Anti-Racism Reflection (I couldn't think of a creative title)

Well, retreat is tomorrow so now seems like as good of a time as any to finish the retreat homework. I guess when I heard we had "homework" I knew I would wait until the last possible second to actually do it. Actually, the last possible second would be tomorrow, so I'm feeling pretty good about the fact that I am definitely going to be done waaaay before I had to be.


I must admit that even after reading all of the summer LVC readings, attending two days of workshops in DC, watching all three episodes of Race: The Power of an Illusion, and doing the required readings for retreat, I am still struggling to find a way to be actively anti-racist. I probably will continue to struggle with this (I guess you're supposed to... I'm not going to elaborate on that today since I'm trying to say on topic). It's so easy to say that you will cultivate friendships with your community and consistantly discuss how racism affects society when you are in a classroom. In reality, it's hard to know what action to take to work to dismantle racism in society.

To further complicate matters, when thinking about racism, it's natural to also begin to ponder it's connection to other injustices that exist in society.

I have thus concluded that the only way to actively dismantle racism in society is to take some form of action. One way that I have noticed that racism perpetuates itself in society is through anti-immigrant bias. Thus, for my reflection, I decided one way I could work for change would be to educate myself more on immigrant rights and immigration trends.

Conveniently enough, The Advocates has a website dedicated to this very pursuit... check it out!
(www.energyofanation.org).


I must admit (embarrassingly enough) that in the past I have not been the world's best person at contacting elected officials or others in positions of power to express opinions. However, in response to all we have learned, I felt like it was time for me to take some concrete action.

So... I would like to encourage anyone who reads this to contact their church leaders about supporting immigration reform. All you have to do is go to The Advocates for Human Rights and find the event called "Tell your faith leaders to defend the human rights of immigrants"... I think the event was actually on October 20th but you can still open the link. Trust me, as a non-experienced letter-writer, they made it totally painless and easy to contact church leaders.

Ok, that's all for now! Check back soon to hear all about retreat and hopefully see some Halloween pictures!