 to bring that sign up for the second one. Come on, Jackson. So you're very kind of the university. I'm very good. Oops. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome. Oh, no. Yeah. I don't want to say that. I said I was so lonely, but she was like, would you love to be in my life? She's the only one in my life. She's the only one in my life. We just don't have a fresh life. Oh, she's the only one. She's the only one. She's the only one. She's the only one. She's the only one. Just win a yayy? Here. Thank you. Thank you. This wait for you. Yeah. Did you take your shades? Um, yeah. Thank you. Yes, we don't have any paints, though. No, no, no. I used to put my ianteed on. So it sounds like it seems to happen now. Whenever I put my ianteed on. I use water a lot, I do tap? I use cotton putt. Mm. Someone said you know, I use water a lot, and that made a shame. Please join us in a moment of centering silence again good morning and at this point I would ask that you join us for our in-gathering hymn. It's nice to see so many beautiful faces this morning. I'm always glad to be here amongst you all and I as always thank you for welcoming me as a member and proud you you. So good morning and welcome to the First Unitarian Society of Madison. This is a place where curious seekers gather to explore spiritual, ethical and social issues in a safe and accepted environment. Unitarian Universalism supports the freedom of conscience of each individual as together we seek to be a force for good in the world. My name is Matt Steame Goldberg. My name is James Morgan and on behalf of the congregation I would like to extend a special welcome to visitors. We are welcoming congregation so whoever you are we celebrate your presence among us. Newcomers are encouraged to stay for our fellowship hour after the service and to visit the library which is directly across from the center doors of this auditorium. Bring your drinks and your questions. Members of our staff and lay ministry will be on hand to welcome you. We all know the process this would be a good time to turn off your cell phones and other things that would interrupt our service this morning. Experience guides are generally available to give a building tour after each service so if you would like to learn more about this sustainably designed addition to our national landmark meeting house please meet near the large glass windows on my right to your left potentially of this auditorium. And again you know FUS welcomes children to stay with us during the service. Please remember that it often becomes difficult for those in attendance to hear in this lively acoustical environment and our child haven and commons are excellent places to go when you and your child need to talk or move around. The service can still be seen and heard from those areas. Now I'd like to take a moment and acknowledge our volunteers. As many of you know volunteers are a very important part of what we do here at First Unitarian Society so I encourage you to take some time and to volunteer because we are a fortunate community and the more people see you the more they will know about us. So our assistants this morning myself of course sound operator Mary Manning, lay minister Tom Boykoff, greeter Elizabeth Kunkle, our ushers are Daniel Bradley, Brian Janus and Nancy Daly. Hospitality are coffee and you know how good coffee is here. Biss Niskey, Nancy Koseff and finally atrium greens, piece Lily is well should be Hannah Pinkerton. Please note the announcements on the red floors insert of your order of service which describe upcoming events at the society and provide more information about today's activities. We do have one special announcement. You will find some survey sheets that were included this morning. We asked that you fill out the survey sheets there in reference to WMU, our radio station and we need and would appreciate feedback and you may return those surveys right out here in the hallway to Elizabeth wonderful young woman that I met this morning and quickly I would like to just take a brief moment to share a brief reflection. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when I think of Dr. King I think of sacrifice. I think of leadership. I think of someone who gave and volunteered his time so that we all would at some point be able to grasp one simple concept and it's called love and I often hear people question or ask the question what would Dr. King say today. We are all familiar with his speeches. I have a dream and I've been to that mountaintop but what I want to share with you briefly here is what I believe Dr. King would say to us today and this is just a brief quote that comes from one of his writing and speeches concerning what was happening in the war in Vietnam and I think this is particularly appropriate in the times that we are now living and I quote there comes a time when silence is betrayal end quote so I encourage you as I do myself let us not be silent let us not be silent our futures are too important the futures of our children those in this room and those in our communities who are suffering need our voices and our voices are our power and with that I say thank you Dr. King. As my brother James has already alluded Martin Luther King he had a dream he had a dream that seized the imagination of our nation and initiated a moral revolution whose reverberations can still be felt today. Martin's was an inclusive dream promising justice for all not just the chosen few his wide sympathies his spiritual humility drew all of us in Christian humanist Jew convincing us that people of