J-Church, N-Judah, K-Ingleside

Following an entertaining, yet ultimately time-wasting, bleary-eyed IM chat with my ex's fiancee at 7am Saturday morning, I spent seven hours at place where I normally wouldn't be caught dead...a church. I went to churches twice during all of 2004 only for very special events. Before that...who fucking knows when??

One of the UW student groups I advise is planning to bring an anti-racism workshop to campus for faculty and staff to undergo. My boss and I figured that if I'm going to help the students execute the workshop that I ought to at least go through it and get the experience myself.

It was held at Freedom Church in West Seattle. It's a Black church housed in an old Safeway building. Looking around, one can tell it was formerly a supermarket but it looks very nice with pews (is that the right word? Church and WhatUpThen don't really mix) installed and a podium/lectern and even microphones and drum set!

The workshop itself was moving. One of my profs has a system about meaningful things...he says to ask yourself whether something touched you, whether it pushed you or whether it moved you; this Undoing Institutional Racism training was most definitely the latter of the three. It's completely inappropriate to place the session in a nutshell, but I'll try. There's no doubt that racism is a reality today, but the workshop leaders threw out some definitions that I hadn't heard before. If racism is a process by which whites, based on their skin color, are afforded benefits that others don't receive, then all White people are racist and no person of color can be racist. Isn't that some provocative shit?! Essentially, they are using the idea of institutionalized racism to define "racism." It sounds a little less pointed when you say: "All White people benefit from institutionalized racism while no person of color benefits from it," but I am starting to believe that the automatic benefits are what distinguishes racism from prejudice, hatred and bigotry, which we know people of all colors, nationalities and sexes are capable of.

Anyway, it was also good just to hear everyday people talking candidly about their experiences and about what we need to do. In the real world it is so rare that people talk openly but everyone appreciates it when it happens. It did rankle me a bit each time someone credited God, told me that they were blessed or when I had to pretend like I was praying in a group. But one thing I can say about these church folks, they were welcoming with open arms. Don't get me wrong...I'm not about to go all Vaya Con Dios on you, but being in that setting really makes one examine oneself and that's something I needed to do right about now.