TRANSFORMING CHRISTIAN LIFE Rev. Dr. Velda R. Love

Rev. Dr. Deb AugerTRIENNIAL XV KANSAS CITY 2016

SANKOFA EXPERIENCE

Form Table Groups

KC Sankofa Civil Rights Sankofa No Sankofa Experience

ICE BREAKER

What did you take away from Friday’s learning Experience?

What do you expect to take away from today’s learning experience?

One person summarize from each table group

Facilitator Narratives

SANKOFA IS FOUNDATIONALSankofa was created to provide a foundation for an in-depth analysis of the socio-political construction of race in America; mainly the creation, explanation, indoctrination, exploitation, capitalization, and classification of people of African descent. Students participate in listening, exploring, learning, and unpacking the cause, effect and impact of racism in the U.S. on all cultures. Racism distorts the image of God. You are present in this workshop to reclaim and redeem God’s divine intention for humanity as conceived and birthed “In the Beginning when God created.”

Participants and facilitators are not gathered to find fault, lay blame, or make those of Anglo and European descent feel guilty for the creation of racism. Facilitators and participants journey together to support the biblical and theological treatise that humans are created in the image and likeness of God. Human beings, male and female, are equal and therefore called to be the Good News of the Gospel eradicating racism, engage unjust systems and institutions, including the Christian church wherever possible transforming society so that all lives matter.

There are historical realities that have created our present condition of racism in America in all spheres of life. Participants learn Pre-colonial Black African history, biblical and theological interpretations that are pedagogically African-centered. Cultural immersion is introduced as a learning tool that can also be used to dismantle racism in America. Sankofa learning experiences brings people into an understanding of truth and self-awareness to build a Beloved community based on God’s model of justice, equality, and righteousness for all.

EQUALITY IS BIBLICAL• HUMANITY

• GENDER

• CULTURE

• ETHNICITY

• STEWARDSHIP WITH THE EARTH

GENESIS NARRATIVE

IN [A] THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED ...

Over time God creates earthly existence and everything to sustain life. And it is good.

God creates humanity. Humanity is created in the image of God, and everything, including humanity is very good according to the scribes and storytellers.

GENESIS 1:26-27Then God said, Let us make humankind in our image,

according to our likeness; So God created humankind in the image of God, male and female, God create them.

וירדו כדמותנו בצלמנו אדם נעשה אלהים ויאמרובכל־הארץ ובבהמה השמים ובעוף הים בדגת

על־הארץ׃ הרמש ובכל־הרמשברא אלהים בצלם בצלמו את־האדם ׀ אלהים ויברא

אתם ברא ונקבה זכר אתוTHE NEW OXFORD ANNOTATED NRSV & THE HEBREW BIBLE

SANKOFA Sankofa means “we cannot look forward intelligently or effectively plan for future without a careful review of the past. All events arise from the confluence of some kind of antecedents; failure to appreciate the past eliminates the possibility of foresight. The “myth of the Negro” as described by the scholar Melville Herskovits will not be completely neutralized until the truth of the African is revealed. As the African American experience is fundamentally shaped by the rich ancestral past as well as by responses to racist hostility, our study of African Americans must necessarily consider the history of Africa.”

The History and Heritage of African American Christianity L.H. Whelchel, Jr.

WHY SANKOFA?BECAUSE HUMANS CREATED RACE AND RACIAM

“In spiritual and biblical terms, racism is a perverse sin that cuts to the core of the gospel message. Put simply, racism negates the reason for which Christ died—the reconciling work of the cross. It denies the purpose of the church: to bring together, in Christ, those who have been divided from one another, particularly in the early church's case, Jew and Gentile—a division based on race.”

“Racism: America’s Original Sin.” Jim Wallis, Sojourners

ERADICATE THE MYTH“Racism is a philosophy based on contempt for life. It is the arrogant assertion that one race is the center of value and object of devotion, before which other races must kneel in submission. It is the absurd dogma that one race is responsible for all the progress of history and alone can assure the progress of the future. Racism is total estrangement. It separates not only bodies, but minds and spirits. Inevitably it descends to inflicting spiritual and physical homicide upon the out-group.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

http://www.thekingcenter.org/king-philosophy.

BIBILICAL MANDATEERADICATE RACISM BY

• Suspend Eurocentric assumptions by removing that particular cultural context from the center of biblical, theological and worldview narratives

• God as the center of all cultural narratives

• The God-human relationship is established, and humans are to be in co-equal relationships with each other

• There is no hierarchy of culture, ethnicity, or gender. Genesis 1:26-31 is the foundation.

IMAGO DEI: THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY

“In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ.” Galatians 3:28-29 The Message

ALL ARE EQUAL

TRANSFORMATVE EXPERIENCES• BLACK LIBERATION

• WOMANIST THOUGHT AND IDEOLOGY

• SLAVE REVOLTS, WHITE SUPREMACY RESISTANCE, SOCIAL UPRISINGS, CIVIL RIGHTS, BLACK POWER AND BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENTS

Biblical Perspectives-Interpretation

Defining Interpretation

Biblical Interpretation

Author

Text

Reader

“The problem of the interpretation begins and end with the reader.” (Osborne, Hermeneutical Spiral, 367)

Goal is “…a proper understanding of the significance of the passage for Christian life today.”

