Social Justice Saturdays: Listening to Black Voices - Lifting Black Voices in Children's Books

Dr. Carlotta Penn is an educator, author, and daydreamer committed to advancing social justice, especially as it relates to educational access, experiences, and outcomes. She makes the case that Black children must see their cultures reflected in books, and that we must make more space for Black authors to write these stories. Despite the ongoing resistance of major publishers to fully embrace Black children’s books by Black authors, independent Black authors are filling the void. Penn shares how her journey to independent publishing is connected to the centuries-old tradition of Black freedom writing--a tradition as vital today as ever before.

Social Justice Saturday: The REI Groundwater Approach

The following is an excerpt from the Racial Equity Institute’s paper, The Groundwater Approach:


The Fish, the Lake, and the Groundwater

If you have a lake in front of your house and one fish is floating belly-up dead, it makes sense to analyze the fish. What is wrong with it? Imagine the fish is one student failing in the education system. We’d ask: Did it study hard enough? Is it getting the support it needs at home? But if you come out to that same lake and half the fish are floating belly-up dead, what should you do? This time you’ve got to analyze the lake. Imagine the lake is the education system and half the students are failing. This time we’d ask: Might the system itself be causing such consistent, unacceptable outcomes for students? If so, how?

Now… picture five lakes around your house, and in each and every lake half the fish are floating belly-up dead! What is it time to do? We say it’s time to analyze the groundwater. How did the water in all these lakes end up with the same contamination? On the surface the lakes don’t appear to be connected, but it’s possible—even likely—that they are. In fact, over 95% of the freshwater on the planet is not above ground where we can see it; it is below the surface in the groundwater.

This time we can imagine half the kids in a given region are failing in the education system, half the kids suffer from ill health, half are performing poorly in the criminal justice system, half are struggling in and out of the child welfare system, and it’s often the same kids in each system! By using a “groundwater” approach, one might begin to ask these questions: Why are educators creating the same racial inequity as doctors, police officers, and child welfare workers? How might our systems be connected? Most importantly, how do we use our position(s) in one system to impact a structural racial arrangement that might be deeper than any single system?

To “fix fish” or clean up one lake at a time simply won’t work—all we’d do is put “fixed” fish back into toxic water or filter a lake that is quickly recontaminated by the toxic groundwater. [1] Our groundwater metaphor is designed to help practitioners at all levels internalize the reality that we live in a racially structured society, and that that is what causes racial inequity.

The metaphor is based on three observations: racial inequity looks the same across systems, socioeconomic difference does not explain the racial inequity; and inequities are caused by systems, regardless of people’s culture or behavior. Embracing these truths forces leaders to confront the reality that all our systems, institutions, and outcomes emanate from the racial hierarchy on which the United States was built. In other words, we have a “groundwater” problem, and we need “groundwater” solutions.

This is an excerpt - to read the other pages in the paper which address some common arguments, questions and stats, download it here now.

Social Justice Saturday: Covid Deaths by Race

Nationwide, Black people have died at 1.4 times the rate of white people.

Deaths per 100,000 people by race or ethnicity through Invalid DateTime

Black or African American people have experienced 178 deaths per 100,000 people.

 American Indian or Alaska Native people have experienced 172 deaths per 100,000 people.

 Hispanic or Latino people have experienced 154 deaths per 100,000 people.

 Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander people have experienced 144 deaths per 100,000 people.

 White people have experienced 124 deaths per 100,000 people.

 Other people have experienced 97deaths per 100,000 people.

 Asian people have experienced 95 deaths per 100,000 people.

 Two or more races people have experienced 18 deaths per 100,000 people.

 COVID-19 is not over, and its illness is not always a “mild case.” People continue to die with different proportions by race.

 

Covid Racial Data Tracker covidtracking.com

Social Justice Saturday: Celebrating Epiphany This Thursday with Presiding Bishop Curry

Save the date: This coming Thursday: TO LOOK LKE JESUS

Join Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, Washington Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, the Rev. Glenna Huber, and other local and national leaders for a livestreamed celebration of Epiphany, the season of light, from the Church of the Epiphany in Washington, D.C.


Thursday, Jan. 6, at 12 p.m. Eastern

JOIN LIVESTREAM

During a worship service featuring a diversity of voices from across the church, Bishop Curry will invite Episcopalians to commit afresh to looking, acting, and loving like Jesus—in our communities and in our nation.
Bishop Curry also will offer an address to the nation later that day.



Anglican News - Remembering Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is an inspiring example of Christian faithfulness and commitment to justice. At the urging of our Bishops, the Right Rev. Alan Gates and the Right Rev. Gayle Harris, we will join with parishes across the Diocese of Massachusetts in offering a special memorial prayer for him this Sunday, January 2.

[Religion News Service] Retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu, the man who became synonymous with South Africa’s nonviolent struggle against apartheid, died on Dec. 26 at the age of 90.

Tutu was diagnosed with prostate cancer almost two decades ago.

The feisty spiritual leader of millions of Black and white South Africans seized every opportunity at home and abroad to rail against the racially oppressive regime that stifled his country for decades. His struggles earned him the Nobel Peace Prize and appointment to the leadership of a commission that sought to reveal the truth of apartheid’s atrocities.

Continue reading the article at the Episcopal News Service website.

Social Justice Saturday: Supporting Black-owned Businesses with our Holiday Shopping

The Boston Globe has added specific focus on news about and ideas from the black community in Boston. In one recent story they interviewed the woman who owns Olives & Grace gift shop in the South End. It appears that Target gives people ordering online a choice of purchasing items they source from black owned companies. Apparently Etsy, Amazon and others do that, too. This information helps us make purchasing decisions to support black business owners — a concrete way to advance racial economic justice that's so long overdue.

These actions are important, especially since black (and woman) owned businesses have more difficulty accessing capital to fund their growth - they need to fund their growth through revenue/income.

You can find a list of black-owned businesses here.

https://www.bostonblackbiz.com/location/

Wednesday Wisdom - The Remarkable Work of Jesse "Little Doe" Baird to Save the Wampanoag Language

One of the three stories of hope in trying times from last Sunday’s sermon, hear Jesse Baird in her own words talk about her work to reclaim the Wampanoag language through hard work, ancestral wisdom and faithfulness.

Learn more about Jesse’s work and how you can support it at her organization’s website:

https://www.wlrp.org

The Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project