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Asset-Based An -Racism papers wri en for UUMUAC

Copyright Kenneth Chris ansen 2010-2018

Table of Contents

The Benefits of Asset-Based An -Racism Over Guilt-Based An -Racism (2010)

Asset-Based An -Racism 2.0 (2017)

Asset-Based An -Racism 3.0: What Do You Do with The White People? (2018)

Dr. Christiansen is Professor Emeritus of Religion and Sociology, Defiance College, Defiance,
Ohio. He presently lives in Jacksonville, Florida, where he is a member of Buckman Bridge
Unitarian Universalist Church and the Interfaith Coalition for Action, Reconciliation and
[1]
Empowerment (ICARE).
Contact address: kenneth@christiansens.com
He is also the author of the Civil Rights era simulation game DIGNITY (New York:
Friendship Press, 1967-69).

The Benefits of Asset-Based An -Racism Over Guilt-Based An -Racism

by Dr. Kenneth Chris ansen
Unitarian Universalist Mul racial Unity Ac on Caucus, April 30, 2010

My goal in the next few minutes is to contrast guilt-based an -racism and Asset-Based An -
Racism and share why I feel Asset-Based An -Racism is the be er choice. First a word of
introduc on.
For seventeen years at Defiance College in Ohio I taught Cultural Diversity classes every
semester to a collec on of Educa on majors, Criminal Jus ce majors, Social Work majors,
Religion Majors, and a sma ering of others. The student popula on in my classes, like the
college itself, was mostly but not all white. My assigned task was to help prepare these students
to work professionally in schools and agencies where they would be working with children and

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adults from every race, ethnicity, and economic background. I had one semester to make a
difference in their lives.
At the beginning of every class, we began by looking at the history of prejudice, discrimina on
and oppression in our country. Somewhere in the first several weeks it inevitably became clear
that many or most of the Caucasian students in the class were feeling a lot of guilt. Not guilt for
things they themselves had done. Rather, guilt for things members of their race had done
historically. Or guilt for the advantages they or their racial ancestors enjoyed at others’ expense.
This would typically cause them to show signs of shu ng down; to parse every response they
made in class discussion; to become very unsure of themselves. Open class discussion became
more difficult. I could only imagine how tongue- ed they would be at the end of the semester,
or when helping a student or client of their own in their chosen profession in later life, if I let this
con nue.
My response was to share what I observed to be an empowering message. That is, if you
actually have done any of the horrible things we were reading about, go ahead and feel guilty. If,
on the other hand, you haven’t done them, get angry instead. Get angry at racism and
oppression wherever you see it.
Guilt, I explained, is anger directed inward. If you let it build up, it will eventually either eat
you up or burst out as anger directed toward others. If, on the other hand, you feel anger
instead of guilt when you see injus ce or discrimina on, that anger can energize you to help
build a be er world.
The reali es of race rela ons in the UUA present similar challenges. As I read The Arc of the
[2] [3]
Universe is Long, Soul Work, the 1983 study of the Commission on Appraisal tled
[4]
Unitarian Universalism and the Quest for Racial Jus ce and other publica ons, it’s obvious
there’s been a rocky history. A er much ini al conflict, the dominant pa ern has separated into
two dis nct approaches. For people of color, there is a strong emphasis upon and celebra on of
posi ve racial and ethnic iden es in both adult and youth programming. For Caucasians, on the
other hand, there is a strong emphasis on learning about White Privilege and the detrimental
the effects ac ons of white people as a group have had on people of color. In short, for
Caucasians, this is a guilt-based approach to an -racism.
I want to affirm that all of the actors in the UUA who are working to do something posi ve
about racism come to the table with good inten ons. Nonetheless, there are fundamental
choices to be made about how best to bring about equality of both opportunity and outcome.
Unfortunately, people who have made different choices, people who have chosen differing
strategies, o en think the worst of each other. That is human nature.
In all of the disagreements and figh ng about these things over these years, through the
Crossroads-guided training sessions and tumultuous General Assembly mee ngs, there is one
ques on I did not see addressed by anyone. That ques on gets back to the circumstances I
described in my classroom at the beginning of this talk. The ques on is, what do we really know
about the psychological effects of collec ve guilt? What do we really know on the basis of actual
research someone has done?

