Hint: the possibility of electing our first black president is not enough.

While some may find the issue irrelevant and others fear it is too deeply imbedded, too widespread and too subtle to effectively address, one Montclair institution has stepped up to the challenge for 16 years.

The Undoing Racism Committee (URC) works to "understand, challenge and act to dismantle systemic, institutional and cultural racism as it exists in our daily lives by providing educational programs, community outreach and cultural events to lead to greater awareness, analysis and action toward change," according to their materials.

The URC has a few dozen members, according to Chris Wallace, a teacher from Newark who is the new URC chair. The group is mostly white, middle- and upper-middle-class, mostly female and predominantly from Montclair, Wallace said. Many are members of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, but that is in no way required. With about three active African-American members, they are working to recruit more people of color.

Wallace, who has been involved in URC since she was a student teacher, was handing out cake at the congregation’s coffee hour last Sunday when a gentleman said to her, "Race has really become a subtle thing in our country."

"I think the committee is really crucial, especially at this place where people think that race might not be an issue anymore," she said. "We have a really crucial role right now to keep pushing for education and action toward really understanding racism and how to undo it," Wallace said. "We need to really look at the history of our country. There is so much in our society, especially with the media, where race is still so prevalent."

‘a different perspective’

Crucial to the URC’s development is their partnership with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond (PISAB), a New Orleans-based national and international collective of anti-racist, multicultural community organizers and educators dedicated to building an effective movement for social transformation, according to their Web site, pisab.org.

As the Web site stated, "Racism is the single most critical barrier to building effective coalitions for social change. Racism has been consciously and systematically erected, and it can be undone only if people understand what it is, where it comes from, how it functions and why it is perpetuated."

When the URC first convened, "I think people were tired of the same old liberal, kind of charity approach to racism," said Maggie Joralemon, the group’s first chair. "The first thing the [People’s Institute] workshop did was to define racism: ‘It’s not prejudice, it’s power plus privilege.’

"Not everyone takes so kindly to this way of looking at racism," said Joralemon. "It creates a lot of discomfort for people – white and sometimes African-American also. When you really uncover the truth about what was done to all of us … then once you kind of understand and internalize that, you have a different perspective on the world. You start to analyze things differently."

transformation and honesty

Those in the business of confronting racism are cautiously optimistic about the rise of Sen. Barack Obama.

"Looking at our presidential candidate, I would like to think that this whole anti-racism movement has had an effect on people," Joralemon said. "I’m hoping things are changing, little by little. I am very happy about Barack, but I would not want people to think, ‘Well, we have a black candidate …’; then people can become complacent about racism. Just because we [might] have a black president, racism isn’t going to go away.

"And white privilege is a very big area of study now. It really requires quite a bit of transformation and honesty. It requires going to places you’ve never been inside of you to question white privilege. These are the realities of life. When I hear things in the news, things that are being done, I do feel hopeful. On the other hand, we’re still dealing with the power and wealth and structures that keep that power there."

The URC utilizes anti-racist training, along with book discussions and the film series that wraps up this Friday, to help move people toward greater awareness and change. Last year, a session on hip-hop culture for teens proved popular, and Wallace is committed to bringing more students into the group.

In everything the URC does, some level of teaching is taking place.

"You challenge things, you question things, you help people to understand how policies might hurt people, might be exclusionary," Joralemon said.

"This is spiritual work for me as well as political work," Joralemon added. "It makes me a more complete human being. It makes me a more responsive and compassionate human being, and it empowers me to try to do the right thing and be an advocate.

"It’s a very vast transformation."