Our May meeting will be at Downers Grove meetinghouse on Saturday, May 7th, 2011.

Approximate schedule:

9:00 AM: arrivals, name tags, coffee & fellowship, possibly singing
>if you or your meeting have favorite hymns/songs embodying Quaker values, consider coming early and sharing/teaching/leading those songs!

9:30 AM to 12 noon: worship, worship with attention to business
>note that we will be forming a nominating process & committee

12 noon to about 1:15 PM: lunch & cleanup
>please lend a hand so Downers Grove Friends can enjoy the program

following cleanup, about 1:15 to about 3:15 PM: program

Program:

Bonni Mckeown and Earl Smith of Chicago Friends Meeting will talk about the need for Friends to address criminal justice issues raised in civil rights lawyer Michelle Alexander in her powerful, readable book The New Jim Crow. Fueled largely by the War on Drugs, a backlash against the civil rights movement, growing unemployment, the prison-industrial complex, and the unsavory ambitions of some politicians, we have now seen 30 years of mass incarceration focused mainly on poor black men. The prison system is now gobbling up Latinos, women and poor white people as well. The legal system is full of injustices. We are putting millions of dollars into prisons instead of schools.

With our history of campaigning for justice and humane prison conditions, Friends have an important role to play. This two-hour workshop will start the discussion and help us each discern for ourselves what we should do.

Bonni and Earl have each attended workshops on racism and diversity. Both have lived as minority whites in Chicago’s African American communities in Cabrini Green and the West Side. Earl has also lived as a volunteer in Su Casa domestic violence shelter for Latino women and families. Bonni has written the story of bluesman Larry Hill Taylor, who served five years in Menard Prison.

To prepare for the workshop, please consider reading Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow. www.newjimcrow.com

Also, Ruth Marquez has found Peggy McIntosh’s book White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack very helpful. It’s discussed in a blog here, complete with a few contentious comments:
http://blog.burkescarbrough.com/2007/01/white-privilege-unpacking-invisible.html

Please come with open hearts and minds. We’ll sing a few blues tunes at the end!