Social justice discussion groups facilitate reflection and learning

Members of an all-white community group look at one another on Zoom and discuss how their privilege shaped their perspective on issues of race and justice. These difficult conversations are a stepping stone for their immersion into the current anti-racism movement.

The Cambridge-based Kahal B'raira congregation offers a virtual anti-racism book group, where around 10 members gather monthly. The group started this fall.

“To come to reflect upon your experience, to be able to expect that you might have said something, or felt something or done something that could be improved upon, is the key to that and to breaking up white fragility,” said book group facilitator Melinda Rothstein.

The humanistic Judaism congregation is committed to improving “society to achieve equal treatment for everyone,” according to a statement it released in the spring. Rothstein said she knew the congregation needed to take “specific action” to follow this mission.

She had been reading books about race for a handful of years, and wanted to create a shared experience focusing on these books. After the killing of George Floyd and subsequent protests, Rothstein brought her vision to the congregation.

“Learning through books is one way to gain information, but the bigger part of it in my mind is the self-reflection,” Rothstein said. “If you're not in touch with how you’re feeling about things, then you can’t work on changing ones that need to be changed.”

Rothstein offers a recommended journaling assignment for participants to reflect upon race and racism between meetings, and prepares guided questions for discussion — though she lets the conversations flow freely.

Stanley Eichner, a member of Rothstein’s book group and retired civil rights lawyer, said his work fighting for equal access and treatment for people with disabilities influences the perspective he brings to the book group.

“I’m always comparing historical treatments of people of color and people with disabilities, and different ways that the stigma does and doesn’t get attached,” Eichner said. “It’s helpful to think about how civil rights struggles of various groups of people has played out historically.”

After the group read Ijeoma Oluo’s “So You Want to Talk About Race,” Eichner said he appreciated the chapter that invited him to examine advantages in his life that result from his privilege.

The chapter, entitled “Why am I always being told to ‘check my privilege’?” stated that people don’t like to accept that their accomplishments made some else’s life harder, Eichner said.

“Trying to come to terms with the fact that comfort and convenience in my life often comes at the expense or difficulty of people less well-off,” Eichner said, “those are important things to think about and, honestly, assessing your own life.”

Participants in the Kahal B'raira book group know each other fairly well, Eichner said. The group is currently open only to congregants.

Though the group is not focused on religion, Rothstein said members’ connection to Judaism gives them common experiences. Confronting racism is in line with the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, she said, because it emphasizes taking care of the world and all people.

Emily Click, assistant dean for Ministry Studies and Field Education at Harvard Divinity School, wrote in an email that it’s important to engage in discussions where education, religion and social justice intersect, while still recognizing their distinct identities.

“They have diverse ways of approaching and solving problems,” Click wrote, “and I believe respecting those differences is as important as it is to bring them into conversation with each other.”

Click developed a course this fall entitled “Education as Ministry” that incorporates each of these themes, with an emphasis on racial justice. The course encourages students to consider whether programs foster justice or “might, in contrast, be unwittingly exacerbating racial injustice.”

There is value in facilitating spaces for difficult conversations, including disagreements, Click wrote, because trauma and misunderstandings will be present in communities post-pandemic.

“I personally believe that breaking bread together—literally sharing a meal—is the best way for humans to build community,” Click wrote. “We simply must learn to hear each other.”

Now is the “perfect time” for the country to examine and “come to terms” with its history, book group member Eichner said. However, he wishes it had happened sooner.

“This is such an important time for our country to come to a reckoning around our racial history,” Eichner said, “and anything and everything that moves us towards that is very important to do.”