Anti-Racism Working Group

The Anti-Racism Working Group (formerly the Uprooting Racism committee) was formed to help NPYM live into its commitment in the minute passed in 2019 (click on this link to read the full text):

... We commit individually and as meetings to take action that dismantles oppressive societal attitudes and institutions, creates equity, and constructs multiracial movements to solve the pressing problems of our times. We accept the challenge to co-create Beloved Community with equality of opportunity, respect, and spiritual and economic well-being for all people everywhere. We will create a team of Friends who outreach to quarterly meetings, monthly meetings, and worship groups to assess what assistance they would like in uprooting racism, offer resources and/or provide experiential workshops that allow for deep listening and work toward removing barriers. ...

The group meets monthly, on the third Monday of the month, at noon Pacific / 1:00 pm Mountain, by Zoom. Meeting ID: 829 7318 0014  Passcode: 858364. Direct join link: here. To call in, find your local number by going to https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcm2FFEOLt.

To join (or be removed from) the mailing list for the working group, contact  usrmanager@npym.org.

We share clerking responsibilities, using a volunteer list that can be accessed here. 

We have articulated the goal of our group as follows: 

North Pacific Yearly Meeting, in its 2019 Uprooting Racism Minute, established the Anti-Racism Working Group to support individuals, meetings, worship groups, and NPYM itself in recognizing the detrimental impact of racism on all people and acting to eliminate it. We seek to raise awareness of how racial privileges and barriers have manifested in each of our lives and in the systems of our society; to examine Friends’ traditions and actions; and to detect and remove barriers that exclude or marginalize people of color in accordance with our testimonies of equality, integrity, and community.

Towards these ends, the Working Group offers networking and mutual support among Friends, shepherding of anti-racism minutes, a resource list, experiential workshops, and deep listening. We will support Friends’ efforts to dismantle racism inside and outside NPYM.

Members of the working group acknowledge that we are also on individual and collective journeys through the thicket of racism that imperils our society. We humbly seek Divine guidance and resilience. We pledge to continue learning and to bring what we can to NPYM as it seeks to live into its goal of being an anti-racist organization.

NPYM Friends may want to note that Friends General Conference has a Ministry on Racism, which offers gatherings and support for Friends of Color, advice for meetings on anti-racism actions, and a worship group for White Friends Confronting Racism. Note that extensive materials supporting Meetings in anti-racism are available from Friends General Conference. 

Indigenous Support. In 2022, NPYM adopted a Minute in Support of Indigenous People. Meetings and worship groups committed to take actions as led to follow through on the minute. Resources to support that step are available here.  Also see Doables -- Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples and the story of the Quaker involvement in Indian boarding schools, which is told here. Reports on NPYM sharing sessions about this work are also available.