UU Anti-Racism Trainer-Organizer Collective

Reflections on Talking Male Privilege

2005-10-20T12:38:00.000-07:00

dear ARTO community.

i have recently completed a pamphlet i've been working on since early july 2005. i feel like it is a good pamphlet with some constructive ideas present. i mailed a hard copy to many of you, and i would appreciate if you took a look and let me know what you think. also i have posted the pamphelt on my livejournal account. it is not as easy to read on livejournal as it is in word processor, so let me know if you would like a copy with better formatting. to access the work online check out http://www.livejournal.com/users/topherwest/

in faith and struggle,
toph.

Moving ARTO Blog to Typepad

2005-09-14T05:15:00.000-07:00

I'm going to migrate the blog over to typepad this week, look for it at http://radicalhapa.typepad.com/yayaarto. This service has more features, including categories and pictures.

Starting a White Anti-Racist Allies student organization at my shcool

2005-08-31T08:51:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all, so with a couple other students (and by couple i mean one) I'm starting up a White Anti-Racist Allies organization at my school. Last week we finished up our first draft of our mission and goals and i would love to get y'all's feedback on them.

Mission: To provide a space for white students to engage in Anti-Racism work

Goals:

1. INCREASE AWARENESS- of race issues on campus and in larger society

2. SUPPORT

a. People of Color on individual and institutional levels

b. White folks to think critically about their identity and how it shapes their experiences

3. BE ACCOUNTABLE- to those with whom we work and are attempting to support by making our work transparent and actively getting input and feedback

4. ACT

a. by being proactive through creating new relationships and policies

b. by responding to already existing incidents, policies, and culture norms

5. DEVELOP LEADERSHIP- by providing quality Anti-Racist educational opportunities and reflection for people in our own organization and in others

Let me know what your thoughts on these are. This morning the student newspaper printer an article on us publicizing our first event that happens tonight!!! Check it out! http://www.idsnews.com/subsite/story.php?id=30667
Talk to y'all soon.
heart
megan:)

Trainers Needed for Young Adult Anti-Oppression Conferences

2005-08-16T11:40:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,
There will be four regional Young Adult Anti-Oppression Conferences and ARTOP apprentice trainers are still needed for the conferences. There are also places for ARTOP lead trainers for the conferences. The conferences are as follows: October 28-30 in Tulsa, OK, November 18-20 in Philadelphia, PA, December 2-4 in Davis, CA, and January 20-22 in Madison, WI. The Young Adult age range is 18-35 and if you happen to fall within that range and are interested in participating please let me know.
The blurb for the conferences is: Anti-Oppression work is a spiritual practice. One of the ways in which we live our Unitarian Universalist faith is through justice making. This introductory training will focus on linked oppressions and the connection between anti-oppression work and spirituality. There will also be programming for the advanced learner as well.

Thanks,
Elandria Williams
ewilliams@uua.org or elandria@att.net
865-973-1896

Request for LREDA AR workshop

2005-08-16T08:42:00.000-07:00

Hey folks,

Guess what, we have a request from a LREDA (Liberal Religious Educators Association) Chapter for an AR workshop! It's a little different than your typical workshop, but I'm sure someone from ARTOP could do it. Here's the info:

Thursday, September 29
2, probably 2.5, hours of programming, split into two sessions
Groton, MA
Stipend: $100 per trainer
Probable audience: religious educators

There isn't any money budgeted for travel, so I hope someone from this area can do it.

If you're interested and available, please let me know ASAP. They would like to get their informational flyers out as soon as I can find trainers.

The chapter talked about what they would like from a workshop at their meeting this weekend. Sadie Kahn-Greene is the one who contacted me about this, and this is what she said:

-They want to learn from what the youth are doing around AR/AO.
-How can DREs support AR/AO programming?
-How is AR/AO work relevant to us in this area (Massachusetts, Boston area), where most people are white? (This is how it was phrased by one of the attendees…you know, we've heard this question a lot. Basically, why is this relevant to white people?)
-They've heard about GA, so they'll want to hear a little about what happened there. How are racism and oppression relevant in UUism, and how does AR/AO work affect UUism?

