STARTING APRIL 25: LOCAL UUs EXPLORE CINCINNATI’S SYSTEMIC RACISM AT UUCGC’S ANTI-RACISM CIRCLE
The UU Council of Greater Cincinnati (UUCGC), of which St. John’s is a member, will collaborate with the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center (IJPC) to offer its popular new docuseries “Race and Racism in Cincinnati” as the next online-based UUCGC Anti-Racism Circle for Unitarian Universalists throughout Greater Cincinnati.
The Anti-Racism Circles-IPJC Series is scheduled weekly at 7-9 p. m. Mondays, April 25, May 2, May 9 and May 16. Register by April 18 via email to joettaprost@gmail.com or linnealose@gmail.com. Include your name, email, phone and home congregation.
Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and white UUs will view the IJPC video docuseries together online for weeks 1-3. Week 4 deals with the daily personal toll that racism levies on BIPOC people. After watching the videos together, the UUCGC Anti-Racism Circle will examine the inequity and trauma of systemic racism using the lens of Unitarian Universalist principles that call us to inclusion and action. Costs are being underwritten by the UU Council and participants will not incur a charge. All meetings take place via Zoom.
The docuseries videos are a “people’s history” as told by people directly impacted by racism rather than by professional historians. Multiple guests examine systemic racism rooted in Cincinnati’s founding, solidified in post-Civil War education and housing, and affecting Greater Cincinnati’s present-day justice and arts.
For more information on “Race and Racism in Cincinnati” or to join the Anti-Racism Circles mailing list, contact Joetta Prost (St. John’s member) joettaprost@gmail.com and/or Linnea Lose (First Unitarian member) linnealose@gmail.com. Zoom links to participate will be sent to those on the mailing list.
Beginning in fall 2021, UUCGC’s Anti-Racism Circles have offered locally produced dialogues for Unitarian Universalists in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. The Anti-Racism Circles are intended to be an inward journey, primarily for white and/or privileged UUs who want to become better anti-racists. Doing our own spiritually-rooted work enables us to become more effective change agents within Unitarian Universalism and in the larger world.
UUCGC’s Anti-Racism Circles memorialize deceased UU and Tuskegee airman Leslie Edwards, a member of The Gathering at Northern Hills and friend of First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati. Edwards’ grandfather was Rev. W.H.G. Carter, a Black Unitarian minister whose downtown Cincinnati storefront church served the poor in the 1930s and was not supported by inherently racist mostly-white local and national Unitarians.