The
Failure of Diversity
The Rev. Joshua Mason Pawelek
January 22nd, 2006
II want to give voice to a question that haunts this congregation-but not only this congregation. It haunts Unitarian Universalism and all the old, mainline Protestant denominations. It haunts most corporations and non-profit agencies, many governments, many towns-especially suburban towns. It haunts many private colleges and universities, symphony orchestras and ballets. It haunts engineering firms and scientific labs, network television and Hollywood. It haunts the editorial boards of major newspapers and the board rooms of the Fortune 500. It haunts the halls of power in the United States of America. The question is, "Why are we so white?"
I hear this question in some form at least once a month at UUS:E. Sometimes it's a simple statement of fact: "We're so white." Sometimes there's a knowing rolling of the eyes, as if it's a secret the two of us share, and nobody else has noticed. No matter the form in which it comes, I hear behind it a lament, a deep sadness that even here, in this most precious and sacred place, we somehow fail to live out the promise of Unitarian Universalism, and indeed, the promise of the United States of America, that people of all races and cultures ought to be together in worship, in work, in neighborhoods, in schools, in families, in all aspects of life. It is painful to realize we haven't yet built that place where, as the hymn proclaims, "we would be one." It is painful to realize we haven't yet built that place where, as the Rev Bowens-Wheatley has written, "If you are black and I am white, it will not matter." It is painful to realize that our full vision of the beloved community remains just that-a vision-and not our lived reality. Why are we so white?
This sermon is the second of two on race and racism in the United States. Those who braved the ice and snow last Sunday were rewarded with the not-so-uplifting message-indeed, the unsettling message-that racism creates spiritual death in our nation. I said being spiritually alive is characterized by an ability to make choices about who we are, how we live, how we love, and what we believe. When we aren't able to make such choices, we enter an abyss, a place of spiritual death. Race is one such place. We don't have choice when it comes to our race. Race, which does not exist biologically, is imposed on us, usually at a very early age, and continues to have power over us throughout the course of our lives.
I also said I believe we can prevail against racism. Race has defined us, yes, but there are ways to redefine ourselves. Racism has told us who we are, yes, but there are ways to rename ourselves. Racism mantles our lives, yes, but there are ways to dismantle it. Racism plunges us collectively into spiritual death, yes, but there are ways to give birth to a new spirit. I believe we here at UUS:E can be effective in the struggle against racism, but we won't be if we get stuck on the question, "why are we so white?"
I would be remiss if I did not issue the following disclaimer. We are a very white congregation, but not all of you can check off the Caucasian box on the Census questionnaire. Some of you are people of color. Some of you are bi-racial or multi-racial. Some of you have Native American heritage in addition to Caucasian heritage. Some have Latin American or African heritage. There are people with Egyptian, Lebanese, Iranian, and Indian blood among us. By most state laws they are not white. Some of you are in mixed-race families. Some have adopted children of color. Some provide foster care to children of color. We are a white congregation, but let us not erase the presence of people of color and mixed-race people who are already here or who have been here over the years. When mixed-race people come into white institutions, they often experience the non-white part of themselves as invisible and inexpressible. Let us not be so sure of our whiteness that we miss, forget or ignore the non-white racial identities among us.
With that said, what to do about this whiteness? One of the characteristics of Unitarian Universalists is a desire to fix problems immediately. I've learned to expect that as soon as someone raises the question, "Why are we so white?" they are ready with a solution: "We need to attract more people of color to our congregation." If the problem is too few people of color, then the solution, logically, is to find a way to bring in, recruit, invite, cultivate, muster, entice, enlist, interest, lure, or otherwise pull people of color into our pews. It makes sense, except that most people of color I know will feel very nervous, if not downright alienated, at the prospect of being recruited to a church because of their race. I feel very uncomfortable at the thought of recruiting based on race, of striving for some arbitrary racial quota, just so we can feel better about the fact we're so white.
Our lack of racial diversity is a symptom of a much larger problem. Increasing our diversity, if we could, would alleviate the symptom but not solve the problem. The problem is common to almost every institution in the nation. The problem is institutional racism. Bringing more people of color in does not make it go away. There are many institutions, including Unitarian Universalist congregations, where people of color are present in great numbers, and institutional racism still exists. That is what I mean by the title of this sermon, "The Failure of Diversity." Increasing racial diversity is not an effective strategy for confronting institutional racism. A mentor of mine was fond of saying that increasing racial diversity makes racist institutions more colorful, not less racist. However, confronting the problem of institutional racism may result in greater racial diversity without having to recruit anyone.
Here is the simplest definition of institutional racism I know: the failure of historically white institutions to hold themselves accountable to people and communities of color. "To hold oneself accountable" is an important but vague phrase. I also define institutional racism as the failure of historically white institutions to serve the interests of people and communities of color as determined by them. Institutional racism is not necessarily a situation where people intend for racist things to happen. It is often simply the case that an institution was never designed to serve the interests of people of color, and nobody realizes it until someone offers resistance to the status quo.
The United States government is a great example. We don't often hear it framed this way, but our government was founded by white people (men specifically) to serve only the interests of white people. An act of Congress in March, 1790-the first time Congress stipulated who could become a US citizen-said that naturalization would be restricted to white persons1 (where a white person was a man who owned property and had been living in the United States for more than two years). That's what I mean when I say the country was founded by white people to serve the interests of white people. If you couldn't become a citizen because of your race, by law the government couldn't serve your interests. It was only accountable to white male property owners. In that same era, the government was signing treaties with Indian nations that it evidently had no intention of honoring. The history of treaty violations is a very good example of the failure of accountability to people of color by an institution, the federal government, that was founded by white people to serve the interests of white people. To this day the United States remains in violation of hundreds of such treaties.
