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Our Anti-Racist Anti-Oppressive Multicultural Congregation (ARAOMC) Task Force works to grow racial and cultural equity both within our congregation and our community. Engaging in deep conversations, reaching out to community organizations, and expanding on the original Anti-Racism Task Force, this group has a broad scope that has room for you to participate, too.
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Study Circles On Race Relations |
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 ARAOMC Task Force encourages you to sign up for a study circle on race relations beginning in April. You'll meet for five 2-hour sessions with a small diverse group of Gainesville citizens, becoming acquainted and sharing experiences with race, considering race relations in Gainesville, and thinking about what actions might be taken to help.
Contact: Alice Primack,
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Black-White Academic Gap Overcome by Some Schools |
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Dr. Larry McDaniel’s invitation on July 12th during services to join the black community’s challenge for change in local schools, with a goal of improving the low black graduation rate, has inspired a new UUF Anti-Racism Project.
The project’s goal is to gather information on schools that have overcome the black-white student academic gap. Member Ralph Bowden gave a first example from Decatur, GA, where he lived prior to moving here in 1999. That city’s schools have graduated a record number of poor, black students.
“Decatur has become a bedroom community for professionals from Atlanta,” he said. “They are drawn by the city’s excellent schools. So there are lots of high-achieving white kids from those homes. But there is also a low-income housing project there and the schools also have lots of black kids on free and reduced lunch incomes. But the curriculum is such that the black students also achieve above the state average and the black high school graduation rate is also higher than average. The drop-out rate is very low.”
If it can be done there, why not here, instead of blaming the gap totally on poverty, as we do? McDaniel ran down the list of the well-known problems that can be traced back to early education of black youngsters in a whites-only academic curriculum. The big need is teachers who are trained to deal with multi-cultural students.
The project ties in to the national UUA’s anti-racist, anti-oppression, multicultural (ARAOMC) mission that includes a five-year plan to build closer relationships with the black community and other minorities. Rev. LoraKim Joyner, through the ACTION Network, already works with black churches. |
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