The Union Ballroom erupted with laughter as Rev. Irene Monroe explained her gratitude for being invited to deliver the keynote address for Women’s Week at the U.
“Not too many people want to hear from an African-American, lesbian, outrageous minister,” she said.
Monroe provoked her audience by addressing the boundaries constructed by personal prejudice. Monroe, a fellow at the Harvard School of Divinity, said though she often addresses institutionalized prejudice, personal biases are just as pervasive.
She said attending black churches as a child taught her to go into the audience with the intention of inciting interaction. She started by asking those in the audience who identify themselves as white to raise their hands.
“How are you white?” she then asked. “And how white are you?”
The audience broke out in laughter.
Audience members said, “I know because I don’t have to think about the fact that I’m white every day” and “I know I’m white because I live in a mostly white neighborhood.”
Monroe said all of the responses addressed whiteness as a social construction.
“You know you are white because you have white skin privilege,” she said.
Jackie Barco, a graduate student in health promotion and education, said Monroe helped her take a closer look at herself.
“She opened my eyes to things that I’m learning in class and struggling with personally,” Barco said.
Monroe said there are degrees of whiteness.
“When did you get your white card?” Monroe asked, referring to the slow inclusion of different ethnic groups into the white category, such as the Irish, Italians and Catholics.
Laura Kessler, a professor of law, said, “I’m not very white at all, because I’m Jewish and I’m a woman.”
Monroe charged the predominantly white crowd to look at the history of their ethnicities.
“Find out your white ethnicity,” she said. “In order to do equity work, you first have to do your own work.”
Monroe, a reverend and religion columnist for publications such as The Boston Globe and the Boston Herald,
said some people use religion to justify prejudice. “The most racially segregated hour in the U.S. is 11 o’clock on Sunday morning,” Monroe said.
“Hierarchy starts with Genesis,” she said, in reference to the first section of the Bible. Monroe analyzed biblical stories of Eve, the virgin birth of Jesus, and the cities Sodom and Gomorrah for their discriminatory implications during her keynote. Monroe said cultural and linguistic analyses are necessary in religious studies.
“There is a difference between blind obedience and reasoned faith,” she said.
Kessler said she found Monroe’s address uplifting. “I thought it was provocative to be talking about these things in Utah8212;race, gender and religion8212;given (the Mormons’) involvement in Proposition 8,” Kessler said. “I wish she would have talked about that more.”