Unitarian Church hosts sexism, racism workshop
A racism and sexism workshop hosted by the social justice committee of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Chattanooga is scheduled this weekend.
Dr. Frances Henderson, associate professor of political science at Maryville College, will be the main speaker.
The event starts at the church at 9 a.m. today.
“It’s important to understand that while there are a lot of social justice movements going on, in some ways they’re connected or should be building alliances and coalitions based on shared concerns or shared struggles. Even though sometimes they need to remain
distinct, there are more times that doing that kind of coalition work is effective,” she said.
Committee chair Judith Pendersen-Benn said Henderson was brought in “to help teach [communities] what are the things that they have in common and then how can we work in Chattanooga and other communities to address these twin issues together to educate people about it and activate people around it.”
The Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry of Tennessee also helped to sponsor the event.
Pendersen-Been has been posting and inviting people to attend the racism and sexism workshop since 2017.
“We thought this would be really timely, and we wanted to bring it to Chattanooga,” she said.
She noted how the “Me Too” movement has spread in national news as people seek to hold those accountable who practice sexual harassment and how Black Lives Matter brought attention to the number of black males killed by law enforcement officers.
According to a report called Mapping Police Violence released in December 2017, black people make up 13 percent of the population in the United States, yet 25 percent of the 1,129 people that police killed in 2017 were black.
Several public figures have been accused of sexual misconduct since 2017 when Rose McGowan, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd and many others accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment and rape. Time Magazine in an article published Nov. 9, 2017, listed 122 public figures accused of sexual misconduct including Tavis Smiley, Matt Lauer, Sylvester Stallone, Kevin Spacey and Ben Affleck.
Contact Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.