One of the things that makes me different from most of the other current UUYAN leaders is that I identify as a person of color. So in my adolescent quest for identity, when I read books by people of color, I was open to thinking that these ideas might apply to me. And I have carried that back into my experience of UUism.
Clearly, in the few minutes we have here I cannot say all that can be learned from the cultures of the world, or from all the freedom struggles of American minority groups. I am just going to give a few highlights, a few examples. Like most of what I am saying here, I am hoping these will serve as conversation starters, and will inspire other people to go out and do some writing and research of their own.
I'm going to start with some general things I learned, and then also give examples from some particular communities.
Ethnicity Matters
One of the most important ideas I learned from communities of color is that ethnicity matters. UUs have a keen awareness of each individual's profound spiritual need to be unique, to express and be acknowledged for who you are. What UUs are less often able to perceive is that this spiritual need for uniqueness and selfhood extends into the collective or ethnic dimension. Just as I have a spiritual need to know myself, who I am, so also do I have a need to know my people and who we are.
Ethnicity is Key to Young Adult Spiritual Development
I also learned that ethnicity is an especially strong part of young adult spiritual experience. Taking up the mantle of adulthood is taking up the legacy of the ancestors. Finding your calling as an adult is finding the way in which you will serve your people. If a young adult is not given an opportunity to reflect on this in a spiritual context, important developmental needs will not be met, and connections that could ground a person over a lifetime will not be made. The urgent young adult need to be a warrior, to serve, to lead, to make an impact on the world, risks being wasted in shallowness, misdirection, or despair.
Passing for White
I learned about the experience of "passing for white," how that might be seen as a privilege, but how it comes at great spiritual expense. Some people of color are so light-skinned that they can "pass," but to "pass" often means losing your soul. (Queers, Jews, and dissidents also often struggle with painful issues of "passing.")
This raises two images for me:
One is:
People of color in white liberal institutions are often closeted in a peculiar way: our physical identity is visible to anyone, but we seldom or never mention the emotional or spiritual aspects of our ethnic experience. The nonwhite self remains invisible and not present, even when the nonwhite skin gives an illusion to the contrary.
The second is:
Is it possible that one explanation for the pain and aliennation of raised-UU young adults is that we are being asked to pass for white?
Learning from Other Peoples
Finally, I learned that if I am willing to experiment with the idea of UUs as a cultural minority group, there are things I can learn from the experiences and struggles of peoples of color that can really help a lot, particularly from those leaders of color who are concerned with the spiritual welfare of their young adults. Here are some brief examples.