By Jane Prince

​Several years ago, I immersed myself in reading I should have done decades earlier to be better informed about slavery in America, its aftermath, and Black history. I experienced horror and shame, not only for my country, but for my own complicity as a white middle class American who had enjoyed the privilege of ignorance. 

Until then, I had somehow failed to make the connection between our nation’s ability to compete in the world economy and our willingness to conspire in our nation’s original sin of the brutal, inhuman, immoral institution of slavery of Black Americans. 
Had President Lincoln lived, had Reconstruction fulfilled its promise, had 40 acres and a mule been deeded to freed slaves as the damages they were owed, the playing field might have been levelled between Blacks and whites. But instead, our nation reimbursed slaveholders for the human “property” taken from them through emancipation. The abandonment by the federal government of Reconstruction efforts in the South thrust former enslaved people into a new social order, with Jim Crow laws and terroristic actions that cemented their inability to succeed in America.

For Blacks who fled the South, Minnesota “welcomed” them with systemic discrimination perpetrated through real estate redlining and racial covenants that blocked access to housing. As if that was not enough, this city allowed the plowing-under of the Rondo neighborhood — the center of Saint Paul’s African American business, residential, spiritual and cultural life — for the construction of Interstate 94.

A few years ago Trahern Crews, a nationally known reparations organizer from Saint Paul, shared his idea for an ordinance. He had drafted it as a model for a municipal government program of reparations. I signed on with Trahern to help bring it to reality. As a St. Paul City Council member, I believe local government can and must serve as a means for advancing social change. We were encouraged by the news that the City of Evanston had passed an ordinance in August 2019 to create a process to address reparations, with a dedicated funding source from the city’s new municipal tax on recreational cannabis. 

In partnership with the East Side Freedom Library, we launched the St. Paul Recovery Act Reparations Reading Group in February 2020. The monthly sessions offered history lessons on the development of systemic racism and its effects. The goal was to build public understanding and support for a reparations initiative. At the same time, Trahern was organizing a steering committee that spent 2020 working within the African American community and among allies to build support and momentum. 

By late fall, and in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, the committee lobbied the Saint Paul City Council to pass a resolution as the first step in creating a different future. The resolution included an apology for the City's role in the institutional and structural racism that has denied Saint Paul’s African American community access to housing, jobs, education, and health care. 
It also called for the creation of a Legislative Advisory Committee to create a framework for a permanent commission, to be known as the Saint Paul Recovery Act Community Reparations Commission. The commission will be empowered to make recommendations to specifically address the creation of generational wealth for the American descendants of chattel slavery and to boost economic mobility and opportunity in the Black community. On January 13, 2021, St. Paul City Council passed the resolution unanimously. 

The language in this resolution lays out bold expectations for a different kind of future for Saint Paul. This is the beginning of a process that will put reparations on the city’s agenda. Ta-Nehisi Coates has described the fulfillment of reparations as “a world not where the black race and white race live in harmony, but a world in which the terms black and white have no real political meaning.” With all my might, I hope that our City of Saint Paul is worthy of the love, dedication and confidence invested in this resolution. Our commitment must be fervent and enduring. Reparations to right the wrongs of racial injustice must happen here, now. 

Through the work of the Mapping Prejudice project, homeowners in the Armatage neighborhood of Minneapolis learned that they all had racial covenants on their homes. The neighbors sought out Just Deeds (justdeeds.org), a coalition of eight cities that offers legal help to renounce the covenants. 

The neighbors made lawn signs that say, "This home renounced its racial covenant," to share the message and spark conversations. Through Armatage Reparations & Equity Action, they are planning ways to support initiatives to close the homeownership gap, back reparations legislation, and make micro-reparation payments directly to Black Minnesotans.
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As we learn about the ways in which racism has been systematic, we discover how we can work to disrupt the system and undo some of the damage. Learn more about the St. Paul City Council action at bit.ly/replegad. If you're asking why reparations are needed, please read: The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Beloved Community Communications Team
 
Artist-in-Residence Team member Maura Williams sat down with Marcus Young to talk about his unique approach to art, his expressions of art, and his offerings at Unity as the congregation’s 2020-2021 Artist-in-Residence.
 
