Jokes

Most of the racism we learn is covered in jokes. They may be termed stereotype jokes or ethnic jokes but it does not take long to slip over the line of racist jokes. The problem is that they are funny and we all like to laugh. Even if it is not funny a good comedian can deliver it in a tickle-the-funny-bone kind of way. The problem we are confronted with is whether we turn off the TV and stay away from public spaces because these jokes are unavoidable. An alternative may be to campaign against bad jokes which is a great setup for a bad joke. Each individual is confronted and must address this issue and probably addresses it in a personal way. One way is avoidance, another is "join-em."

Conversations and Actions

Conversation are all well and good but it is action that creates change. To move this agenda forward we need organization. No major change has been thrust upon society through the niceties and good graces dependent on the charity of people. Rather most change worth having had to be organized and placed on the public agenda. For my part I will start a magazine to address these issues but the magazine or newsletter can only form a basis of organization if people subscribe and follow up on the issues raised through educational sessions and through implementation of the learnings. Let me know if you would be part of the change you wish to see in this world.

William Wilberforce

William Wilberforce was an British abolitionist and parliamentarian. In 1772 a judgement ruled that slavery was not allowed under British law and any slaves brought to Britain from America or any other locations would not be treated as slaves under British law. Wilberforce started his political career in 1780 and addressed the British involvement in the slave trade pressing for the Slave Trade Act of 1807. This exacted penalties for slave traders but it also resulted in captains throwing slaves overboard to reduce those penalties. He continued pressing for the total abolition of slavery campaigning for the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. On his death bed he was informed that they had the votes to pass it and he passed just before the act passed.

Chief Albert Luthuli

Chief Albert Luthuli was a hero nobody knew. When Tutu received his Nobel Peace Prize he declared, I will not be an Albert Luthuli." What he meant was that he would not be silenced and obliterated from the minds of people like Albert Luthuli was. It was the western success of Albert Luthuli's obliteration that probably provided the inventive to obliterate Mandela from the consciousness of the world. Albert was the first South African, the first African, the first Black man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He was under house arrest at the time and because of international protests was allowed a temporary travel document to travel to Oslo to receive his Nobel Prize. He went back home immediately and was placed back into house arrest. His book, Let my people go, was banned and he was so well removed from the consciousness of the world that when I spoke for about 20 years about him nobody knew who he was until one day a hand rose. The person knew his name. I asked him how he knew of Albert Luthuli and his response was that Albert Luthuli was a room mate in college of someone he knew. Albert Luthuli was the President of the ANC was Nelson Mandela was the leader of the ANC youth League. He stood for non-violence when the younger generation led by Nelson Mandela proposed armed struggle.

Heroic Inspiration

In the annuls of racism one of the anti-racist strategies has been the heroic inspiration of those who broke the barriers. Jesse Owen was not only inspirational to blacks but to the whole west when he gained his olympic golds in front of Hitler, showing up his racist ideology as empty rhetoric.
Joe Louis inspired a generation as he held the world boxing title for 15 years.
Ali inspired another generation as he delivered on his poetic promises.
Jackie Robinson, Sidnet Poiter, and others come to mind. The latest inspirational heroes include King, Tutu, Mandela and now Obama.

Obama Breaks through

President Obama!
It feels good to have voted for President Mandela and President Obama.

Institutional Racism

Besides the definition of racism hurdle that must be overcome, the definition of truth, and the understanding of institutional racism are mountainous mental barriers to overcome.
If it is difficult to identify racism it is even more onerous to identify institutional racism. It is not impossible however. It simply takes training and practice. Once it is identifiable it is not understandable why it was not identified sooner since it is hiding in plain sight for everyone to see.

Truth

In defining our reality we firstly need to understand the meaning of truth. We have scientific truth that can be tested through the scientific method. We also have a intuitive or religious truth that we cannot really explain easily to others other than claim a belief and a surety.
How can we create a common reality if one is claiming a personal truth and another claims an opposite belief?

Define Racism

Whenever I teach a racism course we address the definition of racism. There is a lot to learn from this exercise since race is so hard to define but everyone has a built in intuitive definition. What do you do with something that you "intuitively know" but really has no true substance and meaning? This kind of concept does not belong in the real world but certainly does belong in a church where much of what we believe cannot be scientifically tested but by our belief has meaning enough for us to live our life by the "intuitive knowing.

