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Metanoia: Living into the Call – Becoming a Multicultural, Antiracist Church
Brief description of presentation:
Within the Abrahamic tradition, we understand our call as children of God – all humans – to be in sacred relationship. We humans exist as interdependent peoples. No wound is other-inflicted that is not also selfinflected. Racism is an infectious wound – a wound with spiritual and material consequences. Its consequences must be addressed through confronting it as a legacy still active in personal and institutional behavior, informing our interpersonal and corporate relations. We need to learn of its origins and the ways it
continues to function as a central organizing principle in all of our social relations and institutional arrangements. We need to learn how we may organize our social realities differently, so that we may live differently.
In the ASDIC workshops we share lessons learned about the transformative power of dialogues – reflection,
study, storytelling, practice – to understand, own, and be accountable for our legacy and to identify ways
that build responsible, just relationships and social patterns, and sense of empowerment. Our interactive,
experiential workshops demonstrate uses of narrative theory in antiracism dialogues for congregational,
community, social agency, and clinical pastoral education groups while engaging the participants in the
methods that make this program therapeutic and transformative. For some, we give additional training in
our ASDIC practices as facilitator leaders, so that they may be compassionate, capacity building agents of
social change in their own settings.
The Antiracism Study Dialogue Circles is a process for bringing people into dialogue to talk about the
“founding sin” of our society—how it has shaped us and all of our social institutions, making authentic
neighbor-relationships impossible
Presenters:
Herbert Perkins, PhD, executive director, ASDIC. United Theological Seminary, adjunct professor. Mdiv
(UTS). Metro State University, community faculty. Antiracism and multicultural workshop presenter. Significant cross-cultural experiences—communication, counseling, and care-giving.
Margery Otto, JD, administrative director, ASDIC. United Theological Seminary adjunct professor. Antiracism and multicultural workshop presenter. Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater, volunteer coordinator.
Metanoia: Living into the Call – Becoming a Multicultural, Antiracist Church
Romans 12:1a-2
1I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters,… 2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
1. Affective objective: inviting participants into a context that makes transformation possible.
The CIRCLE as a small community in relationship: self-understanding, study, and dialogue
Dialogue circle – relationship, fears and hopes, vulnerability, compassion, transformation
Opening reflection: The Shroud Cast Over All Peoples... (Isaiah 25: 6-9)
 ASDIC model of transformation
 Cycle of socialization
 Fears, hopes, expectations
 Undoing the violence inherent to safe-space dialogue
 Guidelines for sharing
 Making systems of privilege visible
 Stories about race socialization
© 2011 ASDIC Metamorphosis. Herbert Perkins, PhD and Margery Otto, JD. www.asdic-circle.org. 612-558-0452.
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Readings:
o Map of Western Hemisphere
o Beverly Tatum 1999: 193-206.. Embracing a Cross-Racial Dialogue (8 pages)
o Joseph Barndt 2011: 23-35. The Past – Racism and Resisting Racism and The Tale
of Two Churches. (12 pages)
o Wildman and Davis 2000. Language and Silence: Making Systems of Privilege Visible (8 pages)
o Zeus Leonardo 2010. Undoing the violence inherent to safe-space dialogue
(1 page)
2. Affective objective: orienting ourselves to looking at and addressing injustice. Asking, why do the
privileged often not see that which is there to be seen, and instead focus their gaze elsewhere?
Theo-ethical foundations for justice seeking.
Opening Reflection: A Christian Moral Creed (Maguire 2005:1)
 Preliminaries to opening a conversation on race
 Reading of, and further reflections on, Guidelines for Sharing
 Biblical context for reclaiming an antiracist gospel
 Tools for understanding justice, Determinants of what is due, Contextual origination of justice, Rudiments of a theory of justice
Readings:
o Karen Lebacqz 1987: 254-260. Implications for a Theory of Justice (8 pages)
o Eitzen and Zinn 2004. Ideal Characteristics of a Just, Ethical Society (1 page)
o Perkins and Otto 2011. ASDIC Not About Talk
o Joseph Barndt 2010: 1-26. (1) Eleven O’clock Sunday Morning. (2) Reclaiming an
Antiracist Gospel (21 pages)
3. Affective objective – seeing the larger context of Empire and feeling its presence in our daily lives
today.