These are some big topics, but I'm confident that we can address them!

Please let me know if you're interested.

Thanks,
Beth

Happy Birthday Mimi

2005-07-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

Cheers!

interesting resource i was given

2005-07-21T08:35:00.000-07:00

Race Analysis of Institutions

Mission:

● Does the mission statement of the organization explicitly address racism and social justice?

● Does the organization prioritize the welfare of all people over profit?

● Does the mission promote the well-being of people of color?

History:

● Does the organization have a history of being oriented toward collaborative work for racial justice and other social justice causes?

● In its history, has the organization hired and promoted people of color and mixed race people into decision-making and leadership positions?

● In its history, has the organization been able to resolve internal conflicts without alienating people of color?

Culture:

● Are there languages other than English spoken in meetings, at events, and in the offices?

● Are a variety of different cultural images and music represented in accountable ways?

● Are a variety of communication styles encouraged and embraced?

● Are a variety of cultural holidays officially recognized and celebrated?

● Does the organization have a climate of intolerance of racism in all its forms?

Internal Groups:

● Is there diverse cultural/racial/ethnic representation in working groups and caucuses?

● Are positions of responsibility in groups shared among people of color and white people?

● Does the organization have an anti-racism caucus?

● Are the working groups/caucuses empowered to make change in the institution?

Location:

● Is the organization located near public transportation?

● Is the organization located in a neighborhood where people of color live and work?

● Is the location of the organization consistent with a commitment to racial justice?

Community Connections:

● Does the organization have networking and collaborative relationships with other organizations committed to social justice and eliminating racism?

● Does the organization publicize itself through the media of communities of color?

● Does the organization publicize an image of itself as being actively anti-racist?

Population Served:

● Are people of color served by, and welcome in, the organization?

● Do communities of color benefit directly from the services the organization provides?

Power Arrangement:

● Do people of color have equal and proportionate decision-making power in the organization?

● Are there effective and clearly established procedures, open to everyone in the organization, by which decisions may be made, changed, or challenged?

Salary:

● Are people of color proportionate among the highest paid in the organization?

● Is there a small gap between the highest and lowest salaries in the organization?

● Are people of color well-represented throughout the salary scale?

● Do all members of the organization have power in determining salary amounts and scale?

Personnel:

● Does the organization have formal and publicized affirmative action and equal opportunity policies?

● Are people of color equally represented as employees in the organization?

● Are people of color represented on hiring committees?

● Is being bicultural and /or bilingual a compensated job qualification?

● Are training and internship and mentoring opportunities accessible to people of color?

● Are white people members of the janitorial, security, and delivery staff in the organization?

Management:

● Do people of color profit from the work of this organization?

● Are people of color owners or managers of this organization?

● Do people of color supervise or train other staff?

Board:

● Are there people of color proportionately represented on the board of directors?

● Are languages other than English spoken at board meetings?

Accountability:

● Is there an established protocol to examine how effectively the organization responds to the interests and concerns of communities of color?

● Does the institution have systematic methods of monitoring and evaluating its efforts to challenge racism?

Funding:

● Is the organization funded by other institutions that work for racial equity and social justice?

● If the funders of the organization support other causes, groups, and organizations, do these groups have an established commitment to racial justice?

● Does the organization function free from contingencies associated with funding it receives?

● Do employees own stock in this organization?

● Does the organization evaluate its sources of funding based on the criteria offered on this list?

From Racism in Queer Communities: What Can White People Do?

Facilitated by Rachel Lanzerotti, Michael Mayer, Wendy Ormiston, Laura Podwoski

March 18 & 25 2000, Harvey Milk Institute

AR Training Requested for Edmonton

2005-07-18T06:43:00.000-07:00

We should get her to fill out an AR request form eh?
Hello UU folks!

