by Joseph Lyons, First Portland, WA.

Good morning, my name is Joseph Lyons.

I just turned 30 years old last week.  This transition to being a "30 something" came with a heavy dose of pause, something which I am sure many of you are familiar with.  I wondered if I was where I wanted to be, I triedto remember the good times and bad times of my 20's, and I sat in silent contemplation and reflected on the paths before me and how my life choices were playing out.

During my 20's, my early young adult years, I experienced what Rev Bill
Sinkford called a period of "intense reflection and search for truth and
meaning" in the new UUA Campus Ministry Video.  Primarily I asked over and
over the question "Who Am I?".

My brief life story is that I was born to two teenage parents in Portland
Oregon at Emmanuel Hospital, the hospital in the small enclave of Northeast
Portland which serves the only significant community of color - Asian,
Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans.  My mother of Czech-European-White
descent and my father of Chinese-Hawai'in-Asian descent had an unpopular
decision to make in an unpopular time for multiracial families.  Both of
their families were ignorant of their relationship and my birth, and for
good reason my sources say as there was not only cultural racism in society
as there still is today, but also the white side of the family had serious
racial prejudices held in particular by my grandfather.  In the end I was
adopted, and whisked away to a loving Unitarian Universalist family, the
Lyon's.

Both my adopted parents are white, and both of their families worked hard to
become white over the years.  It was so classic, like something you would
read in a textbook.  I knew of my ethnic identity as a child, but had little
clue or exposure to my cultural identity.  Of course my parents tried to
choose my culture for me, middle-class, white, or at least passing for
white, and a shallow connection to my history and identity.  Not too
uncommon if you knew the community where I grew up, a predominately white
community.  I always wonder and ask people if they are from a predominately
white community if this is how it was for them.

My parents were loving though, and raised me with great priviledge through
education and personal attention.  There were bumps in the road
economically, but all in all I recognize the gifts my parents Paul and Helen
have given to me.  They are truly my parents.  There was something however
that they could not give me, and I do hold feelings of resentment for their
failure to give it the good old American effort - a connection to my
identity and a dialogue about who am I?.  Not just within my ethnic/birth
identity, but even within their own family of origin.  Who are the people
who have struggled to bring me and my parents into this world?  What
experiences have they had to live through that shape their world view?  How
does the community of my birth family and my adopted family exist in our
society and within the spiritual theology of Unitarian Universalism?  How
does racism and oppression affect my families?

Through my college experience, I grappled seriously with these questions and
found many answers.  I am still finding answers today but I have a new found
sense of confidence, understanding and identity.  Knowing my identity has
made me a strong, healthy, productive person, and has given me a sense of
groundedness in this world.  I identify as Hapa, which is a Hawai'in term
for a person who is part white, part Asian.  There is a large and growing
Hapa community, with a large number here in the Berkeley/SF Bay area.  Last
summer felt like a capstone to my identity development, as I attended my
first Hapa Issues Forum at SF State University with a number of other Hapa
friends from Oregon.

I am critical of our Unitarian Universalist communities for failing to
provide a regular, committed and loving environment for children like myself
to pursue questions of racial identity.  There is still racism in the pews
and in the institutions.  I have worked for the Office of Young Adult &
Campus Ministry for four years now and I have seen more than my fair share
of pain and suffering from youth and young adults of color who have been
forced into the assimilation culture many our UU congregations promote.
This assimilation is a form of violence against our children, denying them
their identity.  And when these children, like me, grow up, come of age,
there is a profound "ah-ha" which occurs and a recognition that the many UU
Churchs are not allies.  What is most painful for youth of color is that as
they come into their own identity, many of their white UU friends (youth and
adults) start to act out in inappropriate and racist ways actively
maintaining the cultural racism.  This is the saddest part because the
result is many youth of color leaving Unitarian Universalism, at even higher
rates than our white youth already are.  When you add adoption of children
of color into this system, it is even uglier, but not something that I have
time to express from my experience today.

The organization of DRUUMM (Diverse & Revolutionary UU Multicultural
Ministries) and the Asian American and Allies caucus within is a beacon of
hope and positive energy working to build community for persons of color and
address the injustices present.  This is a lifelong commitment, but one I am
deeply dedicated to.  We need good anti-racist white allies, to help the
DRUUMM community in this journey.

Blessed be, Amen.