Active experimentation

Active experimentation involved actually using the information to do something relevant. This is the action part of learning. True learning is not completed until this activity is performed. It is an implementation of learning and it is a practical way to show that learning has been achieved. Another important part of learning is to develop good habits. Habits are formed through a repetition of activity. Performing an activity successfully once may indicate that the understanding and learning has occurred but it is the repetition and the inculcation of a good habit that provides the true benefit of learning.

Abstract Conceptualization

Abstract conceptualization is the process of thinking deeply about the experience. What did it mean? Why was it meaningful? What actually occurred? How did it unfold? Providing deeper meaning leads to categories and collecting abstract concepts that fits the experience to others that are similar or dissimilar.

Reflective Observation

When a learner is exposed to an experience it is not an insignificant event. There is a mental process of reflection that occurs. It could be a question of a comment that forms in the mind. The question could be asking Why? What if? The comment could be, That is pleasant or unpleasant, I should try that again. The reflection is an acknowledgement of consciousness and concentration. If it is momentary then that may be all reflection that occurs. In a learning environment the facilitator guides and extends that process. It takes more effort to sustain the reflection about an experience beyond the time of the experience.
In fact, it is difficult to observe during an experience so the reflective observation is a post experience reflection hopefully while the emotion generated by the experience still lingers.

Concrete Experience

In life we encounter many concrete experiences but in a learning environment the learning faciliatator not only provides a theory and a story, but also a concrete experience that addresses the principles involved in the learning experience. This is the true challenge for educators who prepare lesson plans.

Kolb's Learning Cycle

Kolb’s model is comprised of four phases that he locates in a circle. This model has come to be known in the literature as the Kolb Cycle.

In the first phase, the educator involves the learners in a concrete experience. The experience could be a role play, a live or video demonstration, a case study, or a testimonial. Generally, it will not be a lecture. The learners are then asked to review the experience from many perspectives. They ask themselves questions. What happened? What did you observe? This second phase is referred to as reflective observation. During the third phase of abstract conceptualization, the learners develop theories and look at patterns. Further questions are asked. How do you account for what you observed? What does it mean for you? How is it significant? What conclusions can you draw? What general principles can you derive? The fourth and final phase of this experiential model is active experimentation. The learners suggest ways that they can apply the principles they have learned. How can we apply this learning? In what ways can we use it the next time? What would we do differently?

Education and Learning

A priority is to study the events, the conditions, and the options. Study is an active process. It is a communty process. It is a change process. It is also a long term investment. For issues of this importance and complexity it is not enough to have a series of seminars or lectures. It requires learner involvement, learner engagement, learner reflection, and ultimately learner action resulting in changing behavior.

Ending Slavery Solution #1

Everything begins with one. I will resolve to end slavery. I will resolve to heal the effects of slavery. The first thing for me to acknowledge is that it is a problem and it requires a solution. Another acknowledgement is that I can address it regardless of my own or ancestral involvement. I will raise my own awareness level and through interactions will raise others awareness level too.

Creative Solutions

Even as we learn to understand what others have done to address the inequities of slavery, we should contantly bear in mind innovative solutions. As we deconstruct the past we should remember to reconstruct the future. As we sift out the essential components that bleed still from old wounds we need to find cures and protocols.

Lobbying Acts of Congress

Today in politics voting is not enough. It takes a concerted effort to have elected leaders listen and follow through. It also takes considerable investment in time and money. Since a church cannot easily reconcile some of the acts of bribery, payoffs, and gifting that corporations regularly engage in, the investment is in moral leadership.

Resolutions for the church, the conference or the synod

Since the forum for this discussion is in the church setting it is appropriate that we seek platforms within the church to address these issues. At conferences we have a broader audience to share ideas and to formiulate action plans that have wider acceptance. At the synod we have the ultimate platform of the church through its resolutions and actions of its leadership.

Legal action to redress inequity

Most will agree that the US is a very litigious society. Stories abound like the successful 1994 Liebeck v. MacDonalds suit over third degree burns from a spilled cup of coffee.
Some make the claim that America is governed by laws not people. Others will claim that the victories that count are the legal victories. There have been threats of legal action that may have state legislatures or other bodies address reparations but the only result that may count may be a legal victory in court.

