Speaking in Truth about the Tea Party

3/24/10 online article by Princeton University professor Eddie Glaude, Jr.: Tea Party Epithets and the Habits of the American Heart.

Redemption Song

From the Womanist Musings blog: "Tune-in Tuesday: Bob Marley, Redemption Song" and an encouragement to reflect truthfully on power (our own power and societal powers).

Teach Your Children Well

Love Isn't Enough (formerly called The Anti-Racist Parent) is a keenly insightful blog that I highly recommend to all readers!

In particular, check out this recent post about the urgency and importance of teaching our children to understand racial differences!

Active U.S. Hate Groups

Lest we lose sight of the organized movements of hate around us (MAP via Southern Poverty Law Center)....or the impact of those who stand against hatred and work on anti-racism in themselves and in their communities (MAP, again from Southern Poverty Law Center).

Minding Our Motives: Redemption

Cross-posted from Rachel Hackenberg's blog, Faith and Water:

A friend read my "Minding Our Motives" post and recalled a familiar triusm: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

So, if the road of white racism---by which I mean, well-intentioned-but-oblivious white prejudice and acquiescence to systemic racism, as opposed to intentionally hateful acts of discrimination and physical/verbal/emotional violence against non-whites---is in fact a road to hell that is paved with our (well-meaning white folks') good intentions, then what is our salvation from ourselves and from the preferential system in which we are entrenched?

Read more...

Checking Our White "Savior Complex"

In the scramble to send personnel and resources to Haiti, it is important to critically analyze any and all overtones of the privileged "saving" the underprivileged, of the white/Western/wealthy/compassionate nation "rescuing" the non-white/non-American/developing/portrayed-as-self-looting nation---whether those overtones are present in the media or in our own thinking.

This self-critique is particularly important in regards to the children of Haiti. A statement was recently published by a coalition of adoptees of color, Statement on Haiti, emphasizing the need to avoid compounding a Haitian child's trauma by removing him/her from all that is familiar and beloved, and encouraging caution against the assumption that Haiti cannot care for (parent) her own children.

There are ways to help. But we risk repeating the severe mistakes of white American/European imperialism when we rush to rescue without minding our motives.

Blog Recommendation

SCOR community:

If you haven't already found the Anti-Racist Parent blog, I highly recommend it (regardless of your parenting status). This recent post, "How to be an anti-racist ally," keeps the important basics of how to be a white anti-racist ally before us in the ongoing Sacred Conversation on Race for Penn Central Conference.

Just a reminder that our next SCOR meeting is scheduled for this coming Thursday, January 7, at 9:30am in Harrisburg at our Penn Central Conference offices.

Blessings in 2010!