First Unitarian Church of Chicago
RACIAL JUSTICE TASK FORCE
Vision and Mission Statements

Our Vision Statement

A future where racial justice, compassion, and healing are fully realized.

Our Guiding Principles

The First U Racial Justice Task Force is grounded in the following three guiding principles:
• The inherent worth and dignity of every person
• Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations
• Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part

Our Work and Goals

The Racial Justice Task Force is dedicated to raising consciousness of the nature of racism. We also seek to make multiracial unity and healing visible to the members, friends,and the br oader community of the First Unitarian Church of Chicago. We do this through educational and cultural activities, which ranged in the past from music outings to sponsoring an official Illinois celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Racial Justice Task Force has three interconnected goals:

EDUCATION of our congregation and the public at large through forums, dramatizations, sermons, classes, and other programming showing how race, class, and racism–along with gender, sexual orientation, and age—identify and label us, divide us, shape our lives, and influence social, economic, political, and criminal justice systems in the United States
and globally.

TAKING ACTION to oppose racism in all its forms, including letter writing and bearing witness in projects that demonstrate that the only means of bringing racism to an end are:

• Following the principles of multiracial unity
• Believing in the inherent worth and dignity of all people
• Applying justice, equity, and compassion in all human relations

ENGAGEMENT AND GROWTH

We will invite other people, both in and outside of the First Unitarian Church community, to join us in doing the work of eliminating all forms of racial intolerance–prejudice, discrimination, systemic racism, and oppression–and in increasing historical awareness of the ongoing struggle against racism.

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