Social Justice

Social Justice – Spring 2024

Photo Credit: Nancy Beckerman
 
Mindful Conversations for Social Justice
All people are invited to join our next meeting of hearts and minds!
This work is lifelong; every thought, conversation and action makes a difference. Join us as we support each other in our commitment to increasing awareness and taking action for anti-racism, equity, and social justice.
 
Next Meeting: Fri, April 12, 2024, 1:30-2:45 PM Pacific
 
REGISTER HERE to get the Zoom Link (same for each meeting). 
 
Suggested Content for Discussion
  • We’re taking turns sharing personal experiences with race and class in our upbringing and throughout our lives. Consider:
    • When was the first time you resisted, questioned, became aware of, or were confused by racism? By classism?
    • Review the chart “Hidden Rules among Classes
  • Read Epilogue and Ch 1 of book: American Nations (A history of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America), by Colin Woodard
  • Revisit Merge Left, Ian Haney Lopez for further discussion.

Watch/listen to recent suggestions:

 

After George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis Police officer on May 25, 2020, our mindfulness community came together as a commitment to being a positive force for racial justice. We continue to evolve these monthly open meetings to affect real and lasting change in the fabric of the United States and the world.

Each session is inspiring as we listen, learn, share and stir up ideas and actions, supporting each other in a safe space.

 

 

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Social Justice – Winter 2023/2024

Mindful Conversations for Social Justice
All people are invited to join our next meeting of hearts and minds!
This work is lifelong; every thought, conversation and action makes a difference. Join us as we support each other in our commitment to increasing awareness and taking action for anti-racism, equity, and social justice.
 
Next Meeting: Fri, March 8, 2024, 1:30-2:45 PM Pacific
 
REGISTER HERE to get the Zoom Link (same for each meeting). 
 
Suggested Content for Discussion
  • Reflect on personal experiences with race and class in our upbringing and throughout our lives. Consider:
    • When was the first time you resisted, questioned, became aware of, or were confused by racism? By classism?
    • Review the chart “Hidden Rules among Classes
  • Revisit Merge Left, Ian Haney Lopez for further discussion.

Watch/listen to recent suggestions:

 

After George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis Police officer on May 25, 2020, our mindfulness community came together as a commitment to being a positive force for racial justice. We continue to evolve these monthly open meetings to affect real and lasting change in the fabric of the United States and the world.

Each session is inspiring as we listen, learn, share and stir up ideas and actions, supporting each other in a safe space.

 

 

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Social Justice – Autumn 2023

Mindful Conversations for Social Justice
All people are invited to join our next meeting of hearts and minds!
This work is lifelong; every thought, conversation and action makes a difference. Join us as we support each other in our commitment to increasing awareness and taking action for anti-racism, equity, and social justice.
 
Fri, December 8, 2023, 1:30-2:45 PM Pacific
 
REGISTER HERE to get the Zoom Link (same for each meeting). 
 
Suggested Content for Discussion

Watch/listen to recent suggestions:

 

After George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis Police officer on May 25, 2020, our mindfulness community came together as a commitment to being a positive force for racial justice. We continue to evolve these monthly open meetings to affect real and lasting change in the fabric of the United States and the world.

Each session is inspiring as we listen, learn, share and stir up ideas and actions, supporting each other in a safe space.

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Social Justice – Summer 2023

Mindful Conversations for Social Justice
All people are invited to join our next meeting of hearts and minds!
This work is lifelong; every thought, conversation and action makes a difference. Join us as we support each other in our commitment to increasing awareness and taking action for anti-racism, equity, and social justice.
 
Fri, September 8, 2023, 1:30-2:45 PM Pacific
 
REGISTER HERE to get the Zoom Link (same for each meeting). 
 
Suggested Content for Discussion

Watch/listen to recent suggestions:

 

After George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis Police officer on May 25, 2020, our mindfulness community came together as a commitment to being a positive force for racial justice. We continue to evolve these monthly open meetings to affect real and lasting change in the fabric of the United States and the world.

Each session is inspiring as we listen, learn, share and stir up ideas and actions, supporting each other in a safe space.

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Social Justice – Spring 2023

Mindful Conversations for Social Justice
All people are invited to join our next meeting of hearts and minds!
This work is lifelong; every thought, conversation and action makes a difference. Join us as we support each other in our commitment to increasing awareness and taking action for anti-racism, equity, and social justice.
 
Fri, July 7, 2023, 1:30-2:45 PM PT 
 
REGISTER HERE to get the Zoom Link (same for each meeting). 
 
Suggested Content for Discussion

Watch/listen to recent suggestions you may have missed:

 
 
Paul:

Liz:

Suzanna: 26 day racial healing journey

 

After George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis Police officer on May 25, 2020, our mindfulness community came together as a commitment to being a positive force for racial justice. We continue to evolve these monthly open meetings to affect real and lasting change in the fabric of the United States and the world.

