I was mulling these things over with my friend A Roc (a pseudonym she suggested) who is not UU. I had to explain about the seven principles. A Roc identifies variously and proudly as "a woman of color," "black," "a person of African descent," and "African American." She was fascinated to hear my musings about why someone white might avoid talking about race and was compelled by my speculation that it had to do with affirming and promoting the inherent worth and dignity of every person. "But," she said, "if you are dealing with a person from another culture - through a difference of race, ability, sexuality or whatever - you should be able to acknowledge their difference as a way to grant them their inherent worth and dignity. If you can't acknowledge my feeling and saying that this difference matters, then you are not seeing me - because that's how I see myself. If you can't acknowledge my race, then you can't understand my life experience. If you say that you don't notice my race, then I conclude that you do not see me."

This presents a terrible paradox for people of faith. How do we remember the spiritual truth that race is a social construction without scientific basis at the same time that we acknowledge the political truth that everyone in the United States lives a racialized existence - even those of us who so easily come to think of ourselves as "raceless" or "generic" but who are in fact "white"? When one race is upheld as superior and others as inferior, minimizing racial difference can be an important choice toward affirming everyone's inherent worth and dignity. This is a choice that many Unitarian Universalists make every day.

Yet, A Roc tells me that her inherent worth and dignity are not affirmed if her race is overlooked or considered unimportant. She wants people in her life to know that she is black and that being black is a worthy identity. Not only that, she wants others in her life to know their racial identity, too. She wants me to know that I am white - not so that I can feel bad or good about myself - but because it matters to how we relate to each other. Awareness of our cultural and social rank differences and why they matter deepens our mutual affirmation of each other's inherent worth and dignity.

Should we minimize these differences, or accept them and learn as much as we can about how and why they matter? This tension is very alive in many UU congregations. In such contexts, I am reminded of Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt's statement in "We Must Change" that "...no matter what your social location, you find yourself in trouble rather than in community."

This tension about what and how to communicate regarding race comes up regularly in our work with congregations. At the moment, Clara Barton District's GRACE (Growing Racial and Cultural Equity) Team is preparing for its third annual summit on May 18. Each year, the summit has been titled "Renewing Our Commitment to Multicultural Ministries." The purpose of the summit is to offer encouragement, resources and conversations to individuals and teams of people from congregations intentionally working to build the capacity of their congregations for multicultural ministries both within and beyond their congregation. Every year the question of what words we will use comes up. Is this a conversation about race and anti-racism or about culture and multiculturalism?

Perhaps it doesn't matter so much where we begin. In the United States, race and culture are so deeply entwined that there is little meaningful conversation about one without the other. Race is a critical factor in determining how we are grouped and our group teaches us culture, i.e., "how we do things around here." If we are serious about being welcoming to ALL people, then all of us will need to know more about who we are as congregations and individuals - both culturally and racially. We will also need to know more about those we are welcoming and aspiring to build meaningful relationships with.

And we can't do either of these if we minimize the differences among us or stop ourselves from talking about them.

In faith,

Meck Groot, Justice Ministries Coordinator