Lecture addresses white people’s role in racial justice work

Our nation is witnessing an alarming resurgence of white supremacy and state-sanctioned violence. We are also experiencing an uprising of hope as millions of Americans have taken to the streets to protest police brutality and racial inequities in the criminal justice system. In this moment, what can anti-racist white people do?

The Theological Commons at MTSO will present a lecture by racial-justice educator, activist and author Melanie Morrison, “Beyond Good Intentions: The Role White People Must Play in the Work of Racial Justice,” at 7 p.m. Oct. 15. The lecture is offered free to the public as a video webinar.

Those who wish to attend are required to register in advance here. Registered participants will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Morrison’s lecture will address how white people can and must move through places where they often get stuck so they can step up with courage, consistency and cultural humility to participate in movements led by people of color and help move other white people to greater anti-racist awareness and action.

“Now, as always, it is imperative that white people do the deep work required to claim and embody an anti-racist identity, understand the privilege they carry, develop relationships of accountability to people of color, and interrupt racism where they live, work, study and worship,” Morrison said. “Sadly, too many white people stop short of that deep work, assuming that good intentions are enough.”

Melanie S. Morrison, Ph.D., is founder and executive director of Allies for Change, a national network of anti-oppression educators. She has 30 years’ experience designing and facilitating transformational group process.
In 1994, Morrison founded “Doing Our Own Work,” an intensive anti-racism seminar for white people that has attracted hundreds of participants throughout the United States. She periodically teaches the seminar as a class at MTSO and will do so again in the summer of 2021.

Morrison’s latest book, Murder on Shades Mountain: The Legal Lynching of Willie Peterson and the Struggle for Justice in Jim Crow Birmingham, was published by Duke University Press in 2018.

Methodist Theological School in Ohio provides theological education and leadership in pursuit of a just, sustainable and generative world. In addition to the Master of Divinity degree, the school offers master’s degrees in counseling, practical theology, social justice and theological studies, along with a Doctor of Ministry degree.

CONTACT:

Danny Russell, communications director
drussell@mtso.edu, 740-362-3322