We are with you

To our Black Unitarian Universalist family, to Black organizers and activists, to our UU of color siblings, and to UUs across the world:

In response to the race riot incited by white supremacists in Charlottesville Friday night and Saturday, the Black Lives of UU collective wants you to know that we are with you today.

To Black UUs, organizers of any faith or no faith, and our UU of color siblings, we struggle with you. Some of the organizing collective lead team went to church today; some of us didn’t feel like we could go to a UU service. As Black UUs too many of us have had the experience of finding many UU congregations ill equipped to offer the kind of support and community we need in moments of crisis like these. Too many of us have reached into our faith community during times of white supremacist violence and have been met with incompetent pastoral care, dismissal of our concerns or a request that we be silent about what ails us. Some of us couldn’t risk that today. Others went to a Black Christian service to just be with Black people, even if the theology didn’t quite align. To you, we say be where you need to be. Feel what you need to feel, and do what you need to do. Text a friend and meet up. Message someone you met at GA on Facebook. Go to a solidarity vigil, or avoid one — but find community, somehow. Reach out on the private BLUU Facebook page.

Our ancestors showed us that community gives us the strength to fight for freedom. Feeling connected matters. Let the ancestors continue be our guides. May we allow ourselves to feel their strength and wisdom today as we continue to resist white supremacy.

We ask our white UU siblings today to find courage to speak up, and find courage to act, and find the courage to sacrifice — to actually give something up. Many UUs of color have Facebook feeds of people of color grieving and white people hiking and going to concerts. Denouncing overt white supremacists in no uncertain terms is a start, but is nowhere near enough. Change requires sacrifice — the willingness to give up money and privilege and resources — and the willingness to see ourselves implicated in allowing hate and supremacy to live.

If you’re surprised by yesterday, ask why, when Black and POC leaders have been telling you that this *is* who America is. It is essential to look deeply at how complacency and inaction have combined to nurture an environment in which white supremacy lives and thrives. It is essential to be clear in your analysis — to get clear on why police were gentler with violent white racists than they have been with nonviolent Black protesters.

We call on everyone to be specific, and unequivocal. The race riot in Charlottesville was not a “clash.” This was not a “senseless tragedy.” This is not “unfathomable in America in 2017.” This is America — but it doesn’t have to be.

Fighting white supremacy requires courage, and the acceptance that friends and family will stop talking to you, at least for awhile. Do it anyway. It calls for prayer and love, yes — and those must come with action. It requires developing a critical perspective about the relationships you have, the institutions you support and how you share your resources.

To our Black UU family, we love you. We struggle and grieve and fight and love right alongside you. To our siblings of color, we are with you. Take time for yourself, and take time to be in community. To our white UU siblings, we need you to thank and praise us less and work with us more. We need fewer hollow religious events brimming over with fragility and anemic love, and more investment of financial and other resources that will actually work to change the material conditions of Black people in our world. Simply put: we need you to do the work of dismantling white supremacy every day.

Hope is a useful concept for some; for others, persistence and perseverance work better. We won’t tell you to have hope. We will say: find a way, friends, to tap into whatever that something is that keeps you going. If it’s God’s voice, listen to her. If it’s the ancestors, keep on their path. If it’s love, let it guide you. If it’s imagining a future without white supremacy, may that vision keep you strong.

Donate to Alexis and Noelle.

Donate to Charlottesville medical costs.

Donate to the legal fund in Charlottesville.

We love you, friends, and we need you to survive.