Marcus describes himself as a behavioral and social practice artist because he wanted to explore living his life as art and to “lead an artful life.” Art isn’t relegated just to theaters and museums but happens in churches and other places. It can be about the everyday, like drinking from a teacup—these things can be material for art. Art is entwined with our daily life. Tune in to this 13-minute interview on YouTube to hear from the talented Marcus Young himself. 
 
The Artist-in-Residence Program at Unity Church seeks to cultivate generative relationships between the church and creatives across diverse art forms, to undertake a period of focused work that amplifies the congregation's vision of becoming a multicultural, antiracist Beloved Community. 
 
Learn more about Marcus and Don’t You Feel It Too? online at www.dyfit.org/people. And find out about his previous artist residency for the Minnesota Department of Transportation at the Transportation for America blog: https://t4america.org/2019/07/30/marcus-young-to-be-minnesota-department-of-transportations-first-community-vitality-fellow/

There is just so much information and so many people writing, reporting, creating, and talking about race in this country, some of it spurred by the killing of George Floyd in May of 2020. But where to start? The Beloved Community Communications Team wants to help. We try to keep abreast of resources that can help us individually and collectively raise awareness of antiracism, provide support for a variety of people, and deepen our thinking as we work toward equity for all. Here are a few that have come across our desk recently and are worth your time.

The BIPOC Project
An organization dedicated to building “authentic and lasting solidarity among Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC)” through support, resources, and workshops in order to advance racial justice. 

Growing Up on the Block Where George Floyd Was Killed: A Family Reckons with Police Violence by Ed Ou, Daniella Silva, Will N. Miller, and Niram Hasty. NBC News, March 4, 2021.
This very emotional 32-minute film starts with the point of view of an 11-year-old boy who lives across the street from Cup Foods and his father who tries to help him come to terms with not only what happened last May but the legacy of police violence against Black men in Minnesota; one of their family members is a Minneapolis Police officer. The film also showcases Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence, a local support group for family survivors. 

Mapping George Floyd & Anti-Racist Street Art
A crowdsourced national database project including tags, graffiti, murals, stickers, and installations on walls, pavement, and signs, created by the Urban Art Mapping Research Project at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Street art is often ephemeral but has the potential to respond to crisis and start a dialogue in public spaces, reaching a large audience, and definitely worth viewing and appreciating. “Black Trans Lives Shine” (above) was created by Koffee_Creative. 

The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee. One World, 2021. 
A much anticipated and well-received work looking at the racial divide and racial inequality in the U.S. that is based on a zero-sum game fallacy and that impedes our economic growth. That divide includes the prevalent white belief that when things get better for Black people, it is at the expense of white people (zero sum) while Black people tend to think the opposite (not zero sum). McGhee explains how we got here, the historical hierarchy that America was built upon, and then shows the cost of that hierarchy today. Solidarity is the answer; we all do better when we all do better, or we prosper by the sum of all of us. 

Nice White Parents. 2020. Produced by the New York Times and Serial, podcast
Chana Joffe-Walt (producer for “This American Life”) reports on the past 60 years of white parents and public schools, which can be characterized as separate and unequal. What’s wrong with our public schools, despite de-segregation and school reform that focused on the Black and brown kids that the schools were failing, is what the series argues is the most powerful force in public schools: white parents. Five parts. Joffe-Walt’s reading list and a series discussion guide are available on the New York Times website. 

Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo. Seal Press, 2020.
From the author of the widely praised examination of race in America, So You Want to Talk About Race. In Mediocre, Oluo continues an examination of racial oppression in the United States, created and sustained by white, male mediocrity; white men who assume that they are innately superior by virtue of being white. We continue to support the assumption of superiority that forces women, people of color, the disabled, and sexual minorities to work much harder than white men to be successful. We will be able to change only when we see that this system is built on our own complicity. We need a different template for navigating the world, one that does not ask us to automatically accept the superiority of white men.

Thank you to Louise Merriam and Ron Prieve of Unity’s Library-Bookstall Team for contributing to this article. 

Find more resources in Unity’s Justice Database. If you are interested in delving deeper, consider the Antiracism Literacy Partner program on April 21. 