Framing the local through the global and historical
Opening Reflection: Dark Testament (Pauli Murray 1943)
Video: Mickey Mouse Monopoly: Pocahontas
Video: Race, Power of an Illusion: Genetics
Origins of ethnic stratification:
 Ethnocentrism, competition, sense of scare resources, differential power, and
moral indifference
Social-historical origins of race and ethnic domination:
 Notions of civilization (civilized/uncivilized, virtuous/non-virtuous), the people
with the “higher or superior” culture and morals ought to rule and have responsibility to bring other peoples under the control of law, motivated by tangible benefits for those deemed superior (legitimate authority, entitlement to power, privilege, prestige, property), ethic of greed, empire, conquest, exploitation of resources and labor, colonial relationships, colonization, decolonization, scientific
racism
Historical record of empire and colonialism and its impact
 Nexus of empire, colonialism, racism
 Colonizer and the colonized – preliminaries
 Native American experiences of colonialism
 Scientific racism
© 2011 ASDIC Metamorphosis. Herbert Perkins, PhD and Margery Otto, JD. www.asdic-circle.org. 612-558-0452.
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Readings:
o Joel Spring 2010: 1-37. (1) Deculturalization of Indigenous Peoples and the Claim
of Racial and Cultural Superiority. (2) Globalization and Indigenous Peoples –
Deculturalization, Culture, Language, and Schooling. (37 pages)
o Robert Hotz 1995. Scientists: Racial Differences Barely Skin Deep (4 pages)
o Brenda Norrell 2011 (downloaded date). Native Americans: 500 Years of Genocide
(10 pages)
o Mary Hamer 2009. Apology to the Native Americans Indians (20 pages)
4. Affective objective: confessing and lamenting the role of the church in oppression and the ways it
has conceded to empire.
The Christian Church – empire and colonialism and Church’s identify formation
Opening Reflection: Collective Responsibility of Educating for Critical Consciousness (hooks
1995: 193-195)
 Reading the gospels as Jesus subverting empire
 Servility to empire—the people and the church
 The church and the corporate sin of racism
 Marks of a racialized institutional context
 Tactics, strategies, and racialized knowledge of the dominant racial paradigm
Video: Race, the Power of an Illusion: FHA Housing (and the role of suburban churches)
Readings:
o Daniel Maguire 2005: 5-20. The Empire/Servility Syndrome (15 pages)
o Joseph Barndt 2011: 37-49. Racism in United States Church History (12 pages)
o Joseph Barndt 2011: 101-113. Captive Christians in a Captive Church (12 pages)
o Perkins and Otto 2010. Marks of a Racialized Institutional Context
o Perkins and Otto 2009. Tactics and Strategies of White Racial Knowledge
5. Affective objective – allowing one to look at one’s own shaping – personality, self-presentation,
racial awareness, material and professional status.
Socialization into the dominant racial
Opening Reflection: Sleepwalkers (Joy Harjo 2000, of the Mvskoke People)
Video: Ethnic Notions: Learning the ABCs of Racism
Exercise: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack: Privilege Walk
 The legacy we have received and what to do about it
 What it means to be white
 Stages of identity development into and out of the dominant racial paradigm
 Cultural racism: rightness of whiteness, white privilege, ethnocentrism
 Rationalizations: denial, victim-blaming, and avoidance
 Impacts and costs of being socialized into dominant racial paradigm
 Impacts and costs of oppression on Indigenous Peoples and people of color
 Stories of the functioning of the dominant racial paradigm in interpersonal and institutional processes
Readings:
o Gregory Jay 2003. Who Invented White People (7 pages)
o Colonizer-Colonized Mindset: Processing Whiteness (4 pages)
o Dianne Goodman 2001. The Costs of Oppression to People from Privileged Groups
(4 pages)
o Tema Okun. From White Racist to White Anti-Racist (14 pages)
o Herbert Perkins 2010. Retaining Benefits – Avoiding Responsibility (7 pages)
o Koppleman 2010: 188-204. Confronting a Legacy of White Domination (16 pages)
© 2011 ASDIC Metamorphosis. Herbert Perkins, PhD and Margery Otto, JD. www.asdic-circle.org. 612-558-0452.
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6. Affective objective: appreciating and feeling the impact of race ideology (white racial frame) in
our personal and collective lives, and exploring the theologies that may counter race ideology.
Experiencing, marking. and countering the dominant racial paradigm
Opening Reflection: We Wear the Mask (Dunbar 1895)
Video: The Color of Fear, Part One
 Antiracism Theologies: perspectives, conceptual tools
 White virtue and innocence, creating deficits, non-remediation of deficits
 Specifying content of the dominant paradigm in institutional life:
Worldview, narratives (stories, anecdotes, accounts), assumptions, interpretations, values, images, emotions and feelings, and smells
 The semblance of a post-racial church
Readings:
o Perkins and Otto 2009. Antiracism Theologies – Critical Conceptual Tools
(11 pages)
o Joe Feagin 2010. The White Racial Frame – What It Is. How It Works. (3 pages)
o Joe Feagin (Trinz 2010). Racist Ideology as a Social Force. (5 pages)
o Joseph Barndt 2011. Resisting Racism in United States History (14 pages)
o Joseph Barndt 2011. Racism and Resisting Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Church
(14 pages)
o Zeus Leonardo (Perkins 2010). Tactics and Strategies of White Knowledge. (2 pages)
7. Affective objective: clarity in critical analysis of the forces creating and maintaining racism, with
the ability to see those forces at work in one’s own immediate context (creation of “white space”).
