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Creating a Safe Space/Confronting Oppression
An important part of a successful conference is ensuring that a safe space where people are free to be themselves and avoid the hurtful and silencing effects of oppression. Like most work, starting with one’s self and moving outward can be helpful. Assess your own values and beliefs regarding issues such as race, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ability, religion, class, education level and other background which define who we are. Taking stock will help you to address your own internal biases, recognize your personal limits, identify areas for personal growth, and enable you to be an effective ally for all people in an open, honest, respectful manner.
While Unitarian Universalists, particularly youth and young adults, have been some of the leaders in anti-oppression work it is important that we continue this work forward. There is still much progress to be made. Oftentimes the young adult UU culture still reflects those who hold most of the power in our society (white, middle to upper class, well-educated, able, straight, etc.) It’s important for us to recognize this and understand that a person coming from a background not reflecting these identities can feel uncomfortable in setting which can be quite homogenous.
Anti-Oppression Work
The Continental Unitarian Universalist Young Adult Network (C*UUYAN) has affirmed a call in its own work, making anti-racism, anti-oppression and multiculturalism work a central facet of continental young adult programming. Looking at how young adults address oppression on the continental work can be helpful in your group’s own work on a local and district level.
C*UUYAN’s commitment to anti-oppression-
Our commitment to anti-racism, anti-oppression and multiculturalism means several things:
1. Accountability. We seek to be accountable to historically-marginalized communities (people of color, Latino/Latina/Hispanic people, gay/lesbian/bisexual people, transgender people, women, and people with differing abilities, to name the most prominent groups in our society) in our
work. This means developing and sustaining relationships with those communities, and checking ourselves from time to time.
2. Identity. We seek to help people cultivate and understand their own complex identities. For people in dominant groups, it means helping people understand what it means to be an ally to those in historically oppressed groups. For those who might otherwise be marginalized, it means forming and supporting identity-based networks of youth and young adults for support, community and accountability.
3. Training. We seek to offer training programs on a variety of topics related to anti-racism, anti-oppression and multiculturalism. C*UUYAN-sponsored conferences all include anti-oppression programming of some sort. We also seek to use a multiplicity of models in our training, understanding that there is more than one way to do this work.
4. Consistency. We seek to use anti-racist, anti-oppressive and multicultural benchmarks in all of the work we do. This includes grant funding, as all of our applications include accountability to historically-marginalized groups as a funding criterion.
5. Encouragement. We seek to encourage congregations and young adult and campus groups to explore what these things mean for them. We understand that embarking on a journey towards wholeness is often a daunting task. We embrace the fact that this work is only done through relationships and conversations, and we celebrate with you a shared commitment to trying our best.
Here are some more specific tips for individuals in their work against oppression.
Principles of Anti-Oppression
- Power and privilege play out in our group dynamics and we must continually struggle with how we challenge power and privilege in our practice.
- We can only identify how power and privilege play out when we are conscious and committed to understanding how racism, sexism, homophobia, and all other forms of oppression affect each one of us.
- Until we are clearly committed to anti-oppression practice all forms of oppression will continue to divide our movements and weaken our power.
- Developing a anti-oppression practice is life long work and requires a life long commitment. No single workshop is sufficient for learning to change one's behaviors. We are all vulnerable to being oppressive and we need to continuously struggle with these issues.
- Dialogue and discussion are necessary and we need to learn how to listen non defensively and communicate respectfully if we are going to have effective anti-oppression practice. Challenge yourself to be honest and open and take risks to address oppression head on.
These practices are based on a series on conversations on the issue of racism. We recognize that there are many other forms of oppression that must be addressed. We have taken these practices and attempted to generalize them to other forms of oppression. This list is a beginning and it needs to be expanded upon. What other points can you think of to add to this list?
- When witnessing or experiencing racism, sexism, etc interrupt the behavior and address it on the spot or later; either one on one, or with a few allies.
- Give people the benefit of the doubt. Think about ways to address behavior that will encourage change and try to encourage dialogue, not debate.
- Keep space open for anti-oppression discussions; try focusing on one form of oppression at a time - sexism, racism, classism, etc.
- Respect different styles of leadership and communication.
- White people need to take responsibility for holding other white people accountable.
