SRI Kinship Ray Blog Site

Through our Kinship book group, we have been getting a pretty good education by reading and discussing a string of wonderfully informative books (as well as viewing various videos). Kinship’s training component has been active over the past year, with LibCo’s 3-part presentation to the Murshids and the Board of Trustees and Omar’s 3-part presentation for NW Sufi camp, which I had the honor of participating in. We have also arranged and/or facilitated a series of fascinating meetings on the topic of Cultural Appropriation and would be happy to support other meeting topics for anyone interested in facilitating. 

In every case, the first question that comes up for most of us, upon learning the truth about devastating topics such as the extent to which we remain a white supremacy culture, or the ravages of climate change is “What can I do?” If you, too, are asking this question, read on:

Let me begin by saying it is tricky. What might seem like the most obvious “fix” to those of us in the privileged class (and you may be a member of this class regardless of your income level), is most likely not going to be successful unless it includes the input and, in fact, leadership of the people it was intended to help. The only way we can possibly serve anyone outside the dominant culture is to think outside the box created by that culture–the box of ideas about what works for us–because what works for us is not working, has NEVER worked, for many who live here. 

There is a lot to learn when it comes to helping so if you’d like to be of service, it’s best to get started on the learning curve as soon as possible. As it happens, we at Kinship, have outlined a “learning curve” for the very purpose of shining a light on the work that needs to be done to educate and inform ourselves BEFORE we idealistically proclaim ourselves servants, organizers, or leaders in any kind of justice movement. 

To give you an example of the material to be covered, here are some topics:

• Our Capitalist Culture–”How’s that working out for ya?”
• Windigo Culture–Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, “Windigo Footprints”
• The Big Box of Dominant Culture–and how not to think inside it (Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture, Tema Okun, et al) 
• It’s Worse Than You Think–poverty in America
• We Are Not the Experts–Follow BIPOC leadership (or LGBTQ+, or alter-abled, or non-Christian, etc.)
• White Saviorism–what are we trying to save? 
• Social Justice Agencies–what use is government aid? or making a living off of other people’s poverty?
• Aid for Marginalized People–who is “there” for them at the time they actually need it?
• Direct Giving and Mutual Aid–forget your annual donation(s)

So yes, as the dominant culture we are being asked to clean up our mess. But not by following our own leadership, which has led us astray. We must serve organizations led by members of the non-dominant culture, maybe through funding, physical acts of assistance, or spreading the word. We must learn to “know our place.” 
There’s a lot to unpack here but luckily, that’s exactly what we love to do. (We’re the Marie Kondo’s of cultural clutter!) If you’d like to know more or sign up for The Learning Curve, contact Basheera at kathleen.jm.ritchie@gmail.com

On December 2nd the Beyond Initiative presented leaders from India, Iran, Israel, and Turkey sharing DUP practice and a glimpse of the local spiritual flavor. They weaved in a Sohbet Panel with seasoned teachers to deep dive into the tricky and sticky subject of
SPIRITUAL BYPASS and the cultivation of real transformational processes.

We sincerely hope they will continue to host this type of event in the future. You can find recordings of this event and others, as well as much more information about the excellent work they are doing on their website: https://www.dancesofuniversalpeace.org/wwbeyond.shtm

 (A letter to fellow members of the dominant culture) ~

By Basheera Ritchie ~

The consequences of hubris ~

We often say we didn’t know, get angry because our schools didn’t teach us, feel guilty about choices we may have made that were harmful at worst, ignorant at best. But the question is, couldn’t we have known at any time? At a certain level, we chose to look the other way–at the bright, exciting futures, money, and possibilities that lie ahead in our own worlds. So absorbed, so busy. And what could we really do about it, anyway? 

onegreenplanet.org

Now, however, the dominant culture is crumbling. The bright and shiny futures we bought into are tarnished and not very certain anymore. We begin to see what our “every man for himself” mentality, crafted during the birth of our nation, has created: a planet reeling from abuse; a doctrine of world domination which refuses to heed the Earth’s cry; food, drink, and habits which lead to dis-ease; a segment of the world which believes freedom means the freedom not to care and calls compassion weakness. As you are well aware, there is a lot more to say in this vein! 

