Lopsided Justice

First of all, I want to apologize to you and to Beth Levine for blowing my nose into the microphone last Sunday. Not only did I impose my bodily function on Beth's beautiful postlude, I startled you all out of your wits! I'm glad we could laugh about it at the time. I also want to tell you that if you're looking for sympathy, the quickest way I know to get it is to blow your nose into a microphone with 70-80 people listening raptly to a piano solo. So many people have asked me about my health since then I'm beginning to feel like the only one with a cold around here.. For the record, I'm on day 24 of what one Ft. Myers Unitarian Universalist is calling the one hundred day flu ­ only 76 more days to go! Maybe I'll be blessed with a 30 day flu ­ who knows. Or maybe that's tempting fate. In the mean time, like many of you I'm drinking lots of water, resting often, and blowing when necessary ­ hopefully not into anymore microphones!

Last week I talked about the environment and the damage we humans who till the soil have done to it. My remarks were inspired by Daniel Quinn's book Ishmael, which is the chronicle of a series of conversation between Ishmael, who is a gorilla and a man, who is his pupil. I want to begin this morning with a remark the man makes about the story of Cain and Abel.

I read the story last week. Cain was Adam and Eve's first born and a tiller of the soil. Abel was their second born and a herder of sheep. While they were out in the fields one day, Cain slew Abel. Yahweh chastised Cain for this murder. At the same time, the ancient Hebrew god puts a mark on Cain and tells Cain that the mark will protect him forever ­ that no one shall kill him in retribution.

In Daniel Quinn's book, the man makes a guess that the mark is white skin. Ishmael is not convinced, so the man states his case further,

"But it makes sense this way. The mark was given to Cain as a warning to others: 'Leave this man alone. This is a dangerous man, one who exacts a sevenfold vengeance.' Certainly a lot of people all over the world have learned that it doesn't pay to mess with people with white faces."
Ishmael shrugged, unconvinced or perhaps just uninterested.

So this thread is not followed in Daniel Quinn's book. I want to follow it this morning however.

Not only are we descendants of Cain hard on our environment, we are also hard on the descendants of Abel.

In recognition of this fact, we Unitarian Universalist have had as a study issue for two years now "Economic Injustice, Poverty and Racism".

I want to speak for a few minutes about how we come to learn about economic injustice, poverty and racism. I learned about it in the 1940's in the city of San Francisco on the #3 streetcar. This streetcar used to go past the all white school I attended and then turn south and go through the Fillmore district, where many of the African Americans who had moved north during World War II lived and worked. I can remember the difference between the big houses in the neighborhood of my school and the smaller houses in the African American neighborhood. I can remember the difference between the quiet silence in the neighborhood of my school and the lively noise in the African American neighborhood. When the streetcar got to the corner of Fillmore and Sutter there was such a crowd of people on the corner there, laughing and talking, the men in zoot suits with big hats, looking very fancy. Many of the women who boarded the bus in this neighborhood were going to work in the white neighborhood, where their mistresses complained about what poor help these women newly arrived from the South were. Somehow we white children got it that these women were the victims of economic injustice ­ living in poverty brought on by a racist system. If we asked questions, the white grownups ignored us, or told us that we were too young to know about such things or that we wouldn't understand. We were too shy to ask the African American grownups ­ besides, they wouldn't have told us ­ that would have broken the unwritten rules of how you behaved if you worked for a white family.

Later, during the early sixties, when the House Unamerican Activities Committee met in San Francisco and San Francisco State University students were unceremoniously removed from City Hall by fire hoses, I remember more lessons in Economic Injustice. Our campus was integrated. As a streetcar college, with nominal tuition, the university was a microcosm of the larger world, with black and white students sitting together in classes and the cafeteria. Only we didn't sit side by side. The black students sat together and the white students sat together. There was some sort of invisible line each side did not go across. I can remember all the talk about integration and civil rights and asking the question, "You don't think it will come to armed warfare in the streets, do you? With blacks and whites against each other and each of us condemned by the color of our skin?" No one wanted to answer my question. Everyone looked down at their cups of coffee.

I think of that conversation sometimes when I see police stop a car with an African American male driver, pulling him over because his brake light is out, or he doesn't have his seat belt on, or for some other minor infraction ­ the driver is suspect because of his race. Maybe he has drugs, or a concealed weapon. I think of that conversation when an African American man, trying to keep from ruining his suit, runs from an ATM machine in a pouring rain, and, because he is in a white neighborhood, is stopped by a police man who suspects him of robbing the bank. I think of that conversation when the children of my African American minister friend are followed through a department store by a security guard just to be sure they don't steal anything. I wonder where it's all going when the Reverend Ron Clark is fishing with his young son on one of our bridges here in a Daytona, and a car full of white youth slows as it drives past and someone yells a racial epithet at Rev. Clark and his son.

I'm here to tell you this morning there's good news. There are effective ways for concerned people of all races, including whites to work together to change things. The key words are coalition and community organizing.

