wfn.org | Peacemaking Conferees Confront Racism Through Crossroads Ministry

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

24-July-1997 
97289 
 
               Peacemaking Conferees Confront Racism 
                Through Crossroads Ministry Workshop 
 
                           by Julian Shipp 
 
ESTES PARK, Colo.--With the goal of enabling participants here to explore 
and deepen their understanding of systemic racism and explore ways to build 
multicultural diversity within the denomination, participants at the 
Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference "Facing Racism: In Search of the 
Beloved Community" devoted July 19 to a special workshop presented by 
Crossroads Ministry. 
 
    Crossroads Ministry is an interfaith ministry for racial justice that 
provides education and training to dismantle racism and build antiracist, 
multicultural diversity. Established in 1986, Crossroads has three 
locations:  Chicago, Milwaukee and New York City. 
 
    According to Anne Stewart of Evanston, Ill., a trainer with Crossroads 
Ministry and counselor- in-residence for the Peacemaking Conference, most 
of Crossroads' programs focus on systemic racism, seeking to address the 
root causes of racism through long-term institutional transformation. The 
primary work of Crossroads is with community-based organizations and 
religious institutions. 
 
    In addition to antiracism training and organizing, Stewart said, 
Crossroads develops and distributes antiracism resources and facilitates 
national and international antiracism networks. 
 
                        Understanding racism 
 
    Laying down some gospel assumptions essential to the understanding of 
racism, the Rev. Joseph Barndt of Chicago, Crossroads Ministry executive 
director, said the first assumption, from the Book of  Genesis, is that "we 
were made to be family, we were made to be the beloved community through 
the Creator." 
 
    Second, Barndt said, we must reclaim stolen gospel stories, since the 
gospel has been widely abused and misused to justify racism and perpetuate 
oppression. In fact, he said, the Bible clearly speaks against the evil of 
racism. 
 
    Third, he said, Christians must realize God called us to be about the 
work of the kingdom and that we have "been carried on the shoulders of our 
brothers and sisters of the past who struggled and gave their lives so that 
we might claim an antiracist society." 
 
    Barndt said racism is not the same thing as individual race prejudice 
and bigotry. All people are racially prejudiced -- regardless of 
racial/ethnic identity -- since it is socialized into everyone's culture. 
But this does not mean everyone is racist. 
 
    Racism, Barndt explained, is more than race prejudice. It is more than 
individual attitudes and actions, but the collective actions of a dominant 
racial group. Power turns prejudice into racism. Racial prejudice becomes 
racism when one group's racial prejudices are enforced by the systems and 
institutions of a society, giving power and privilege based on skin color 
to the group in power and limiting the power and privilege of the racial 
groups that are not in power. 
 
    Following Barndt's  remarks, Stewart led the group in a brief exercise 
in which participants were asked how they think race relations in America 
are better or worse than they where 30 years ago. A "better" and "worse" 
list was displayed on a large overhead projector screen in the auditorium. 
 
    Items on the "better" list included increased racial awareness, 
elimination of "Jim Crow" segregation laws, fair housing and voting laws, 
the dissolving of laws preventing interracial marriage and an increased 
number of racial/ethnic politicians and officials. 
 
    Items on the "worse" list included assaults on affirmative action, 
increased inner-city violence, a widening gap between the rich and poor, 
the breakdown of the family, racial ignorance, inequities among poor 
children and a declining number of racial/ethnic role models, particularly 
males. 
 
 .   Following this, a 30-minute video was shown in which panelists cited 
many of the same factors as the workshop participants. Participants 
responded to what they had seen and discussed community building in a 
racially diverse society. 
 
    Next Barndt led the group in analyzing racism in the 1990s. To that 
end, he emphasized two points from the presentation that participants later 
discussed in small groups. 
 
