Anti-Racism Team
Real Justice Requires Active Anti-Racism
UUFM acts within our congregation and outside with community partners to actively address racism and to make change for equity and justice for all.
Interfaith Vigil for Justice
On May 23, 2021 members of the UUFM attended the Prayer and Call to Action for Racial Justice, hosted by the Mankato Clergy, an interfaith collective. UUFM-ers in attendance were: Tricia Nienow, Dick Nienow, Diane Dobitz, Penny Herickhoff, Rev. Rita, Dennis Cramblit, Caden Sjogren, Nancy Cramblit, Faye Mattison, and DeeAnn Nelson. Rev. Rita led the closing prayer, which can be found below the photos.
Closing Prayer for the Interfaith Vigil
by Rev. Rita Capezzi
God of many names, Spirit of Life and Love, Creative Possibility of the Universe animating and sustaining all life, Spirit beyond us and also always within us and among us:
Be with us here as we humbly and completely acknowledge our failure to be the justice seekers and justice creators we are called to be.
Be with us in this moment as we renew promises to move beyond right thoughts and good intentions toward actions to join the ongoing struggle for equity, justice, and liberation.
Be with us today, people of many faiths and religious traditions, as we strive with compassion to hold each other accountable for the wrongs we perpetuate, for the fear that too often freezes our hearts and stops our hands.
Spirit, be with us tonight, as we return to our homes. Spirit, lure and entice us into a ceaseless awareness, troubling our everyday lives permanently, no longer all-to-too easily forgetful of the oppression everywhere.
Be with us tomorrow, when we receive the call from our loving siblings, struggling to trust us as allies and accomplices and yet once again taking the risk to include us.
Be with us in all the days to come, making us worthy of trust, unflinching in the use of our privilege in the service of those most impacted by injustice.
In the names of that power we understand as divine, holy, sacred, life-giving and life sustaining—in that name, may we move forward renewed in commitment, passionate for our charge, respectful in our working, relational in our efforts, and loving, always loving, toward all the beings, human and more than human, of this one earth we share. May it be so, blessed be, and Amen.
UUFM in the News
New Day Rising Conference National 2021
Saturday, February 27, 2021, 11:00 pm – 7:00 pm CST
Your EdJ (Education and Justice Team) is asking: Is our congregation ready to take a new step in changing white supremacy culture? Do we want to learn what our fellow congregations are working on, and how we might apply it at home? And we are answering “Yes!” Nancy Cramblit, Diane Dobitz, and Rev. Rita registered for the conference.
Social Justice Book Discussion
In April 2021, UUFM and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Hanska joined for a discussion of the 2020-21 UUA Common Read is Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry. Breathe reflects on race, racism, and the hope that one’s child will be wholly known and valued by society. It is “an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and resilience.” The New York Times calls Breathe “an elixir of history, ancestry and compassion, which, together, become instruction…a parent’s unflinching demand, born of inherited trauma and love, for her children’s right simply to be possible.”
Our Anti-Racism Work
Rev. Rita has been active with local clergy to plan joint statements and actions rejecting racism in our community. She worked with a team to craft the following statement which clergy now offer as a video on the Mankato Clergy Facebook page https://fb.watch/1TGkUAPMAs/
In the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly… Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.” True love is demonstrated in the love of all our neighbors, just as the God of all humanity has loved us. Systems of oppression, white supremacy, and racism go against the interdependency that naturally bind us together. Because of our highest calling of love for our neighbors as for ourselves, we cannot rest until all our neighbors of all skin colors can feel the same love and care as all human beings across the spectrum of politics, criminal justice, employment, health care, education, religion, and day to day interactions in the world.
May it be so.
You may also view the statement read by Rev. Rita with this link.
21-day Anti-Racism Challenge
During July 2020, Rev. Rita encouraged our congregation to participate in the 21-day Anti-Racism Challenge from the Bexley Anti-Racism Project You can find links to all the events here . You may need to view films in platforms other than the ones indicated. Below is a day-by-day listing on the materials. I invite you to explore and to share what you learn.
Day 1: Watch the documentary 13th on Netflix
Day 2: Read the blog post “Dear White People, This is What We Want You to Do”
Day 3: Watch the play Fences by August Wilson: Movie
Day 4: View book launch event and discussion with authors of Anti-Racist Baby (June 18th)
Day 5: Read “So You Want to Learn About Juneteenth” in the New York Times
Day 6: Listen to podcast The Daily: “The Case for Defunding the Police”
Day 7: Read the blog post “Reflections From a Token Black Friend” by Ramesh A Nagarajah
Day 8: Listen to Janelle Monae’s album Dirty Computer
Day 9: Read “Performative Allyship is Deadly (Here’s What to Do Instead) in Forge
Day 10: Watch The House I Live Inon Youtube
Day 11: Listen to the play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange on Youtube
Day 12: Watch Just Mercy. You can also order the book.
Day 13: Listen to an episode from the podcast Pod Save the People
Day 14: Read “We protest police in the streets so why do we let police in our schools?” in Chicago Reporter
Day 15: Watch Episode 1 ofDear White People on Netflix
Day 16: Listen to Code Switch: “A Decade of Watching Black People Die” on NPR
Day 17: Watch American Son on Netflix
Day 18: Read “More states are trying to protect Black employees who want to wear natural hairstyles at work” in The Washington Post
Day 19: Listen to an episode from the podcast 1619
Day 20: Read “The Case for Reparations” in The Atlantic
Day 21: Listen to Kendrick Lamar’s album “To Pimp a Butterfly”