widely varying beliefs and backgrounds could live together could serve together putting aside their differences in pursuit of a common vision. Nearly 60 years have passed since his death and yet the dream lives on the dream must live on it is still too far from being realized and yet Martin Luther King's words echoing down the years still challenge us to maintain faith with what he and we stood for a world more fair loving with all its people one. I invite you to rise in body and spirit for the lighting of our chalice and as James kindles the flame of our faith please join me in reading the words of affirmation this congregation is dedicated to the proposition that behind all our differences beneath all our diversity there is a unity that makes us one and binds us forever together in spite of time and death and the spaces between the stars and now in this lovely January morning I invite you to turn to your neighbor in exchange with them a warm and friendly greeting please be seated and now Leslie Ross has something special to share with our young people so kids want to come up and any adults who want to feel like kids many it's wonderful come on in good morning so we've been given a little bit of a hint so far this morning but anybody know what special day is tomorrow Martin Luther King jr. day and does anyone know why we celebrate this heroic man because he helped black people and white people be together that's right and he believed very strongly that no matter what the color of our skin is we should all have equal rights and equal opportunities and be able to go to good schools and live in safe neighborhoods and have jobs that are respectful of the work that we do and he was right we do we should all have those things he taught us a lot about what it means to be courageous and how important it is to speak for what you believe is true and to care for other people and we're very grateful for all of the work that he did with the civil rights movement so today i'm going to share a story with you called a sweet smell of roses and it's about two girls who were able to join Martin Luther King jr. on one of his peaceful marches is it pretty hard to see those photos yeah okay i'm going to try to share pictures with you as i read that after a night of soft rain there is a sweet smell of roses as my sister mini and i slipped past mama's door and out of the house down charlotte street past the early morning milkman over the cobbled bridge and through the curb market to where everybody waits to march mini and i are only waist high to most of them waste time in me waste high holding hands and waiting to march there is a sweet smell of roses as everyone waits for dr king to speak and the colors bright light from the sun on the flowers beside the road as we listen to dr king on the megaphone say we are right we march for equality and freedom then we start to march mini and me we look ahead and we walk faster like him clapping in time with our feet looking ahead just like him there is a sweet smell of roses even as we march past the people who scream shout and say you are not right equality can't be yours then we look farther down the road and keep holding hands feeling a part of it all walking our way toward freedom there is a sweet smell of roses as more people start marching with us pouring out of the side streets clapping and singing freedom freedom then someone picks me up and puts me on his shoulders somebody picks mini up too and we are high above everybody still marching there is a sweet smell of roses as we all gather in the center of town all together all here listening to dr king and the sun as the sun gets higher in the sky he talks about peace love non-violence and change for everybody and the sun gets higher in the sky when it's time to go we skip back hand in hand mini and me singing freedom songs along the streets through the curve market over the cobbled bridge and past the mailman to our house on charlotte street then there is mama worried face waiting there for us she smiles after a while hugging us then takes our hands and as we tell her about the march the curtains float apart and there is a sweet smell of roses all through the house so dr martin luther king jr and the civil rights movement did a lot to make our country a better place but there's still a lot of work to be done there's still peaceful protests to have and marches to have and people speaking for the truth about how things should be i like to think that the smell of the roses is the smell of hope and look what i have here a bouquet of hope so before you go off to your classes i want you to come over to this bouquet of hope and take in a very deep breath of how wonderful it smells and then take that hope to your classes and your homes and your schools and maybe even to a march okay come on up and take a smell smells good doesn't it all right thanks so much for joining me have fun in your classes today smell good smells like candy please be seated 25 years ago andrew hacker a sociologist from queen's college in new york city published a book entitled two nations black and white separate hostile and unequal this is a passage from that book of 1992 let's entertain a parable hacker says suspend disbelief for a moment and assume that what follows might actually happen you will be visited tonight by an official an official you have never met he begins by telling you that he is extremely embarrassed the organization he represents has made a mistake something that hardly ever happens but according to their records you were supposed to have been born black to another