By Joseph Plummer
Racism is rampant in the United States and the world, and no one acknowledging this truth can deny significant change must be made. Growing numbers of white people share the outrage of people of color over this fact and want to fight for racial justice. Katerina Barron, Sunday’s Guest Speaker for the UUFSMA Sunday Service, lives with this reality daily as a white mother of biracial children and asks this question, “What is the part of white folk in dealing with this injustice?”
Marching and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement is an obvious priority as is supporting victims of racism. But is it enough? To do one’s part, white folk must acknowledge that racism is not the entire problem but a symptom of a bigger problem, white supremacy. White supremacists intend to protect whiteness and its powerful hold on society.
Intellectually white folk know this. We acknowledge the privilege whiteness provides and without a doubt are the main beneficiaries of a supremacist system. Yet how does the group most benefitting from supremacy fight for racial justice?
White power will continue to harm people of color until we relinquish it in certain spaces while wielding it with integrity in others. Progressives call this process divesting from whiteness. It is not an easy undertaking and cannot be intellectualized. It requires discomfort and deconditioning oneself of a whitewashed history and upbringing.
Barron shares a personal look into her journey of divesting herself of whiteness and the first steps other white folk can take to do so. As the mother of biracial children, Barron recognizes that her unprocessed whiteness risks harm to those she loves most. She is dedicated to this work and determined that whiteness will not establish norms within her multiracial, multicultural family. A former elementary school teacher, Barron now works as a trauma-informed life coach. She lives in San Miguel de Allende with her husband and three children.
To participate in our online Sunday Service, visit www.uufsma.org and click on the Zoom Service button on the home page. If requested, enter password: 294513. Sign-in from anywhere Sunday mornings between 10:15-10:25am CST. Because of the sudden surge of the omicron variant of the corona virus, in-person services by reservation at the Aldea Hotel are being suspended until further notice.
Our Fellowship welcomes people of all ages, races, religions, sexual orientation, and gender identity. UUFSMA donates at least fifty percent of its income to support nonprofit organizations that provide health, educational, and environmental services for underserved communities in the San Miguel region. Please support this work by clicking on the website home page Donate button. Now more than ever, your support is essential. Enjoy previous services at www.youtube.com/. Enter UUFSMA in the search box.
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Online Service
“A White Mother of Biracial Children Divests of Whiteness”
Speaker: Katerina Barron
Sun, Jan 16, 10:30am
Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/414604040
Password: 294513