Structural elements of oppression underlying and supporting systemic racism
Opening Reflection: Where Do We Go From Here? (Martin Luther King, Jr. 1967)
Video: Race, Power of an Illusion: White by Law
 Key elements foundational to the structures of domination
 Timeline of key events in the struggle for racial equality (1819-1988)
 Ideologies justifying racial subordination furthering economic and political control
 Racism as an idolatrous religion
 Racism as a historical reality that interrelates to economic objectives
 Socio-historical processes (social organization) underlying the US racial order
 Requisites for eradicating racism – eradicating white supremacy
Readings
o Margery Otto 2009. Key Elements in the Structures of Domination (2 pages)
o Timeline of key events in the struggle for racial equality (3 pages)
o Zeus Leonardo (Perkins 210). Notes and Reflections on Institutional Racism (2 pages)
o Katie Cannon 1996:144-161. Racism and Economics (17 pages)
o Herbert Perkins 2011. Empire – Precursor to Colonialism and Globalization (1 page)
o Joseph Barndt 2011: 87-100. Race, Prejudice, and Power in the Church (13 pages)
o Paul Kivel 2002. The Culture of Power (4 pages),
© 2011 ASDIC Metamorphosis. Herbert Perkins, PhD and Margery Otto, JD. www.asdic-circle.org. 612-558-0452.
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8. Affective objective: on seeing the everydayness of micro-aggressions and coming to empathize
with people of color’s being disregarded and dishonored, we may respond with a desire to change
the culture of disrespect and disregard and may see that resources exist to assist us in doing so.
Organizing for change – assessment, processes, outcomes
Opening Reflection: When You Begin a Great Work (Teeduscung)
Video: True Colors: Encounter at the Shoe Department, Record Store, and Car Dealership
 Challenges and success factors of multicultural, antiracism churches
 Assessment and Inventory models for an ideal, inclusive multicultural community
 Step by step processes toward becoming a multicultural church
Readings
o Perkins and Otto 2008. A Parable – Multiculturalism in an Indian Restaurant
o Emmaus/ASDIC 2008. Working Document on Becoming an Antiracist, Multicultural
Church (2 pages)
o Joseph Barndt 2011: 115-131. Institutionalized Racism in the Church (16 pages)
o Joseph Barndt 2011: 169-184. Getting It Done – The Organizing Task (15 pages)
o Perspectives on an Ideal, Inclusive Church Community (3 pages)
o CPUC 2011. Racial/Cultural Identity Survey Focus Group (3 pages)
o CPUC 2011. CPUC Responses to Ideal, Inclusive Church Community (3 pages)
o CPUC 2011. BBC Identity and Mission (1 page)
o CPUC 2011. BBC – Proposal for Becoming a Beloved Community (3 pages)
9. Affective objective: hope-making in a newly-understood context, allowing that new context to become one’s new emotional “home.”
A world without racism
Opening Reflection: Beloved Community: A World Without Racism (hooks 1995:263-265)
 Naming the vision that could be
 Prophetic voices, prophetic action
 Prophesy and moral outrage
Readings
o Daniel Maguire 2005: 82-89. Call to Prophetic Midwifery (7 pages)
o Alabama Clergymen 1961. Public Statement: Civil Rights Demonstrations in
Birmingham (1 page)
o Martin Luther King, Jr. 1961. Letter from Birmingham City Jail (2 pages)
o Perkins and Otto 2008. ASDIC Call to Koinonia Relationship—Theological Perspectives (3 pages)
o Barndt 2011: 145-168. God’s Call to Become an Antiracist Church (23 pages)
10. Affective objective: letting go of the old; strengthening the felt desire to change destructive racial practices in our daily lives as church and to create a new reality; empowering that transformation.
Responding to and transforming institutional practices
Opening Reflection: Next Steps – White Antiracism Activists Speaking Out to Fellow Whites
 Recognizing the conditions and creating the context for social change
 De-framing, re-framing, dissent, and other strategies of social change
 Practices and principles in support of an antiracist, multicultural institution
 Perspectives on an ideal, inclusive community within an institutional context
Small group exercise: 15-point plans for developing an antiracist congregation or seminary
(as a way of practicing, recognizing and addressing the underlying patterns of racism in our own institutional settings)
© 2011 ASDIC Metamorphosis. Herbert Perkins, PhD and Margery Otto, JD. www.asdic-circle.org. 612-558-0452.
