The African-American/Jewish Mission: Setting the Tone

After a tour of Vulcan Park and dinner, members of the African-American/Jewish Mission congregated to establish the tone for the rest of the week. The mayor gave an historical perspective of Birmingham under Jim Crow, examples of passive resistance that included the help of a Jewish merchant in the Titusville neighborhood. The leader of the local Jewish Federation introduced representatives and gave participants an opportunity to share thoughts, questions and ideas.

One of the participants began the discussion with a scenario that is familiar to many of us. We literally and figuratively have a situation where communities live on opposite sides of the track. It gave Birminghamians an opportunity to talk about initiatives that have been in place for several years. We discussed decades of programs to address issues of race, religion and life circumstances. It was a great opportunity to introduce many successful initiatives.

As we showcased our Birmingham success stories, participants wanted to know more about cultivating personal and institutional relationships across cultures. I had forgotten how deeply these organizations impacted me. My emotions began to take over so the details of everyone's comments are a bit fuzzy. The fact that I have maintained many of the cross-cultural relationships that were facilitated through these programs began to overwhelm me. Hopefully, participants will comment on this post. So how did people in a divided community begin to build relationships across cultures?

Some comments from the group included:

1) A shared history of struggle connects the community across racial, religious, social and cultural lines. The comment originally related to the Civil Rights Movement, but as we were leaving, a participant added an interesting comment that African-Americans and Jews also have a history of slavery.
2) The community has faith-based institutions who have a social justice mission to address social issues faced by different religious communities. They are willing to share resources, both human and financial.
3) There are people who are willing to take risks.
4) Some of the aspects of southern culture and community lend itself to this type of work.
5) A participant shared the realization that the next generation can perpetuate or change our past. They have begun the work of eradicating racial divisions on their own terms.

Some group members also identified challenges:

1) Intragroup issues that prevent the work from being done.
2) Unwilling partners across community lines.
3) The realization that some factors of the past have not faded.
4) The perception of a paternalistic agenda and people attempting to change communities without buyin from the local community.
5) Keeping the dialogue going.

I look forward to tomorrow's visit to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. There is a gallery that chronicles the impact of the Movement on people around the world. Perhaps it will deepen the dialogue. I also look forward to hearing success stories from other parts of the country.

Please check out A Rabbi and A Pastor Go to Birmingham for additional perspectives on the trip.

Anytown, Anytown

Last night I had an unexpected encounter. Almost everyone in the room had an association with Anytown Alabama. Anytown is a prejudice reduction camp for high school students that was sponsored by the National Conference for Community and Justice. Most states had an Anytown, Metrotown or some version of the camp. Now that the NCCJ national office in New York is defunct and a number of other factors, the Birmingham office had to close its doors.

I have had an instant connection with people that were associated with Anytown. Anytown organizers were intentional in putting classes together of people from different races, faiths, ethnic groups, socioeconomic backgrounds and different parts of the state. It involved an intense week of delving into their souls and developing a lifelong bond with people who started as strangers.

So how can I spot an Anytowner? Usually, Anytowners have no problem stretching beyond boundaries of most of their peers. Their experience at camp made them face their prejudices in an open setting. The residual effect of this intense searching of the soul includes a new human being with a perspective on life that most people will never have.

So what am I talking about? Many people say, "I don't have any prejudices. I don't see color..." These statements are rarely tested. This attitude is self-reported. We never get to ask people who interact with them whether they behave in a manner contrary to their opinion about themselves. If Anytowners were in denial at the beginning of the week, they faced their prejudices and learned to overcome them. They were put through the test and passed it with flying colors.

In my world of training, we are doing well to get more than two hours with a group. In that amount of time, appealing to the affect is very difficult. Anytown offered 24 hour, round the clock, facilitated activities.

Next to my family and classmates, I would say Anytowners make up my close friends. The picture above is from my baby shower which was given by several Anytown Alumni, high school and college classmates and one military brat.

Back to the encounter on last night. When we found out that we were all involved in Anytown, we began to sing the theme song, Anytown, Anytown yellow, white, black, red or brown or something like that. We also did an energy check which was a series of claps that you have to hear to understand what I am saying. I was amazed that I could somewhat remember a song I learned in 1992. We went on to reminisce about our experiences. We will miss you Anytown, AL