Category: Social Justice

Please join us on Sunday at 9:15 AM for a screening of Dr. Cornel West giving his 2015 Ware Lecture at the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly.

This past summer in Portland OR, over 3000 Unitarian Universalists had the honor and privilege to hear author, theologian and civil rights activist Dr. Cornel West.

Grounding his talk in questions asked by the late W.E..B. Dubois to the younger generation and in his own deep faith, Dr. West shakes the rafters as he calls us to action on many of the human rights issues of the present day.

Kathy Osuch will facilitate discussion of the video.

In two weeks (29 November 2015) — Our Discussion of Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow continues with Chapter 4 (“The Cruel Hand”) which will look at the way the caste system operates after people are released from prison.

We will not have class next week (22 November 2015) which is the day of our Thanksgiving service and feast.  Class will resume on 29 November 2015.

The 9:15 AM Sunday Adult Religious Education Class will meet this week (Sunday, 8 November 2015).

We will be discussing Chapter 3 (“The Color of Justice”) in the book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander.  This chapter looks at the role of race in the criminal justice system:

Given the relatively balanced rate of criminal activity by whites and blacks, how does a supposedly race-neutral system round up, arrest, and imprison such a large number of black and brown men?

The 9:15 AM Sunday Adult Religious Education Class will meet this week (Sunday, 1 November 2015).

We will be discussing Chapter 2 (“TheLockdown”) in the book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander.

Our adult religious education class will meet on Sunday (18 October 2015) at 9:15 AM with a book study / discussion group — The New Jim Crow:  Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color-Blindness by Michelle Alexander.

A brutal tangle of draconian sentencing laws, selective prosecutions, unbalanced jury selection, and a prison-for-profit system fueled by a drug war resulting in far more casualties than victories has resulted in what Michelle Alexander calls ” … a stunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner strikingly similar to [the pre-Civil Rights-era system of segregation known as] Jim Crow.”

This Week’s Class — “The Rebirth of Caste” — We explore the history of “how we got here,” starting with the beginning of slavery, moving through Reconstruction and its backlash, into Jim Crow, the Civil Rights era and its backlash, up to the present trend of mass incarceration.

For more information, please read this introduction to this book discussion group.

Our adult religious education classes resume on Sunday (11 October 2015) at 9:15 AM with a book study / discussion group — The New Jim Crow:  Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color-Blindness by Michelle Alexander.

A brutal tangle of draconian sentencing laws, selective prosecutions, unbalanced jury selection, and a prison-for-profit system fueled by a drug war resulting in far more casualties than victories has resulted in what Michelle Alexander calls ” … a stunningly comprehensive and well-disguised system of racialized social control that functions in a manner strikingly similar to [the pre-Civil Rights-era system of segregation known as] Jim Crow.”

This book was the 2012-2013 UUA Common Read.  The tide may finally be turning on this issue — the Caddo Parish District Attorney and Sheriff elections this fall are particularly focused on many related issues covered in this book. Continue reading “Adult Religious Education Resumes 11 October 2015”