By Ray Wiedmeyer, on behalf of the Beloved Community Communications Team

The irony is not lost on me that I have worked hard in recent years to live my life as a pilgrim, meaning one on pilgrimage, when it was the Pilgrims who centuries ago began the experiment of white colonialism in America, leaving a legacy of oppression and slavery that we still struggle with today. I could never have guessed where my own pilgrimages would lead me; how they would open my eyes to what we must do 400 years later to dismantle the oppression embedded in our nation’s foundation and still playing out today.

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My pilgrim experiences all began rather early in the ministry of Rob and Janne. It was while my partner Karen and I were attending a class at Unity Church to become members, Rob approached us about making a “pilgrimage” to Transylvania, our sister church. Now being a pilgrim in Rob’s mind had nothing to do with being a capital P, Pilgrim.  He was suggesting we approach our trip to Transylvania with the “eyes” of a pilgrim, as one on pilgrimage. Simply put, “traveling as a pilgrim” meant traveling to a new place or through life with no expectation as to what one would see, experience, or learn about. It was the beginning of one of my most important spiritual practices; how I might move in the world; how I might be open to new experiences and new understanding. It has been a mighty change in my life. It is perhaps the essence now of my being a Unitarian Universalist, being open to new revelation.

Over 20 years, I have taken advantage of every “pilgrimage” Unity Church has had to offer and some outside of Unity. Many of those pilgrimages came with travel but in recent years my pilgrimages have become much more local. They have been about moving out of my comfort zone to be on pilgrimage in my everyday life. 

Recently I participated in the “Sacred Sites Tour,” with other members of the congregation. It was a tour of the land I call home, led by Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs, a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation. Over about four hours, we visited three sites that are sacred to the Dakota people, all located around the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, all part of their creation story. Traveling as a pilgrim, I was able to let Jim Bear’s telling of local indigenous people’s history and personal stories, mixed with moments of silence and reflection, sink in. I learned why the land was and is sacred to the Dakota people. I learned again of how the land was taken by deception, threat of starvation, and through treaties that were often broken and ignored. I learned how the Dakota people were pushed on to ever smaller plots of land and eventually banished from Minnesota altogether. It was, in the end, a chance to see history as seen through the eyes of another.  It was a chance to see my home ownership on that land as part of another’s story, part of another’s trauma.

Last month we were being asked to ponder the place for curiosity in our Unitarian Universalist faith and at the same time being asked to look hard at what it means to be in Beloved Community. I am finding that my spiritual practice, my “pilgrim eyes” are critical right now. I am finding that curiosity and pilgrimage need not mean travel to far off places. Pilgrimage can just as easily come from reading a book or stepping out my back door and seeing and listening to the other, which is sometimes my own neighbor who helps me see the place where I live with new eyes.
 
Indigenous Justice Team
A new team is forming at Unity Church around indigenous justice and reparations. Last fall, a Wellspring Wednesday program, “Repairing Broken Trust: Congregational Approached to Reparations with Indigenous Peoples” with Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs, inspired a small group of congregants to continue the conversation. For more information, contact Jess Landgraf.

Beloved Community Communications Team 
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Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself. — Rumi

​“Authentic relationships … personal practice … an ever-widening circle of belonging for all people … brave space for racial healing,” are what “we the people of Unity Church-Unitarian” pledge to create and sustain, as outlined in our Ends Statements. Racial equity and diversity inclusion work isn’t a program, but a lifestyle, according to Trina Olson, co-founder of Team Dynamics.* Inherent in our pledge is a commitment to build from what’s been started, maintain momentum, and as Trina said, to “create a container where the assets from our mixed team are showing up … to make a really meaningful impact.” 

The Unity Church Board of Trustees is passionately committed to working toward our promises/ends and in 2021, plans to build on the important efforts already begun. Trustee Jackie Smith reflected on this work: 

Indigenous Justice Team
A new team is forming at Unity Church around indigenous justice and reparations. Last fall, a Wellspring Wednesday program, “Repairing Broken Trust: Congregational Approached to Reparations with Indigenous Peoples” with Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs, inspired a small group of congregants to continue the conversation. For more information, contact Jess Landgraf.

