UUFSMA: “The Other Pandemic: Institutional Racism and White Fragility”
Event Category: Community Events
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Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Online Service
“The Other Pandemic:
Institutional Racism and White Fragility”
Speakers: Rev Tom Rosiello and Phyllis CulpSunday, June 7, 2020
10:30 amZoom link: https://zoom.us/j/414604040
Password: 294513
By Joseph Plummer
UUF Secretary
This past week, the world watched George Floyd, a 46-year-old black resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota, beg for his life as he was held in custody and suffocated to death by white police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck for eight minutes. This horrible tragedy came a little more than two months after the police killing of Breonna Taylor, a black 26-year-old Emergency Medical Technician, fatally shot at least eight times in bed in her apartment by Louisville, Kentucky police officers executing a drug warrant at the wrong address.
Less than a month before her killing, white vigilantes, Travis McMichael, 34, and his father, Gregory McMichael, 64, assaulted and murdered Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old African-American man who was jogging near Brunswick, Georgia, a crime that for nearly two months local authorities declined to investigate.
These individuals’ lives ended as this year’s new chapters in the shameful U.S. history of homicidal police and white racists murdering black and brown people and too often being ignored or otherwise escaping justice and punishment. In a world already assaulted by pandemic death and disruption, these killings in the hands of reckless authorities have provoked anger and protests throughout the United States and around the world.
Recognizing the urgency of the present moral moment, UUFSMA will displace the previously announced topic of the Sunday, June 7 online Sunday Service. Instead, the upcoming service will focus on racism in our society and system of justice, particularly among police departments and government institutions. The service will pay special attention to the unwillingness of white people to face the realities of racism that perpetuate homicidal injustice and drive wedges deeper into U.S. and world culture.
Unitarian Universalists affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We must continue to take actions that make this covenant a reality for people of color. Rev Tom Rosiello, Affiliate Minister of the fellowship, and Phyllis Culp, a UUFSMA member and resident of San Miguel de Allende, will lead the service. Inspiring music from the black spiritual tradition and civil rights movement will highlight this difficult topic and underscore the need for its honest discussion. Please join us and invite your friends to do so too.
To participate in our online Sunday Service, visit the Fellowship’s website at www.uufsma.org and click on the Zoom Service button displayed on the home page. If requested, enter password: 294513. Sign-in between 10:15-10:25 am.
Through grants and awards, UUFSMA donates fifty percent of all income it receives 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’s Donate button. Now more than ever, your support is essential.
Due to the arrival of the coronavirus in San Miguel de Allende, UUFSMA has indefinitely suspended in-person Sunday services and other gatherings. We advise members and friends to follow the advice of reputable public health authorities, such as the Centers for Disease Control, and to contact our Affiliate Minister or Care Team for needed assistance. The UU Fellowship welcomes people of all ages, races, religions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
Our fellowship was born in 1987 when a small group of expatriate religious liberals came together to meet as Unitarian Universalists in San Miguel de Allende. The fellowship has been active and thriving ever since. Every UU church has it’s own flavor, and we are no exception. We are a combination of expats and visitors, each actively engaged and contributing to this wonderful Mexican community we love. Because there is a coming, going, and returning aspect, our spiritual community is extremely fluid. There is a magic in San Miguel which draws us in and binds us together—both as members of the church and of the larger community. Our programming is led by visiting ministers, community leaders, and church members, so the variety is lively. We have opportunities to meet as UU’s each week at discussion groups, breakfasts, luncheons, and in various other ways. Depending on the season, attendance fluctuates between 40 and 140. Our primary focus is on funding social action within the surrounding community. We love good music, good discussion, good food, and having visitors. We invite you to join us any Sunday morning.
UU YAHOO GROUP SITEMembers regularly post updates and information on this site. We also post meeting minutes and announcements there.
To join our Yahoo group site click on this link:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/
groups/UUFSMA/info Click on “membership”and follow the directions.
Posting a notice on the Yahoo site is easy. Just go to your regular mail browser, type in the address line: uufsma@yahoogroups.com , type your message and hit send!
We encourage you to use this site to communicate with other local UUs.
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