Patricia Jimenez, LUUNA President
This workshop included the reading of a LUUNA position paper on the UUA's antiracism and multiculturalism work. This statement, "Bringing Gifts," is reproduced here:
The LUUNA (Latino/a Unitarian Universalist Networking Association) steering committee would like to offer a Latino perspective on the work before us in our Journey Toward Wholeness. LUUNA is deeply committed to this labor. We applaud and honor the work that has begun and we dedicate ourselves to take an active part in extending it. We share a vision of a rich, multicultural, multiracial movement that values each human being.
As part of our effort to extend the work of creating a multicultural and diverse UUA, we in LUUNA are committed to bring the insights from our own experience. We believe the experience of Latino peoples has much to teach us. To be a Latino, particularly a Latino in North America, is to be multicultural and multiracial. We are a mixture of European, indigenous and African cultures. We are a mixture; we are mestizos and mulattos. A gathering of Latinos is a gathering of racial and cultural diversity. Some of us are light skinned; some of us are dark. We bring a history of oppression - we are both the oppressed and the oppressor. Yet, regardless of our differences, we share a need to form and sustain communities which in turn support the family members of that community.
We do not pretend to have all the answers. However, we would like to offer some observations and ideas.
Candidly, we Latinos are troubled by much of the language and categories used in the UUA's attempts to achieve a more multiracial and multicultural religious movement. We are not comfortable with thinking that focuses on white and black, on racism, on oppression. We feel left out, marginalized, when our experiences, oppressions and insights are not counted. We feel belittled when a recounting of Civil Rights struggles do not include our struggles, setbacks and accomplishments; nor are our leaders, writers and activists mentioned.
This is not a matter of mere vocabulary, of changing a few terms to make our language more inclusive. The problem is much deeper and much more serious. Ultimately, it not only propels us to unwittingly alienate portions of our UU community but it threatens the very fiber of that community by turning one against the other.
Categories tied too closely to the history of the racism experienced by African Americans at the hands of white Americans are too limiting. Latinos and Latinas do not fit easily into the present scheme. Neither do Asians. Neither do Native Americans. Perhaps most importantly, neither do the growing number of children in our congregations who are part Latino, part African American, part White, part Asian, part Indigenous.
Furthermore, we believe that what ultimately binds us together is a vision of a common future. Each of us - black, white, brown, gay, straight - longs for a community of faith that values us for who we are. We bring a deep need to be in a faith community where we are loved and known, where we can bring our gifts and our pain. We in LUUNA believe that we are better served by organizing around our common vision for the future rather than on our injuries in the past. That does not mean we deny the past, that we do not take hard instruction from it. We believe that an overemphasis on past injuries makes oppression something that gives us legitimacy; it devalues those who do not have "enough" oppression. There is nothing which can adequately compensate us for past oppressions, and ultimately, little is to be gained from dwelling on past failings. The end result of such a process will be an overwhelming and paralyzing sense of guilt in some and resistance and denial in others. Most significantly, to dwell on oppression divides and distracts us from our true tasks. Our true tasks are to create a common vision and make that vision a reality. In sum, we feel we need to concentrate more on what will unite us despite our differences and despite the injustices we have suffered. Our process for ending racism must create loving community.
Lastly, we criollos, mestizos and mulattos in LUUNA believe that our varied pasts are precious gifts that we want to share. Part of spiritual growth is learning to appreciate the gifts and wisdom of different traditions. We also grow spiritually when we come to know another deeply and intimately, to understand his or her experience, to take it in and make it part of us. We would like to see our work in multiculturalism focus more on the gifts we each bring to our communities of faith rather than on our injuries. Or, better put, we need to reframe our injuries and make them into gifts. Someone who has experienced pain is more sensitive to pain in others; this sensitivity is an enormous gift. Our varied backgrounds give us so much to offer each other. Our variety can be a source of wisdom that helps revitalize worship, religious education and community life in our congregations.
In summary, we in LUUNA feel we need to take time to rethink and reframe our discussion. We want to be part of a religious movement with a common vision - a vision founded on sharing the wonderful gifts we are. We in LUUNA are eager to work with joy and love to help make our shared vision a living reality.
Reported by Gila Jones, formatted for the web by Margy Levine Young