Reparations

Reparations for slavery is a common call that is commonly ignored. There are a number of arguments for and against reparations. It is easy to imagine a number of arguments for reparations considering the absolutely negative view we hold on slavery as a universally condemned institution. Some of the arguments against reparations include:
The civil rights act and affirmative action addresses reparations.
Those who were guilty of slavery have all passed on.
Slavery was a legal institution and one cannot be conpensated for a legally supported injustice.

Forgiveness

Many feel guilt about slavery. This feeling of guilt may accompany a sense of imposing guilt rather than feeling guilty for wrongdoing. Most would argue that they themselves were not slaveowners or slave traders and therefore are not guilty of those wrongs. They may feel that they are blamed and shamed and have guilt imposed through an association with the actual slavers, either as direct descendents or as fellow whites descendents.

This guilt may drive an apology but it certainly has a expectation of forgiveness. To deal with the process and the actual redemotion of emotional release may take a deiberative facilitation structure to achieve. In the meantime discussions and sharing may pave the way for such a structure.

Consider this article:

Slavery Haunts America's Plantation Prisons
Thursday 28 August 2008 by: Maya Schenwar, t r u t h o u t Report (Artwork: Paul Giambarba / t r u t h o u t)
On an expanse of 18,000 acres of farmland, 59 miles northwest of Baton Rouge, long rows of men, mostly African-American, till the fields under the hot Louisiana sun. The men pick cotton, wheat, soybeans and corn. They work for pennies, literally. Armed guards, mostly white, ride up and down the rows on horseback, keeping watch. At the end of a long workweek, a bad disciplinary report from a guard - whether true or false - could mean a weekend toiling in the fields. The farm is called Angola, after the homeland of the slaves who first worked its soil.
This scene is not a glimpse of plantation days long gone by. It's the present-day reality of thousands of prisoners at the maximum security Louisiana State Penitentiary, otherwise known as Angola. The block of land on which the prison sits is a composite of several slave plantations, bought up in the decades following the Civil War. Acre-wise, it is the largest prison in the United States. Eighty percent of its prisoners are African-American.
"Angola is disturbing every time I go there," Tory Pegram, who coordinates the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3, told Truthout. "It's not even really a metaphor for slavery. Slavery is what's going on."
Mwalimu Johnson, who spent 15 years as a prisoner at the penitentiary and now works as executive secretary of the Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana, concurred.
"I would truthfully say that Angola prison is a sophisticated plantation," Johnson told Truthout. "'Cotton is King' still applies when it come to Angola."
Angola is not alone. Sixteen percent of Louisiana prisoners are compelled to perform farm labor, as are 17 percent of Texas prisoners and a full 40 percent of Arkansas prisoners, according to the 2002 Corrections Yearbook, compiled by the Criminal Justice Institute. They are paid little to nothing for planting and picking the same crops harvested by slaves 150 years ago.
On land previously occupied by a slave plantation, Louisiana prisoners pick cotton, earning 4 cents an hour. (Photo: Louisiana State Penitentiary)
Many prison farms, Angola included, have gruesome post-bellum histories. In the 1950s, '60s and '70s, Angola made news with a host of assaults - and killings - of inmates by guards. In 1952, a group of Angola prisoners found their work conditions so oppressive that they resorted to cutting their Achilles' tendons in protest. At Mississippi's Parchman Farm, another plantation-to-prison convert, prisoners were routinely subjected to near-death whippings and even shootings for the first half of the 20th century. Cummins Farm, in Arkansas, sported a "prison hospital" that doubled as a torture chamber until a federal investigation exposed it in 1970. And Texas's Jester State Prison Farm, formerly Harlem Prison Farm, garnered its claim to fame from eight prisoners who suffocated to death after being sealed into a tiny cell and abandoned by guards.
Since a wave of activism forced prison farm brutalities into the spotlight in the 1970s, some reforms have taken place: At Angola, for example, prison violence has been significantly reduced. But to a large extent, the official stories have been repackaged. State correctional departments now portray prison farm labor as educational or vocational opportunities, as opposed to involuntary servitude. The Alabama Department of Corrections web site, for example, states that its "Agriculture Program" "allows inmates to be trained in work habits and allows them to develop marketable skills in the areas of: Farming, Animal Husbandry, Vegetable, meat, and milk processing."
According to Angola's web site, "massive reform" has transformed the prison into a "stable, safe and constitutional" environment. A host of new faith-based programs at Angola have gotten a lot of media play, including features in The Washington Post and The Christian Science Monitor.
Cathy Fontenot, Angola's assistant warden, told Truthout that the penitentiary is now widely known as an "innovative and progressive prison."
"The warden says it takes good food, good medicine, good prayin' and good playin' to have a good prison," Fontenot said, referring to the head warden, Burl Cain. "Angola has all these."
However, the makeover has been markedly incomplete, according to prisoners and their advocates.
"Most of the changes are cosmetic," said Johnson, who was released from Angola in 1992 and, in his new capacity as a prison rights advocate, stays in contact with Angola prisoners. "In the conventional plantations, slaves were given just enough food, clothing and shelter to be a financial asset to the owner. The same is true for the Louisiana prison system."
Wages for agricultural and industrial prison labor are still almost nonexistent compared with the federal minimum wage. Angola prisoners are paid anywhere from four to twenty cents per hour, according to Fontenot. Agricultural laborers fall on the lowest end of the pay scale.
What's more, prisoners may keep only half the money they make, according to Johnson, who notes that the other half is placed in an account for prisoners to use to "set themselves up" after they're released.