The techniques were developed in the forties and fifties when Saul Alinsky organized "the Jungle", a neighborhood of Serbs and Croatians, Czechs and Slovaks, Poles and Lithuanians into the Back of The Yards Neighborhood Council. The indigenous leaders were recruited and trained by Alinsky to create a pressure group, demanding and negotiating with public and private sector groups to take action on bread and butter issues like better schools and more jobs. The self-help operation also created credit unions, built or rehabbed housing, and established social services where none had been before.

Alinksy's techniques were to work in other parts of Chicago and in other part of the country as well until in 1997 the Los Angeles Times reported that the Industrial Areas Foundation (I.A.F.) has some 50 church-based, interfaith and interracial organizations stretching from East Brooklyn to the East Side of Los Angeles. And I.A.F. isn't the only community-organizing coalition-building group working. Two others are P.I.C.O. ­ the Pacific Institute for Community Organizing ­ working in the Pacific Northwest and D.A.R.T. ­ the Direct Action Research Training Center ­ working out of Miami. We even have baby organizations working here in Volusia and Flagler counties called VISC ­ the Volusia Interfaith Sponsoring Committee and CIAC ­ the Communities In Action Coalition.

Let me tell you about these two baby groups. First, the C.I.A.C. This coalition grew out of a 1993 national strategy to protect children from harm and to help them have healthier and happier lives. The U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect noticed that

The likelihood of child maltreatment is heightened when fear, isolation, tensions, and depression are part of everyday life. The present system tends to funnel children, families and communities into processes over which they have no control and which are not necessarily in their best interests. Offering people respect and involvement can help overcome the isolation and depression that can result in abuse and neglect. Neighborhoods must be safe havens for children and families, places in which parents and children can gather, interact, support, and learn from each other and create for themselves an environment that is a source of pride for them.

Out of this awareness 41 targeted areas have been helped in the last six years to develop a two-county grass roots leadership group known as CIAC.

Let me tell you one CIAC success story from Flagler County. The town of Espanola has 500 people. It is a rural community. The community leaders were concerned that a majority of their youth between the ages of 12 and 18 have been involved in stealing, vandalism, drug use, and drug dealing. Adults in the community said they didn't feel safe. They felt discouraged because their properties had been vandalized, and there was trash everywhere. There was no public transportation to help them get to public laundries, grocery stores or social services agencies. Because of their low literacy and math skills many of them were unemployable, and those who were employable were out of work.

Sounds like a hopeless situation, doesn't it. Yet, with support from a community organizer the town was able to turn their situation around.

The youth provided leadership for a massive overhaul and clean-up campaign. A "crack house" was torn down, and drug activity has been reduced significantly. There's a new community center in Espanola, with GED and literacy classes, teen activities, job and health fairs, and a Head Start program. The youth are reclaiming a park area, and the county has made a commitment to bring lighting, running water, and other improvements to the park. When members of the Espanola Citizens In Action group appeared before the Flagler County Commission to present their plan, their training and dedication won respect from the elected officials.

When the Espanola Citizens In Action group meets, they now have a working partnership with the local law enforcement agency. They have a community liaison officer or deputy who meets with them as an active resource person. Where once there were as many as 25 juvenile crime reports in a month, now there may be only one. The volunteer fire chief feels he can respond to emergencies without calling for law enforcement back-up. The physical appearance of the town has changed dramatically. And there is a new culture in the community. No longer are citizens quiet and withdrawn. Now they are outspoken and clearly invested in community work.

The social services personnel who worked with the citizens of Espanola clearly understand this Chinese proverb: "Go to the people, live among them, learn from them, love them, start with what they know, build on what they have; but of the best leaders, when their task is accomplished, their work is done, the people all remark, 'We have done it ourselves.'"

Joan Walsh, author of a Rockefeller Foundation report called Stories of Renewal: Community Building and the Future of Urban America says that community building stands on five pillars. The first of these is leadership. Many of us are skeptical of charismatic leadership. Indeed, the Industrial Arts Foundation discovered that when Saul Alinsky and his lieutenants moved on to other projects, the organizations they built tended to die. Therefore, today's community organizing efforts focus on developing leadership from within the communities to be served. The style is often "servant leadership", building bridges between constituencies, fostering consensus and finding common ground, helping to develop the capacity of community partners, and letting others take credit for change.

A second pillar is patience. New Community Corporation is an early organization in Newark, New Jersey which employs 1400 people in businesses ranging from a supermarket to a day care center. The executive director reports that it took twelve years before he knew the NCC would make a real difference in its neighborhood. There is always tension between process and product. It takes time to create trust and relationships, for all parties to buy in. And as much time as these activities take, there is also the demand for bottom-line progress ­ better housing, health clinics and a reformed school, for instance. Projects need to be developed in phases, with benchmarks established for each phase so participants won't be discouraged over the long haul.

The third pillar is high but realistic expectations. People living in the affected neighborhoods are often more patient and realistic about how much can be done in what length of time than their corporate and professional partners. We will not abolish poverty. We will not eradicate racism. Using community organizing techniques we will make community changes, as the CIAC did in Espanola.

