Overview
In this section we will be focusing on the ways that white supremacy has shaped the Religious Society of Friends and the experience of Friends of all races within our meetings. We hope that through this content you will be able to identify patterns of white supremacy as they show up in our Quaker organizations and practices, understand how white supremacy culture and microaggressions within Quaker meetings wound Friends of Color, and hear next steps that some Friends and meetings and are taking to address white supremacy and work toward racial justice.
While Quakers have much to be proud of as a religious body historically active in the abolition of slavery, the Civil Rights movement, and many other movements for justice, we need to be honest about the presence of racism and the perpetuation of injustice within our meetings and wider Quaker bodies today. While this acknowledgement is painful, it is also the first step in transformation and healing. A spiritual break happens when we disconnect from each other, and spiritual deepening may occur as we reconnect and stay connected in the struggle for racial justice and equity. This affirmation of our shared humanity and solidarity with one another is vital in living into the Beloved Community.
In messages to early Friends, George Fox recognized that “standing still in the Light” was not always a warm and happy experience. When we invite Spirit into our hearts through worship, we often are shown the ways we have fallen short. Although painful, this knowing opens the door to the transformative power of a Spirit-guided life. Fox encouraged Friends to stay present and to invite God’s guidance and transformation:
Stand still in that which is pure, after ye see yourselves, and then mercy comes in. After thou seest thy thoughts and temptations, do not think, but submit, and then power comes in. Stand still in that which shows and discovers, and there doth strength immediately come. And stand still in the light, and submit to it, and the other will be hushed and gone, and then contentment comes.
-George Fox, 1652
As we open our hearts to encounter some uncomfortable truths about our spiritual communities, let us remind each other to practice courage, to stand still and welcome the healing and guidance that will move us toward liberation for all.
White Supremacy and the Religious Society of Friends
If you have five minutes…
Video: Quakers, Racism, and the Blessed Community
If you have twenty minutes…
Consider this document, White Supremacy in the US and the Religious Society of Friends, which looks at some of the legal, economic and institutional structures and policies that have oppressed people of color and concentrated privilege and power in the hands of white Americans and the economic elite. As the water we’ve been swimming in since Europeans arrived in North America, everyone in our society is impacted by white supremacy. This document provide examples of how Quakers have participated in white supremacist structures to help shed light on how we have been shaped by and participated in the political, economic and cultural forces around us.
The above document mentions Quaker boarding schools for Native Americans. You can learn more about that history in this article in Friends Journal (October 2016) by Paula Palmer.
Or read this article: A Journey Toward Eliminating Racism in the Religious Society of Friends by Vanessa Julye
White supremacy is a part of our meetings because it is the foundation upon which the Religious Society of Friends has been established in this country. Enslavement, segregation, and assimilation are a part of Friends history… If we want our meetings to have more members of color, we need to understand the role that white supremacy plays in our community. I want to invite Friends to take off their blinders and begin to see and examine the norms that our white supremacist culture surrounds us in every day: learn about the structural racism framework, how individuals benefit from it, and how it prevents us from creating the Blessed Community we seek.
Vanessa’s book, Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship, is available through QuakerBooks, along with a companion study guide filled with quotes, queries, and suggested activities that can be used in meetings, reading groups, or individually.
Consider this call to Reclaiming Faith from the Wreckage of White Supremacy by Greg Elliott, 2015
When white Friends allow faith and practice to be corrupted by the values of white dominant culture, our beloved Peace Testimony is betrayed. White supremacy is a war, a war waged on Black and Brown people around the world to maintain white privilege and dominance with police, military, and weapons. All too often white Friends cast their lot with this system through implicit consent and support – “White silence is violence,” the now famous protest sign reminds us. Even our money funds this war through our tax dollars and our spending habits which fund occupations of Black and Brown communities.
Article originally published by AFSC and used by permission of American Friends Service Committee and the Quaker Social Change Ministry.
Uprooting Racism Keynote 2018 by Vanessa Julye, presented to North Pacific Yearly Meeting; July 26, 2018
Right now, I find the Religious Society of Friends to be a lot like the mythical “melting pot.” People are welcome to become Quakers if they are willing to assimilate. White Supremacy and White Privilege affect the number of African Americans who are drawn to and remain in the Religious Society of Friends. Many African American Friends do not feel free or equal in their religious home. In my home, I am free to move the furniture around. If each time I walk across the room, my leg hits the coffee table, after experiencing that pain a few times, I will decide to move or remove the coffee table. It is time for us to re-arrange, replace, or remove some practices in Quakerism. Friends of European descent have controlled Quakerism since its inception. It is time to co-create a religion that reflects all of us
Full unabridged transcript available from Western Friend
Queries for Conversation
- In the video, Vanessa Julye says that “White supremacy is restricting our way of creating a blessed community because it is making it difficult for people of color to be a part of the community.” How can you imagine that the Religious Society of Friends could change to be more accessible for people of color?
- Part of white supremacy culture, Vanessa says, is “its invisibility to European-Americans in this country, because if you don’t see a structure and feel that that is normal, then there’s no need to change it.” What would it take for European-Americans to peel back the veil and what changes would happen if they could see what Vanessa is talking about?
(Queries prepared for QuakerSpeak by Friends Journal.)
Did anything you read or heard in this section challenge your understanding of the history and present of the Religious Society of Friends?