Our church is committed to examining everything we do through the lenses of racial and economic justice. We strive to build Beloved Community one determined step, one beloved person at a time.
Facing Race Stirring Committee
Facing Race Stirring Committee (FRSC) is dedicated to dismantling racism and other oppressions by helping the WBUUC community view all of our work through the lenses of racial and economic justice. FRSC keeps white supremacy in the minds of the congregation and challenges white supremacy by owning our part in it, naming it when we see it, and practicing how to talk about it with each other.
FRSC facilitates and supports this agenda by reaching out to committee and program leaders, offering opportunities for members and friends to learn about white supremacy and its effects, and empowering the congregation to talk, hold and articulate their questions about race.
Background
The current FRSC is an outgrowth of many years of committee work, and recently the Undoing Racism workshop that our former lead minister Rev. Victoria Safford and several WBUUC members attended in the spring of 2018. The group met during summer of 2018 to begin planning a program of church and community events and activities that go deeper into the issues of racial justice, privilege and equity.
In the years since Trayvon Martin was killed by a community member in Florida in 2012, an appalling number of black and brown people have died at the hands of police and civilian white supremacists — Eric Garner, Michael Brown Jr. and Tamir Rice [2014]; Walter Scott, Sandra Bland and Freddie Gray [2015]; Alton Sterling [2016]; among too many others.
These horrors came home to us in the Twin Cities in November 2013 when Jamar Clark was killed by Minneapolis police officers, and in July 2016 when Philando Castile was killed by an officer as he sat in his car in Falcon Heights.
Then in 2020, George Floyd was murdered on camera in broad daylight on a Minneapolis street by a Minneapolis police officer. The stark and shocking clarity of the video evidence of this event changed some minds and changed the world a bit; sparking worldwide protests against police brutality and racism. And yet, our communities have not been able to enact police reform to the extent it is needed, locally or nationally. Racism and racist violence, in all their ugly manifestations, are still constantly in our news feeds in 2023.
Recent and Ongoing Work
The FRSC worked to educate and encourage our congregation to adopt the proposed 8th Principle which states: Journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions. On Sunday, June 11, 2023, WBUUC affirmed the adoption of the 8th Principle by congregational vote.
As we continue to return to activities in-person, the FRSC will continue to promote actions that help to dismantle racism in ourselves and in our communities.
See a timeline of WBUUC’s Engagement in Anti-Racist Work