I am involved with a young adults organization that focuses on self education (http://www.quovadis-gathering.org/main.html) and although not specifically UU, it attracts many of the same crowd. There is a growing interest in education within this gathering about oppression and racism- and when I thought of resources to share, I thought of DRUUM. I would love to find a guest speaker/trainer that could come do an anti- oppression anti-racism workshop for this conference, could anyone tell me how to go about doing this? Is it even possible?

-Dawn, mostly lurker and young adult in the Westwood congregation of Edmonton Alberta Canada dawn@nbtsc.org

ARID Notes May 18, 2005

2005-07-14T16:02:00.000-07:00

5/18/2005

Proposed agenda:

ID group manual
Transformation team
Are taught to
Visioning, looking at restructuring.

Present on the call: Joseph, Brian, Petra, Tracy, Elandria, Mimi, Michael, Jesse.

1) Opening statements from Joseph, who signed off early for Aimee’s graduation:

One) ARTOTO II needs to happen. The ARTO people need more training, and an ARTOTO II would be a good opportunity to plan for the spring regional antiracism trainings.

Two) a few people should be tasked to think about an ARID’s relationships of accountability, and specifically think about the presence and role of volunteers on the area.

There was some discussion of Joseph’s points, the main points of which were:

-if we are going to spend the money for an ARTOTO II, that time should be spent giving people skills and training (that time should not be spent planning for the spring regional antiracism trainings).

-this statement about air is accountability and volunteer roles need not be longer than two pages, and the two people who should write it are MIMI and JOSEPH.

2) Brief report-back from the subcommittee tasked to come up with an approximate dollar cost of an ARTOTO II (Tracey, Meggie, Beth, Brian).

High-end estimate (P&E): $17,000

Low and estimate (home stays): $10,000

Alternative location suggested by Jesse – the Walker Center in Newton -- $15,500.

Continuing to place youth in home stays for meetings and trainings may not be a good idea.

3) Brief reports from Tracy, Michael, and Jesse about next year’s budgets for youth and young adult antiracism and anti-oppression work:

Jesse: $2000 for the regional antiracism trainings, $3000 for the transformation team

Michael: $2000 for the regional antiracism trainings, $3000 for the transformation team

Tracy: I’m sure, at most $2000. Final budget related meeting of the leadership Council is in August.

4) The group reluctantly comes to the conclusion that we don’t have the money for an ATTOTO II in FY06.

Jesse suggests that we wait until FY07 (08?), when the youth office will have significantly more money available.

5) Brainstorm! What needs do we have to be serving? How can we serve them effectively?

-The ARTO folks need more training and experience, especially those who will be running the spring regional antiracism trainings.

-Can we do a mini-ARTOTO II with just to those folks know we want to leave the spring regional antiracism trainings, thereby establishing the lead trainer/apprentice trainer skill level differentiation that was supposed to have been present from the start, and ensuring that the people leading the spring regional antiracism trainings will be better prepared?

-Do we try and do a series of small, regional ARTOTO II’s?

-do we instead try to establish mentor in an apprenticeship relationships (also supposed to exist already)?

-How do we encourage people to seek out more training?

-How do we encourage people to work more with our partner organizations?

-Can we seek external sources of funding?

-what about providing funding for ARTO members to seek out trainings and other “continuing ed” opportunities in their areas?

6) In the end, the group chose three ideas to pursue:

Group 1: Jesse, Michael, another ARTO member: continuing ed scholarships. Criteria, application process, decision-making, process, technology use. Possible criteria include a local focus, youth empowerment focus, preference to our partner organizations...

Group 2: Tracy, Brian, Elandria: apprenticeship program that will prepare people to lead the spring regional antiracism trainings. Things to think about: how do we select these people, do we gather them and how, where, when, and with whom?

Groups 3: Petra and Mimi: grants and external funding. We will start by contacting Sarah Gibb.