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Learning more about the posi ves and nega ves of collec ve guilt might offer an answer to
three more ques ons. Should our focus be on the collec ve guilt of the individuals who are part
of historic oppressor groups? Or would we gain more by focusing directly on the social and
cultural mechanisms of racism and discrimina on that need changing? And last but not least,
would we best accomplish our goals by working together or working separately?
I went on a search in the social psychological literature for any solid, research-based,
informa on I could find about the effects of emphasizing collec ve guilt. A er following several
[5]
dead ends, I found a book published in 2004 tled Collec ve Guilt: Interna onal Perspec ves.
It defines collec ve guilt and looks in depth at its effects in the Middle East, Northern Ireland,
Germany, Australia, and the United States.
I also found several journal ar cles including a 2007 research report tled Racial a tudes in
[6]
response to thoughts of white privilege . This is a replicable study of white American college
students in Kansas. In the first part of that study, students were asked to reflect in wri ng on one
of three randomly selected topics: the advantages of being white, the disadvantages of being
white, or a race-neutral topic. Then all study subjects were asked to fill out a ques onnaire on
modern racist a tudes. So what were the results? In short, study subjects who were “assigned
to think about white privilege expressed higher levels of modern racism compared to those
assigned to think about white disadvantage or a race-irrelevant topic.”
In the second part of the study the researchers added two more factors: how deeply
individuals iden fy with their race; and their poli cal orienta on along a conserva ve – liberal
scale.
What they found is that “increased racism in response to thoughts of white privilege was
limited to those who highly iden fied with their racial category.” In contrast, when individuals
did not iden fy strongly with their own racial category, thoughts of white privilege tended to
reduce the level of racism.
Regarding poli cal orienta on, subjects who were more liberal tended to be less racist in
general compared to subjects who were more conserva ve. We would expect that. However,
and this is very important: even for the more liberal study par cipants, the degree of modern
racism expressed correlated posi vely with how deeply they iden fied as white.
A chilling conclusion of the second part of the study is as follows, and I quote: “Efforts to
reduce racism o en involve highligh ng the existence of racial inequality. For whites, however,
poin ng out their privileged posi on in the social structure represents a challenge to the status
of the ingroup – precisely the context that our data suggest will increase racism.”
So what are the lessons for the UUA out of this study?
Lesson 1: Stop asking Caucasian UUAs who care about racial jus ce to iden fy first and
foremost as white! I find it hard to escape the conclusion that the Crossroads approach and its
successor approaches in the annual conferences of the Allies for Racial Equity and our
contemporary Iden ty Based Ministries do just that. Rather, a much stronger an dote to racism
and basis for social jus ce work is to encourage people to get to know each other and to iden fy

