Unconscious Bias and BAME Communities - Learning’s from the front-line.

We were joined by Dr Maryann Noronha, a consultant working on the frontline at St Thomas' Hospital, London. Dr Maryann is part of the Verbum Dei community and actively involved in youth ministry (including previously organising the Brightlights Young Adult Festival). She offered reflections from the front line, sharing learning from the NHS.  COVID-19 has uncovered so many existing conscious and unconscious discrimination’s in our communities. Our BAME young people are aware of and experience this on a daily basis.  Black Lives Matter have brought these discussions to the forefront.  How do we discuss this issue.  How do we answer the questions?  How do we recognise the unconscious Bias in ourselves and our communities?

Prayer and connecting

“Dear brothers and sisters in the United States, I have witnessed with great concern the disturbing social unrest in your nation in these past days, following the tragic death of Mr. George Floyd.​ My friends, we cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life…​ Today I join [you] in praying for the repose of the soul of George Floyd ​and of all those others who have lost their lives as a result of the sin of racism.” ​Pope Francis, Weekly General Audience, June 3 2020

"Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived." ​(Galatians 6:1-3)​

Connecting​​
How am I arriving here this morning?
​​How might I turn a ‘blind eye’ to racism? 
How might I be deceived about myself? ​​
What vulnerability might I bring to this conversation?

O God, we know that you are with us, ​and that you accompany us in all that we do. ​

Grant that by the light of your Holy Spirit ​we may have the wisdom to accompany others well and the courage to take up this work.​

We pray through Christ, our Lord.​

Amen

Breakouts: ​​What have you heard that has challenged/inspired you?

BLACK LIVES MATTER

Questions Dr Mayann unpacked:

• So isn’t black lives matter just about George Floyd?

• I obviously support the cause but I can’t support the protests because they break the rules of social distancing. 

• I don’t just believe Black Lives Matter.  I think All Lives Matter

• The UK is not as bad as America

• Systemic Racism

• I don’t want to air brush our history

• I’m not racist

Whats been done in the NHS?

• Statement of support - “We care|”

• Announced a Review

• Open forum discussions

• Strict guidelines

• Well moderated

• Repeated sessions to allow enough space for people to attend

The Catholic Church:

The structures of our society are subtly racist, for these structures reflect the values which society upholds. They are geared to the success of the majority and the failure of the minority. Members of both groups give unwitting approval by accepting things as they are. Perhaps no single individual is to blame. The sinfulness is often anonymous but nonetheless real. The sin is social in nature in that each of us, in varying degrees, is responsible. All of us in some measure are accomplices. As our recent pastoral letter on moral values states: “The absence of personal fault for an evil does not absolve one of all responsibility. We must seek to resist and undo injustices we have not ceased, least we become bystanders who tacitly endorse evil and so share in guilt in it.” Brothers and Sisters to Us, U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1979.

What can we do:

• Recognise our privilege – its ok to have duality

• Commit to making racial change within ourselves and within the systems we work and live in order to dismantle white supremacy.

• Look at pictures/art/statues/racial job profiling

• Work against complacency – Be actively anti-racist

• Be a white ally – It is not enough simply not to be racist yourself.  Don’t allow victim blaming or gaslighting

• Read, watch, listen to BAME voices – seek them out, follow them.

• Understand the difference between equality and equity

• Understand your unconscious bias – Take an implicit association test

• Use inclusive language – get countries, names, pronunciation correct.  Don’t allow names to be shortened for your own convenience.

• Expose you and your organisation to counter sterotyping imagery

• Empower mentors for under-represented groups – actively seek them out

• Use social media to amplify new voices – Share share share.  Spread the word of the BAME community rather than trying to speak for them

Feedback from participants:
Microaggresion – asking questions = massive impact on relational ministry if you are trying to be present
Policy and movement
What is good and bad politics?
Who are the leaders that speak out? Our Bishops? Headteachers? Boards of Charities? Semaniarians – are they getting cultural training?

Reflections from participants regarding the Church and racism:

• Give people from BAME communities a voice

• This needs leadership

• Required Individuals standing up

• Bishops standing up

• BAME Bishops in the UK?

• We need ‘open forums’ within our Church

• How to address ‘priests who don’t get it’? You name it – “That’s making me feel uncomfortable and I am wondering why”

RESOURCES:

Reflections:
One Body, Many Parts
We stand for peace - St Bede’s Lanchester: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3JXM06moDM&feature=youtu.be

To watch:
Being black and Catholic - RC Westminster: https://rcdow.org.uk/news/being-black-and-catholic/
The school that ended racism – Channel 4
Sitting in Limbo - BBC 1
Black lives matter: A parish priests pastoral response (Archdiocese of Southwark): https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=tekaYoKdmY0&feature=emb_title
Making sense of it all: One Body many Parts - Black Lives Matter - NDCYS Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B5Hcm5jaAg

Reading
Brothers and sisters to us - US Catholic Bishops
No place for Racism - RC Southwark: http://www.rcsouthwark.co.uk/No_place_for-racism_2020_06_17.html
Blindspot: The hidden biases of good people
Good immigrant - selection of stories
Darren and Argeshri - discover article
on covid and racism
Kings fund - advanatge blindness and inclusion
PHE’s report on Covid and BAME group
https://www.redcross.org.uk/get-involved/teaching-resources/black-lives-matter-resources-for-young-people
https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2006/11/20/theologians-and-white-supremacy-interview-james-h-cone https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/13068/bame-people-face-racism-in-church-and-society
http://www.loyno.edu/jsri/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/CSTandRacism-Fall2009jsq.pdf
Diocese of Leeds statement: https://www.dioceseofleeds.org.uk/65327-2/
https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/13006/bishops-of-england-and-wales-express-solidarity-with-black-lives-matter-protesters
Archdiocese of Birminghams statement: https://www.birminghamdiocese.org.uk/news/bishops-statement-on-racial-justice
https://www.cbcew.org.uk/bishops-solidarity-with-sisters-and-brothers-in-usa-over-evil-of-racism-and-killing-of-george-floyd/
https://mediacentre.christianaid.org.uk/christian-aid-statement-on-black-lives-matter/

Resources for you to delve into with your young people:
Resource on Inclusivity and Diversity by Million Minutes
YCW Review of life - Racism