Each session is inspiring as we listen, learn, share and stir up ideas and actions, supporting each other in a safe space.

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Racial Justice Discussion – Winter 2022/23

All people are invited to join our next meeting of hearts and minds!
This work is lifelong; every thought, conversation and action makes a difference. Join us as we support each other in our commitment to increasing awareness and taking action for racial justice.
 
We began a recent discussion by tuning in to our bodies/minds/hearts as we listened to this poem: 
 
Breathe (Lynn Ungar)

Breathe, said the wind

How can I breathe at a time like this,
when the air is full of the smoke
of burning tires, burning lives?

Just breathe, the wind insisted. (entire poem here)

 
Mar 11, 2023, 2:30-3:45 PM PT (On April 8, we’re back to the 12-1:15 PM meeting time)
 
REGISTER HERE to get the Zoom Link (same for each meeting). 
 
Suggestions for Discussion
 
Recent Recommendations from our Group:

 
Nancy:
 
Paul:

Liz:

Suzanna: 26 day racial healing journey

 

After George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis Police officer on May 25, 2020, our mindfulness community came together as a commitment to being a positive force for racial justice. We continue to evolve these monthly open meetings to affect real and lasting change in the fabric of the United States and the world.

Each session is inspiring as we listen, learn, share and stir up ideas and actions, supporting each other in a safe space.

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Racial Justice Discussion – Autumn 2022

All people are invited to join our next meeting of hearts and minds!
Every thought, conversation and action makes a difference. This isn’t a book group–it’s a way to support each other in our commitment to increasing awareness and taking action for racial justice.
 
Dec 10, 2022, 12-1:15 PM PT
REGISTER HERE to get the Zoom Link (same for each meeting). 
 
Suggestions for Discussion
  • Cultural Humility–“A lifelong process of self-reflection and self-critique whereby the individual not only learns about another’s culture, but one starts with an examination of her/his own beliefs and cultural identities. This critical consciousness is more than just self-awareness, but requires one to step back to understand one’s own assumptions, biases and values.” 
  • Q: How do we open our hearts to people whose values we detest?
  • Class Privilege and White Privilege
  • Addressing White Fragility and differences in experience within and outside this group
  • The School that Tried to End Racism As excerpted from the article, “The school in question is a nonselective state secondary, Glenthorne high school in south London, whose intake is just over 50% white students and just under 50% BAME students….It is taking part in the first trial in the UK of a three-week programme developed in the US to educate children about the existence and effects of unconscious racial bias towards and against different communities. It is part of a wider movement away from “colour-blindness” as the default anti-racism policy (ignoring racial differences and therefore their effects in an inequitable world) and instead aims to work towards a society that can cope with the idea that difference can be recognized and – with conscious effort and strategies – not penalized. (BAME is an umbrella term, common in the UK used to describe non-white ethnicities — Black, Asian, and minority ethnic.)
 
Recent Recommendations from our Group:
 
Liz: (Book) We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans and Comedy by Kliph Nesteroff.
 
Paul:

After George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis Police officer on May 25, 2020, our mindfulness community came together as a commitment to being a positive force for racial justice. We continue to evolve these monthly open meetings to affect real and lasting change in the fabric of the United States and the world.

Each session is inspiring as we listen, learn, share and stir up ideas and actions, supporting each other in a safe space.

——————–
 
More Recommendations from our group:
 

Liz:

  • Indigenous Injustice podcast. Presents and explores a little-known California state law called the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians that unleashed genocidal violence against Indigenous children. They connect the dots between that terrible past and a landmark upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case.  California joined the Union as a so-called free state in 1850. This podcast addresses the question: how did white settlers get away with enslaving Native children until they were young adults?  It includes information about the supreme court case threatening the Indian Child Welfare Act 
     
  • Liz: Living Nations, Living Words, a Library of Congress website that provides a map of locations of Native American poets, created by Joy Harjo.  It’s amazing!
  • Liz: List of Resources that Apology and Repair Cohorts have put together for the Santa Rosa Junior College Indigenous People’s Day Celebration. 
  • Nancy: 4-part special called Model America about the “model city” in New Jersey and a shooting of a black teen 30 years ago. Very powerful.
  • Wendy: Sidney (on Apple TV+) a powerful documentary about Sidney Poitier, actor, filmmaker and civil rights activist. 
 
Film: Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America (Netflix)
 
TV: Full episodes of All in the Family from the 1970’s (YouTube)
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Racial Justice Discussion – Aug 13, 2022

All people are invited to join our next meeting of hearts and minds!
Every thought, conversation and action makes a difference. This isn’t a book group–it’s a way to support each other in our commitment to increasing awareness and taking action for racial justice.
 
 
Aug 13, 2022, 12-1:15 PM PT

UPDATE: All are welcome to join community-led meeting during instructor’s healing pause.

 
Suggested Content (options):
  • August 13 — All that She Carried The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake (Tiya Miles)
  • Search online for videos or podcasts featuring author Tiya Miles. 
REGISTER HERE to get the Zoom Link for each meeting. 
 