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and build empathy with each other across racial lines fully and completely in all of our hopes and
dreams, joys and pains.
I am going to put what I have reported above into my own words. Stressing white guilt and
white iden ty tends to engender either a paralysis or a backlash. The alterna ve, stressing a
common humanity in the face of all of the evils of the past and present, tends to engender both
empathy and the mo va on to build a be er world.
So much for guilt-based an -racism. I promised to say something about Asset-Based An -
Racism. That is the real pay dirt.
What do I mean by “Asset-Based An -Racism?” Part of what I mean by the term is, an -racism
that works best brings every asset available into the struggles for racial equity. Every asset. For
instance, in the fight to stop the slave trade on the high seas in 18th and early 19th centuries,
William Wilberforce and John Newton, both white, were the primary driving forces, the primary
assets. Wilberforce used his “white privilege” in many ways to build a be er world for all.
In the fight against slavery in the United States, both blacks and white were irreplaceably
involved. My thoughts go to the Amistad incident, in which a rag-tag group of white church
people paid for the first lawyer to represent the incarcerated Africans and later went on to fund
and found many high schools and universi es that served blacks in the south through the
American Missionary Associa on. John Quincy Adams, the former president and very white,
carried the arguments in the US Supreme Court in favor of the Africans.
In the civil rights struggles of the 1950’s and 60’s in the United States under the leadership of
Dr. King, a broad collabora on of blacks and whites, all of whom saw injus ce and wanted
change, won major civil rights ba les in many but not all areas. One area missed was criminal
jus ce. Michelle Alexander, author of the recent amazing book, The New Jim Crow: Mass
[7]
Incarcera on in the Age of Colorblindness, effec vely argues that our current criminal jus ce
system, and par cularly the War On Drugs, is a social control system rather than a crime control
system. I had not realized the ubiquitous extent to which the Supreme Court has legi mated
racial bias and racial discrimina on in policing and prosecu on before reading this book.
Alexander argues that a very broad-based civil rights movement is urgently needed. It will take
all of us, Caucasians and People of Color, seeing each other as assets in the struggle to
accomplish that.
Last but not least, I want to share where the term “Asset-Based An -Racism” came from. It is
[8]
a takeoff from the term, Asset-Based Community Development. “ABCD” This has become a
hot topic amongst community developers generally. They say, rather than looking at the
problems a community has, look at its assets. Is there garbage all over? Start a recycling
program. It can make money and clean up the neighborhood. Do older people in the community
have a lot of health problems? Start a home health care agency. Insurance and governmental
subsidies are available. Do seniors and youth need more to do? Start tutoring and mentoring
programs. Are jobs in short supply? Start an aggressive job agency that supports job training and
on the job mentoring. Not enough affordable housing? Mortgage your church to buy a
dilapidated, mul -family housing structure and u lize volunteer labor to rehabilitate it.
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I’ll bet you were with me up to the church mortgaging its property. That was the beginning
point in 1979 of Bethel New Life, an effort on the west side of Chicago. Bethel Lutheran Church,
an aging white congrega on in a black neighborhood, asked, “What can we do to increase
affordable housing in our community?” They iden fied a run down, three-unit structure to buy
and rehabilitate. No one would give them a loan. So they u lized their only property asset.
These aging white people mortgaged their church building to buy the dilapidated structure and
found volunteer workers and trainers to do the actual work of rehabilita on. By 30 years later, in
2009, they had rehabilitated over 1,000 housing units. With a staff of over 250, assets now
worth $40 million, and an annual budget of $13.5 million in 2010, Bethel New Life runs a
recycling program; a full service job agency; a home health care agency; a health clinic serving
on average over 1,000 people per week; a school serving 215 K-8 students; an interven on
program to help public schools on Chicago’s west side; independent living and assisted living
facili es for seniors; and several other program sites. These things have clearly been built on the
base of community assets. And everything accomplished has helped to alleviate one or more of
the effects of racism. Whites and blacks have worked together on these projects over the years.
The current leadership, incubated in the community, is integrated and mostly black.
Coming back to Asset-Based An -Racism in general, I think this approach deserves a hearing. I
think it has a lot to offer over guilt-based an -racism. Whether the goal is ending racism in the
criminal jus ce system, or in school systems, or in housing or health care or jobs, we need all of
the assets we can bring to bear on the situa on. And we need them ac vely involved, not
burdened by guilt.
A key point is where we focus. If we each focus on our iden es, we don’t have much in
common. If, on the other hand, we see each other as posi ve assets rather than guilt-laden
liabili es, we can maximize our posi ve impact.

BACK TO THE TOP

Asset-Based An -Racism 2.0: An Alterna ve to both Guilt and Withdrawal

by Dr. Kenneth Chris ansen
UU Mul racial Ac on Caucus, New Orleans, June 22, 2017

I want to begin with a current example of Asset-Based An -Racism with which I am involved. The
Unitarian Universalist congrega on to which I belong is one of 38 congrega ons that comprise
Jacksonville, Florida’s Interfaith Coali on for Ac on, Reconcilia on and Empowerment, ICARE for
short. ICARE is affiliated with the Direct Ac on & Research Training Center (DART), one of five
umbrella organiza ons for Congrega on Based Community Organizing in the United States.
Issues to tackle city-wide are chosen by vote in house mee ngs held every fall in all 38 ICARE
congrega ons. More than half the congrega ons are black and located in the most distressed
parts of Jacksonville. The issues ICARE choses to address are usually most pressing in these
congrega ons. But they also affect members and friends of all the ICARE congrega ons.

