Anti-Racism Minute

Anti-racism Coordinating Committee (ARCC), Lexington Friends Meeting

At this time of racial reckoning in the United States, Lexington Friends Meeting commits itself to becoming an anti-racist faith community. We recognize that there is a profound contradiction between our fundamental belief that there is that of God in every person and the everyday bias against people of color that pervades our society, including our Meeting.

To this end, we educate ourselves about the history and causes of racism and our white supremacy culture. We educate ourselves to recognize and understand white privilege and the ways it exhibits itself in our broader community, as well as in our own everyday attitudes, words, and behaviors. We educate ourselves about the ways racism and white supremacy hurt us all but especially people of color. Believing there is that of God in all of us, we commit to listen openly, with empathy, to people’s stories without interrupting or interpreting. Friends of color have a story that those of us who are white have never experienced and will never experience because of our privilege.

We recognize that working to become an anti-racist Meeting is a continuing spiritual journey, and it will entail times of discomfort and changes in the Meeting’s culture. We commit to loving, nurturing, and supporting each other through the challenges. This journey is also one of growing in right relationship, expanding our awareness and intentionality to become a community that is multi-generational, multi-cultural and inclusive of many identities.

Becoming an anti-racist community involves self-education and awareness, but it also means action. Specifically, we commit to:

• hold discussions that allow us to better understand ourselves and each other
• look within to uncover the seeds of our own racism (conscious and unconscious) planted and nurtured by the racism in our society
• discern new leadings to see what love can do beyond our meeting community
• stand in support of those who have faced racist attacks and abuse both inside and outside our Meeting, including disparaging and demeaning remarks and bullying.
• practice accountability for our work, on a continuing basis, holding annual discussions to evaluate our anti-racism work.

As Quakers we are particularly called to take a stand against racism if we are to live in accordance with our testimonies of equality, integrity, and community and with our Covenant of Community*. Our Covenant says in part, we “strive to build a social order free of violence and oppression in which no person’s development is thwarted by poverty, warfare, or the lack of health care, education, or freedom”.

(Note: The Covenant of Community was approved in 2012. It will be reviewed and updated in 2023.)

Approved at Meeting for Business, November 13, 2022