-Petra Aldrich

Organization of Blog

2005-07-14T13:53:00.000-07:00

I really like a lot of what is posted on this blog so far and i'm hoping there is a way to make it easier to read such as having different headings for folks to post stuff in such as:
1. Upcoming Trainings
2. Persynal Updates
3. Hystorical Documents (like the timeline joseph posted)
4. a Q&A forum for practical and theoretical questions people have like jason's lastest post.
5. regional forums for people from our current three regions to discuss issues that are particular to their region so other people don't have to get caught up in stuff that is not particular to them
and there a other categories that could surely be created. what do folks think and joseph are you the one that can make that happen? thanks and heart
megan:)
ps~ when are we going to start planning the fall regional meetings?

SEAC training

2005-07-12T16:48:00.000-07:00

hey all,
how goes it? i am just returning from the student environmental action coaltion activist training camp where i was helping facilitate their white identity groups (what they call alternative group). the anti-racism training they had was absolutely incredible. it was a training done by a man named Ewuare Osayande from a group called P.O.W.E.R in philly. he was one of the best trainers i have ever trained with. he had a no coddling of white people policy. it was a harsh reality wake up for a lot of people and it was really intense to be a part of. i think that many of the tactics would be hard for white uu's to handle but it made me think more about the amount of hand holding we do in our trainings and how much we allow the learning of white people to be done at the expense of people of color (obviously something people have been saying in this collective for a while, not trying to claim i'm the first one to articulate this). one of the places that ewuare went that we never go to in our theory was to the movement for the abolition of whiteness. i feel like this is a part of the anti-racism world that this collective has avoided talking about and i would love for us to talk more about it. we clearly all understand the creation of whiteness as a classification within the united states and how arbitrary it is. and looking at a definition of racism being a system of power created by europeans based on the oppression of people of color toward the privileging of people classified as white it could be looked at the racism equals white people. and thus creating the question, is being anti-racist being anti-white(ness). i feel like there have been so many conversations about how white people should use our privilege to erradicate racism but i feel like if white privilege is part of racism then we can't be using it to dismantle a system that it is a part of. i think about the audre lorde quote about not using the tools of the oppressor for liberation... these are all things that i'm thinking about and wondering what those of you in this collective have thoughts on. i don't believe that working to get rid of white privilege is the same as denying that it exists. i certainly don't know how to be dropping that privilege but think that white folks need to be getting creative and following the direction of people and organizations of color to hopefully lead to a process. a statement that i drew together from the training through the white alternative group looked like the following: "if whiteness is created through racism then to be anti-racist is to be anti-white. to be anti-racist we are going to need to be in accountable relationships with commities and people of color as we work to dismantle racism. clearly since white privilege is an intregal part of whiteness and racism it cannot be a tool to eliminate racism but needs to be eliminated as well."

so, since this is the ar group i am trying to be more accountable to i thought i would run some of these thoughts by you all and wonder what people think... clearly these are not completely formulated thoughts and are also things i've heard other people in this collective talk about before and would love to hear some more. thanks all.

heart,
jason

ARTO @ White Privilege Confernce>

2005-07-12T15:38:00.000-07:00

Hey friends,

I was wanting to get some insight from the group.

Over the last few years, Jane Hereth, Jennifer Dunmore Megan Selby, Betty-Jeane, and I attended an annual conference in Iowa the White Privilege Conference (aka WPC).

From their website: "The Conference on White Privilege addresses the society in which we live and is about the advantages that accrue to some but not others and about working to dismantle this system of privilege and oppression."

I think its a great conference. The workshop facilitators get housing and admission free. and i think their might be food stipends, but i'm not sure. I don't have my notebook in front of us to pull out specific sessions we could lead, but if we put on a workshop or two or three- we could get anywhere from 2- 6 or 8 people into the weekend conference. I think that it could be a strategic way of getting some outside perspectives for analysis development. Further, this could be a way for us to build our skills at crafting and facilitating meaningful workshops, and a chance to do movement building networking.

I was talking with Lydia Pelot-Hobbs about this idea. Her and Jennifer Dunmore had also been envisioning leading workshops there. They've said that they'd be interested in being (part of) a team that would provide workshops for the WPC 7 in late april of 2006.