Native American author Diane Wilson to Read at Unity Church
Wednesday, March 31, at 7:00 p.m., Online
Register here: https://bit.ly/DianeWilson

​Diane Wilson (Dakota) is the author of a memoir, Spirit Car: Journey to a Dakota Past, which won a Minnesota Book Award, as well as a nonfiction book, Beloved Child: A Dakota Way of Life.

Diane appeared at the 2020 Women’s Retreat and we are honored to welcome her back to read from her new book, The Seed Keeper. A haunting novel spanning several generations, The Seed Keeper follows a Dakota family’s struggle to preserve their way of life, and their sacrifices to protect what matters most. Registration is required to attend the event on Zoom. 

Unworthy Republic and The Seed Keeper are available to purchase in the Unity Online Bookstall and at your favorite local bookstore. Or contact the Library-Bookstall Team for mail order library service; a limited number of library copies are available. Look for more useful antiracism resources in Unity’s Justice Database.  ​

Antiracism Literacy Partners
Wednesday, February 3 • 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Register: http://bit.ly/Feb3ALP
What does it take to be racially literate and engaged in antiracism in a day-to-day way? Where do we find resources and support in our ongoing learning about systemic racism and the work of dismantling it? This program is an easy entry into finding antiracism books, podcasts, and videos, as well as discussion partners for talking about them. Come to choose a resource, sign up for a buddy or small group, and receive discussion guidelines. 

Reflection & Readiness: Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance Racial Justice Summit
Tuesdays and Thursdays, February 16, 18, 23, 25 • 6:30-8:00 p.m. CT
Saturday, February 20 • 10:00-noon CT 
​Register Here
Reflection & Readiness is an opportunity to reflect, convene, and connect across UU congregations in Minnesota and North & South Dakota, to share how we've been learning and taking action towards thriving multicultural democracy, and discern next steps for collective liberation. 

Toward a Culture of Accountability and Care
Wednesday, February 17 • 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Register: http://bit.ly/accountabilitycare
At this program, developed from the work of Unity’s Racial and Restorative Justice Team, you will meet representatives of Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence and Root and Restore Saint Paul, two local groups working on divestment from policing, investment in alternatives, and justice and healing for victims of police violence. You will learn why these groups do what they do, have an opportunity to ask questions, and discover how you can join the work.

Black Film Canon Series
Friday Evenings • February 19–May 21 • 7:00 p.m.
Register: http://bit.ly/ucublackfilmcanon
A new online film series invites you to view and discuss films written, produced, and created by Black people. Black Film Canon 101 (BFC 101) will meet on Zoom, beginning Friday, February 19, and continuing bi-weekly (mostly) through May (February 19 and 26; March 5 and 19; April 2, 16, 30; May 7 and 21).

Congregation Book Read Discussion of Imani Perry’s Breathe 
Wednesday, February 24 • 7:00-8:30 p.m. 
Register: http://bit.ly/bookreadbreathe
Join us for an online discussion of this year’s Congregation Book Read, Imani Perry’s Breathe: A Letter to My Sons (Beacon Press, 2019). The discussion will be facilitated by Rev. Karen Hering and members of the Racial and Restorative Justice Team. ​Discussion will include a BIPOC group, led by congregant Russel Balenger, for readers and parents who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color.
Reading guide: bit.ly/breathereadguide

Breathe is full of stories, lessons, prayers, hopes, dreams, poetry, warnings, guidance, the terrible truth of racism in America, and above all, love. Beacon Press describes the book as “an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity.” Written as a letter to her two sons, the book is organized into three sections:

1. Fear. The recognition that she cannot guarantee the safety of her sons; that along with the everyday business of life, there is “the daily work of beating back the ugliness. And reconciliation with the irreconcilable.”
2. Fly. In a “world bent on you not being and becoming,” there are ways to use your wings. She is not advocating for “making it,” but “what I hope for you is nothing as small as prestige. I hope for a living passion, profound human intimacy, and connection, beauty and excellence.” And freedom to fly. 
3. Fortune. The basic elements of a good life, of building yourself, is “a stripping down to fundamental lessons for one’s life. And it is a meditation between the lives and love that have gone and the ones right here with us…and give meaning to our lives today.” 