Recommendations from our group:
 
Liz:
  • The Davies UU Service is 44 minutes, recorded, that invites you into the sacred work of anti-racism and the dismantling of white supremacy.  Included in this experience of truth-telling is an exploration of key vocabulary, poetry and prose, and an interactive presentation. Excellent. Together, this congregation leans into the work of ending oppression and embracing diversity and inclusion. The live service also included music and song.

 

After George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis Police officer on May 25, 2020, our mindfulness community came together as a commitment to being a positive force for racial justice. We continue to evolve these monthly open meetings to affect real and lasting change in the fabric of the United States and the world.

Each session is inspiring as we listen, learn, share and stir up ideas and actions, supporting each other in a safe space.

Register here for this free event.

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Racial Justice Discussion – June-July 2022

All people are invited to join our next meeting of hearts and minds!
Every thought, conversation and action makes a difference. This isn’t a book group–it’s a way to support each other in our commitment to increasing awareness and taking action for racial justice.
 
May Meeting Recap: Together we watched an 8-minute segment of Resmaa Menakim (in conversation with Mindfulness instructor Tara Brach, from 27:25 – 35:00) lead a visualization giving white bodies an experience of the trauma we have carried for generations as witness and perpetrator of racial violence. What followed was a painful, courageous, raw and meaningful discussion. What in us allows the suffering of others? What happens when the fleeing energy gets encapsulated inside white bodies? We recognized the complexity of the inquiry, acknowledging that oppression is born out of self-hatred. What when everyone else seems ok with it–there must be something wrong with me. We also touched on the notion that when black people forgive the violators it is an empowering act for themselves, their community and their own healing. 
 
June 11 & July 9, 2022, 12-1:15 PM PT

UPDATE: All are welcome to join community-led meeting during instructor’s healing pause.

 
Suggested Content (options):

Planning Ahead: 

  • July 9 — Participant Presentation – Liz (Possible prompts: What brings you to this work? What does it mean to you to live in a culture of systemic racism? Or, your own prompt.)
  • August — All that She Carried The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake (Tiya Miles)
REGISTER HERE to get the Zoom Link for each meeting. 
 
Recommendations from our group:
 
Liz:
  • The Davies UU Service is 44 minutes, recorded, that invites you into the sacred work of anti-racism and the dismantling of white supremacy.  Included in this experience of truth-telling is an exploration of key vocabulary, poetry and prose, and an interactive presentation. Excellent. Together, this congregation leans into the work of ending oppression and embracing diversity and inclusion. The live service also included music and song.

Josephine:

 

After George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis Police officer on May 25, 2020, our mindfulness community came together as a commitment to being a positive force for racial justice. We continue to evolve these monthly open meetings to affect real and lasting change in the fabric of the United States and the world.

Each session is inspiring as we listen, learn, share and stir up ideas and actions, supporting each other in a safe space.

Register here for this free event.

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Racial Justice Discussion – May 14, 2022

All people are invited to join our next meeting of hearts and minds!
Every thought, conversation and action makes a difference. This isn’t a book group–it’s a way to support each other in our commitment to increasing awareness and taking action for racial justice.
 
April meeting notes: Several participants expressed a sense of wondering what’s next in our personal engagement with racial justice. We discussed ideas from Carol Anderson’s White Rage, celebrated Ketanji Brown Jackson’s recent confirmation as Supreme Court Justice, and discussed how we can respond in difficult conversations when it feels right to offer another perspective. (FIrst, get curious, ask more questions.) There’s another world that’s possible. What can we do to create it?
 
May 14, 2022, 12-1:15 PM PT
 
Suggested Content (options):

Planning Ahead: 

  • June — The Bluest Eye (A novel by Toni Morrison)
  • July — Participant Presentation (What brings you to this work? What does it mean to each of us to live in a culture of systemic racism?)
  • August — All that She Carried The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake (Tiya Miles)
REGISTER HERE to get the Zoom Link for each meeting. 
 
Recommendations from our group:
 
Liz:
  • The Davies UU Service is 44 minutes, recorded, that invites you into the sacred work of anti-racism and the dismantling of white supremacy.  Included in this experience of truth-telling is an exploration of key vocabulary, poetry and prose, and an interactive presentation. Excellent. Together, this congregation leans into the work of ending oppression and embracing diversity and inclusion. The live service also included music and song.
  • The Black History Book  Edited by many.  Big ideas simply explained. 2021  

Nancy: The Sunday Show, John Capehart on MSNBC

 

After George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis Police officer on May 25, 2020, our mindfulness community came together as a commitment to being a positive force for racial justice. We continue to evolve these monthly open meetings to affect real and lasting change in the fabric of the United States and the world.

Each session is inspiring as we listen, learn, share and stir up ideas and actions, supporting each other in a safe space.

Register here for this free event.

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