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          Diversity 
10-October-1996 
 
96405    Council Hears Presentation on Dismantling Racism 
              and Promoting Multicultural Diversity 
 
                         by Julian Shipp 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--The General Assembly Council (GAC) paused during its Sept. 
28 meeting here to hear a presentation on how to dismantle racism and 
promote multicultural diversity. 
 
     The antiracism training program was proposed by the GAC's Racism and 
Racial Violence Initiative Team and approved by the Council last February. 
Due to the number of new members coming onto the Council and the 
considerable amount of time devoted to orientation, GAC leaders decided to 
introduce the program now and postpone the actual training until the Feb. 
5-9, 1997, GAC meeting. 
 
     Speakers for the presentation were the Rev. Joseph R. Barndt of 
Chicago, executive director of Crossroads, an interfaith ministry for 
racial justice that is developing the training, and the Rev. Otis Turner of 
Louisville, Ky., the National Ministries Division's associate for racial 
justice policy development. 
 
     Barndt said Crossroads' primary work is with religious and 
community-based organizations and that Crossroads provides education and 
training to dismantle racism and build antiracist, multicultural diversity. 
 
     According to Barndt, the objectives of Crossroads' education and 
training programs are 
 
          * to analyze, understand and dismantle racism in its three 
manifested forms: individual racism, institutional racism and cultural 
racism 
          * to work for institutional change, recognizing that individual 
prejudice reduction and cross-cultural relations are important but not 
sufficient for long-term and effective change 
          * to build antiracist multicultural diversity within institutions 
in ways that develop mutual trust, share power, equalize benefits and 
provide positive results for all 
          * to form and train antiracism teams to lead their institutions 
and communities in a process of changes from within 
          * to provide tools and resources to assist leadership teams in 
their organizing and educational work. 
 
     Barndt said it is important to affirm that significant progress has 
been made in addressing racism in this country. For example, because of the 
civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, the legal system that 
supported an American-style apartheid has been virtually dismantled in the 
United States. 
      
     But despite these steps, Turner said, racism in the 1990s has become 
more powerful than ever and has become systemically entrenched and 
self-perpetuating. Turner said this "institutionalized racism" manifests 
itself in continuing inequality and intensified tension, hostility and 
violence.  He cited the Los Angeles riots, reaction to the O.J. Simpson 
murder trial verdict and the burning of predominantly African-American 
churches across the nation as recent examples. 
 
     Turner said racism is a political, social and psychological issue and 
also a deeply spiritual one that needs to be examined from the perspective 
of the nation's many faith traditions. Simultaneously, he said, the 
religious institutions of America also have been deeply affected by racism. 
There is a need to address racism within this nation's religious 
institutions even as they seek to contribute to addressing racism in 
society. 
 
     "At the center of the Christian faith is the reminder that the time is 
always right to do the right thing," Turner said. "The church can and must 
provide moral leadership that helps move the world's nations into people of 
transformation. The church has the capacity to transform itself to be an 
agent of change, but this only happens when the church is engaged in the 
struggle for justice." 
 
     As part of Crossroads' efforts to nullify institutionalized racism, 
Barndt said, its anti-racism training includes creating a team to design  a 
20-year plan for institutional transformation during the planning and 
consultation process. 
 
     "Our program is not a quick fix and it does not mean that everybody is 
going to be on that [design] team for 20 years," Barndt explained. "But 
rather the institutionalizing of the antiracism team is important as a 
first step of institutionalizing antiracism.  
 
     "We believe that if racism has been institutionalized, then why can't 
we institutionalize anti- racism?" Barndt said. "Why can't we 
institutionalize something that is permanently imbedded in our institutions 
that will be a common struggle against the forces that divide us on the 
basis of race?" 
 
     Although the PC(USA) has yet to establish a formal antiracism team, 
Turner said, he hopes it someday will. In the meantime, a Crossroads 
antiracism team has nearly completed training at Western North Carolina 
Presbytery in Morganton, N.C. 
 
      Moreover, he said, a Crossroads antiracism team has completed its 
training at National Capital Presbytery in Washington, D.C. and another one 
will soon be established at San Francisco Theological Seminary.  
 
     Turner told the Presbyterian News Service that church leaders decided 
to implement GAC-wide antiracism training as a first step in combating 
institutional racism, and it is hoped this will broaden the perspective of 
the 97-member elected body and "set the stage for a strong, positive 
leadership model for the rest of the denomination." 

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