Gil Scott-Heron’s 1970 spoken word poem, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” is ultimately a warning against confusing the representation of change with change itself. He also described the revolution as something that takes place in one's consciousness—something cameras cannot capture. The extraordinary thing about the phrase is that it has escaped its original moment and serves as a much broader meditation on how genuine transformation happens. It requires changes in consciousness, changes in relationships and practices, changes in communities and institutions.

Bottom line: transformation requires something from us. What might that be?

In this context I would like to invite you into an ongoing conversation about white supremacy. Let’s begin with a key distinction: In this conversation, white supremacy as a cultural system, is a historically developed pattern of social norms, institutions, and narratives that has privileged people identified as white and treated whiteness as a normative or dominant position, at the same time subordinating or marginalizing people identified with other racial groups. It is not referring to an ideology of individual racial prejudice or as membership in an extremist organization.

White supremacy as a cultural system has institutionally distributed power, resources, status, and credibility based on a racial hierarchy. In the United States, white supremacy has taken both explicit and implicit forms. Explicit forms include slavery, racial terror, mandated segregation, racial exclusion from citizenship, and openly racialized political doctrines. More implicit forms can persist through institutional practices, inherited inequalities, cultural assumptions, and historical narratives even after explicitly racial laws have been abolished.

This distinction matters because saying that white supremacy is a cultural system does not mean that every white person consciously believes in white superiority. The systemic concept concerns patterns of power and cultural norms that can operate independently of an individual's intentions. In this broader sense, the term describes a system of social relationships—not simply individual attitudes. It can operate through laws and institutions, but also through cultural norms, historical narratives and who controls that narrative.

White supremacy culture is the water we are all swimming in together, regardless of our racial identity. But, we are not all affected in the same ways. Let us not forget that white supremacy impacts all parts of society including accumulated wealth, education, land ownership, political representation, institutional leadership, and cultural authority.

White supremacy colonizes our minds, bodies, emotions and spirit. It also colonizes the land, air and water through systems of control and commodification of resources.

What does it take to de-colonize this toxic disease?

How do we free ourselves, and each other, and dismantle this inequitable system?

Entering into this conversation, it is not uncommon to deflect accountability with defensiveness, guilt or silence. Or hide behind good intentions and color-blindness. Reading a book or taking a REI workshop doesn't automatically prevent us from perpetuating systems of exclusion and white supremacy. There is a lot to take in here so let me pause for a moment.

Notice if you have any feelings about our conversation so far.
Discomfort. Fear. Anger. Guilt. Dismissiveness. Need for reassurance.
Any of these and more are natural responses to entering into a conversation about white supremacy. But not the last word.

However, this is not an excuse to retreat behind white fragility victimhood, but an acknowledgement that this conversation, this “work,” requires humility and accountability, a willingness to acknowledge how we all are entangled in a toxic system and need one another to get free.

There are many good resource materials for engaging this work on a deeper level (see resources below). Today I would like to lift up one particular book: Layla F. Saad's Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor. The book is less a conventional history of racism than a guided practice of self-examination and personal accountability.

This book asks readers—particularly white people—to examine how they personally participate in, benefit from, reproduce, or remain silent within systems of white supremacy. The central idea: move from “racism is out there” to “how am I involved?” This fundamental move is from understanding racism as something primarily perpetrated by obviously racist individuals, to understanding white supremacy as a system that operates through ordinary behaviors, assumptions, institutions, and relationships.

She asks readers to examine the larger racial system that historically places whiteness in a position of cultural, social, economic, and political dominance. The question shifts from “Am I racist?” to “How might I participate in or benefit from a system of racism?” The ultimate measure is not whether someone considers themselves a good person, but whether they are willing to notice, interrupt, and change the patterns through which racial inequality is reproduced.

She also asks: What kind of ancestor will I be? That last question is probably the book's most powerful bridge to spiritual practice: antiracism becomes not simply an opinion about race, but a disciplined practice of truth-telling, self-examination, courage, and legacy. The book turns antiracist work from a question of personal identity—“Am I a good person?”—into a question of legacy and responsibility. A person doesn't become a “good ancestor” simply by having good intentions. The emphasis is on what one's actions, relationships, and choices contribute to the future.

ERUUF’s White Antiracist Group, WAG, is a caucus group for white people to do the work of dismantling racism as part our larger commitment as a congregation to racial equity and inclusion. WAG will focus on this book as the curriculum for the program year. The group meets on the third Sunday of the month after the second service.

Answers. Solutions. Next steps. Where do we go from here?

While having a list of things to do can help give a sense of direction and purpose to make a difference, outer doing can also be a way of avoiding the inner work, the deeper work that is asked of us today. How do we change institutionalized oppression and racism? Where does this history live in me?

There is a both/and at play here. Both outer work in the world to change systems AND inner work to recognize and shift our participation in perpetuating these very systems. And in the context of our conversation today, as a community we need to work together to de-colonize our programs and worship, policies and practices, hearts and minds. This means de-center whiteness, embrace voices from the margins, and engage difficult conversations about these important issues.

Of course, let’s acknowledge the significant and ongoing work of teams at ERUUF like the Theory of Change Committee, Multicultural Team, WAG, Pride+, Justice Actions groups, the Board, staff, and even the Foundation which provided seed money for multiple rounds of REI workshops over a decade ago. There is a collective commitment we share in this congregation around racial equity and inclusion.

And, there is more required of us, in our doing and in our being.

If we wish to create a more equitable world for everyone, the systems of white supremacy must be dismantled.

If we wish to live into our core UU values, these systems must change.

If not now, when?

If not us, who?

Do we have the courage to move forward and do the inner work of transformation that makes true beloved community possible?

May it be so.

Daniel

Resources

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad (2020). A guided examination of white privilege, racial stereotypes, complicity, and everyday participation in systems of white supremacy. Includes reflective exercises that encourage personal accountability.

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (2019). A foundational introduction to antiracism. Kendi examines how racist ideas and policies reinforce one another and argues for actively challenging racial inequity rather than assuming neutrality is enough.

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo (2018). Explores defensive reactions that can arise when white people are challenged about racism, and how those reactions can obstruct honest conversations and change.

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo (2018). An accessible guide to discussing race, privilege, intersectionality, cultural appropriation, and systemic discrimination. Offers practical approaches to conversations that can otherwise become defensive or unproductive.

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (1963). Two incisive essays confronting racism, Christianity, national identity, and the moral costs of white supremacy. Baldwin challenges readers to face the truth about American history and themselves.

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (2014). Reframes U.S. history from Indigenous perspectives, examining settler colonialism, land dispossession, broken treaties, and the relationship between national expansion and racial hierarchy.

Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi (2016). A sweeping history of racist ideas in the United States, tracing how they developed, changed, and were used to justify racial inequality from early American history onward. Provides solid historical context and understanding the development of racist ideology.

Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Out by Ruth King (2018). Brings mindfulness practice into the work of racial healing, exploring how awareness of emotions, conditioned reactions, and habitual patterns can support deeper engagement with racism.

Additional works mentioned in the service:

Summer of Soul, documentary film by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. Chronicles the 1969 Harlem Music Festival. It is simultaneously a concert film, a historical document, a meditation on Black cultural identity, and a story about what gets remembered—and what gets forgotten.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Gil Scott-Heron (1970). Link to You Tube performance of this spoken word piece with music.

White Supremacy Culture website by Tema Okum. This site provides a rich set of reflections and resources for authentically engaging the work of addressing white supremacy for individuals and organizations.