Addressing Racism

Under the topic of ‘Letting our Lives Speak,’ Ujima Friends Peace Center shared a PowerPoint presentation about the spiritual and community work done during its first year of operation. The Center was founded by the Friends of African Descent, and incorporated as a 501(c)3.

The word Ujima means my brothers’ and sisters’ problems are also my problems, and we work together to solve them. It represents family, community, connection, and a place that takes on the needs and joys within the neighboring streets.

Ujima offers a home within Quakerism to be a Quaker of African descent. They hold weekly worship at 2:00 on Sundays, and offer high-impact programming every day of the week.

Its members see the Center as a:

• “place where I can practice peace…among Friends”
• “spiritual place where in silence or in speaking … I can connect with God.
• “concept of Black Quakerism that reaches out and connects with the community”

Ayesha Imani said that Ujima’s leadership is “swept up in the miracle” of Ujima Peace Center’s growth and accomplishment, and “we are walking forward in faith.” First among their programs is a peace curriculum developed with the help of Tracy Smith at Green Street Monthly meeting.

A survey of the nearby residents revealed that neighbors had two key needs: addressing violence, and securing after-school programming for children, so the center developed programs for both. Ujima’s after school students have also been mentored in self-advocacy—resulting in a symposium with city officials. A renter’s rights class is hosted every Saturday.

Their woman’s circle is currently reading Marcelle Martin’s ‘Our Life is Love,’ and Ujima runs Inter-generational programming located at the Mbongi Freedom School. They’ve also embraced work with other community organizations, like Philabundance, hosting monthly grocery giveaways that reached 1100 families in 8 months. Each of these are mighty accomplishments, taken together they demonstrate remarkable achievement.

Friends of all descents are welcome to engage with Ujima, and meetings and individual Friends support the Ujima Center financially. There are opportunities to open additional Quaker centers in areas like Kensington, where other people have been forgotten and need help.

The Ujima Center is at 1701 West Lehigh Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19132. Their website is www.ujimafriends.org

Our Thursday night speaker, Dr. Kemp, is a big believer in the spiritual practice of listening.

She links this to the discipline of mindfulness. It always works, and she says; “you are doing mindfulness right whenever you do it.”

Dr. Kemp grew up in foster care with a yearning to be safe and loved. Her early interest in social justice led her to write and address her first poem to Dr. Martin Luther King at the age of nine. She has never lost that leading in her work today.

Amanda has two degrees, and she feels blessed by her education. Her public speaking and justice work today is centered in the reality that young black men don’t feel safe, and she wants to help people change the way they think to address that.

Dr. Kemp’s son is her ‘why’ for much of her work. Not long ago, he emailed her from boarding school with these thoughts: “I don’t have the same human experiences as white people. I have to be on the lookout constantly, like prey in the wild. When I’m triggered, I don’t have control of my body. When an animal is running from a predator, it’s not thinking about anything else except survival. I am 16 years old and I know that feeling.”

To seek racial justice and cultivate ‘beloved community,’ Kemp says you need to hold space for transformation. Her colleague Niyonu Spann defines this as “being unconditional love and unconditional acceptance while standing on the ground of your values.”

Dr. Kemp began by training Friends in the following meditation exercise as preparation for doing a difficult task:

• Get both feet on the ground
• Breathe, and be conscious of your breath
• Center your heart
• Allow unconditional love and unconditional acceptance

Dr. Kemp says that practicing like this allows people to relax. Those who are often silent begin to share their thoughts. The exercise helps you shift your own thinking from the quiet fuming one might do (as warrior justice seekers who are running to make a point). It moves you from a ‘fight or flight’ position; it allows you to be present to others and to be bigger than your ego. It supports you in opening and connecting, and thus you can become the change you want to see.

As you practice, you’ll begin to shift, to think of people you don’t agree with as an opponent, not an enemy. And once you cease demonizing a person, you actually give them some space to shift their own thinking.

To battle for justice and think we are all one – is uncommon, according to Dr. Kemp. But if you practice, and get to that place, it helps you realize that some part of that “other” you are opposing, is in you. If you don’t cultivate love inside you, the fire within you is going to burn you. So, Dr. Kemp says breathe, rest.

Once you get used to holding space for transformation, you are ready to reflect on yourself. To consider:

• Your fragility
• Your unconscious bias
• Your white supremacy
• Your ancestors

Finally, Dr. Kemp says, to reflect on yourself, you need community, because you can’t see yourself without community.

She left us with this final question: “Will you just transfer the hurt, or will you transform the hurt? To do that is going to take transformation.”

Learn more about Dr. Kemp at www.dramandakemp.com