An Invitation to Talk
In March 2017 United Church Moderator Jordan Cantwell wrote:
“We need to name and examine our fears, prejudices, and assumptions. The privilege that many of us are born with may desensitize us to the injustice, exclusion, and hate that some in our community experience on a daily basis.” Only in that way can we build, as “That All May Be One” envisioned, a church and society “where all are welcome, where all feel welcome, and where diversity is as natural as breathing.”
MGUC joins in the uprising of voices in the Christian community and across the world against the systemic racism that hurts so many of our fellow human beings. In order to address our own thoughts and concepts and determine how we can play a larger role in change our Outreach Committee is inviting you to join a Zoom book club. We will be reading White Fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism by Robin Diangelo. This New York Times best-selling book explores the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.
The book can be ordered in print, as an E book, or is available for free as an audiobook right now if you have Amazon Prime. Perhaps sharing (virus free) can be encouraged if people have trouble securing the book. The date will be set once we know people have started the book.
Please email Sandra Onufryk at sandraonufryk@gmail.com if you want to join the club or lead one of the Zoom book club meetings.
Other books you might want to read include:
- How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi A social history, memoir and social commentary that examines the roots and consequences of racism.
- The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King A personal meditation on what it means to be “Indian” through an examination of the relationship between natives and non-natives over the last five hundred years.
- The Break by Katherena Vermette A spellbinding work of fiction about women living in Winnipeg’s north end provides a powerful insight into the lives of the Metis.
For further information about the church’s stance on racism please see the United Church website listed below.
https://www.united-church.ca/social-action/justice-initiatives/anti-racism?mc_cid=006474a2c5&mc_eid=9fdb36e4db
Thank you,
The Outreach Committee