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While the individual congrega ons may be black, white, or mixed, all citywide work of ICARE is
integrated, from Research Commi ees to public mee ngs to board work and organiza onal staff.
In early 2017 ICARE won a major victory that will help stop the school-to-prison pipeline in our
city and two neighboring coun es. We had been working toward Restora ve Jus ce for Youth
for close to ten years. In spring, 2017, police and judicial officials in the three coun es that
comprise the Fourth Judicial District of Florida signed a formal agreement to u lize Civil Cita ons
instead of arrests for first me youthful offenders. This came about as a result of informa on
gathered by ICARE Research Commi ees and pressure applied by members of ICARE
congrega ons over the years. A Civil Cita on means the offending youth does not receive an
arrest record, which is huge. These days an arrest record even as a youth func ons to deny
individuals the opportunity to join the military or enter many other occupa ons. With a Civil
Cita on, a youth must appear before a Neighborhood Accountability Board. There are currently
four of these in Jacksonville, staffed by volunteer adults and a representa ve of the teen court.
The youth must also apologize and do res tu on as appropriate and follow through on
counseling and other things tailored to their situa on. Recidivism is under 5%, much smaller
than with arrests, and their chances for entering the military and many occupa ons aren’t
ruined by an arrest record. In Duval County where Jacksonville is located, the Sheriff is ac vely
commi ed to bring the percentage of eligible youths receiving Civil Cita ons instead of arrests
up from 28% to 90%. [2018 percentages of persons eligible for Civil Cita ons receiving them:
January 96%; February 84%; March 91%. The Sheriff has kept his word.]
ICARE is also responsible for a parallel program in the schools. 160 middle and high schools in
Jacksonville now use Student Accountability Boards instead of arres ng kids when they have
fights or throw an eraser across the classroom. As with the Neighborhood Accountability Boards,
apologies, res tu on and counseling are required as needed. Near the end of the process the
offending students become part of the Student Accountability Board when other students are
brought forward. The suspension rate has gone down significantly with this program in place.
Student cultures in the schools have improved, in some cases drama cally. It has been a very
posi ve change.
As I said earlier, and I want to emphasize again, citywide ICARE mee ngs, where the research
and planning for ac on takes place, are completely integrated, usually with co-chairs that are
black and white. The focus is on the issues at hand, how to change things for the be er. The
bonds of empathy and common purpose create very strong rela onships.
* * * * *
Changing things requires learning about them. My first real learning experience about racism
and discrimina on in our society happened in my early 20s. I spent two years, 1965-67, working
in the Robert Taylor Homes public housing project community on the south side of Chicago and
living nearby. This wasn’t a black middle-class community. This was a black poverty community.
The Robert Taylor Homes were in the Grand Crossing police district, rated as the most dangerous
district in Chicago at the me. It was where police officers got sent for discipline reasons when
they had been bad police officers elsewhere. I did get thoroughly beat up one me as did one of
my team-mates who later became my wife. But overall I felt safe in that community. When I
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faced the prospect of moving to an apartment in Aus n, a primarily white neighborhood on the
west side of Chicago, I was afraid at first for rumors I had heard about white gangs roaming
there.
Have any of you seen the old movie, Westside Story? Yes, there are white gangs. Gang life is a
poverty issue, not a race issue. By the way, the Robert Taylor Homes public housing community
is the same community that Sudhir Venkatesh wrote about 40 years later in the book, Gang
[9]
Leader For A Day.
* * * * *
In preparing to give this presenta on, I reread my 2010 paper, The Benefits of Asset-Based An -
Racism Over Guilt-Based An -Racism reprinted above. My a en on quickly focused on the fi h
paragraph:
“Guilt, I explained, is anger directed inward. If you let it build up, it will eventually either eat
you up or burst out as anger directed toward others. If, on the other hand, you feel anger
instead of guilt when you see injus ce or discrimina on, that anger can energize you to help
build a be er world.”
You heard it, didn’t you? The Heresy in 2017? Don’t feel guilty. Get angry instead. “Anger can
energize you to help build a be er world.”
How much guilt is about right? What will it do for you? I really believe that guilt is anger turned
inward, and when le to fester over a long period of me it destroys the soul. When that anger
is rather u lized to mo vate posi ve ac ons, the world can become a be er place.
How does the UUA White Supremacy educa on program size up the problem? The sermon given
by Dr. Bill Sinkford during the 2016 Service of the Living Tradi on framed the issue in this way:
Any white person who says, “I didn’t have slaves” is using that expression of a personal fact to
withdraw from the conversa on, to not care any more about what happens to people of color,
to proclaim his or her own innocence. It seems the only two op ons for white people presented
in this sermon are to admit guilt and take responsibility for everything, or to withdraw from the
en re discussion on the premise of innocence.
Are these the only two alterna ves for whites? Withdrawal, denial of responsibility for anything?
or admission of full guilt for everything? Is there a third alterna ve? A third path for mo va on
and ac on? A path that can be shared across racial and ethnic borders? I think there is, and it’s
called Asset-Based An -Racism.
This is best explained in terms of an example. In my opinion, the best prac oner of Asset-Based
An -Racism in the United States of all me was Dr. Mar n Luther King Jr. What did he do?
Dr. King, first of all, eloquently li ed up core values from his religious tradi on to build a
founda on for love and ac on in the world, not guilt and condemna on. It was a vision of tough
love, not fuzzy love. Love that took to the streets and engaged in Civil Disobedience and endured
physical a acks and arrests. Love that did not listen to the pleadings of many both white and
black to “go slower.” Love that paid the price of Martyrdom.