I am looking for approval and/or concerns with us moving foward and contacting Dr. Eddie Moore Jr and other conference organizers to see if ARTO could put on something.

thanks,
toph.

topher west
937.475.5821
topherwest@riseup.net

Trainers needed for Opus!

2005-07-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

As one of the AO/AR coordinators, along with Christopher Sims and Ethan Field, I'm emailing to see if any of you are interested in leading an anti-racism workshop at Opus this August.

The workshop will run during the regular workshop slots (parallel to the other workshops). I'm not clear on the lenght of each sessions or the number of sessions, but I think it is usually three 1 1/2 hour sessions. We have some ideas about what could be covered in the workshop and would love to work with you to develop it. The plan is for us three coordinators to not actually facilitate the workshop, but rather support others to do so.

Opus is August 6-11th in Boone, Iowa. If you are already planning on being there then it would be great if you could help us out with this workshop. If you are not already planning on being there, we would love to work on a way to get you there. Email me back at herethja@grinnell.edu if you're interested. Opus is way fun and it would be great to have an ARTO presence there!

heart, Jane

Open Letter from the UUA Board of Trustees

2005-07-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

Just passing this along...

July 6, 2005

An open letter to UU youth of color and UU people of color who attended Fort Worth General Assembly and the broader UU community:

At General Assembly in Fort Worth, there were several incidents that reminded us that we have much work to do in our journey to becoming an anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and multicultural association. We, the UUA Board of Trustees, want to express deep sadness and regret that these incidents took place.

Some of these incidents involved apparently disrespectful and racist treatment of our youth by Fort Worth officials. We will respond appropriately to these incidents. When we visit a city, we expect that all members of our Unitarian Universalist community should be treated with respect and hospitality. For this and future General Assemblies, our presence might provide a "teachable moment" for us to work with our host cities on issues involving race and youth.

But we have work do within our own community as well. We have been disturbed by reports of other unfortunate incidents during General Assembly within our own Unitarian Universalist family, in which some UU youth of color were made to feel that they were not welcome. There was an incident outside the hall during the closing ceremonies at the Fort Worth General Assembly. Based on the reports of witnesses, the incident involved several UU youth of color, a UU adult who questioned their right to be there, provoking an angry response from the youth, a UU minister who intervened in support of the adult, and another white youth who defended the youth of color and verbally attacked the minister, who responded in like fashion with similar inflammatory language. This was not the only incident. We have also heard that on several occasions in Fort Worth, white UUs assumed that UU youth of color were hotel service people and asked them to carry luggage or park cars. We are troubled that some UUs may have treated other UUs as if they did not belong among us. We can and must do better.

Sadly, this was not the first General Assembly to have incidents like these. After one of those past incidents, the UUA Board of Trustees committed to provide safe space to process issues and concerns around oppression and racism and chaplains who could help facilitate reflection, discussion, and learning. However, we as a Board regret that we have not done enough to provide that safe space. We cannot control the actions of individuals, but we can create venues where we can all learn and grow as a community. We apologize for failing to provide those venues and commit to remedy this at future General Assemblies.

As your UUA Board, we pledge to treat all these incidents as a wake-up call for our entire community. We understand that personal stories about individuals' experiences at Fort Worth General Assembly have been recorded and we commit to hear these stories and learn from them. Also, we will work with the General Assembly Planning Committee and other groups to ensure that General Assembly in St. Louis and all future General Assemblies are more welcoming to all members of our Unitarian Universalist family.

In Faith,

Paul Rickter
UUA Secretary
p.rickter@comcast.net

Youth Council Training

2005-07-06T11:45:00.000-07:00

Ian White Maher informed me today that he and Elandria Williams are leading a 7 day anti-racism training for Youth Council in Iowa at the end of July with Ian Moore and George Brown as apprentices. This is so excellent! It would be great to hear more from each of you involved in this.

FUUSE Racism Discussion

2005-07-01T22:12:00.000-07:00

Jim Sechrest initiated a dialogue on FUUSE.com about problems with anti-racism and several folks are providing some specific details which I believe are important for us to study and respond to effectively.