set of parents far from where you were raised however the rules being what they are this error must be rectified and as soon as possible so at midnight tonight you will become black and this will not simply mean a darker skin but the bodily and facial features associated with african ancestry however inside you will be the person you always were your knowledge memories ideas will remain completely intact outwardly you will not be recognizable to anybody that you now know now your visitor emphasizes that being born to the wrong parents was by no means your fault and consequently his organization is prepared to offer you some reasonable recompense would you he says would you care to name a sum of money that you might consider appropriate he says that his organization is by no means poor it can be quite generous when the circumstances warrant as they seem to in your case and he finishes by saying that their records show that you are scheduled to live for another 50 years as a black man or woman in america how much financial recompense would you request when this parable has been put to white college students most seem to feel that it would not be out of place to ask for 50 million dollars one million dollars for each coming black year and this hacker says this calculation conveys as well as anything the value that white people place on their own skins indeed to be white is a gift whose value can be appreciated only if it is taken away in the eyes of white america he continues being black encapsulates your entire identity no other racial or national origin is seen as having so pervasive a personality or character so if you write a book on euclidean algorithms or renaissance sculpture you will still usually be described usually be described as a black author more than that you learn early on that this nation feels no need or desire for your physical presence indeed your people are no longer in demand as cheap labor you sense that many white citizens would heave a sigh of relief where you simply to disappear while few openly propose that you return to africa they would hardly be disappointed were you to make that decision on your own a quarter century later january 2017 tanahisi coats writes in the atlantic magazine an essay entitled my president was black barack obama appealed to a belief in innocence in particular a white innocence an innocence that ascribed the country's historical errors more to misunderstanding or the work of a small cabal than to any deliberate malevolence or widespread racism america he insisted was good america was great and obama's embrace of white innocence was demonstrably necessary as a matter of political survival whenever he attempted to buck that directive he was disciplined and so his mild objection to the arrest of harvard professor henry lewis gates jr. in 2009 that contributed to his declining favorability numbers among whites still a majority of voters of course his comments after the killing of trevon martin if i had a son he would look like trevon that helped make that tragedy a rallying point for those who did not care about trevon's killer as much as they cared about finding ways to oppose the president michael tesler a political science professor at uc university california urvine has studied the effect of obama's race on the american electorate and he says no other factor in fact came close to dividing democratic primary voters as powerfully as their feelings about african americans a conclusion he reached after the 2008 election when tesler looked at the 2012 campaign in a second study he performed very little had changed or improved analyzing the extent to which racial attitudes affected people associated with obama in the 2012 election tesler concluded that racial attitudes spilled over from barack obama into mass assessments of joe biden hillary clinton and even the obama family dog boat in addition political scientists from the university of washington and uc la have found a relatively strong correlation between racism and tea party membership the notion that the tea party represented the righteous anger of an aggrieved class that allowed everyone to avoid the horrifying and simple reality that a significant swath of the country simply did not like the fact that their president was black pointing to citizens who voted for both obama and donald trump does not disprove america's persistent racism rather it underscores it because to secure the white house obama needed to be a harvard trained lawyer with a decade of political experience and an incredible gift for speaking to cross sections of the country and donald trump needed only money and white bluster relative to its peers in the big 10 the university of wisconsin madison was a pretty white school excluding the many non resident aliens who are enrolled minorities constitute only 15 percent of the entire student body of which only 2.2 percent identify as african america this has been a cause of some concern in recent years especially in light of several incidents of racial harassment in and around campus but while the uw administration seems eager to him to improve the racial climate some in state government have indeed questioned these efforts and so it should have come as no surprise that a spring semester undergraduate course provocatively entitled the problem of whiteness drew a sharp rebuke from two conservative members of the legislature senator steven nas threatened the university with funding cuts over the matter saying if you support higher tuition or increasing tax based funding to the uw system then you need to explain to