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Second, he built awareness of the overall problem of racism by focusing on specific opera onal
aspects of racism in specific places. He asked for specific changes to specific laws and prac ces,
ever widening his circle of concern. He looked for what could be changed. He didn’t simply look
for who to blame. He did look for where power is located and who might respond to the
pressure of numbers and make needed changes.
Third, he built rela onships everywhere he could: with Bap sts, Catholics, Lutherans, UUs,
Humanists, labor unions, the ACLU, many other secular and religious organiza ons, legislators,
governors, and a President. (There isn’t a lot of evidence that President Johnson liked the
rela onship Dr. King constructed with him, but he had to respect it.) When it came to educa on
for ac on, Dr. King didn’t separate his followers. Strong collabora ve rela onships between
whites and blacks were the key to everything he accomplished in the face of massive opposi on.
As me went on, individuals and groups who opposed Dr. King’s goals found ways to break up
the coali ons he and others had brought together. With the elec on of 1968, the issue of Law
And Order displaced the issue of Civil Rights as the dominant na onal issue. By the mid 1970s
the abor on issue split Protestants and Catholics. Soon therea er Evangelical Protestants who
had split with Liberal Protestants over the issue of Civil Rights were drawn into the an -abor on
camp, further separa ng them from the groups that s ll held to Civil Rights as their dominant
organizing theme. Gay rights issues caused further divisions within the black community which
only recently have begun to come back together.
In the late 1960s, the UUA also split up between those who wanted blacks and whites to work
together for racial change, and those who felt black and white separa on was necessary. That
issue is addressed in the paper prepared for distribu on at UUA General Assembly 2018, Asset-
Based An -Racism 3.0: What Do You Do With The White People?

BACK TO THE TOP

Asset-Based An -Racism 3.0: What Do You Do with The White People?

