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August 17, 2020
Black Lives Matter. Our country is moving through a cultural revolution to advance the rights of Black people and bring attention to ongoing systemic racism, state perpetrated violence, and oppression of people of color. As helping professionals, we are called to be culturally competent providers and vocal opponents of oppression.
As part of our MetroMFT mission, we provide opportunities for our members to be well educated and practiced regarding the issues that are relevant to the current climate. We continue to be interested in building our knowledge and competence in the areas of race relations, power dynamics, racial equity, and privilege. These have always been areas of education, supervision and therapeutic conversation but are particularly culturally salient at the present time.
As an organization, we also seek to engage and educate our community. From our perspective, this includes being vocal with our community about how MFTs are allies in the advancement of the rights of Black people.
We expect our members to continue to improve their understanding and knowledge in these areas through their own self-reflection and education and will support that work in a number of ways.
As members of MetroMFT, we ask that you commit to:
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Promoting racial justice in your work
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Encouraging curiosity and empathy when it comes to understanding another’s experience
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Exploring how racism impacts our community
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Working to advance your knowledge of privilege and engage in self-of-therapist work around understanding your own privilege
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Being actively anti-racist in your spoken and written words both personally and professionally
So how can MetroMFT assist you during this time?
The MetroMFT Board is pushing forward various opportunities for members to get involved in meaningful conversations and action in support of racial justice. We invite members to share ideas in moving this cause forward. We are also in need of your time to help us take action on the following initiatives:
Here are a few resources for delving deeper into these topics:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html
https://europepmc.org/article/med/29390062
https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubpdfs/racial_disproportionality.pdf
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/248588.pdf
https://files.epi.org/2013/Unfinished-March-School-Segregation.pdf
http://austinchanning.com/blog/tag/race
White Fragility Robin DiAngelo
How to Be an Antiracist Ibram X. Kendi
Me and White Supremacy Layla Saad
The work of bringing light to racism and it’s insidiousness, as well as bringing change does not rest solely with our Black and Brown colleagues, family members, and friends. It is unequivocally the job of the dominant culture to assess, address, and eliminate the rampant racism that exists in our policing, policies, laws and enforcement, justice system, education system, and yes, clinical practices. of course partnering with, lifting up, and making space for Black and Brown voices as we address hundreds of years of oppression.
We stand with all our Black community members, colleagues, friends, family members and clients as we make steps toward true racial justice in the U.S. We want MetroMFT to be a place where people of color find an open seat at the table to participate in and lead the group. We want to be a place of support as people experience, heal from, and work to correct the atrocities of racism in the world. We welcome any input or ideas you, as members, may have to help move us in that direction.
MetroMFT Board of Directors
Kirsten Sidell, President
Jennifer Fang-Brehm, Vice President
Taylor McMahon, Advocacy Officer
Jordan Madison, Treasurer
Krista Zerby, Officer of Operations
Eric Slaughter, Secretary
Jessica Brenneman, Member-at-Large
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