Facilitated by Sister Kenyatta Bakeer -- Operations director and Senior Trainer at MuslimARC.

Outline • Recording

Sit with your discomfort -- be introspective, take stock and adjust

Practice active listening

Learning Objectives

• Social impact of racism
• Microaggressions and implicit bias
• ARCompetency

“All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action.” - Prophet’s Last Sermon

Using the Prophet as an example

• Someone who had good, sound counsel
• Looked up to from outside of the Muslim world

Part 1: Self-Assessment and the ARCompetency Framework

Historical Context of Racism in America -- 1619 to COVID-19

• Majority of slaves were brought from West-Africa
  • Classified like stock/cargo, no one is denied entry (all ages)
  • Some breakaway, some chose to jump off the ship (death is better), some die in the traveling conditions
  • Don’t understand what is happening, they are speaking their native languages
  • Had lives, culture
    • Kings, queens
    • Engineers, had jobs
    • 80% Muslim, 20% studied other african religions
  • Dropped at different points along the way
    • Black Carribbeans, Latin countries, America
  • They have no value; workhorses
    • Sun up to sun down -- Mon through Sat; only Sun off because masters went to church
    • Would hide their pieces of the Quran in their Bible
    • Creative ways to survive
  • 1703 Slave-Catchers
    • Star-emblem of police started with slave-catchers
      • 3 jobs: beat them, jail them, or kill them on sight
      • Escaping and getting to freedom are not the same thing
    • “Why would you want to keep a system that is built upon the oppression of Black people?”
      • Calls for defunding police to support Black people (housing, mental health services)
      • Uplifting the community
      • Give people resources and you will see people thrive, flourish
  • 1800s Lynching
    • Nina Symone, Strange Fruit -- lyrics are about lynching
    • Abraham Lincoln emancipated the slaves Jan 1, 1863 for political reasons
      • Wasn't until June 19, 1865 that slaves in Texas are freed (Black people celebrate this day June-Teenth as their day of emancipation)
      • Freed and have nothing, become indentured servants
        • Weren’t beaten but now working for very low amount
  • Later 1800s HBCUs
    • Created for Black people because they couldn't attend other universities
      • Integration in higher ed didn't really happen until post-civil rights movement
    • Black people are creating community businesses, wealth
  • Greenwood, Oklahoma/Tulsa Riots
    • Burned wealth and assets of Black people to the ground
  • 1950s
    • Brown v. Board of Education; desegregation starts
    • Takes a whole decade for Civil Rights Act
  • 1970s Affirmative action
    • Middle class emerges for Black people
    • Redlining is less prevalent, black people can buy homes
  • 1985 beginning of Crack/Cocaine era
    • Started in LA/Bay Area
    • CIA was dropping crack/cocaine into South Central LA
      • Woke up one day to crack/cocaine
      • Black people are selling it and are being sent to jail
      • White people that are using/selling are sent to rehab, wasn't an option for Black people
      • 40 years later and Black people are still recovering
  • Post Civil-War
    • Enslavement of black people through mass incarceration
    • Majority of people in jail became Black people, rising number of Black women
    • 2.3 million people in jail, almost 1 million people are Black (only 6-9% or at most 13% of population
    • Recommends reading: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
  • COVID-19
    • Disproportionately affects Black people
    • Don't have access to healthcare

Discussion: What is the impact of Racism in your community?

• People from different ehtnic groups stick together within the Mosque
  • Creates an unwelcoming environment
• Being from immigrant backgrounds people are searching for the American Dream, and part of that is ascribing to White-Supremacist beliefs
  • Not in favor of your liberation
• People are trying to reach out and unlearn their anti-blackness
  • Non-black folks can be allies by lifting up black folk
  • Having hard conversations