by Dr. Kenneth Chris ansen

[10]
A li le more than half way into the recording of Dr. Mtangulizi Sanyika’s presenta on at
Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU) Convening in New Orleans in March of 2017, the
moderator asked the ques on: “You have given us a lot to think about in terms of structure and
organizing domes cally and how we might deploy our resources. But something that came up
when you and I were preparing for this, about making sure we give white folks something to do,
[11]
[laughter from the audience] in terms of this work.”
What do you do with the white people? This was and is a really big ques on for movements that
grew out of the emerging Black Na onalist tradi ons in the 1960s. Volumes could be wri en on
the answers given by Unitarian Universalist proponents of these tradi ons in the 1960s and
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since then. This is an important inves ga on because it helps answer several big ques ons we
are asking in 2018.
Was it really “White Supremacy” that split the Unitarian Universalist Associa on (UUA) in 1967-
71? Or were other factors in play? What was and is the interplay between the goal of “self-
determina on” for the black community and the goal of achieving jus ce in society in rela on to
civil rights, mass incarcera on, and the over-policing of African-Americans in our ci es and
towns? Is it all one big goal? Or have the various goals, each venerable in its own right, worked
against each other? We really can’t escape these ques ons if we want to make the UUA impact
on the current racial situa on in America as posi ve and useful as possible.
* * * * *
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Dr. Mar n Luther King Jr.’s Southern Chris an Leadership
Conference (SCLC), the Student Non-Violent Coordina ng Commi ee (SNCC), the Na onal
Associa on for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Na onal Urban League, many
religious denomina ons, labor unions, and other groups struggled to work together for civil
rights. In spite of great pain and many setbacks, progress was made in the areas of public
accommoda ons, jobs, vo ng, and later, housing. Each accomplishment brought opposi on
from those in the larger society who supported and profited from the old Jim Crow system. The
tenuous coali ons within the movement were always under intense pressure.
Outside the Civil Rights coali ons, Malcolm X disparaged both white and black leaders of the
Civil Rights Movement for the inherent weakness of the non-violence they advocated. The
American press, as is s ll customary, covered everything Malcolm said that was controversial
and then, several years later, dropped him a er his trip to Africa and ideological conversion to a
posi on that aligned more with Dr. King’s message.
Black Na onalist tradi ons had existed since the 1820s. These were intellectually sound
expressions of the reality that black people were consistently let down by white people and
needed to build their own resource base sufficiently to decide and accomplish their own goals.
First and foremost, this included safety from the many threats posed by the white community.
By the mid to late 1960s Black Na onalist leaders, most notably Stokely Carmichael, were calling
for Black Power. External en es including the FBI under J. Edgar hoover sowed as many seeds
of division as possible between and among the various black na onalist leaning groups and the
integrated, non-violent civil rights groups. The turmoil was deafening. For many black Americans,
the “best harbor in the storm” was self-determina on as inspired by Black Power, Black
Na onalism, Pan-Africanism and, a uniquely UU manifesta on, Black Humanism.
* * * * *
In part it was a genera onal divide. Most older Unitarian Universalists both white and black
were invested in the integrated non-violent Civil Rights Movement led by Dr. King. That
movement had accomplished the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights law related to jobs and public
accommoda ons and the 1965 Vo ng Rights Act. Many all-white congrega ons had supported
their pastors’ par cipa on in the march from Selma to Montgomery. Jobs and economic security
were the next targets. Slowing the progress, die-hard segrega onists used threats, violence,
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in mida on, foot-dragging legisla on, and everything else they had in their arsenal. Life was
difficult and the eventual outcomes were ques onable.
Younger blacks saw the weaknesses of the Civil Rights Movement more than they saw its
strengths. Dr. King was seen as reac onary, out of touch and weak. Non-violence as a strategy
meant the acceptance of pain and not responding directly to the most abusive treatments.
Integra on meant dependence on white persons and ins tu ons to do their part. Even though it
had worked for Gandhi in India and had made some progress in the U.S., it didn’t meet the
immediate needs perceived in urban se ngs like Chicago and Los Angeles.
Coming out of this background, young UU blacks formed the Black Unitarians for Radical Reform
[12]
in the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles in August of 1967. Members of this group
formulated the demand for $1,000,000 over four years for the work of the new, segregated Black
Affairs Council that became the center of the controversies at the 1968 and 1969 General
[13]
Assemblies and related UUA Board mee ngs.
The genera onal and strategic conflict within the community of black Unitarian Universalists
over what to do with white people – exclude them or incorporate them – determined many
things that happened a er that point. I was touched by an incident recorded in the UUA film
documentary of this period en tled Wilderness Journey: The Struggle for Black Empowerment
and Racial Jus ce within the Unitarian-Universalist Associa on. Speaking into the camera 30+
years later, Dr. Glover Barnes, a prominent black Microbiologist living in the Sea le, Washington
area and ac ve Unitarian Universalist, reports that he was asked to write the General Assembly
resolu on in support of the Black Unitarian Universalist Caucus and Black Affairs Council
(BUUC/BAC). He asked for assurances that BUUC/BAC would have no racial bars and was given
them. He proceeded to write the resolu on of support. A er the resolu on passed, he was told
that the BUUC board nixed the part about racial bars, and that if his wife who was white wanted
to be a member of BUUC, she had to declare herself black. He responded, “You’re crazy. That will
[14]
never happen.”
I was so touched by this report that I looked up the obituaries for Dr. Barnes (2010) and his wife
[15]
Miriam (2008). Both remained lifelong UUs. And both were extremely ac ve in jus ce work
apart from anything organized by the Unitarian Universalist Associa on.
* * * * *
How far does Self-Determina on go toward accomplishing change for a more just society? Dr.
Mtangulizi Sanyika gave an impassioned argument for self-determina on with which I strongly
agree in his address to the UUA General Assembly in 2017.
“Self-determina on and empowerment of people has been proven to be the an -body
against exploita on. Self-determina on is a natural right. …
“All religious denomina ons, churches, universi es, ins tu ons, all have affirmed self-
determina on, people’s right to decide their own des ny. …

