New, on QuakerSpeak: “A Calling to Prison Ministry and Antiracism Work.” QuakerSpeak videographer Rebecca Hamilton-Levy interviews Judy Meikle, who was initially struck by the phrase that tied the modern-day prison industry to slavery — “from the plantation to the penitentiary” — and started volunteering for prison ministry at Sing Sing. It was quite the journey, as she had to confront her own Whiteness and White savior complex:
I’d like to name that it’s a struggle for me on an ongoing basis to wrestle with my own internalized racism and when I hear myself talking like I have today about what my joinery has been like, I hear myself falling into the trap of exceptionalism, like somehow I’m the good antiracist — I’m not. I stumble all the time, I make mistakes. So I just want to name that and know that I am on this journey making mistakes because I want to do better, and I hope that with the guidance of Spirit others will join. There are many people in the Religious Society of Friends that are already on board with this work, and it’s just my hope that others will join.
Judy wrote about her experiences for FJ last year in “Get Thee Behind the Walls.”
Recent Comments on Quaker Ranter Daily