A handful of key passages, and a link to Tim’s full statement on his web site, are below.

This is Tim’s overarching description of what accountability means to him:

Accountability, in an antiracist context, means engaging in “the work” (whatever that work might be, from organizing to educating to providing some social service, to parenting, as just a few examples) in a way that is responsive to the needs and concerns of people of color, communities of color, and their interest in the eradication of white supremacy.

It also means being responsive to the needs and concerns of other whites with whom we may be struggling or working. In all, accountability is about openness, and about “checking in” with others whose insights on your antiracist efforts may be more incisive than your own.

Tim acknowledges that the principle of accountability inherently contains limitations:

Obviously, accountability can never be perfect. For one thing, there are many different individuals, organizations and communities of color, and they will not always agree as to the direction in which antiracist work should go, let alone how white antiracist allies should engage in the struggle. But by listening to as many different voices as possible on these matters, and by forging real relationship with individuals, organizations and communities of color, it becomes easier to know whose voices are themselves rooted in structures of accountability, and thus, especially important to heed.

Tim also suggests not allowing accountability to hold up one’s work, but instead to become a way of continually learning and improving in the course of doing that work:

Accountability should never be an excuse for inaction or paralysis — so, in other words, it is not a matter of vetting every action one takes through a committee of some sort before taking a stand or engaging in antiracist efforts — but it does mean being prepared to acknowledge when you screw up, apologize for mistakes, and commit to doing better next time.

The entire essay can be read on Tim’s web site as his “Statement of Appreciation and Accountability.”

The board of directors has hired James Perry to be our new executive director. James was the founding board chair and president of the Tracing Center and has been centrally involved, since 1999, with Traces of the Trade, for which he shared an Emmy nomination.

As an integral part of this leadership transition, we envision that Juanita Brown, a co-producer of Traces of the Trade and currently a consultant to the Tracing Center, will play an expanded role as a senior member of our leadership team.

We invite your support, in whatever form, to help us usher in this next exciting phase in our growth as an organization.

The essay, written by Executive Director Katrina Browne and Managing Director James DeWolf Perry, builds on our ongoing work around the sesquicentennial of the Civil War and the enduring historical myths which blind us to the legacy of slavery and race today.

Here is how the op-ed begins:

This week marks the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War, a war that redefined national and regional identities and became an enduring tale of noble resistance in the South and, for the rest of the country, a mighty moral struggle to erase the stain of slavery.

On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces opened fire on the beleaguered Union garrison at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. By April 14, the fort had fallen and the war had begun in earnest.

By the time Fort Sumter was again in Union hands, following the evacuation of Charleston in the closing days of the war in 1865, the war had become the bloodiest in the nation’s history — and has not been surpassed. Yet the relationship of the North to the South, and to slavery before and during the war is not at all what we remember today. The reality is that both North and South were profoundly complicit in slavery and deeply reluctant to abolish our nation’s “peculiar institution.”

To read the full article, go to “Civil War’s dirty secret about slavery” at CNN.com.

I am so pleased to be sending the first newsletter from our new non-profit: The Tracing Center on Histories and Legacies of Slavery.  Here you can read great stories about what we’ve been up to this year with many different collaborators … all over the U.S. and overseas.  We wholeheartedly invite you to get further involved with our efforts, through programming and/or financial support.

We formed the Tracing Center in 2010 as an organic extension of two years of work screening Traces of the Trade, having heard, again and again, about the ongoing need for programming about slavery and race that works at a more systemic level, such as in the fields of education and public history.  We received encouraging feedback in a comprehensive on-line survey about our 2009 programming, showing high demand for broader and deeper programming.  You can read our mission statement here.

We are very encouraged by all that’s happened this year or is currently percolating in our various program areas, from work with the National Park Service at the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and the President’s House, to work with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s Urban Projects, to workshops on teaching slavery in a way that prepares students for healthy race relations, to rebroadcasts connected to the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War.

If the film has impacted you, or you have witnessed the power of the education and dialogue that we help spark, please become further involved in our efforts.  You can support us by suggesting schools, universities, historic sites, religious congregations or denominations, workplaces and other venues that would be well-served by using the film for dialogue, education or training.  You can propose programming that you would like to see us do, or that you would like to do with us. To contact us, please click here.

We would also be very grateful for year-end financial support as we attempt to meet the growing demand for our programming while building a charitable organization from the ground up in a challenging climate. Please consider being one of the founding donors to our new Center.  Gifts are tax deductible.

Some of you have found our work compelling because you can trace your heritage to enslaved people; for others it is because you trace your heritage to enslavers. Others of you might not have, or know if you have, the most obvious links to this history, but you know that white privilege has put the wind at your back and set you up for success, or has put obstacles in your path.  Others of you have different lines that intertwine, giving you a joyous and/or demanding mix of windows into the past and present.

We imagine that for some of you, making a financial contribution to our work, large or small, would be a great extension of your passion for this unwinding, loosening of knots, this work of repair.  Gifts of any size would be gratefully appreciated!  If you can consider a significant donation, please contact us, as we would be happy to provide any additional information you might need.

We look forward to working with all of you where our good forces wish to meet!

Sincerely,

Katrina Browne

Executive Director, The Tracing Center on Histories and Legacies of Slavery

The following video, “Discussing the Trade,” was created by local filmmaker Alex Dill at one of these dialogues. In October, this video aired on local television in Bermuda, along with daily broadcasts of Traces of the Trade, as part of follow-up programming organized by the Tracing Center and Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda (CURB).

Photo credit: Michelle Dismont-Frazzoni

In April, Katrina Browne, executive director of the Tracing Center and producer/director/writer of Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, was invited to Bermuda by the anti-racism organization Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda (CURB) to present the film and speak to high school students and community members about her journey and our work around racial justice and reconciliation.

The dialogues in Bermuda deeply moved hundreds of people and a short video, Discussing the Trade, was created by local filmmaker Alex Dill to record the impact of our visit. You can see the video here.

Photo credit: Michelle Dismont-Frazzoni

CURB’s vision states “A Bermuda where skin colour favours no one”. Because our programs clearly helped move that vision forward, and in the context of Bermuda’s history of slavery and racial segregation, CURB wanted everyone in the island to have the opportunity to see the film. Alongside CURB’s leadership, and particularly with our amazing ally Lynne Winfield, we started planning an innovative long-month program of activities: “THE BIG WATCH” and “THE BIG READ”.

THE BIG WATCH entailed a partnership among CITV, the Government of Bermuda television station, CURB and Ebb Pod (the film’s production company) to broadcast Traces every single day during the month of October. In addition, over the summer and fall, CURB asked its members, supporters and friends to read Inheriting the Trade, written by family member Tom DeWolf, and to create discussion groups to dialogue around the topics of the book, thus the “THE BIG READ”. As part of the plan, Tom DeWolf visited Bermuda on the third week of October and held several live presentations for high school students and the general public. His impressions of the trip can be read here.

Photo credit: Michelle Dismont-Frazzoni

The program was a tremendous success that we plan to replicate. Although this was our first BIG WATCH, we are excited to announce that the Tracing Center plans to program several BIG WATCH programs in coming years in communities throughout the United States and overseas, in conjunction with the sesquicentennial of the U.S. Civil War.