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Letter to the UUA Board of Trustees regarding the 2012 General Assembly
June 17, 2010
Madame Moderator and Members of the UUA Board of Trustees:
As current leaders of UU Allies for Racial Equity (ARE) we are writing to you in regard to recent developments in the public discussion surrounding the GA 2010 business resolution on our scheduled Phoenix GA.
As you know, ARE exists in accountable relationship with our organized communities of color in the Unitarian Universalist Association of congregations. We were formed in direct response to the events of the 2004 GA in Fort Worth, TX. Although incidents of racism at GAs are not new, nor are they new within UUism itself, the Fort Worth General Assembly marks a particularly difficult time in our history. During that GA, adults and youth of color were profiled and encountered acts of racism by local authorities, some members of the community and others in attendance. In direct response to these events, DRUUMM leadership asked known white allies to organize and help ensure an identifiable, accountable allied presence would be visible, present and proactive the next time racism entered our space, and the next and the next, even and especially when that racism was a result of our own collective actions. It is with this charge in mind we write to you today.
We remain concerned that holding our General Assembly in Arizona in 2012 would incur costs to our community that would far outweigh the benefits to our presence. Those costs include:
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A devaluing of personal testimony of leaders and members from our communities of color and Latino/a community who have explicitly stated they will not travel to Arizona because of fear of personal safety.
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A reinforcement of a false competition between those leaders and members and our Arizona UUs and possible partners in Arizona.
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Lost opportunity to mobilize greater numbers of UUs already poised, eager and able to enter into meaningful partnerships in AZ and at home.
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Dilution of our possible impact in AZ and in our congregations by seeking a proposal requiring the transformation of a meeting (GA) not readily (or perhaps even appropriately) transformable.
How we decide this issue and move forward offers us great opportunity to lead from our faith. To do so, however, requires more than tying our faith to the issue of immigration reform and solidarity with partners in Arizona. It requires a grounding in the multicultural relationships within our own community. Holding the central annual meeting of our faith in a State immersed in a campaign of exclusion would do one at the cost of the other. We fear that cost may be unrecoverable. Fortunately, there is a way to do both and do both well.
We appreciate the historic opportunity to engage in a partnership with Puente and NDLON, and believe strongly that the decision about GA can be made separately from the decision to form a partnership. In noting this we urge the board to support the underlying intent of our President’s proposal – a clear declaration and delivery of advocacy, witness and action, but do so in a manner that honors our own commitment to be a multicultural faith community accountable to its historically marginalized members.
As part of this response, we remain open to the possibility of a large event being held in AZ with the purpose of engaging all attendees in a concentrated time of witness, education and advocacy. We believe strongly that this event should not be our General Assembly. We ask that GA 2012 either be moved to a location outside of Arizona or eliminated as part of a move to biennial GA gatherings. To do so would recognize the power of many organizations representing Latino/Latina/Hispanic people and undocumented workers who have called for an economic boycott of Arizona by conventions and meetings. This action is in line with your current resolution, the statements of support from DRUUMM, APIC, LUUNA, LREDA and ARE.
We further ask that a multifaceted response be designed and launched offering immediate and ongoing on-the-ground opportunities for all UUs to work with Puente and NDLON. Such a response would also include the development of resources for congregations to engage in the human rights issues surrounding immigration in their communities and states. We believe that a major fundraising effort should be part of this response as well, and should raise funds for organizers in Arizona and elsewhere to create real justice in our nation.
We believe that such a response would honor the intent of the invitation shared by President Morales. Additionally, we believe that it would deliver a response more rapidly and build upon social justice efforts already present within our congregations, districts, and organizations like DRUUMM, LUUNA and ARE. Such a response would place the hopes of engaging our entire faith community more realistically within our congregations, their social action groups, their ministers and leaders rather than entertaining the hope of a ‘different GA.’
We thank you for the time and energy you have put into this effort, and for your clear willingness both to engage in conversation and also to do the difficult work of listening. We look forward to working with you on this matter as it unfolds, and on other issues in the future.