the hardworking families of this state why money is being wasted to advance the politically correct agenda of liberal administrators and staff now steven nas gave no indication that he had studied professor daemon sanjani syllabus whose contents could hardly be described as radical but sanjani's attempt to broach the topic of white privilege in an academic setting that didn't sit very well with these powerful beneficiaries of that very privilege and so they sought to quash the conversation before it could even get started and again this shouldn't surprise us for as the last election proved beyond a reasonable doubt many white americans perhaps even a majority of white americans feel today that they are under siege if they see race as an issue at all for our country they are quite certain that they are the ones that are now operating at a disadvantage there is a sense was he wrote last summer there is a sense that thanks to affirmative action and thanks to lax immigration policies others have nudged ahead of them on the social ladder now three months after barack obama's first inauguration 66 of americans said that race relations in this country were generally pretty good as his term of office draws to a close that percentage has been reversed last summer 69 of those polls said that race relations were mostly bad several developments helped to explain that reversal there was of course as we know a series of racially charged incidents that started with the killing of trevon martin in florida then michael brown in ferguson and then sandra bland in texas and all of this culminated in the black lives matter movement which in fact alienated many whites ignoring the high incidents of violence against blacks in our criminal justice system critics of the movement black lives matter claimed that it sought to prioritize black lives over white ones that black lives mattered more of course what was being demanded was simply equal weight and acknowledgement that black lives also matter and may no longer be dispensed with at will that was one factor then two during the presidential campaign much was made of the growing influence of immigrant and minority voters the calculus we were told is about to change whites would no longer be able to count on the political monopoly that we've always enjoyed so as a society we may have reached something of a tipping point in this respect now back in 1992 andro hacker the sociologist i quoted from earlier hackers research showed that white flight from a community typically began when black residency exceeded eight percent and this he observed is the point at which whites would begin to worry about their property values drug pushers and the honor of their white daughters more over hacker wrote this happens even when the blacks who move in have the same economic the same social standing as the existing white residents owing to this phenomenon residential segregation in this country has not declined very much since hacker wrote those words a quarter of century ago and now it appears that another tipping point is being reached the prospect of being overwhelmed by newly enfranchised minority voters may well have motivated many whites to circle the wagons choosing to support a candidate who holds forth the promise of continued white dominance over a candidate with a vision of a multicultural multiracial future and then the mere presence of a black family in the white house that has also had a profound effect yes barack obama leaves office at the end of this week with a positive approval rating and michelle obama has become an admired figure in her own right but for many whites obama's presence in the oval office was nothing less than an affront some of his political opponents announced from the very get go in 2009 that they would not support any of its programs even if they agreed with them lorenzo morris of howard university comments he says if you start out with such an intense hostility and you don't call it racial it's hard to know what to call it except stupid nevertheless barack obama did make throughout his terms of office he did make a concerted attempt to be as he put it a president for all the people he often bent over backwards to be inclusive and so when the congressional black caucus urged him to fund a program to reduce unemployment among black youth he responded by saying no i will fund a program for all youth still today 32 of americans blame the president for making race relations worse these have been in many ways heady and hopeful years for african americans loretta augustin heron she worked with barack obama when he began his career as a community organizer in chicago and for her it's not so much the policies that the president proposed but his mere presence in the white house that's what mattered the most she says you can't put a price tag on that we see a chance for us to fit into u.s. society in a way that we have never fit in but even as he stood as a symbol of achievement and possibility for someone like loretta he represented a very profound threat to others indeed obama provoked this counter movement that now controls the country emory university's carol anderson observes that a backlash is always waiting and in her book white rage the unspoken truth of our racial divide it's happened before she writes it happened in the wake of reconstruction with school desegregation enforced busing in response to the civil rights movement and now a backlash as obama's presidency draws to a close tana heesey coats who i also quoted from earlier he says that obama went to considerable lengths to