1. Talking About Racial Justice in Your Unit Missouri Conference United Methodist Women 2016 Legislative Training Event

2. Use teaching moments Address systems not symptoms Do your homework (start with the Charter!) Build allies to build momentum Use shared definitions/terms Build relationships, but do not stop there Evaluate how power is used and how it can be shared more justly Where to start

3. Eliminate all forms of institutional racism Deal honestly with existing racist attitudes Recruit women of all races into leadership Create workshops and education opportunities Increase awareness of racial bias in housing, employment, medical care, etc. Work on national and international policies to protect rights Support liberation struggles around the world Use quotas in nominations until racial justice is achieved Charter for Racial Justice, We will…

4. EDUCATE OURSELVES & OTHERS TAKE ACTION/ SPEAK UP FOR RACIAL JUSTICE BUILD JUST AND RIGHT RELATION- SHIPS ADVOCATE FOR RACIALLY JUST POLCIES SHARE POWER EQUITIBLY

5. EDUCATEADVOCATESHARE POWER TAKE ACTION BUILD RELATION- SHIPS Putting Your Ideas Into Action DIRECTIONS: At your tables come up with one action that you can take to promote each of the above activities in your local unit.

6. YOUR YOUR IDEAS EDUCATEEDUCATE: –Engage with UMW Resources: RJ page on web, Response, Program Book, Reading Program, FB SHARE POWERSHARE POWER: –challenge the status quo, be willing to do things differently ADVOCATEADVOCATE: –Being vigilant about racist policies at the federal and local level –Follow the lead to affected people to create solutions BUILD REALTIONSHIPSBUILD REALTIONSHIPS: –Make concrete changes to be more inclusive (i.e. interpreters) TAKE ACTION / SPEAK UPTAKE ACTION / SPEAK UP: –Spiritual grounding, resisting defensiveness

7. Institutionalized Racism is…. discriminatory treatment, unfair policies and practices & inequitable opportunities and impacts based on race intentional, legal, overt intentionally shaping and structuring an institution so that it serves and is accountable to one racial group over another self-perpetuating: does the same thing over and over and gets the same results most deeply embedded where the power is!

8. When Fighting Institutionalized Racism… There is no way of getting different results in a permeant and ongoing way without redesigning the way something is embedded within an institution. When institutions are not accountable to people of color, they can do as they please without fear of consequences Because institutions will not ACT DIFFERENTLY until the difference is BUILT IN, until it has a NEW institutional design. Why is it not enough to pass a law or for white people to earnestly claim they will make changes? The institutional racism of the past controls the present!

9. Institutional Racism: Within the Life of the Church Intentional: Ex. 1939 merger of the Methodist Church creates the segregated Central Jurisdiction for Black churches Legal: Ex. Methodist Church affirms and continues to benefit from the Doctrine of Discovery, which gave Christian explorers the right to claim lands they "discovered" and lay claim to those lands for their Christian Monarchs Overt: Ex. The church’s support of Native American boarding schools, where Native children were removed from their homes in hopes of "civilizing" them

10. Levels of an Institution The Three Most Visible Levels: Personnel: people who represent the institution and make it function Programs, Products, or Services: what an institution produces for its constituency Constituency and Community: the people an institution exists to serve The Two Least Visible Levels: Organizational Structure: the way an institution is put together and is managed Mission, Purpose and Identity: the “foundations” of an institution; the formal stated reason the institution exists, along with its history, traditions and culture

11. Case Study: Facing New Institutional Realities Nancy has been active in United Methodist Women since the Charter for Racial Justice was adopted by the denomination in 1980. When she began, United Methodist Women was an all- white organization in her district and conference in the Midwest. She has seen many changes. During the 1980s, a large number of Southeast Asian immigrants settled in her area, working in a refrigerator factory. In the 1990s, large numbers of Spanish- speaking immigrants came to the area to work on truck farms. Nancy feels that the present situation represents an opportunity for her conference United Methodist Women to step up to meet the challenge of this new demographic reality. She believes that they should reach out to the area’s new residents, try to understand their problems and encourage their participation in United Methodist Women. She feels that this may be difficult because area attitudes toward other racial and ethnic groups have not changed to keep up with its changing demographics.