by Lucretia Carter Berry When Simone Manuel won, I heard the beautiful sound of false beliefs being flushed down the drain. I love that sound! And with that sound, more and more the asinine belief system established by race ideology loses it grip. Olympians are made when talent, hard work, perseverance, opportunity and support align. The race caste system has
Join us for our FIRST field trip, Saturday, August 27! (We say first because we have already started planning more). For a limited engagement, the South Carolina State Museum is hosting the blockbuster exhibit, RACE ARE WE SO DIFFERENT?, a project of the American Anthropological Association and funded by the Ford Foundation & National Science Foundation. As with all Brownicity events,
by Lucretia Carter Berry They walked with Jesus witnessing him perform many miracles. Out of all the amazing things that the disciples could have asked Jesus to teach them to do, the only thing they requested was to be taught how to pray? Why? Weren’t they entrenched in a culture full of daily prayers–great prayers that they inherited from their forefathers? Like Jesus’
This article by Lucretia Carter Berry was first featured earlier this year in For Every Mom, entitled Your Children See Color—and It’s Beautiful! Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Talk About It. We thought we’d feature it here as we’ve recently been inundated with questions about how to engage in change. These 7 steps are a good start. I accidentally freaked out some
Hair is not a race! Hair is not ethnic! All people have ethnicity! Beauty belongs to everyone! There is no black hair, white hair, good hair or bad hair. And there is no such thing as ethnic hair or ethnic beauty! The beauty aisles divide us along imaginary lines conceived by an ideology meant to divide, confuse and conquer us.
We finished our first 21-Day Race Ideology Detox. People gathered each Wednesday for a month to primarily not talk about race, but to actually learn about race and view this socio-political construct through the lens of faith. Two churches from different denominations came together to host the weekly meetings. You can read more about the churches and why they hosted
presented by Lucretia Berry. ‘Why is your skin a different color than mine?’ ‘My skin is not white/black, why is it called white/black?’ What are some of the skin tone or race related questions that you’ve been asked by a child? One summer I was collecting data in an Appalachian preschool where everyone was white. A sweet little boy walked
We reformatted our initial Brown-tables sessions into twenty-one days of awakening, reflective thinking and growing our capacity to foster healing and change. For the month of April, Independence Hill Baptist Church along with Jonahville AME Zion Church will be hosting the detox! To participate, join us each Wednesday at 6:15pm at IHBC. Childcare is provided! Please feel free to join us. We
by Lucretia Carter Berry I’m Not Racist!…Am I? is a feature documentary about how this next generation is going to confront racism. The film’s unique focus on kids and family immediately grabbed our attention. So a few of us Brownicity moms moved heaven and earth to attend the screening at Trinity Episcopal School in Charlotte, NC. Through the documentary, we
by Lucretia Carter Berry When our children talk about skin color, we parents don’t have to be afraid to engage in their conversations. Actually we can let them lead the way. When children talk about their friend’s skin being brown, peach, pink, etc., they are simply noticing the obvious. But parents have been shamed into shunning conversations about skin color, opting
‘How do we get the truth—the knowledge about race/ism—to people?’ This was the question posed by a college student following the lecture given by Ta-Nehisi Coates at Davidson College (November 16. 2015). This particular student, a young man, was excited about what he’d uncovered in his college course regarding anti-racist education. I could tell that he was excited about knowing
Session 5 If you could accumulate the time you’ve spent longing, wishing, hoping and praying for a better world, how many hours would it be? Probably a lot. I know as an African-American woman married to a white man and mom of multi-ethnic children, I contemplate a world where race does not interfere with the essence of our journey of
Yes, it is a rich descriptive—a poetic tag line, but what does it actually mean? It describes those of us who have recognized the destructive force rendered through race ideology and have decided to deny it leverage in our lives—to the best of our abilities. We know that in its very conception, race ideology was and remains divisive— designed to
We’ve All Been Duped We’ve all been duped! Tricked into thinking that race is WHO WE ARE–is ESSENTIAL to our identity! Tricked into thinking that race is entitled to our allegiance. And so we surrender to its SIREN, calling us to COAGULATE into sides, fortified to defend against the OPPOSITION–the opposition that race created. Yes, its a CRAZY CONUNDRUM! “Mr.
Session 2 Our ‘Tribe Vibe’ was melodious, complimentary, harmonious and groovy. Our instruments were our hums, our hands tapping on our chests and tables, our words and our laughter all set to syncopation. Honestly, I believe we were surprised at how well we flowed together as ONE unified choir while maintaining the unique vibe of our individual tribes (our tables).
Session 1 We drew self-portraits with skin-tone colored crayons and gave our skin tones wonderful names like all-spice, peanut butter cookie, peach, moca, snicker-doodle and ‘sugar cookie. Sitting at round tables, looking into each other’s faces, we told our stories of what brought us there. We agreed to SAFE SPACE Guidelines to keep the atmosphere healthy for learning and healing. We
When asked to be guest contributor for Real Talk About Race for the January 2014 edition of The Tablet, Wake Forest Divinity student publication, Nathan Berry candidly revealed our family’s ideas, perspective and approach to ‘race.’ The title, Brown Like Me reflects our approach to conscious de-racing — exposing the lie and illusion of race and replacing it with the