UUA AR Timeline 1981-2003

2005-06-30T21:48:00.000-07:00

1981 - The UUA Board adopted the Institutional Racism Audit Report. This report dealt with
the issue of racism in the UUA and at its continental headquarters.
1982 - The General Assembly approved the Commission on Appraisal report dealing with the
black empowerment controversy of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. The title of the report was
Empowerment: One Denomination’s Quest for Racial Justice, 1967- 1982.
1983 – Board-appointed Task Force on Racism reported to the GA in 1984 and recommended a
body to work on eradicating racism in our movement and in society at large.
1984 - Racism Monitoring and Assessment Team appointed. - Board members were to review
and work with our association to eradicate racism.
1985 - Black Concerns Working Group, established by vote of 1985 General Assembly, was
responsible to implement the recommendations of the Task Force on Racism. The Black Concerns
Working Group became the Jubilee Working Group and the committee ended in 2000. The
Congregational Services Staff Group now administers the Jubilee Programs.
1983 and onward - The Committee on Urban Concerns and Ministry continued to address
issues of oppression and racism specifically as related to urban areas and large churches. The Urban
Church Coalition and the Society for the Larger Ministry were two of the many groups that helped
author the 1992 Resolution to present as a report to the 1993 General Assembly on how to realize a
vision of a racially and culturally diverse UUA.
1990 - Born out of requests from several sectors of the UUA community: Urban Concerns and
Ministry, Black Concerns Working Group, African American UU Ministers, and other grassroots
groups, the UUA Board directed administration to develop a feasibility plan for Racial and Cultural
Diversity.
3
April 1991 - A basic plan is presented to the UUA Board outlining changes needed to achieve
the goal of diversity with-in a ten-year period.
January 1992 – The UUA Administration recommended the staff position - Advocate for
Racial Inclusiveness. The Reverend Melvin Hoover was appointed to this position. Also it was
recommended to prepare a Business Resolution for the 1992 General Assembly affirming this as the
direction of the UUA and to set up a process for periodic review and evaluation of the plan.
April 1992 - Decision was made to not present a resolution but instead to present a report to
General Assembly.
June 1993 - Report “Long Term Initiative for Racial and Cultural Diversity” presented during
General Assembly in Calgary, Canada. Outgoing President William Schulz and Moderator Natalie
Gulbrandsen, presidential candidates John Buehrens and Carolyn Owen-Towle, and Denny Davidoff
stood with them in show of support for the initiative. In response to the report a group of UUA affiliate
organizations presented a resolution to the General Assembly called “Racial and Cultural Diversity in
Unitarian Universalism”. The delegates adopted the resolution.
October 1993 to 1996 - The UUA Board appointed the Racial and Cultural Diversity Task
Force. This task force planned racial cultural days for the 1993 through1996 General Assemblies,
gathered congregational and ministerial information, developed a congregational assessment tool,
conducted research, reported back to General Assemblies from 1993-1996, and began the process to
build institutional change with affiliates, ministers, congregations and UUA staff and Board. The
Racial Cultural Diversity Task Force called for congregations to come to the 1997 prepared to discuss,
debate and take action on specific recommendation for dismantling racism in our association and
working for racial justice in our communities.
4
June 1997 - The Racial and Cultural Diversity Task Force at General Assembly recommended
that the UUA Board of Trustees establish a committee to monitor and assess our transformation as an
anti-racist, anti-oppressive, multicultural institution. The Board of Trustees appointed the Journey
Toward Wholeness Transformation Committee in October 1997.
January 1998 - the Journey Toward Wholeness Transformation Committee attended the UUA
Board meeting and received approval for the committee’s name, charge and committee members,
Page 3
including the addition of a representative from the Jubilee Working Group (formerly the Black
Concerns Working Group). Group). Original members were: Rev. Susan Suchocki Brown (Chair),
Rev. Galen Guengerich, Robette Diaz, Ruth Alatorre, Ivan Cotman, Leon Spencer (UUA board
liaison), Rev. Melvin Hoover (UUA staff liaison) and Jacqui James (UUA support staff). After the
January 1998 board meeting, the Rev. Kurt Kuhwald was chosen by the Jubilee Working Group as
their representative and joined the committee.
1998 - JTWTC meets with UT Saunders and sets strategy to establish Stakeholder meetings and
liaison relationships with these stakeholders. A stakeholder is any individual or groups who have a
stake in a major initiative; an example would be the General Assembly Planning Committee, the
Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association. Stakeholder is a neutral term and does not denote either
support or non-support of an initiative.
January 1998 - first Journey Toward Wholeness Stakeholder meeting held in Boston,
preliminary strategic plans drawn up by attendees, which include staff departments of ministry,
congregation and district services, communications, and BOT, UUMA, DRUUMM, GA Planning
Committee, and others.
Spring 1998 - Kansas City Journey Toward Wholeness Summit on Racism gathering of
Stakeholders held. Included members of LUUNA, President’s Council, Development Department,
MFC, DRUUMM, BOT A/R committee, Youth and Young Adults, etc.
June 2000 - The Rev. Bill Sinkford elected as first African American president of the UUA,
and Diane Olson elected as Moderator. JTWTC published Report and Recommendations to the 2001
General Assembly: Continuing the Journey. The report recommends, among other things, that in the
fall of 2001 the UUA President’s office become the liaison for the JTWTC.
2002 - Major UUA staff restructuring eliminated departmental organizational structure and the
Faith In Action Department, and instead established staff groups, this shifted anti-oppression, anti-
racism, multicultural work throughout all work of the staff and institution. Ms. Taquiena Boston, a
member of the UUA staff begins to attend the committee as the President’s Representative.
2001-2003 - Four Common Ground meetings are held at the suggestion and invitation of
President Bill Sinkford. They were held in the San Francisco Bay and Washington D.C. area in
January 2002. In 2003 they were held in Dallas Texas (January) and Evanston Illinois (February).
June 2002 - Rev. James Hobart named as Chair of the JTWTC.
2003 - JTWTC establishes a five-year strategic design for continuing transformation and
continues with charge to strategically plan, coordinate, guide, monitor, and assess the transformation of the UUA into an anti-oppression, anti-racist, multicultural faith community.

