Statement on Racism Read by Adria DeCapua and Angela Hopkins at NYYM Sessions
As Friends, we are led to acknowledge and confront the tragic impact of racism in the world around us and in our faith community, both historically and at present. Regardless of our good intentions, the facts of racism, white supremacy and white privilege continue to influence our behaviors and impede us from achieving the Beloved Community to which we aspire. Racial prejudice affects each of us differently, but the reality of racism wounds us all and remains an ongoing affliction that hinders our effectiveness in sharing Divine Truth with one another and with the wider world.
We are also certain that accusation, judgment, and worldly solutions are not paths to the healing and forgiveness we seek and may serve to separate us from the Living Presence that guides us in our search for Truth. We live in the certainty that, when we are led by the Living Spirit, we are led into unity and Love. We know that this Divine Source is the Living Root of our Faith Community and the only path to reconciliation, justice, forgiveness, healing, and spiritual unity. We also know that we see “through a glass darkly.” Even with the best of intentions, we may be misled by the blind spots of culture, ignorance and self-deception. We must seek to discern a way forward in humility and simplicity, listening with an open heart and a teachable spirit to those who may disagree.
We surely know that racism is a sad fact of our humanity and a grim symptom of separation from the Light of Christ. Racism and its manifestations are real and evil, and all Friends, indeed all people, are victims of that evil. We also know that there is no evil that the Divine Light cannot transform.
Let us share that simple Truth with everyone. Let us acknowledge our failures, acknowledge the wounds we cause and the wounds we suffer and then trust to the Divine Source to heal us – all of us. May we ever demonstrate that we are one family and that, “as Quakers, we place our faith in the living Spirit.”