From the UUCW Anti Racism Transformation Team (ART Team)

At General Assembly in June, the UUA passed 3 Actions of Immediate Witness (AIW).  An Action of Immediate Witness is a statement about a significant action, event, or development in the world that necessitates immediate engagement and action among UU member congregations and groups. The ART team at UUCW is specifically looking at the AIW on Antiracism and Reparations via Restorative Justice.

We want the congregation of UUCW to be aware of this Action for Immediate Witness so that it can help guide our work on anti-racism.  Key components of this particular AIW include:

  • UU congregations to engage the principles of Restorative Justice and truthful American history, to fully understand and reject white supremacy.
  • Unitarian Universalists to address and engage Restorative Justice by allying with representatives from the most affected communities, to take action employing those dynamics at all levels of public engagement in the political and educational spheres.

Actions would include:

  • Create Study/Action Groups in our UU Congregations, that engage in Restorative Justice. Congregations would embrace the principles of Restorative Justice and partner with marginalized communities to seek societal repair/reparations as an essential underlying aspect of our social justice work.
  • Promote and support cultural and gender identity in leadership and in learning environments.
  • Encourage Unitarian Universalist congregations to become advocates for reparations/repair initiatives in their local communities.*
  • Condemn political and religiously motivated censorship, especially in our schools. The needs of teachers and other workers in education and academic freedom must be protected.
  • Encourage all UUs to be a part of national and local initiatives and organizations, such as the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA), the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC), Grassroots Reparations Campaign, Coming to the Table.

*Currently UUCW is part of the 5-congregation collaborative Black Lives Matter to Wisconsin Unitarian Universalists (BLM2WUU).  This group works together to facilitate racial justice education within our congregations and to partner with Milwaukee/metro area groups who are doing the work of racial justice.  BLM2WUU Leadership Working Group, in the spirit of reparations, has been accumulating a relatively small fund from contributions from our congregations and congregation members. In June 2022 BLM2WUU sent its first disbursement to support work in the Milwaukee Community.  To join in this effort to address the wealth gap that persists as a legacy of slavery and continuing racial oppression:

  • send a check to United UUC, 506 N. Washington, Waukesha, WI 53188, with “Reparations” in the memo line
  • electronically, send a text to 262-261-8829, or
  • go to https://app.easytithe.com/app/giving/uniteduuc. Use the dropdown menu to choose “Reparations”

Please let members of the ART team know your ideas of how our congregation could act specifically to address the above-mentioned actions.

Helen Ambuel, Tom Levi, Sue Schalig, Stephanie Richardson, Beth Zaretzke, Karen Zimmerman

View the full Action of Immediate Witness on Anti-Racism and Reparations 

For more information on reparations, visit the BLM2WUU website