Still Working to Understand Identity, Privilege and Power

I was born into a multiracial African-American and European-American family.  I have wonderful memories of spending time with both sides of my family.  

After my father left the Air Force, my family lived in New  England towns that were almost exclusively Caucasian and European-American.  There were many times when being multiracial created confusing and painful dynamics.  Growing up Unitarian Universalist offered a moral and theological basis on which to challenge some of linked oppression around me.  However, as a youth, I did not witness examples of successful dialogues about race at church.  As a result I did not have the support or skill to leverage my faith as a catalyst for exploring my identity and the dynamics of race and oppression.  I suspect this is the case for many of our multiracial youth today who attend primarily white UU churches.

I am a light skinned, multi-racial person.  Often persons in the majority culture do not immediately identify me as a person of color.  This fact, coupled with my academic, middle class, African-American affect, can create misunderstandings and tension when I interact with some African American communities.  This was a painful aspect of my emerging racial identity as a young adult.  However, I understood the basis of the resentment and suspicion.  It mirrored some of my own internal struggle with the concepts of community, identity, power and privilege.  

These experiences set the foundation for my capacity to recognize racial and cultural oppression dynamics in interactions and systems.  My college education became a vehicle for me to name the shadows and resolve some of the dissonance within my own experience.   I took every class on identity, race and culture that I could find.

Following college, I was taken under the wing of a diverse community of mentors who had come of age in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and New York City in the late 60’s.  Wise, worldly and fiercely loving, they cajoled and  confronted me until I was strong enough and clear enough to understand who I was, how I represented both the oppressed and the oppressor, and how to use this insight to both create safety and to challenge others. These lessons were the springboard for my subsequent 15 years as a consultant.

My later preparation for working in early childhood education required courses that address oppression and culture.  Two courses directly address culture, inequities and power dynamics in the classroom, with families and in communities.  Other human development and education classes embed concepts of multiculturalism and issues of oppression into psychological and cognitive development,  family culture and dynamics, learning paradigms, curriculum, and assessment. 


I have participated in more ARAOMC (Antiracism, Anti-oppression, Multiculturalism) trainings with the UUA than I can hope to remember.  I attended trainings with Bill Jones, Crossroads, the Equity Institute, the People’s Institute and many trainings created and conducted by UUA organizations and consultants such as Beyond Categorical Thinking, trainings for newly elected leaders following GA, and trainings specifically designed for the MFC and UUA focused on sexual orientation, gender identity and ARAOMC.  I have lead or co-led many UUA ARAOMC trainings.  I served as Chair of the UUA Board of Trustee's ARAOMC Monitoring Team.

I currently attend First Unitarian Church of San Jose, CA.  As a congregation, we continue to wrestle with what it means to be a liberal urban church in a community with a high percentage of  Spanish speaking immigrants, low-income families and people who are homeless.  Our successes, learnings and “stuck” places are part of my daily and weekly backdrop.

For the past dozen years, I have worked in my community at the local school and district levels to advocate for African-American students and their families.  This volunteer work has been very rewarding.


I traveled to Hungary and Romania this summer with the youth from my congregation.  During my trip, I felt a profound shift in my understanding of the culture of Unitarianism.  Unitarian history in Transylvania is immeshed with ethnicity, culture, oppression and resistance in a very different way than the history of Unitarian and Universalism in the United States.    As a person of color, this new understanding has opened possibilities for resolving the ways in which the Unitarian Universalist culture of privilege places me as an outsider - even though I am a lifelong UU. I am still processing and integrating this exciting new aspect of my faith journey. 


Working to understand and counter oppression is a lifelong journey.  It is a rich journey of ups and downs, stumbles, false starts and progress.  When I view the journey as a deepening and an unfolding, rather than a journey with a linear path, I am better grounded and more resilient.  


I am grateful for the awakening of spirit, compassion and hope that grows in me when I engage with this work.  I am also grateful for the companionship of frustration, impatience and anger.  They are the enemies of complacency.  


With an abiding faith in the power of love to transform and a willingness to be transformed, I continue my journey.  


What inspiration and insight have you found on your journey?