So it seems very evident to me, and I think to an increasing number of us, that we’ve been doing it all wrong in the name of Might and Money. And now we’re beginning to wonder–now that we’ve been punished by fires, floods, heat, hurricanes, pandemics (even toilet paper shortages!)–if raping the land and extracting all its “resources” might not have been such a good idea. In order to survive, maybe we do need to cooperate. And maybe not just with other people but with the forests and the rivers, and the species we depend upon. And maybe endless expansion isn’t such a good model …  Hmmm where could we have turned for models of good stewardship of the land and the plants and animals upon it?

Dwayne Reilander

We called indigenous people impoverished and ignorant because they were uneducated in our ways and uninterested in our “progress.” But today it looks like they were the wise ones. Now we need their guiding hand but we have interrupted their knowledge streams, killed them with our diseases, and squandered our opportunity to learn. Those remaining have no obligation to teach us. Those who will, are doing it for the planet. To us they owe nothing. 

Benjamin Henry Latrobe

“Every man for himself” of course also meant “a good woman behind him” and, for best results, a supply of slaves to maximize labor at minimum cost. For those of you who are thinking, “Not me! My family never kept slaves!” the entire country benefited from slavery and we are still benefitting today. No country has grown so quickly from its infancy to the most powerful on earth. This did not occur because of American exceptionalism unless it was our exceptional willingness to enslave and exploit other lives for the benefit of our own.

Josie Desmarais/Getty Images

Yet Black people are still among us. Many are the descendents of those slaves. Their lives have never been easy; they are not easy now. If the U.S. uses a caste system–and there is good reason to call it that-Black people are at the bottom. As a general rule they have the least of everything: money, respect, prospects, you name it. And yet somehow they remain surprisingly resilient. One big reason is because their motto is NOT “every man for himself.” In order to survive, Black communities have passed down through the centuries the power of supporting one another by giving what little they have to those who need it: cooperation, sharing, and mutual aid. What they do not do is trample on compassion for others in order to get ahead, equate worth with success and success with money, or insist that there is only one right way or that if you’re not perfect you are a failure. In fact, they name those ideas as characteristics of white supremacy culture.

And if consumerism, conspicuous consumption, and performative “success” have brought us to the breaking point, will we have the courage to turn away from these models of continuous growth which are killing the earth and all of us–rich or poor–along with it? Where can we turn for models for living with less? Hmmm, maybe we need to look at the populations who have been forced to do so for centuries as one of the foremost tools for oppressing them. People who, originally indigenous on the African continent, we stole to further our own agenda–the very agenda which has brought us to the point of realizing that we should have listened to indigenous knowledge and wisdom all along!  

It’s easy to ask, “Why didn’t we listen?!” But the truth is we, as a culture, didn’t even ask–we were so sure we were the only culture that mattered. We were doing big things! But “they” had been quietly, humbly, holding up a planet. It was our “big things” that destroyed it. 

Coming soon: Where do we turn, Part 2: The Sufi perspective

I have truly enjoyed and learned a lot from several trainings I’ve enjoyed from Hollaback: https://www.ihollaback.org/

The first one I took was their bystander training which offered several tools and some scenarios and practices to be used if/when we witness harassment either racially or otherwise motivated.

Second, I took a course on recognizing and mitigating intrinsic bias that again offered excellent tools and practices.

Finally, I took a course on resiliency that is so important a part of all our work as sacred activists. It reminded us to embrace what is with radical acceptance, create our own story, and choose our response instead of being overwhelmed and overtaken by our automatic learned response.

Please take a look at their excellent site – they have many opportunities for extremely valuable training.

Dear friends,

This first post is to welcome everyone to our new Kinship Ray website and Blog site.

We will post articles and resources here that will enhance all of our work toward a more equitable and just world. If you have ideas for a post or would like to submit one, please contact us.

Dear friends on the path. This site will be where you can find all the news about the work that our Sufi Kin are engaged in toward a more just and equitable society and a sustainable ecology.