Sincerely,
The Rev. Wendy von Zirpolo, President, UU Allies for Racial Equity
The Rev. Dr. Michael Tino, Vice President, UU Allies for Racial Equity
UU Allies for Racial Equity endorses Arizona boycott
June 2, 2010
With other people of faith and concerned citizens across the country, we are disappointed and deeply troubled by the passage of recent anti-immigrant legislation in the state of Arizona. We fear that this legislation will ultimately result in marginalization of immigrants, both documented and undocumented. Harassment of Latinos/Latinas/Hispanics and people of color perceived as immigrants because of their race or ethnicity will be an inevitable consequence of any attempts at enforcement. Our nation has made significant progress toward racial equity in the last fifty years. This new law is a shameful step backwards, once again inscribing racism in the legal system and thereby in the institutions required to comply with the legal system. Immediately upon passage of the new Arizona law, the Rev. Peter Morales, president of our Unitarian Universalist Association, issued a statement in which he wrote: We cannot stand by while those charged to protect us instead subject us to racial profiling, unwarranted searches, and unjust arrests. We must not let fear and ignorance cause our neighbors to be treated as lesser beings. We must not allow this law to violate our national constitution or America’s moral conscience.” We are grateful for the leadership of Rev. Morales and for the leadership of our Unitarian Universalist Association Board of Trustees who quickly convened a special meeting to consider whether we should rescind our commitment to hold our 2012 General Assembly in Phoenix. After listening to many voices and considering a spectrum of protest strategies, the board voted to present a business resolution before the delegates to our annual General Assembly this June in Minneapolis, MN asking us to participate in a widespread economic boycott of Arizona. We encourage you to read the full text of the board’s resolution which can be found at http://www.uua.org/aboutus/governance/boardtrustees/index.shtml
We know that some in our association are advocating alternative protest strategies, but our philosophy of accountability calls us to carefully consider requests for allied participation from Diverse & Revolutionary Unitarian Universalist Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM) and from the Latino/a Unitarian Universalist Networking Association (LUUNA). In doing so, we have discovered that DRUUMM and LUUNA leaders have aligned themselves with the leadership of several prominent national civil and immigrants rights organizations. With hope and faith that a strong, united voice of protest will help overturn this law, and in solidarity with LUUNA and with DRUUMM, we affirm our support of an economic boycott of Arizona and encourage delegates to our General Assembly to vote in favor of the business resolution presented by our board of trustees.
Allies for Racial Equity Steering Committee
Rev. Wendy von Zirpolo, President
Rev. Michael Tino, Vice-President
Ken Wagner, Treasurer/Stewardship Coordinator
Sharon Blevins, Membership Chair
Justine Urbikas, Communications Chair
Rev. Bill Gardiner, Education Team Co-Chair
Rev. Melissa Carvill-Ziemer, Education Team Co-Chair
Rev. James Hobart, Connections Team Co-Chair
The 2010 ARE Annual Conference in Long Beach, CA was great
We were reminded again how good it is to be with others who are committed to opposing racism and to learning to understand and confront our own white privilege. Thank you to the UU Church of Long Beach for hosting the conference, to The Rev. Kurt Kuhwald and The Rev. James Hobart for excellent pre-conference training, and to Dr. Shelly Tochluk for doing a wonderful job of facilitating our work to develop a draft of Accountability Guidelines, learn skills for anti-racist confrontation, and recognize the personal "gremlins" that prevent effective confrontation.
How do we continue to build commitment and energy?
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Join us at GA. We’ll have an ARE Gathering at General Assembly in Minneapolis in June, with a time and place to be announced soon. Volunteer to help staff the ARE Booth in the Exhibit Hall, which provides an opportunity to talk with other ARE members, DRUUMM members, and other UUs.
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As an active member of ARE, share your commitment and practice with others. As you deepen your own understanding of racism, initiate activities in your congregation and your region to confront white privilege and participate in the work of transforming Unitarian Universalism into an anti-oppressive, multicultural faith.
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Plan to come to the ARE Conference in March 2011 in Fort Myers, Florida. Watch for specifics soon.
Welcome to UU Allies for Racial Equity!
Our Mission
Unitarian Universalist Allies for Racial Equity (ARE) exists as a response to a request by DRUUMM, a UU People of Color Organization, for a group of white anti-racist allies to serve as partners in the journey of transforming our faith movement and our world.
Our mission is to confront racism in ways that are accountable to communities of color and by creating opportunities for white UUs to understand white privilege and unlearn white supremacy.
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If you are already an ARE member and would like to become more actively involved, consider joining an ARE team.
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