I'm trying to figure out what's going on and what "the problem" is about race and diversity and multiculturalism at UUCA.  It's a muddle, in my opinion, right now.   One friend thinks white people…

I'm trying to figure out what's going on and what "the problem" is about race and diversity and multiculturalism at UUCA.  It's a muddle, in my opinion, right now.

One friend thinks white people are unconscious of how people of color have been hurt by white racist behavior, and she also thinks that UU white people feel guilty about it.

I think that UU whites more likely feel fear of judgment, blame and disapproval, that all human beings (in general) have trouble understanding the inner feelings of others, and that "we never forgive the people we have harmed—including our own selves."

Another friend asks passionately "what do we need to do, to understand that we are really all the same?  That we are all...family?"

I think, silently, that yes, but there are always people, many of them, who want to be seen as different, who define themselves as separate or "other."  Most families have at least one of these.  Can we see these folks as family and also equally honor their separateness, their difference?

A third friend says sexism in UUCA is a bigger problem than racism (and she's suffered from both).

I have no idea if she's right.  What would UU sexism look like?  A strong emphasis on reason over feelings?  The effort to control life, rather than going with the flow of human needs?  A focus on numbers and money as the criteria of success?  But these also sound like traditional upper-middle-class white cultural styles.

I don't think any of us is all right or wrong.  I think we have to accept both our strong differences of opinion and also our fervent yearning for harmony.  Sharif Abdullah (Creating a World That Works for All) says the real challenge of multiculturalism is including people who think differently from us.  Loving them and listening to them?

As we approach a congregational vote on the UUA Diversity of Ministry Initiative, I think we owe ourselves a full opportunity to freely discuss the issue, with full information about DOMI—how it works, its assumptions and methods and requirements—and enough time for everyone to listen to each other and to their own hearts before voting.