protect white innocence and to avoid the complaint that he favored policies that served the interests of african-americans exclusively and in this he succeeded the interests of african-americans were not served all that well yes there were some gains made but a half century after passage of the civil rights act african-americans still ranked near the bottom of nearly every major socioeconomic measure in the country black household wealth is one seventh that of white households black families earning a hundred thousand dollars or more are likely to live in a disadvantaged neighborhood more likely to live in a disadvantaged neighborhood than white families that earn a third of that more blacks have acquired college degrees but their unemployment rate is the same as whites who have only a high school diploma lack of equity in the criminal justice system remains a major problem not long ago the sarasota herald published an investigative report on sentencing patterns in the state of florida when their reporters discovered that florida judges sentenced blacks to longer prison terms in 60 percent of felony cases 68 percent of serious first degree crimes and 45 percent of burglaries and the papers cited one egregious instance in which two teenagers from the same florida county one of them white one of them black each with no prior arrests were charged with armed robbery following the prosecutor and defense attorney's joint recommendation the judge in that case sentenced the white offender to probation the same judge handed the black youth a four year term in the state prison best deal i could get for you his lawyer said similar discrepancies undoubtedly are present in states beside florida this situation didn't appear by magic tanahisi coach writes it's the result of the government's effort over many decades to create a pigmentocracy one that will continue without explicit intervention and this pigmentocracy that he alludes to has actually been taking shape for not just several decades but several centuries according to the historian robert parkinson early patriots during the revolutionary era used this to rally the 13 states around a common cause up and down the eastern seaboard he discovered newspapers in the 1770s regularly printed stories about blacks perfidy and their loyalty to the british crown the ostensible goal of this was to unify whites by sowing seeds of suspicion and fear among their non-white neighbors blacks and indians we know today that they also fought alongside white patriots but newspapers never printed those commendable stories parkinson says and with independence this same trend continued and even intensified thomas jefferson favored the deportation of blacks arguing that due to innate differences between the two races integration in this country could never be achieved should blacks and whites remain together he wrote the extermination of one by the other was inevitable james madison was of a similar mind he proposed that blacks should be banished to the interior wilderness of the country james munroe backed an expedition to africa for the purpose of establishing that country Liberia where american blacks could be resettled the founders david reynolds writes were deeply bigoted about race and they would not even accept even the possibility of coexistence and so he says this raises fundamental questions about the basis of american democracy that still divide our country now would that this was simply a matter of historical interest but these men that i've just mentioned as well as many who promoted slavery or helped to create and maintain jim crow they're still very much a part of our national consciousness our cities are full of their statues bridges highways public buildings are named for these people their faces appear on our federal currency and efforts to remove certain names and images that are tainted by racism those efforts are met as was true for the case with the connect the confederate battle flag with fierce white resistance the difference in perspective between blacks and whites on such matters as these are truly profound and they continue to create a great deal of tension among us a point of supposed regional pride for one causes acute distress in someone else but instead of trying to understand that distress whites often become defensive accusing their black fellow citizens of being overly sensitive or or playing the race card and so for them history becomes irrelevant john metta writes and all too frequently discussions of race in america center around the protection of white sensibilities so what then is to be done the election of donald trump makes it clear is was he writes that racial resentment is in fact a renewable resource is there any possibility of changing that probably not at the policy level at least not in the near term 10 years ago former uw madison history professor timothy tyson complained 10 years ago now that the kinds of initiatives that would take to heal the enduring scars of slavery's legacy those initiatives are completely off the political chart right now what was true 10 years ago is equally true today that does not mean that we should not try to accomplish what we can through local private partnerships and through faith-based initiatives something that we at f us have made a priority in the last several years but beyond that equally if not more important is the responsibility each of us must take for ourselves as we seek to transform america's pigmentocracy and here gordon alport a pioneer in the field of personality psychology can be of some assistance to us as individuals