"It's easy to think that the problem
of racial oppression in this country is just too big. How on earth can we be expected to dismantle a complex system that has been functioning
for over four hundred years? My answer is: piece by piece."
- Ijeoma Uluo, So You Want to Talk about Race
Practicing Antiracism
Personal growth and change is a vital component to a national movement to dismantle racism. Every single interaction counts. So Interwoven Congregations helps the individual members of our participating faith communities identify what they can do in their own personal lives and spheres of influence to practice antiracism.
But we also know that racism operates and is perpetuated at the institutional and sytemic level. This begins at home by the faith communities examining their own histories and practices that may be tinged by race -- and taking steps to promote racial justice and equity in their own institutions.
Then Interwoven Congregations works to support the partnered pairs of congregations in identifying ways that they can work together to address systemic racism that is present in their immediate neighborhoods and communities or across society at large. By building relationships and confronting the realities of racism, the congregations develop trust to work together. They then can go further to undertake joint initiatives around:
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Voter suppression
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Education
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Fair housing
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Mass incarceration
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Economic development
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or other opportunities identified by the congregations.
Step by step, piece by piece -- together, people of faith can help dismantle the structures of racism in our communities and across the nation.
But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
- Amos 5:24