While this seems to be a moment where UUs are willing to talk about race at more than a superficial level, before looking at the community outside of the congregation it might behoove us to have a conversation about race in our congregational communities.
Ask yourself this question….why have black men—in particular—had such a hard time in the UU ministry?
Why are most ministers of color Associate or Assistant Ministers?
Just how open are most UU congregations to having leadership from people of color?
So while there is talk of the broader issues in relation to Michael Brown’s death, let’s really bring that conversation home to our own congregations.
East Of Midnight 
This is a question worth asking, because most of my seminary and ministry years (1986 – 2013) experienced a sharp decline in male ministers of all races. Many questions were asked. Was it the money issue? Was it the difficulty of their wives or partners in finding jobs in the kinds of communities where ministers usually serve their early calls? Was it prejudice about images of God? Images of strength?
During the last few years, I think I’ve spotted a few more young men in ministry than there were in my heyday. But they do all seem to be white. So whereas ten years ago, I would have said it was a gender issue, that is not my impression right now.
As a first step in confronting this, perhaps someone could direct me to current numbers about the demographics of the people in our ministries at this time.