Mt. Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church

We are booked into the Sequoia Room for another meal and a movie discussion.  We will once again supply the food for each other; please bring whatever you'd like, enough to share with a couple of others.  The movie will be the second in the series on Race: The Power of an Illusion.  Thanks to Joanne who has once again offered to facilitate our discussion.

Here is a brief summary of this part: Episode 2- The Story We Tell uncovers the roots of the race concept in North America, the 19th century science that legitimated it, and how it came to be held so fiercely in the western imagination. The episode is an eye-opening tale of how race served to rationalize, even justify, American social inequalities as "natural."

I hope you agree this part promises to be as informative and stimulating as the first part we saw at our last meeting.

Susan mentioned this article at our last meeting, about the "knapsack" of white privilege, a very useful article to help those of us who don't have to think about race to begin to see how it impacts our lives and the lives of our neighbors.  Here is the web address for a version of the article: http://www.case.edu/president/aaction/UnpackingTheKnapsack.pdf.  I encourage all of you to read this short essay; it helps to bring into focus the pervasiveness of race in our society.  Because white is so firmly installed as the "norm" among us, it is often invisible to those of us who are white.  Reflecting on this article can help us see the implications of race for us.  Thanks to Susan for bringing this article to us.

This exhibit at the Lawrence Hall of Science near the University of California campus in Berkeley provides an opportunity to understand race from a biological, cultural, and historical perspective through engaging, hands-on science experiences; real artifacts; and videos that present people’s unique stories.  Sandy and Nancy Rivara have suggested we take a field trip as a group to visit the exhibit, which runs until May 2, 2010.  We'll talk about this opportunity at our meeting.  More information about the exhibit can be found at http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/visit/exhibits/race.  Thanks to Nancy and Sandy for bringing this exhibit to our attention and tracking down the information on it.

I felt that sharing our perspectives at our last meeting was helpful and stimulating.  I hope you will plan on attending our next get together for more sharing about the impact of race on all our lives.

Thank you for your energy around this issue.