Key factors: The community with whom we interpret the text The world in which we live and the significance of the text for today

TEXT BELOW

AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN AND BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION

Genesis 16:1-16; 21:1-21 Hagar the Egyptian

• Reading strategies

• Cultural lens

• History of the community (collective reading and interpretation)

• Lived experiences with oppression and freedom

• The Bible as Liberator; Jesus as Radical Savior

White Fragility

Defined: a state in which even a minimum of racial stress becomes intolerable -> Defensive Responses

FEAR ANGER

GUILT

silence

argumentation

leaving

White racial equilibrium interrupted-> Racial Stress

WHITE FRAGILITY

Suggesting a white person’s perspective is coming from a racialized perspective

Persons of color speaking directly about their racial perspectives

People of color choosing not to protect the racial feelings of white persons

Persons of color not being willing to share their stories or answer questions about their experiences of racism

A fellow white person not agreeing with a someone’s interpretation

WHITE FRAGILITY, CONT.

Getting feedback that one’s behavior had a racist impact

Suggesting that group membership is significant

Acknowledging that that there is unequal access between racial groups Being presented with a person of color in a position of leadership

Being presented with information about other racial groups through (i.e.) movies, etc. in which people of color drive the action but are not in stereotypical roles

White Fragility-Factors

Segregation

Individualism and Universality

Entitlement to Racial Comfort

Racial Arrogance

Racial Belonging

“Everywhere we look, we see our own racial image reflected back to us – in our heroes and heroines, in standards of beauty, in our role-models and teachers, in our textbooks and historical memory, in the media, in religious iconography including the image of god himself…” Robin DiAngelo,63

Racial Belonging, cont.

RACIAL MICROAGGRESSIONS IN EVERYDAY LIFE

Racial microaggressions are brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional that communicates hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color. Perpetrators of microaggressions are often unaware that they engage in such communications when they interact with people of racial and ethnic differences. http://www.cpedv.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/how_to_be_an_effective_ally-lessons_learned_microaggressions.pdf

RACIAL MICROAGGRESSIONS IN EVERYDAY LIFE

Microaggressions seem to appear in three forms:

• Microassault,

• Microinsult, and

• Microinvalidation

Almost all interracial encounters are prone to microaggressions

RACIAL MICROAGGRESSION21 VERBAL ASSAULTS

• https://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/racial-microagressions-you-hear-on-a-daily-basis?utm_term=.imogYVWMq#.biNpgA0N3

CHARACTERISTICS TO COMBAT MICROAGGRESSION

1. Awareness of oneself as a racial/cultural being

2. The biases, stereotypes, and assumptions that influence worldviews

3. Awareness of the worldviews of culturally diverse people

MODERN RACISMIt appears that modern and symbolic racism are most closely associated with political conservatives, who disclaim personal bigotry by strong and rigid adherence to traditional American values (individualism, self-reliance, hard work, etc.), whereas aversive racism is more charac- teristic of White liberals.

(Dovidio & Gaertner, 1996, 2000)

AVERSIVE RACISTSAversive racists, according to these researchers, are strongly motivated by egalitarian values as well as anti-minority feelings.

Their egalitarian values operate on a conscious level, while their anti-minority feelings are less conscious and generally covert. aversive racists are the least consciously negative, followed by modern and symbolic racists, who are somewhat more prejudiced, and finally by old-fashioned biological racists.

((DeVos & Banaji, 2005; Nelson, 2006)

THE LISTSubtle, Stunning, Automatic and Non-Verbal Exchanges which are:

1. Put downs 6. Snubs

2. Subtle insults 7. Dismissive looks

3. Being overlooked 8. Gestures

4. Underrepresented 9. Visual – Looks or not seen

5. Devalued

LITANY

Leader: We say we want peace• All: But there is no justice for all, therefore we do not have peace. Deliver us O God

L: We want to be righteous • All: But we remain narrow-minded and refuse to acknowledge violence perpetrated

against our sisters and brothers. Deliver us O God

L: We want to see and enjoy your creation • All: But we profess to be colorblind and therefore miss your creation and those you

created. Deliver us O God

L: We want to love our neighbors as ourselves • All: But our hearts are like closed doors, dividing lines, and our light does not shine.

Deliver us O God

ALL: We seek your face God and ask for forgiveness. We lament and shed tears. We lift up our heads to see your very good creation. And we move from this place ready to bring forth peace, and open our hearts to embrace our sisters and brothers as fully human and fully equal. We will pursue your biblical mandates:

• Justice for all; Eradicating systems and institutions that discriminate. We promise to stand on the margins with all humans and place your Word and our Savior at the center of life and faith

Deliver us O God. AMEN