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“If you want a rela onship with me, you must respect my right to control my own des ny
and to determine it. …
“You cannot on the one hand claim yourself to be a jus ce warrior… and at the same me
deny the right of self-determina on to people, not just on inside the UUA, but throughout
the whole of this world and this society.
“That is what people are struggling for: self-determina on and empowerment to be the
[16]
finest human beings that they have been made to be.”
Arguably, self-determina on has been a central goal of every group of people throughout
history, especially the oppressed, and it should be strongly affirmed. Nonetheless, the choice
between possible strategies to achieve self-determina on, par cularly as self-determina on
relates to jus ce in human rela ons, has o en been quite conten ous.
A key ques on faced repeatedly in history is, what kind of rela onship between members of “my
group” and members of “your group” will best serve the goal of self-determina on with jus ce?
Can we trust each other? Can we work for jus ce together as equal partners? Can the strength
of empathy built by close rela onships forged over me create enough empathy for this to be
possible? Or will the interests of the more powerful group inevitably limit the self-determina on
of the weaker group?
The short answer is that self-determina on alone does not bring about changes in society. It can
bring very posi ve changes for the group that is determining its own path. The Kwanza culture
and celebra on developed by Maulana Karenga and others connected with the US organiza on
(us, not them) is a case in point. Many black Americans and some white Americans have strongly
benefited from the personal values inculcated through this cultural contribu on.
Strangely (at first glance), Maulana Karenga and the US organiza on aligned themselves
[17]
poli cally with Ronald Reagan and others far right of center on the na onal poli cal scale.
This wasn’t an uninformed decision. With the theory out there that all whites are alike, all
embody what is presently called White Supremacy consciously or unconsciously, isn’t it most
advantageous and safer to align with the more powerful? As Governor of California and later
President, Ronald Reagan and his supporters were high on the list of most powerful.
Self-determina on in this form helped bring an end to integrated efforts at social change. In
par cular, white liberals were driven out of the movement. The Black Na onalist view of a white
liberal was perhaps put best by James Cone:
“He is s ll white to the core of his being. What he fails to realize is that there is no place
for him in this war of survival. Blacks do not want his patronizing, condescending words of
sympathy. They do not need his concern, his “love,” his money. It is that which
dehumanizes; it is that which enslaves. Freedom is what happens to a man on the inside;
it is what happens to a man’s being. It has nothing to do with vo ng, marching, picke ng
or rio ng – though all may be manifesta ons of it. …

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“In this picture the liberal can find no place. His favorite ques on, when backed against
the wall is ‘What can I do?’ One is tempted to reply, as Malcolm X did to the white girl
[18]
who asked the same ques on, ‘Nothing.’”
It is hard to imagine Divide and Conquer ever having done a be er job – not just by James Cone,
but by an en re movement.
* * * * *
So what do you do with the white people when you have a Black Na onalist leaning movement
that doesn’t want them aboard the same train? I was not part of the UUA in the 1960s (not un l
2009). Nonetheless, during the late 1960s and following, I watched with much sadness as I saw
the integrated, na onal focus on ba les for Civil Rights legisla on that was so strong in the mid-
1960s morph into a blame and guilt movement. Living more and more in a separate world,
blacks asked whites to own their racism, to learn as much as they can about it, and to wait for
further orders. The ques on asked “about making sure we give white folks something to do, in
terms of this work” during the session of BLUU Convening in 2017 referenced at the beginning of
this paper became ever more salient.
The answer given during the 2017 BLUU Convening session was for white allies to give support
to black self-determina on. That is certainly one answer. By itself, however, it doesn’t cut it for
making real changes in our society. Much larger coali ons of people working for change are
required. They must be recruited and accepted from all backgrounds of race and class. Empathy
needs to build and flow freely wherever concrete experiences of injus ce exist. Together we
need to put ourselves on the line for change.
The choice between viewing all par es ready and able to engage in the fight for posi ve change
as poten al assets, versus viewing white people as inherently handicapped by the full collec ve
guilt of their race, should be a no brainer. Guilt paralyzes. The important ques on is, how can we
use whatever powers we have to fight injus ce?
There is a conundrum here. Figh ng for jus ce is a legi mate exercise only insofar as vic ms of
injus ce help define the struggle. When the oppressed drop out of the conversa on, jus ce is
not served. When the powerful drop out of the struggle or are driven out, li le or no change will
be accomplished. The fight for jus ce requires all of the power and privilege available from
everyone, with constant course correc on by the experiences of the oppressed.
* * * * *
One of the biggest signs of hope in 2018 is the Poor People Campaign and March To Washington
[19]
organized by Rev. William Barbour and the Repairers Of The Breach. Like the Poor People’s
Campaign and March To Washington organized by Dr. Mar n Luther King Jr. in 1967-68, the 2018
campaign is building coali ons of very diverse people working for a common moral agenda in
spite of all the ambigui es and difficul es that involves. Issues today include: “democracy and
vo ng rights; poverty and economic jus ce; workers’ rights; educa on; healthcare;
environmental jus ce; immigrant rights and challenging xenophobia; criminal jus ce; LGBTQ