The fourth pillar is community-wide capacity building. "Capacity building" is the mantra of the 90's as "comprehensiveness" was in the 80's. Joan Walsh warns that throwing around the mantra "capacity building" can be perceived as charging your community leaders with incompetence. Yet skill development is needed for change. Data capacity and information systems must be developed. Leadership and grant-writing skills need to ripen. Planning and assessment capacities must mature. Indeed, Walsh says, "the best initiatives have created opportunities for self-reflection and mid-course correction that compensate for the lack of adequate technical assistance."

The final pillar is Courage and Candor about Race. Walsh says that a racially diverse leadership group is critical to community-building projects. It may even be necessary to provide translators for Latino and Asian ethnic groups and to publish materials in different languages.

I'm sure most of us who are white know by now that we cannot be effective or credible in many communities. No matter how well meaning or how skilled we may be, our potential is limited by race. Therefore, we must learn to work in partnership with those of other races to achieve community goals. This is perhaps the hardest part of community organizing ­ recognizing our limitations.

As I talk about these five pillars of community-building I am struck by the fact that they are also the pillars on which one grows a new church ­ leadership, patience, high but realistic expectation, capacity building, and courage and candor about race and other power issues.

Not too long ago I spoke with a new member of our church. He asked why we speak so often in our church about what he called "liberal politics". I expect today's sermon is an example of what he was asking about. So let me explain, in case there are others who also wonder.

For many years we have divided the world into parts. Indeed, last night Jim Scott said he believes the reason Adam was thrown out of the garden was separating the one into many. In our penchant for separating, we've tried to divide the world into sacred and secular. We say, let the churches and temples take care of the sacred and the government take care of the secular. In fact, we liberal religionists argue strongly for separation of church and state. The problem is that injustices often occur in the secular world, and as religionists we have a scared duty to be concerned with injustice ­ especially systemic economic injustice which creates poverty and racism. So we do get involved, as individuals and as churches to try to make the world a better place. One way of thinking about this is that we are God's hands in the world. Another is that prayer doesn't change things, it changes people and people change things.

So our church ­ Community Unitarian Universalist Church ­ needs to have a social justice program along with its religious education, fundraising, and worship programs. And we do. The thrust of our program has been to look at ourselves and to become an anti-bias community. We started in 1997 with a religious education curriculum for youth and adults called "Weaving the Fabric of Diversity." Next, we developed an anti-bias religious education program for our children, in which they learn about religious and cultural differences while at the same time they become aware of our Unitarian Universalist values and ethics. During Sukkoth (a Jewish harvest festival) our children also learned that we value the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part, our 7th principle. During Ramadan (an Islamic time of fasting) our children also learned about our third principle, acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations. During the unit on families our children also learned about our first principle, the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

Last fall we held an anti-racism workshop for youth and adults called "Creating a Jubilee World". This fall we also started the "Welcoming Congregation" curriculum, again for youth and adults interested in learning more about how to make our congregation a safe place for people of all sexual identities, including gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender.

Now we are discussing what partnerships we want to have in the wider community as we put what we've learned into action.

One possibility is to join with other congregations ­ black and white, Christian, Jewish and Muslim ­ to create the Volusia Interfaith Sponsoring Committee ­ a group just now forming in Volusia County. They have funding and Haley Grossman, their community organizer has just been hired.

Another possibility is to join with tenants at Bethune Village and/or Halifax Park, as they organize to ameliorate the effects of Hope Six, a national initiative under which both housing developments will be razed and replaced with housing for mixed-income groups. A good idea on paper, but one which is reducing the housing stock for truly low income people nationwide.

A third possibility is to join with the 41 communities who form Communities In Action Coalition, which comes out of the social service sector in Volusia and Flagler Counties.

Yet another possibility is to scout around for other opportunities.

I want to close with words spoken by Dan Crary, a white community organizer in Little Rock, Otis Johnson, a back community organizer in Savannah, and Joan Walsh, the white author of the Rockefeller Foundation report. Johnson speaks about discerning a white person's motivation in racial matters. Walsh asks, "How do you discern it?"

Johnson: Well, being black for 54 years kind of helps. (laughs) I've lived around white people all my life. It's like W.E.B. DuBois says, I have that sense of 'twoness.' But white folk rarely develop the same sense of twoness even with a lot of exposure to black people.

Walsh: You have to be bicultural, I guess, and we don't. But in community-building work, we do, and the more I do this work the more I recognize certain 'white' traits: We talk too much, we don't listen enough, we act like we're in charge all the time.

Johnson: That's right, you're in charge. (Laughs)

Crary: The other wonderful tendency my people have is to believe that we can solve it if it's going to be solved. But community building recognizes that in fact we can't solve it: that the solutions lie in the community, and we need to transfer authority and resources there to allow them to do that. That is an enormous leap for white people.

I invite you to meet with the Social Justice Committee when next they meet so we may all leap together!