“me and white supremacy” by Layla F. Saad.

10 white members of the ISAAC Leadership Committee are meeting monthly to do the necessary work to better understand our white privilege and take ownership of our participation in the oppressive system of white supremacy.

We practice “ubuntu”. In his book, No Future Without Forgiveness, Desmond Tutu writes about the South African idea of ubuntu. Ubuntu is a belief that a person’s humanity, a person’s very being is experienced through the humanity and being-ness of others. A quote from the books reads, “A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed, or treated as if they were less than who they are.”

We are using the book, “me and white supremacy” as a tool structured to help us question, challenge and dismantle this system that has hurt and killed so many Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).^[i] There is much work to be done. It begins with getting honest with ourselves, getting educated, becoming more conscious about what is really going on and getting uncomfortable as we question our core paradigms about race.^[ii] This work is a part of a journey that is never done. It is some of the most important work that we are called to do at this time in history.

Ubuntu … it means that we are doing this work because we believe that every human being deserves dignity, freedom and equality. It means we do this work because we desire wholeness for ourselves and for the world.
Dr. Patricia Stromsta facilitates this meeting. Please contact her if you have questions or comments at pat.stromsta@gmail.com. We hope to offer other programs in the near future.

[i] me and white supremacy, pg, xviii
[ii] me and white supremacy, pg. xix