Davis Meeting Minutes on Racism

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Davis Friends Meeting approved the following two minutes 11 Oct 2020:

Minute 2020.16: 
DFM approves the Statement on Addressing Racism and anticipates the implementation of the actions therein.

Addressing Racism 

As Davis Friends, we seek to follow divine guidance as we work to foster social justice and racial equality and as we participate in the work to undo individual and systemic racism with its impact on people of color and in our community, country, and beyond.  We welcome engagement which, even when uncomfortable, may help us grow.   We seek to listen & learn, to support & connect, to speak up, and to act with courage, integrity, & compassion. 

Pacific Yearly Meeting's Faith and Practice instructs all of us to "witness against injustice and inequality wherever it exists" (page 41).  We see racism as a most extreme case, and we want to help when we find opportunities to witness. 

Therefore we will:

1. provide education: opportunities for people here to learn, think, and share about racism and related matters,
2. help individuals learn what actions are available for them to take,
3. find out what work individuals in our Meeting are already engaged in and collectively support them,
4. give support to groups in the local community that work for racial justice and equality by supporting them monetarily, by co-sponsorship, by developing a relationship with them, and/or by our physical presence, and
5. create or lead a new action, event, or project as we become aware of a need and figure out a way to help/solve it.
    

Minute 2020.24:
DFM authorizes the Working Group to explore the implementation of DFM’s Statement on Addressing Racism. The group will meet at 11:00 AM on Mondays in the Meeting Zoom Room.

DFM also approved “Addressing Racism” as its own heading in the list of social actions we support, and it was given a budget of $2000 for the 2021 fiscal year.

In addition, we have had several study groups who have read together and discussed one or more of the following:

• White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
• "Ya feel me," an article written by African-American Education Scholar, Ijeoma Ononuju, subtitle: "African American teens and and the semantics of 'you feel me'"
• My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
• The Righteous Mind; How Good People are Divided by Religion and Politics by Jonathan Haidt
• Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
   

from Julie Harlow, Clerk, Davis Friends Meeting (1/8/2021)