    Barndt stressed the difference between prejudice and racism, adding 
that dismantling racism involves taking a systematic approach, since racism 
is embedded in our nation's institutions and establishments. He also stated 
that mainline denominations in America, including the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (of which 
denomination Barndt is a member), are guilty of promoting systemic racism. 
 
    Then Barndt encouraged participants to discuss in their small groups 
racism's power not just to hurt people of color, but to give advantage and 
privilege to white people. 
 
    "For those of us who are white people in this room ... we have come to 
see ourselves as the innocent fixer of people of color," Barndt said. "But 
racism in fact came into being for [whites] and to benefit [whites]. Racism 
got invented in this country as a way of shaping structures and 
institutions in this country for the benefit of white people. This is not a 
guilt trip. But the demon of racism in our institutions lives for us 
whether we want it to or not because we have white skin." 
 
    Due to the sensitivity of the topic, the majority of participants 
agreed to enter into a covenant of understanding, honesty and openness at 
the onset of the workshop. They also agreed to respect everyone's opinions, 
even if they did not personally agree with them. 
 
    Nonetheless, there were some participants who felt the workshop was 
antiwhite, guilt-laden and predicated on the notion that white people are 
solely responsible for the problems of people of color. One participant, 
the Rev. Larry Austin of Royal Oak, Mich., questioned the value of  the 
workshop and told the Presbyterian News Service he thought Barndt's 
theological doctrine was based on "salvation through condemnation." 
 
    Others described the workshop as "an eye-opening experience" and 
praised Crossroads Ministry for helping them deal frankly and openly with a 
divisive, emotional and painful issue. 
 
    "I have really been challenged by this conference," said Laura 
Sherwood, a student at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and a 
staff worker for the Presbyterian Peacemaking Conference. "And I think 
there is a prophetic message here for us to relay to the church." 
 
                           Dismantling racism 
 
    The second part of the workshop was devoted to helping participants 
understand how racism takes control and ultimately destroys all people and 
how in the name of the gospel racism can be dismantled and purged from 
society. 
 
    Participants were shown a video titled "A Class Divided," which 
depicted how third-grade schoolchildren in Riceville, Iowa, were socialized 
into thinking they were either superior or inferior to their classmates 
during a discrimination experiment conducted by their teacher after the 
assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. 
 
    Participants were given the chance to respond briefly to the video. 
Their comments included how quickly the children were able to identify 
discrimination, the power of suggestion and the willingness of people to 
respond to systems of power and authority figures even when racism is 
either part of the process or the outcome. 
 
    "We must consider that as adults we too have been socialized into 
accepting institutions that are reinforced by authority," Stewart said. 
"This is something powerful and important for us to think about." 
 
    Barndt said destroying the "demonic power of racism" involves building 
antiracist, multicultural institutions. He said the Presbyterian Church can 
do this by institutionalizing full participation and shared power with 
diverse racial, cultural and economic groups in determining its mission, 
structure, constituency, policies and practices. 
 
    Barndt said the PC(USA) must also work to build a sense of community 
and mutual caring and commit to dismantle racism within the institution and 
the broader community. He said the church must also ally with others in 
combating racism. 
 
    "Only in the identity of our God-given regathering of who we are as 
children of God, restored family and resisters of racism can we begin to 
address the spiritual evil of racism," Barndt said. "It is critical for our 
institutions ... including the Presbyterian Church ... to transform into 
antiracist institutions." 
 
    To further equip them to go out into the larger church  and society, 
conference attendees were given a "Peacemaking Back Home Tool Kit" 
containing suggestions for promoting the conference, a story for 
newsletters, a litany for congregations, a skit script and a reproduction 
sheet. 
 
    "What counts most [in addressing racism] is what happens when we return 
home," said Gary Payton, Presbyterian Peacemaking Program coordinator. 

------------
For more information contact Presbyterian News Service
  phone 502-569-5504             fax 502-569-8073  
  E-mail PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org   Web page: http://www.pcusa.org 
  mailed from World Faith News <wfn-news@wfn.org>  

--