“I am accustomed to joining communities where I am the only African-American present,” Billie Wade says. “That’s been a common thread throughout my life. Coming to Quakerism and discovering that that thread was going to continue was not a surprise… Fortunately, Des Moines Valley [Friends Meeting] has been an open, welcoming community to me.”
“That said,” she continues, “I still feel lonely sometimes.”
Although Friends are willing to talk about unrest in places like Ukraine or Iran, Billie explains, they are often reluctant to have similar discussions about the rejection Black people experience from within the Quaker community. “I can’t be the person that brings up those conversations all the time,” she says. “It gets to a point where people see me coming and they will begin to resent that.”
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Discussion Question:
- Has your meeting made space for issues concerning Black people? If not, how can it?
The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.
Many people are supportive. It is amazing that you have found two people who are actually taking action on this issue. I have seen the discrimination and have my own issue that I work on- not getting anywhere, but trying. I think what happened with George Floyd et al was that people saw what has been happening all along, and they were shocked.
Now, society has moved on to the next trend, but the same issues remain. The racism that remains is so prevalent that we don’t see it any more.
Body cams and cell phone cameras have been most helpful in documenting and also in preventing some of discrimination.
Some times black people don’t want to just relate on the issues of racism. Some want to talk about recipes for banana bread or education issues or even Ukraine.
Great post. Sister Wade’s words rang true – echoing similiar experiences at 57th Street Meeting. My Meeting aka Quaker House draws attendees from U. of C and warmly welcomes people of color. But Black American are treated differently!. As long as racism is hidden under blankets of cultral-based idenity other African-American Friends will remain unsafe.
I just watched the video of the lady talking about being black. She feels lonely at times. Why is that? Everyone is welcome, but at times it appears that she does not feel that. If I were there after hearing this, I would make sure I tried to meet her needs. Conversation about how she feels could be very in lightning. People of color do get profiled ! I was just at a meeting where they asked me why Quaker? I said the love for God, country, equality, non discriminatory, love for fellow human. Please hear her. Blessings
We often believe that we are welcoming but clearly that is not necessarily the way black people feel which we have to accept. My question to my meeting here in the UK is: What specifically can we do to change this? For example, do we start by taking up one or two issues that particularly affect black people and hold an open meeting so that we are in direct contact with a wider group of people than our almost entirely white Ffriends here in SE London? Climate change is a big concern for all of us. Do we campaign on the universal impacts or highlight particular aspects that will have a disproportionate effect on specific groups of people? If we do draw more black people to our meeting, how do we make them feel comfortable if they are only a few? I’ve told my meeting that I think we’d be wary of a 28 year old black man with a successful career as a video games developer, but that we would probably be all over a middle aged black female civil rights lawyer. The issues won’t be identical in the UK as the US, but we should discuss and listen.