The government's original intent to serve only the interests of white male property owners didn't disappear over night. A simple head count of who continues to wield governmental power in this nation shows white male property owners still dominate, and still seem to gain the most benefit. The government has moved toward greater accountability to communities of color, especially following the Civil War and then again during the Civil Rights movement; but somehow the original, purposeful racialized imbalance of power is still operative. I was struck during the Supreme Court nominations hearings of Judge Samuel Alito at the way both Democrats and Republicans kept asking him, essentially, "are you a racist?" because of his ties to an exclusive eating club at Princeton. "No, I am not a racist; I abhor racism," responded Alito continuously. Here was a group of powerful white male property owners trying to figure out whether one of their own is a racist, in the midst of an institutional process established by white male property owners to serve the interests of white male property owners. But institutional racism doesn't need bona fide racists to do what it does. All it requires is people doing what the institution was originally intended to do. And if the original intent of serving only the interests of white people is not fundamentally altered, institutional racism will persist. Don't ask, "Are you a racist?" Ask, "To whom are you accountable?"
Unitarianism and Universalism emerged as institutions in the decades following the founding of the United States. Were our spiritual forbears untainted by the overt racism of the time? Some of them disagreed with slavery. Some disagreed with the forced relocation of Native Americans and treaty violations. Some disagreed with the stealing of land from Mexican families in the southwest. But our religious movement was founded by white religious liberals to serve the interests of white religious liberals. You won't find documents that say "whites only"-at least not many. But just as the United States of America has a painful and incomplete history of people of color struggling for full recognition as citizens, so Unitarianism and Universalism have a painful history of people of color struggling for full recognition in our movement, and it is not over. An article from the Lakeland, FL Ledger of July 23rd, 2005 reads: "In an open letter of apology posted on the [Unitarian Universalist Association's] website, dated July 6, [UUA] board secretary, Paul Rickter, cited reports [from the denomination's General Assembly in Fort Worth, TX] that on several occasions…white delegates assumed UU youth of color were hotel service people. Rickter said white Unitarians asked the non-white Unitarians to carry their bags and park their cars….The denomination has a reputation for tolerance and political liberalism. But the UUA board's letter has set off a debate among Unitarians about underlying racial tensions in the mostly white denomination."2 The UUA does not have racist intentions. But, like any historically white institution, it always runs the risk of such embarrassing incidents because it has not dealt fully with the problem of institutional racism. Until white institutions learn to hold themselves accountable to people of color, institutional racism will persist.
Our Unitarian Universalist congregation, like virtually every UU congregation, was founded by white religious liberals to meet the needs of white religious liberals. There was no racist intent. There was no bigotry, no prejudice, no race hatred. In fact, I suspect it was true here as it was in most congregations, that at the time of our founding in the late 1960s, we held deep concern for the plight of people of color in the United States. But until our congregations decide to be intentional about our accountability to people of color, institutional racism will persist. It won't matter how many dark bodies we recruit. The presence of institutional racism, unchallenged, will always result in the failure of diversity to bridge the chasms of race. That's why we're so white.
Last week I said race was imposed on us, that we didn't have a choice in the matter. But there are choices we can make. I didn't choose white racial identity, but I can make choices about what I'm going to do with it. We can choose to use the racial identity we've been given-individually and collectively-in confronting racism. Instead of ignoring the way institutions privilege white identity, we can choose to educate ourselves about the reality of white privilege. Instead of knowing only the history of white America, we can choose to learn the history of peoples of color in the United States, and come to know the legitimate basis for the ongoing complaints people of color make about discrimination, segregation, exploitation, deportation, and violence. Instead of lamenting how white we are as a congregation and wondering how to bring in more people of color, we can proudly choose to make our whiteness an asset in the struggle for racial justice.
We have power and privilege in this white congregation. Let us learn to use our whiteness in ways that are accountable to people of color in Manchester and the greater Hartford region. African American parents and educators in Manchester have told me tutoring is one of the best things we can do. I am always proud to say we have opportunities to tutor, either through Stars Tutoring on Saturday mornings or at the Washington School during the week. They've also spoken about a profound concern regarding creeping racial segregation in the Manchester school system. Would our church support the very difficult political task of desegregating the schools? If we are choosing to be accountable to people of color in our community, that is what we are called to do.
Black pastors in Hartford have spoken to me about the violence and murder that is part of their daily lives. The answers to the devastating violence in our inner cities are not clear, but there is no doubt in my mind that the way suburban living draws essential resources away from cities is connected to it. Something's got to change. And these pastors, in the very least, want to know they are not alone. They want to know we see the violence too. They want to know it breaks our hearts as much as it breaks theirs. They want to see our rage and our sadness. They want to see our humanity. They want us to come back from that place of spiritual death, open our eyes, bind these wounds of race, and not, as Richard's song said, "run before our foe," but make ourselves accountable for dealing with the atrocities of this nation, with them, together, as one.
Would we be one? Yes, we would. We will. We will be that kind of congregation. And as that kind of congregation, we will realize our vision of beloved multi-racial community. We will overcome the spiritual death of racism. We will come alive.
Amen. Blessed Be.
1 Lopez, Ian H., White By Law (New York: NYU Press, 1996) p. 1.
2 Religious News Service, "Board Addresses Racist Remarks," Published Saturday, July 23rd in The Ledger, Lakeland, FL. Versions of this article appeared in numerous papers around the country, including the Fort Worth , TX Star Telegram and the Charlotte, NC Observer.