Besides the fact that two cents an hour may not accumulate much of a start-up fund, there is one glaring peculiarity about this arrangement: due to some of the harshest sentencing practices in the country, most Angola prisoners are never released. Ninety-seven percent will die in prison, according to Fontenot.
(Ironically, the "progressive" label may well apply to Angola, relative to some locations: In Texas, Arkansas and Georgia, most prison farms pay nothing at all.)
Angola prisoners technically work eight-hour days. However, since extra work can be mandated as a punishment for "bad behavior," hours may pile up well over that limit, former prisoner Robert King told Truthout.
"Prisoners worked out in the field, sometimes 17 hours straight, rain or shine," remembered King, who spent 29 years in solitary confinement at Angola, until he was released in 2001 after proving his innocence of the crime for which he was incarcerated.
It's common for Angola prisoners to work 65 hours a week after disciplinary reports have been filed, according to Johnson. Yet, those reports don't necessarily indicate that a prisoner has violated any rules. Johnson describes guards writing out reports well before the weekend, fabricating incident citations, then filling in prisoners' names on Friday, sometimes at random. Those prisoners would then spend their weekend in the cotton fields.
Although mechanical cotton pickers are almost universally used on modern-day farms, Angola prisoners must harvest by hand, echoing the exact ritual that characterized the plantation before emancipation.
According to King, these practices are undergirded by entrenched notions of race-based authority.
"Guards talked to prisoners like slaves," King told Truthout. "They'd tell you the officer was always right, no matter what."
During the 1970s, prisoners were routinely beaten or "dungeonized" without cause, King said. Now, guards' power abuses are more expertly concealed, but they persist, fed by racist assumptions, according to King.
Johnson described some of the white guards burning crosses on prison lawns.
Much of this overt racism stems from the way the basic system - and even the basic population - of Angola and its environs have remained static since the days of slavery, according to Pegram. After the plantation was converted to a prison, former plantation overseers and their descendants kept their general roles, becoming prison officials and guards. This white overseer community, called B-Line, is located on the farm's grounds, both close to the prisoners and completely separate from them. In addition to their prison labor, Angola's inmates do free work for B-Line residents, from cutting their grass to trimming their hair to cleaning up Prison View Golf Course, the only course in the country where players can watch prisoners laboring as they golf.
Another landmark of the town, the Angola Prison Museum, is also run by multi-generation Angola residents. The museum exhibits "Old Sparky," the solid oak electric chair used for executions at Angola until 1991. Visitors can purchase shirts that read, "Angola: A Gated Community."
Despite its antebellum MO, Angola's labor system does not break the law. In fact, it is explicitly authorized by the Constitution. The 13th Amendment, which prohibits forced labor, contains a caveat. It reads, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States."
That clause has a history of being manipulated, according to Fordham Law Professor Robert Kaczorowski, who has written extensively on civil rights and the Constitution. Directly after the 13th Amendment was enacted, it began to be utilized to justify slavery-like practices, according to Kaczorowski. Throughout the South, former slaves were arrested for trivial crimes (vagrancy, for example), fined, and imprisoned when they could not pay their fines. Then, landowners could supply the fine in exchange for the prisoner's labor, essentially perpetuating slavery.
Although such close reproductions of private enslavement were phased out, the 13th Amendment still permits involuntary servitude.
"Prisoners can be forced to work for the government against their will, and this is true in every state," Kaczorowski told Truthout.
In recent years, activists have begun to focus on the 13th Amendment's exception for prisoners, according to Pegram. African-Americans are disproportionately incarcerated; one in three black men has been in prison at some point in his life. Therefore, African-Americans are much more likely to be subject to involuntary servitude.
"I would have more faith in that amendment if it weren't so clear that our criminal justice system is racially biased in a really obvious way," Pegram said.
Prison activists like Johnson believe that ultimately, permanently changing the status quo at places like Angola may mean changing the Constitution - amending the 13th Amendment to abolish involuntary servitude for all.
"I don't have any illusions that this is a simple process," Johnson said. "Many people are apathetic about what happens in prisons. It would be very difficult, but I would not suggest it would be impossible."
Even without a constitutional overhaul, some states have done away with prison farms of their own accord. In Connecticut, where the farms were prevalent before the 1970s, the farms have been phased out, partially due to the perceived slavery connection. "Many black inmates viewed farm work under these circumstances as too close to slavery to want to participate," according to a 1995 report to the Connecticut General Assembly.
For now, though, the prison farm is alive and well in Louisiana. And at Angola, many prisoners can expect to be buried on the land they till. Two cemeteries, Point Lookout 1 and 2, lie on the prison grounds. No one knows exactly how many prisoners are interred in the former, since, after a flood washed away the first Angola cemetery in 1927, the bodies were reburied in a large common grave.
Point Lookout 1 is now full, and with the vast majority of Angola's prisoners destined to die in prison, Point Lookout 2 is well on its way, according to King.
"Angola is pretty huge," King said. "They've got a lot of land to bury a lot of prisoners."
No one knows how many of the prisoners kept in involuntary servitude at Angola are innocent. But at least one who has proven his innocence in court, overturning his conviction, is still behind bars. Please see "Declared Innocent, but Not Free."