ARTO Members 2004-2007

2005-06-30T16:26:00.000-07:00

This is my current list of ARTO members, please let me know if I have made any mistakes. I starred those who have NOT joined this blog to be "contributers". All are invitated, if you are having trouble, please email me at jsantoslyons@uua.org :

Youth of Color
*Jazmin S-R
*George B

Bridging Youth of Color
Jennifer D
*Jessica W
*Meggie D
*Erik M
*Greg B

Young Adults of Color
Elandria W
Joseph S-L
Hafidha A
*Michelle S
*Melanie G

White Youth
*Ian M
*Alice M
*Al J

Bridging White Youth
Beth D
Jane H
*Amy L
*Topher W
Nora R
*Brian K
Laura M
Kendra C-R

White Young Adults
Audrey W
*Julianna K
*Mimi L

UUA Staff: Petra A, Lily S, Marissa G, Michael T, Jesse J

Trainers needed for Mid-South AR training!

2005-06-30T15:12:00.000-07:00

Hi ARTOP folks,

As the Youth Office person coordinating trainings this summer, I got a request for an AR training in the Mid-South District. I'm hoping to have an adult/young adult-youth pair, with one lead trainer and one apprentice trainer. One thing I heard from talking to some of you is that you would like to have three trainers. We can talk about that if there are three people who want to work together. Let me know ASAP if you're available!!

Here's the info I have:
October 14-16, 2005
Location TBD (in the Mid-South District)
Most of the programming will be on Saturday, since people will be arriving late Friday. Could do programming and wrap-up until 9 a.m. on Sunday.