You will find that Breathe has received many accolades, prize nominations, and good reviews, and deservedly so. Stacey Abrams describes it as “a lyrical meditation that connects a painful, proud history of African American struggle with a clarion call for present-day action.”

There is much to talk about here. Please join the online book discussion on February 24, at 7:00 p.m.. Registration is available here: http://bit.ly/bookreadbreathe. ​Discussion will include a BIPOC group, led by congregant Russel Balenger, for readers and parents who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color.

The book is available in the Unity Online Bookstall at unitybookstall.square.site and at your favorite local bookstore. Or contact the Library & Bookstall Team for mail order library service — a limited number of copies are available. 

Black Film Canon series explores Black perspective behind and in front of the camera.
Friday Evenings • February 19–May 21 • 7:00 p.m.
Register: http://bit.ly/ucublackfilmcanon

A new online film series invites you to view and discuss films written, produced, and created by Black people. Black Film Canon 101 (BFC 101) will meet on Zoom, beginning Friday, February 19, and continuing bi-weekly (mostly) through May (February 19 and 26; March 5 and 19; April 2, 16, 30; May 7 and 21).

The eight films will cover almost a full century, beginning with Oscar Michaeux’s silent film Within Our Gates, including Spike Lee’s 1979 film Do the Right Thing, and Gina Prince-Blythewood’s Love and Basketball, and ending with Ryan Couglar’s Fruitvale Station. It does not include recently released films from the last five years.

Participants are asked to commit to the full series to build a deepening understanding and rapport with one another. The series begins with an introductory session and each session thereafter discusses one of eight films selected from the a list of 50 that Slate magazine has dubbed the “Black Film Canon.” The movies to be discussed bring to life not only Black suffering, slavery, and trauma, but also joy, love, and humor. 

Rev. Jack Gaede, from White Bear Unitarian Universalist Church and developer of BFC 101, notes: “...this isn't just a film study group, but also a chance to dig deeper into [ourselves] in the context of antiracism work. We are watching these movies … to explore and examine the concepts of race, of whiteness, of racism. We are asking people to look at the films through certain lenses, to notice whiteness and blackness and the way that those concepts are portrayed on screen. And we are especially curious about the way those portrayals have changed through time, which is why we are utilizing a chronological approach to the films that we are watching.”

Becky Gonzalez-Campoy, member of Unity Church and student of social transformation at United Theological Seminary, will lead the series at Unity. 
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Participants will view each movie on their own prior to the Zoom meeting. Class materials will include information about where to find these films (online) for viewing before each session as well as discussion questions and related resources. Films chosen in the series are available online for free or a minimal cost. If financial assistance is needed, please email karen@unityunitarian.org.

BFC 101 is a great learning opportunity for anyone just starting their antiracism journey as well as for those who are already seasoned in this work. For those who have completed the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), this series can be a useful tool to help meet your personal growth goals. 

For more information please contact Becky Gonzalez-Campoy at beckygc83@gmail.com. 

Lia Rivamonte, Artist-in-Residence Team

Tonight
in the dark kitchen
only the stainless steel 
holds the moon

On the sidewalk in front of my house I am invited to see the moon on the stainless steel surfaces in the dark of my kitchen. I do not have a stainless steel sink; the moon does not enter my kitchen through the window above it. No matter, I am grateful to have this invitation impressed into the concrete that evokes such delight. I hope that all who pass my house will look down and notice, read the words, and experience the wonder of the conjured image. 

There is much to admire in these four simple lines by the writer, @grumbles_mccoy, and credit must be given to Marcus Young, Unity’s current artist-in-residence, who initiated the project, “Everyday Poems for City Sidewalks.” It is Marcus who envisioned the sidewalks of St. Paul as pages in a book of wildly diverse poems and who worked with the city’s sidewalk maintenance program to make it happen.

What crosses your mind as you glimpse a pleasant looking man dressed in flowing robes walking calmly in silence through the galleries of the large museum you are visiting? Or, perhaps you’re in a hurry, making your way to the bus stop. In the corner of your eye you catch a person dancing in an open space on the other side of the street. You stop to watch. Neither person asks you for anything yet you are drawn in. Each appears to be fully absorbed, moving through the space with intention. Each encounter throws you off, disrupts your routine in a subtle, but insistent way.
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