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Readings:
o Perkins and Otto 2009. Practices and Principles in Support of a Multicultural, Antiracist Institution (10 pages)
o Perkins and Martinas. Strategies and Agenda for an Antiracism Curriculum –
o Joe Feagin 2010: 192-219. Thinking and Acting Outside the White Frame (27 pages)
o Perkins and Otto. Steps toward Becoming an Antiracist Multicultural Institution
(2 pages)
11. Affective objective: naming and valuing the community of faith we seek to be, within the context
of recognizing and addressing the white racial frame.
The call, the response, the implementation – the church of the future
Opening Reflection: Black Elk Speaks: Great Vision of the Great Hoop of Life
 Ethic of risk and maturity
 Concrete dimensions of the antiracist church
 Articulation of the dividing walls – interpersonal relational patterns, decisionmaking processes, hierarchical structures, cultural values, worldview and assumptions, and accountability arrangements
 Creating institutions designed to be self-perpetuating that function in an antiracism way
 Models of non-accountability and of accountability- the Alabama clergy and Martin Luther King (Letter from a Birmingham Jail)
Readings
o Sharon Welch 2000: 40-41, 45-48, 68, 70, 75-76, 80. “The Despair of the Middle
Class (3 pages)
o Anna Marie Vigen 2004: 216-227.. To Hear and be Accountable (11 pages)
o Joseph Barndt 2011:115-131. Institutionalizing Antiracism in the Church
(14 pages)
o Joseph Barndt 2011: 133-144. Cultural Racism and the Multicultural Church
(10 pages)
12. Affective objective: experiencing being sent forth as the church, informed, empowered, and reforming the future.
Action plan working in solidarity, and mutuality
Opening Reflection: I Know My Race Must Change (Hin-mah-too-hay-lat-kekt)
Video: Essential Blue Eyes – Stand If You Wish to Be Mistreated (Jane Elliott)
 Study
 Assessment
 Action Plans
Readings and Exercises:
o Isasi-Diaz, Welch, and Baker-Fletcher (Perkins 2009). Communicative Ethics – Mutuality, Solidarity toward Social Transformation (3 pages)
o Perkins and Otto 2008. Perspectives on an Ideal, Inclusive Church Community (3
pages)
o Perkins and Otto 2010. Analyzing Structures of Domination: Alabama Clergy Letter
to Martin Luther King, Jr. (3 pages) (Study exercise)
o Perkins and Otto 2011. Antiracism Action Planning Tool (1 page)
o Perkins and Otto 2007. Action Plan – Objectives, Steps, Indicators (2 pages)
Closing reflection: Luke 4:16-18
© 2011 ASDIC Metamorphosis. Herbert Perkins, PhD and Margery Otto, JD. www.asdic-circle.org. 612-558-0452.
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ASDIC Representative Client List
September 2011
Governmental bodies, including schools:
 MN Department of Human Services
 WSCO (youth program)
 Community Action Duluth
 Independent School District #709 (Duluth) – Civic Leaders Circle
 Crow Wing County Human Rights Commission
 Mille Lac County Human Rights Commission
 Zanewood Elementary School, Brooklyn Park
Non-profits:
 YWCA Duluth
 Youth Farm & Market (youth program)
 In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre
Academic settings:
 United Theological Seminary – for-credit courses (on-going)
 Hamline University Center for Excellence in Urban Teaching – for-credit course (on-going)
 HECUA (on-going)
 Carleton College – for-credit course
 Hamline University – new staff training program (on-going)
Faith organizations:
 Churches Uniting in Christ [national level]
 United Church of Christ [national and state levels]
 Saint Paul Area Synod ELCA
 Northeast Association, Iowa Conference of the United Church of Christ
 Cherokee Park United Church, West Side of Saint Paul (on-going)
 Calvary Baptist Church/Christ Presbyterian Church, South Minneapolis (on-going)
 Parkway UCC, North Minneapolis
 Peace Church UCC, Duluth
 Peace Church UCC, Rochester
 First Congregational Church of Mason City, Iowa
 Congregational Church of Detroit Lakes
 First Congregational UCC, Brainerd
 First Congregational UCC, Menomonie, WI
 First Methodist Church, Duluth
 Associated Church, Owatonna
 New Ulm UCC, New Ulm MN
 Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches, CPE program
 Mayflower UCC, South Minneapolis
 UCC New Brighton
 Board of Directors, Minnesota Conference UCC
 Committee on Ministry, Minnesota Conference UCC
© 2011 ASDIC Metamorphosis. Herbert Perkins, PhD and Margery Otto, JD. www.asdic-circle.org. 612-558-0452.