Apology

There have been a concerted effort to have the President, the congress, and ordinary Americans offer an apology for slavery. A direct apology has not been offered probably because of fear of responsibility and the consequences of an admission of guilt. Kirk Douglas supports an apology by the Senate and the President.


House Issues An Apology For Slavery

By Darryl Fears

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 30, 2008; Page A03

The House yesterday apologized to black Americans, more than 140 years after slavery was abolished, for the "fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow" segregation.

The resolution, which passed on a voice vote late in the day, was sponsored by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), a white Jew who represents a majority-black district in Memphis. Cohen tried unsuccessfully to join the Congressional Black Caucus this year.

Education and Action

The purpose of education is to inform, and to change behavior. Everyone is involved in a true educational process to consider the facts and theories, reflect on how these impact lives, and finally choose an approach to support or change the status quo. Personal and group interests have a major impact on these decisions and choices.

Since I have addressed many of these facts and made many personal choices of actions, I will share some of my journey on this blog in the hopes that it might help guide a corporate approach. I invite others to do the same so we can reach a better more considered plan of action.

I think a plan of action can be broken down into a number of steps, One is to pursue knowledge of what has happened and how what has happened has impacted modern lives. Another is to decide on a personal approach to the major topics. Ultimately we need to form a community plan of action to shape our approach as a church.

Let's consider some of the topics:

1. Apology
2. Forgiveness.
3. Reparations.
4. Legal action to redress inequity.
5. Resolutions for the church, the conference or the synod
6. Lobbying Acts of Congress

Please share!

Oliver

Welcome

Welcome to the Sacred Conversations on Race blog. We at the First Congregational Church of Glen Ellyn have been engaged in this conversatoin for some time and hope that we can develop a number of threads to share ideas between meetings and reflections after meetings.
I have a personal interest in education and action and will initiate threads but feel free to post your own new threads.

Oliver