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[20]
rights; and war-mongering and the military.” It has been heartening to see that many UUs
have become involved in this campaign.
Another strong sign of hope very near and dear to my heart is the work of the UU Mul racial
Unity Ac on Caucus, MAC for short. My goal as part of MAC is to bring about as much
collabora on as possible between and among UUs from all racial backgrounds and social classes,
working for jus ce in our larger society. It is one of few vehicles within the UUA posi oned to
help build a genuine spiritual basis for collabora on for jus ce in the larger society.
A third sign of hope is closely targeted, local, racially integrated Church Based Community
Organiza ons. I spoke of ICARE, Jacksonville, FL’s Interfaith Coali on for Ac on, Reconcilia on
and Empowerment, in my Asset-Based An -Racism 2.0 presenta on in 2017. Issues are chosen
in House Mee ngs in the 38 affiliated congrega ons each fall. Over half of the congrega ons are
African-American and most if not all of the issues addressed citywide have come from that
community. Having won on the issue of Civil Cita ons and Restora ve Jus ce instead of arrests
for youthful first me offenders, we are now working to end the prac ce of issuing Pedestrian
Viola on cita ons that cost $65 and o en result in the loss of a person’s driver’s license if they
can’t pay the fine. We have also received commitments from both the Sheriff and the States
A orney to build dashboards on their websites where informa on about arrests, complaints and
other ac ons will be transparently presented. All of ICARE’s work is completely integrated and,
as needed, engages all the skill sets available from all members without any overlay of guilt. We
have a common purpose in our ac ons.
Last but not least, my hope is with you, the reader of these words, to be empowered to give all
you can for the causes of jus ce.

[1]
ICARE, Jacksonville’s Interfaith Coali on for Ac on, Reconcilia on and Empowerment, is a Congrega on Based
Community Organiza on affiliated with the na onal Direct Ac on & Research Training Center (DART). DART is online at
h p://thedartcenter.org/.
[2]
Boston. Skinner House. 2009. ISBN 978-1-55896-548-5
[3]
Boston. Skinner House. 2003. ISBN: 978-1-55896-445-2
[4]
Boston. Unitarian Universalist Associa on. 1993. ISBN: 1-55896-318-9
[5]
Edited by Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje. Cambridge University Press: 2004. ISBN 978-0521520836.
[6]
Branscombe, Nyla R., Michael T. Schmi and Kris n Schi auer. European Journal of Social Psychology. 37, 203-215
(2007).
[7]
New York. The New Press. 2010. ISBN: 978-1-59588-103-7
[8]
See Kretzmann, John P., and John L. McNight. Building Communi es from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and
Mobilizing a Community’s Assets. Asset-Based Community Development Ins tute, School of Social Policy, Northwestern
University. 1993. ISBN: 978-0-87946-108-9.
[9]
Penguin Press, 2007.
[10]
Mtangulini Sanyika, formerly Hayward Henry, was a frequent spokesperson and leading par cipant in the Black Unitarian
Universalist Caucus (BUUC) and later the Black Affairs Council (BAC) during the 1967-69 period. In 1970 he founded the Black Humanist

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Fellowship (BHF) which moved away from the UUA. Henry also helped to organize the na onal Congress of African People and became
it’s first president in 1970. From 1973 to 1976 BHF engaged in li ga on against BAC over control of the funds that remained from the
General Assembly grant. Eventually those funds were depleted by the costs of li ga on. (See footnote 14 for the source of this
informa on.)
[11]
h ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVpP4cBGumM&t=186s at minute 49:42.
[12]
Alicia McNary Forsey, Editor, In Their Own Words: A Conversa on With Par cipants in the Black Empowerment
Movement Within the Unitarian Universalist Associa on, (Starr King Seminary, January, 2001) p. 14.
[13]
Julie Kain, “A Timeline of the Black Empowerment Controversy in American Unitarian Universalism,” found between
pages 7 and 11 in the Alicia McNary Forsey work sited above.
[14]
Ron Cordes, documentary film producer, Wilderness Journey: The Struggle for Black Empowerment and Racial Jus ce
within the Unitarian-Universalist Associa on at minutes 23:22 – 24:40 and 25:03 – 26:25. This video was published on
YouTube by the UUA Leadership Ins tute on April 25, 2017, at h ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDsD3mEtwjM
[15]
Glover Barnes’ obituary is at h p://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sea le mes/obituary.aspx?n=glover-w-
barnes&pid=138315456; Miriam Barnes obituary is at h p://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sea le mes/obituary.aspx?
page=lifestory&pid=102970929
[16]
h ps://smallscreen.uua.org/videos/ga2017-303-dr-sanyika-presenta on at minutes 11:32 – 12:58
[17]
Scot Brown, Figh ng For US: Maulana Karenga, the US Organiza on, and Black Cultural Na onalism (New York: New
York University Press, 2003) p. 93.
[18]
James H. Cone, Black Theology and Black Power, (Orbis Books, Maryknoll, N.Y., 1997) pp 27-28. Original edi on Harper
& Row, 1969.
[19]
h ps://www.breachrepairers.org/
[20]
h ps://www.breachrepairers.org/moralagenda

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