Racism and Its Effects

Racism and Its Effects

The Reverend Dr. Stephen H. Furrer, Interim Minister, Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica, California explores in a 6 page talk how the -isms of oppression ableism, ageism, anti-semitism, classicism, racism, sexism, and more such as homophobia, Islamaphobia, are all connected and that there is no hierarchy of oppressions. He shares personal racial experiences and uses Thandeka's Learning to be White and her categories of white shame and guilt to call the liberal theology of the Unitarian Universalists Association to do the harder work necessary for spiritual transformation: "social transformation we seek requires spiritual transformation as well. Without it, our antiracism work becomes difficult to sustain or retreats into the safety of disengaged analysis or internal debate."

Stephen H. Furrer