Saturday, April 27, 8:30-10:30 Purpose: Establish an organization dedicated to providing support to recently arriving refugees residing in temporary hotel shelters in Woburn and Arlington, Massachusetts Membership: CARE is recruiting volunteers willing to be trained and submitting to a simple background check who will give of their time and talent to the goals of the … Continue reading Community Action for Refugee Emergency (CARE)
Feminist by Feminist In celebration of Women’s Herstory Month, renowned feminist figures like Gloria Steinem (who recently turned 90!) are often spotlighted. As a white woman, Steinem brought an inclusive lens to the work, believing that race, gender, age, and ethnicity must be addressed together. In addition to well-known white feminists, it’s also important to recognize … Continue reading Building Beloved Community 3/28/24
Term By Term In the midst of Women’s Herstory Month, it’s a good time to highlight legal scholar and civil rights advocate Kimberle Crenshaw who coined the term “intersectionality” in 1989. Her own definition: “Intersectionality is a metaphor for understanding the ways that multiple forms of inequality or disadvantage sometimes compound themselves and create obstacles that … Continue reading Building Beloved Community
Transformation By Transformation Winchester UU’s March theme is “Transformation,” which neatly converges with our butterflies logo. Butterflies provide a metaphor for individual change and ultimately for societal change. Imaginal cells hold transformative, potential power driving the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly, although there is no visible similarity between the two creatures. What if we too … Continue reading Building Beloved Community 3/14/24
The Racial Justice Team’s Planning Group hosted a discussion of the word “privilege” last Sunday, with another one scheduled for March 7 on zoom from 7 to 8 pm. (registration required) The focus is on Peggy McIntosh’s ground-breaking article in 1988: “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” Take a few minutes to google the article and … Continue reading Building Beloved Community Book by Book 2/29/24
Our Winchester Unitarian Society proudly flies three flags to underscore our shared UU values. Perhaps you have seen the Pan-African flag with its broad horizontal bars of red, black, and green, giving a voice to the Black diaspora spread across the world far too often against their will, including right here in our United States. … Continue reading Building Beloved Community Flag by Flag 2/22/24
Resource By Resource If you like your information in manageable amounts, try subscribing to the Anti-Racism Daily (www.the-ard.com) newsletter. Black History Month is a great time to expand your understanding of racism in all its forms. A recent article discussed discrimination in housing appraisals and another explained why we capitalize B in Black when referring … Continue reading Building Beloved Community 2/15/24
Learning By Learning More than a century after the 13th Amendment abolished slavey, President Gerald Ford recognized February as BLACK HISTORY MONTH in 1976. This declaration was long coming, with many earlier manifestations such as the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) in 1926 sponsoring Negro History Week on the second week … Continue reading Building Beloved Community 2/8/24
In our recent Connecting Conversations we explored, together, microaggressions and their grievous harm. A possible counter strategy to their cumulative burden is small, affirming declarations. In a 2023 Harvard Business Review article, authors Roberts, Grayson, and Rosser presented several microvalidations to incorporate into interactions. Each can begin subtly to move a marginalized “outsider” into a sense of inclusion as an “insider.” Here, … Continue reading Building Beloved Community with Microvalidations