- Try not to call people out because they are not speaking.
- Be conscious of how much space you take up or how much you speak.
- Be conscious of how your language may perpetuate oppression.
- Don't push people to do things just because of their race and gender, base it on their word and experience and skills.
- Promote anti-oppression in everything you do, in and outside of activist space.
- Avoid generalizing feelings, thoughts, behaviors etc. to a whole group
- Set anti-oppression goals and continually evaluate whether or not you are meeting them.
- Don't feel guilty, feel motivated. Realizing that you are part of the problem doesn't mean you can't be an active part of the solution!
Developing a Social Contract or Code of Ethics
Having a Social Contract or Code of Ethics at the conference is a great way to make your expectations of yourselves and one another clear. By having each individual agree upon a code it also gives each person a vested interest in the healthy functioning of the event. Having an agreed upon set of expectations of how we create community makes your safe space that much more successful and easy to maintain.
Here is the MDD Young Adult Network’s Social Contract. You can also visit http://www.uua.org/ya-cm/youngadults/Ethics.html#code to see C*UUYAN’s Code of Ethics.
MDD UUYAN Social Contract
Any individuals are welcome in this community, regardless of gender, ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation, political leaning, parental status or other identities. Members of the MDD*UUYAN and conference participants shall seek to find community in diversity, in keeping with the First Principle of Unitarian Universalism: We respect the inherent worth and dignity of every person.
We recognize that Young Adults have the power to make individual informed decisions regarding healthy choices, so long as those choices do not harm others or the community. In the event that choices are made at an MDD*UUYAN conference which are not compatible with the Principles of Unitarian Universalism a Spirit Committee shall be convened to mediate or otherwise resolve the situation. Options could include asking an individual to leave the conference or not be a part of MDD*UUYAN activities in the future.
We ask that participants in MDD*UUYAN events practice common courtesy and seek to preserve the spirit of community.
Spirit Committee
The Spirit Committee to resolve situations shall be chosen at the conference orientation by the nomination of individuals, five of whom are then chosen at random, four from the attendees and one from the staff, with the conference Chaplain as an additional member by default. If a member of the Spirit Committee is directly involved with the situation they shall stand aside from their role in the Spirit Committee. The term of a Spirit Committee shall be only as long as the conference.
Other Ideas
Identity Caucuses
An Identity Caucus is a time when groups of people organized around an identity come together to talk and discuss certain issues. These caucuses can be designed as formal vehicles for ensuring that the concerns of members of historically underrepresented groups are heard by the young adult community. They can also simply serve as safe spaces for people historically marginalized to gather with people of similar backgrounds to get to know one another better, reflect on their time at the event, or serve other functions for the attendees.
When organizing a caucus session it is important to recognize that people may identify with more than one identity. Thus it is sometimes more effective to have caucuses organized around specific themes of oppression. For example, if a conference had a caucus session around gender there could be a men’s caucus, womyn’s caucus and genderqueer caucus.
Anti-Oppression Trainings/Workshops
Organizers often include anti-racism/anti-oppression programming into the schedule. There are many different forms this can take- caucusing, training, discussion, hosting a speaker or panel, service-project, fishbowl, worship service with ar/ao theme.
Because of the importance of anti-oppression issues these programs are often intended for the entire attending populace with nothing else being scheduled at the same time. The nature of much anti-oppression work requires the entire community’s involvement for it to be successful.
Anti-Oppression Resources
There is a great deal of resources and help available for groups wishing to engage in anti-oppression work. Even if you have never been trained or done work with this issue there are many different resources and people who will be happy to help you.
Groups/People
- MDD UUYAN Steering Committee-
http://mdd.uuyan.org/pages/contacts.php
- MDD YACM Coordinator-
- Michael Tino (C*UUYAN Director) –
- Joseph
Santos
(617) 648-8123 jsantoslyons@uua.org
Websites
- Anti-Racism/Anti-Oppression Work within C*UUYAN-
http://www.uua.org/ya-cm/youngadults/ar_ao/ar_index.html
- UUA Anti-Racism Resources-
http://www.uua.org/programs/justice/antiracism/resources.html
- Colours of Resistance-
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© MDD YACMN 2006
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