Erica tells me that this would be an intro-level training, but that there are some people who have more AR/AO experience so it would be great if the trainers could provide a space for them to go deeper.

Thanks,
Beth

ARTO Concerns from Feb 2005 ARID Meeting

2005-06-29T23:03:00.000-07:00

ARTO Concerns: Michael and Jesse have joined us to talk about resources for ARTO, and how to address issues the program is facing. These concerns include:

-“One size fits all” mentality – same exercises used repeatedly, need for multi-level trainings
-Very white-centric – use PoC participants in tokenizing ways, not providing room for PoC identity development
-Contributing to reactionary AR culture
-Lack of clarity as to how trainings are managed, most effective ways to do that
-Trainers expect people to quickly catch up to tehir level
-No clearly defined role for adult trainers/mentors
-Pressure on younger trainers who are still going through intense identity development themselves
-Need to track each trainer-organizer and ensure their personal development and skillbuilding
-ARTO program needs more identity development components, not just structural analysis

There is definitely a need/desire to have a second meeting of ARTO folks, which can be used to evaluate/restructure the program as necessary. (Perhaps we can bring together regional reps and ARID/TT reps only, to make it more affordable.) ARTO members saw this issues coming, and we need resources to help address them (i.e. funding to support solid apprenticeship program). These issues are also present in the Jubilee program. The importance of ARTO’s work is evident – look at the turnout for ARADDC’s! Bill Sinkford is paying great attention to issues in AR work and is concerned about Youth of Color – we need to pay attention to the big youth ministry conversation happening; if ARID, TT and ARTO engage with it we could get a lot of resources/support! We will have an in-depth meeting about the ARTO program on Wednesday, March 23rd at 4 pm. Mimi will invite local ARTO people, Betty Jeanne will invite staff.

Step by Step is the UUA Anti-Racism Blog

2005-06-29T22:18:00.000-07:00

I just posted briefly about the addition of using a weblog to facilitate better communication about anti-racism work. While I speculate that our blog here will be primarily read and commented on by members of our collective, it is ultimately open to the public to view. The UUA Board established Journey Towards Wholeness Transformation Committee (which I believe is being renamed to the Transformation Committee for Wholeness and Justice, but I have yet to see an official announcement) has a weblog called Step by Step. Check it out and comment there to inform the members of the committee of questions and ideas.

exciting

2005-06-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

hey all... so this is our opportunity to follow through on some of that communication piece. please lets do this. thank you so much joseph for putting this together. i'm going to hopefully be checking in with a few people over the next few days as i get ready to lead white id groups for the student environmental action coalition. love to hear what other people are up to and working on.
heart,
jason lydon

Joining the Blog

2005-06-29T09:42:00.000-07:00

ARTO members (and a few allies, such as the rotating Youth Staff positions) - If you are having trouble joining the blog which will give you permission to post articles/news/submissions to the blog, please let me know.

Welcome to Jenny Dunmore, Hafidha Acuay, Elandria Williams and Audrey Ward who accepted invitations today.

Radical Hapa is Joseph Santos-Lyons

2005-06-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

I wanted to let folks know that I also keep my own personal blog, on which I post regularly about issues of anti-racism, white anti-racist allies and people of color community building. You can find it at:
http://www.radicalhapa.tk/

Welcome to our New Blog

2005-06-28T13:03:00.000-07:00

A group of 8 members of the UU Youth & Young Adult Anti-Racism Trainer-Organizer Collective, "ARTO" for short (like ARTO-D2 eh?), met at General Assembly yesterday in the Youth Space. Credit to Megan Selby for coordinating all of us and making reminder calls and high fives.

Laura Manning took notes which we will post here soon.

One of the ideas was to implement a web blog to help improve our communication as well as provide an ongoing documented history and resource. We have been struggling using the ARTO@uuyan.org email list and our teleconferences have only had partial success.

Here we can post announcements, news, and have comments to discuss more indepth the issues that are going on. Ideally each member of the ARTO Collective will come here once a month to read what has been going on and make comments into the work of the collective.