By Rev. Dr. Calenthia S. Dowdy, ROJ Trainer

I hadn’t intended to write this. It’s Sunday morning, July 2nd, and I’m sitting in my easy chair watching CBS News Face the Nation. Former Vice President, Mike Pence, one of the many hopefuls in the Republican party to be their nominee for President is being interviewed. Naturally he was questioned about the recent Supreme Court decision to end Affirmative Action in colleges and universities.

​When asked if fundamentally he believed there was racial inequity in the education system in the U.S., Pence responded by saying... “I really don’t believe there is, I believe there was, there may have been a time when Affirmative Action was necessary simply to open the doors to all our schools and universities, but I think that time has passed, and we’ll continue to move forward as a color-blind society which is really the aspiration I believe of every American.” Pence went on to try to quote Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in 2003, saying, 

By: Thulani Conrad Moore, Roots of Justice Trainer

​Understanding racism and White supremacy starts with a question that White people need to ask themselves. People of Color need to ask themselves this question also but that subject will be discussed in another chapter. The question is how do you know what you know about who you are. We are all told who we are by the external forces around us. This question should create an existential crisis point. It is a fact that our identities are shaped by the people around us who tell us who we are. It starts with parents and grandparents. It moves on to other caregivers and school teachers, pastors or religious leaders who tell us who we are.

“The kingdom of God for which the true prophets are now in the streets crying out, demanding, will upend our white world no matter how much we believe ourselves to be allies. Perhaps we can participate in that coming kingdom, but we do so in a confessional posture…not a prophetic stance.”

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Luke 4:18-19

“…the hands of none of us are clean if we bend not our energies to righting these great wrongs.” W.E.B. DuBois

Here’s a look into the history of Roots of Justice/Damascus Road, and the work that remains to be done. A reminder that this work is indeed about the long haul. It’s a journey – won’t you come along?

http://www.themennonite.org/issues/16-11/articles/Beyond_tokenism

In an Open Letter to the Evangelical Church, Asian American evangelicals say that racism must stop. They lay out some examples in recent years of particularly offensive and publicized racial stereotyping of Asian cultures, and add 

And so, after being explicitly told that the reactions toward those who challenge racism have been more damaging than the original racism, what response did these leaders receive? Anne Joh, one of the signers, describes at NYTimes.com’s Room For Debate, that