now when he was teaching at harvard alport developed an avid interest in prejudice and how to overcome it and in the same year that brown versus the board of education was decided 1954 alport introduced an original theory that he called contact theory and he proposed something that seems commonsensical now but was not so back then he proposed that personal biases can be overcome through cross cultural experiences prejudice he says is ultimately rooted in social segregation but then he went on it's not enough to simply seek to rub shoulders with the objects of your biases to effectively reduce personal bias prejudice one must first consort with individuals of comparable social and economic status to proactively arrange for meaningful encounters three create opportunities to work together toward a common goal combat stereotypes and actively support and strive for equality all five of those have to be in place and indeed recent research based on the cumulative results of harvard's implicit bias tests they seem to support alport's thesis that personal bias does register a decline among those tested when efforts are made to be in contact with the source of that bias so the long and short of it is is that yes race is still incredibly relevant and that it will continue to challenge us for years to come but having said that I would also note that we can be somewhat proud of this institution f us for the efforts it has made to improve race relations throughout its 140 year history let me give you just a very brief review the story probably begins with a woman by the name of bell case la fallot bell case la fallot was married to robert fighting bob la fallot in the year 1881 a ceremony presided over by the then minister of this congregation rehenry simons bell la fallot was one of our local unitarian women pioneers according to the historian moral kurti but she was also a very popular journalist and a sought after speaker across the country she was a fierce opponent of jim crow and segregation miss la fallot spoke out on those subjects early and often in remarks that she delivered at the annual meeting of the new york city n double acp in 1913 she insisted the race issue like the suffrage question must be freely and seriously discussed in private conversations in the public press and from the pulpit you're welcome miss la fallot some 30 years after miss la fallot made that speech the congregations then minister kenneth patent publicly tendered his resignation from the white race to underscore his distress over racial inequality in the early 1960s the reverend max gaveler urged members of this congregation to fight housing discrimination by welcoming african-americans into their neighborhoods a plea almost entirely ignored by the real estate agents in our community and closing i don't want to ignore the progress that we have clearly made as a society but as we know progress can never be charted on a single ascending line like a stock market graph it trends up and down it has its peaks and valleys but unlike the stock market we cannot simply sit on our hands and wait until the bear again becomes a bull two visions of america's future are vying for dominance in today's society and those of us who do believe in racial healing and reconciliation we must ensure that the proper vision prevails may it be so our offering this week is the second week that we are actually collecting for the madison urban league that is doing much in our society to combat the racial issues that we are facing today please be generous each week is a community of memory end of hope and to this time and place we bring our whole and sometimes our broken lives we carry with us the joys and sorrows of the recent past seeking here a place where they might be received and celebrated and shared i would pause now to acknowledge one entry in our joys and sorrow book that always sits right outside the center doors carol miller a longtime member of this congregation passed away last week after suffering from dementia for the past several years carol was a meeting house guide a longtime member of our finance committees before our governance change and also was always very active in the annual pledge campaign i have not gotten any indication about when a memorial service might be held so when that information becomes available for those of you that knew carol will make sure that that is communicated in addition to that sorrow just mentioned we would acknowledge any other unexpressed joys and sorrows that remain among us and those as a community we hold with love and concern in our hearts let us sit silently for just a moment or two in the spirit of empathy and hope and so by virtue of our brief time together today may our burdens be lightened and our joys expanded i invite you to rise and body and spirit for our upbeat and hopeful closing song come and go with me voice good voice please be seated and before delivering the benediction i would like to note that after the service about 1015 over in that part of the room eric severson will be available to join any of you that would like to in further conversation about today's topic a little opportunity for you to talk about the theme among yourselves and so we do close with the words of the great 20th century american baritone paul robeson we shall take our voices wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom or the words that might inspire hope and courage in the face of despair and fear our weapons are peaceful for it's only by peace that peace can be attained but the song of freedom must prevail blessed be and amen