MidAtlantic Gathering, March 2005

Mission statements of participating groups

AntiRacist Alliance (White Caucus)

The Antiracist Alliance is an organizing collective of human service practitioners and educators whose vision is to bring a clear and deliberate anti-racist structural analysis of power to social service education and practice.

We recognize that structural inequalities in society result in differential access to, and distribution of power (economic, political, social, and cultural) for groups of people.

We believe that the amelioration of structural inequalities, the establishment of policies to ensure equity impact with accountability to people of color defines antiracist social work practice.

European American Privilege Group

The Mission of the European American White Privilege Group is to act to end racism worldwide. Our mission will be manifested in the creation of partnerships, communities, networks and societies with unified goals of social and economic justice and equity for all people.

As a collective of White people of European descent, we will achieve this mission through the following goals:

To unite and educate both ourselves and others regarding inequities arising from Racism, Sexism, Classism and Sexual Orientation.

To initiate and sustain social action resulting in eradication of Racism, Sexism, Classism and Homophobia.

Man to Man

It is a core mission of Man to Man that white males have the responsibility as the dominant, privileged group in our culture to take an active role in ending racism. Racism is a white problem in America and it is more precisely a white male problem in America. Therefore, it is our responsibility to become activists in ending racism in our culture.

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Ad Hoc Group on Racial Justice and Equality (White Caucus)

The PYM Ad Hoc Group on Racial Justice and Equality began meeting in September 2002. We meet monthly to raise up the vision of Friends' Testimony of Equality. Many of those called to join the group have become aware of racial injustices within our Monthly Meetings, Friends schools and Friends institutions. We are a diverse group of Friends who have felt called to this work as we struggle with the effects of racism in our own lives. We come together to learn from and support each other. We are also aware that our Meeting communities do not yet reflect the diversity we are blessed within our own families, neighborhoods and towns.

For centuries Friends of Color have lifted up a concern that has been missing and neglected , which is that Friends in North America are not living up to our faith. The PYM Ad Hoc Group on Racial Justice and Equality was born of its members' concern about the ways in which our relationship with each other , and indeed with the Holy Spirit, is affected by the realities of these disparities and injustices in so many dimensions of our lives.

If our lives are to give testimony to equality among all human beings, we ask ourselves : what is the work we must do to heal our own spirits ? We continue to explore how our Meetings can be more open to all, how to heal the hurts of racism, and how to overcome fear and the practices of marginalizing People of Color. We honor the instructive differences among us that allow us to learn from each other. We strive to build a whole spiritual community by listening with open hearts, hearing what we are afraid to hear, and having faith instead of acting on fear as we move toward wholeness with our vision of racial justice and equality.

We are a group who provide resources to Monthly and Quarterly Meetings to help support Friends as we seek to heal from the effects of racism. We look to a time when in our Monthly Meetings, there are Friends of Color and White Friends who are committed to be allies of People of Color, all faithful to a Holy Spirit as we cross a wide variety of backgrounds to make our circle whole.

White Awareness in Action

Mission Statement: To focus on what white identity means to us as white people in the United States with the goal of becoming more effective allies to people of color and to work toward an anti-racist society.

White Friends Working to End Racism

Mission:

Out of our concern for human love and justice, we join in the mission of putting a stop to racism. As prime beneficiaries of a system that has oppressed people of color for over half a millennium we take it as our central and core responsibility to stop racism. As members of the Religious Society of Friends, we must be faithful to our two testimonies of Peace and Equality that demand we discern where racism exists in ourselves and our society, and that we bring it to an end.

White Organizers for Racial Justice and Equity

We are a group of white professionals who are organizing and/or teaching on issues of racism, undoing racism, diversity, multicultural competence, and organizational development in a number of settings. We meet together to offer emotional and practical support as we work on our internalized racism and the racism in the organizations in which we are involved. Through this we hope to better carry out our responsibility as white people to work to end racism.

White Privilege Awareness Project (WPAP)

White Privilege Awareness Project (WPAP) is a Mount Holyoke College Student Organization.

Mission Statement: To educate students (and the greater community) about issues of race, racism and white privilege. We provide support and a forum for open discussion at our weekly meetings and are working towards coalition building.