Takoma Park Friends Meeting-Preparative gathered on 4/22/2018 at the Dance Exchange in Takoma Park, Maryland. We heard queries and advices from the 2013 draft Baltimore Yearly Meeting Faith and Practice on diversity. We heard of a dream involving irritation at sending someone to a dangerous part of town, followed, on waking, by irritation that the dangerous part of town in the dream was Black—a deeply rooted bias. We heard of a remark by a person of color to someone being chosen last for a sports team: “Now you know how I feel.” We heard of how it can be as uncomfortable to be wanted in a group because of your race as it is to not be wanted in a group because of your race, and of how being asked to speak for a group is impossible when they don’t all want the same thing. We heard of a practice of using “all-age” rather than “intergenerational;” we can help build diversity by communicating in ways others can understand. We heard of how use of the term “people of color” may be inaccurate and divisive. We heard of how people with brain injuries and others with special needs also face prejudice and abandonment.
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