, everything would be great. This point of view assumes that White is the standard to which every other racial/ethnic group should be compared and to which they should strive. The inference here is that White is superior: clearly a racist construct.
The result of racist policy is racial inequity. Kendi states, “Every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups.” As one example, 71% of White families lived in owner-occupied homes in 2014. That same year, 45% of Latinx families and 41% of Black families lived in owner-occupied homes. Today, racist voting policy disenfranchises Blacks by voter-ID laws and mass incarceration. Racist health disparities mean that Black infant death rates are twice that of White infants.
Although Kendi is only 37 years old, both he and his wife are cancer survivors. This experience caused him to see racism as a metastatic cancer in the body of our society that needs to be systemically treated, just as doctors do with cancer. In the last chapter of his book, “Survival”, he suggests some steps that we can all take to root out racial inequity where we are. Here are just a few:
- “Admit racial inequity is a problem of bad policy, not bad people.”
- “Investigate and uncover the racist policies causing racial inequity.”
- “Invent or find antiracist policy that can eliminate racial inequity.”
- “Figure out who or what group has the power to institute antiracist policy.”
He goes on with further steps, having the desired outcome of replacing racist policy with antiracist policy.
I found Kendi’s book to be very informative. But as a White person, I really need people of color to help me see situations of racial inequity (national, state and local) and to help me figure out what racist policies are causing those situations. It would have been helpful to me if there had been an appendix listing local or state organizations that do much the same research and information dissemination as Kendi’s Antiracist Research and Policy Center.
Laurie McKinven-Copus July 19, 2020
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Click BELOW for:
JFON MI newsletter, for JUNE 2020
Justice For Our Neighbors MICHIGAN – Supreme Court’s regarding DACA
Michigan Conference Call to Antiracist Actions
FCNL Enact Police Reform
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Litany of the Lord's Prayer
Submitted by Laurie McKiven-Copus,
PWJ Ministry Team Member
Author Unknown
I cannot say …”Our”
If my religion has no room for other people and their needs.
I cannot say…”Father”
If I do not demonstrate this relationship in my daily life.
I cannot say…”Who art in Heaven”
If all my interests and pursuits are earthly things.
I cannot say…”Hallowed be thy name”
If I who am called by His name am not holy.
I cannot say…”Thy kingdom come”
If I am unwilling to give up my sovereignty and accept the reign of God.
I cannot say…”Thy will be done”
If I am unwilling or resentful of having Him in my life.
I cannot say…”On earth as it is in Heaven
Unless I am truly ready to give myself to His service here and now.
I cannot say…”Give us this day our daily bread”
Without expending honest effort for it or by ignoring the needs of my fellow men.
I cannot say…”Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”
If I continue to harbor a grudge against anyone.
I cannot say…”Lead us not into temptation”
If I deliberately choose to remain in a situation where I am likely to be tempted.
I cannot say…”Deliver us from evil”
If I am not prepared to fight in the spiritual realm with the weapon of prayer.
I cannot say…”Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, the Glory”
If I do not give disciplined obedience, if I fear what neighbors and friends may say or do, if I seek my own glory first.
I cannot say…”Amen”
Unless I can honestly say also, “Cost what it may, this is my prayer!”