Raising A Brown Boy In Today's America

[MV Neland]

This is the video to watch if you watch nothing else...in this turbulent time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-5KPx-0jDQ

Her link -   http://valariekaur.com

[koshersalaami]

Amazing

Do you know where this is? That looks like Rev. William Barber standing next to her. She addresses a rabbi off camera. If sh's in North Carolina, where Rev. Barber is based, that could easily be my old rabbi. 

[Ron Powell]

Excellent!

[MV Neland]

koshersalaami, i think that IS Rev Barber.  Not sure where this event is being held, but given the particularly oppressive racial and legislative challenges North Carolina has been enduring along with the incredible civic and religious community response to those added challenges, it certainly would make sense that Valarie would be speaking there.  I put a link up to her website but the video is not on her site since it is "Of" her giving a presentation rather than produced "By" her.  Took me a while to find a copy i could export and eventually landed on youtube.  Maybe the poster has left a hint in the video description? 

[JMac1949 Today]

Outstanding, thanks for sharing.

[Terry McKenna]

Excellent piece. She says what needs to be said. The issue for me is how the Republican Party is not able to disown this at all. They murmur a few things but they need to denounce at the top of their voices.

[koshersalaami]

I lived in NC for ten years, having moved north last summer. Our Temple in Greensboro has a Martin Luther King Jr. Friday night service annually that is open to the community, so we get a lot of church traffic and local politicians. They do a guest speaker every year and a year or two ago they got Rev. Barber. 

I don't think I've ever heard that good a public speaker in person in my life. 

[nerd cred]

Brilliant! Thank you, MV Neland.

And of course it's Rev. Barber. I recognized his distinctive voice calling out before I saw him.

[koshersalaami]

Reverend Barber was involved in my community in another way. A few years ago, NC (the state, not the blogger) had something come up called Amendment One. It was about defining marriage legally as between a man and a woman. My rabbi is very politically involved in human rights stuff and he was of course opposed. Most of the local Black churches were initially in favor for Biblical reasons, but then my rabbi brought Rev. Barber in to talk to them. (My rabbi does an absolute ton of interfaith stuff, so he knows basically all the clergy in Greensboro.) Rev. Barber reframed it as a civil rights issue and essentially turned that community. Amendment One passed in the state but went down in Greensboro. 

[MV Neland]

• Thanks everyone for viewing this video and bringing your own energy and voice to this long engaged struggle for real tolerance, inclusion, and compassion.

[MV Neland]

1. Koshersalaami, as a queer woman coming out before gay civil rights, hearing stories like your rabbi grabbing Rev Barber to come sway and persuade the rigid means a lot to me. Thank to all of you who stood with all of us.
2. In Portland, we had the Quaker AFSC and eventually a very ecumemical and local civic government consortium of sorts for many civil rights issues, outreach services to people needing all kinds of help, community policing, etc. I got to be a part of that.