It’s easy to think, as a majority white denomination, that U.S. Mennonites don’t have a lot to contribute to the current national conversation on racial injustice in police enforcement. But, like the protesters across U.S. streets have chanted: “White silence equals violence.”

Anabaptists have ideas worth sharing. Mennonite Church USA’s Communities of Hope are working to undo racism in the church. The group writes trainings for congregations to move through a four-step process including brainstorming and writing a vision for how the church wants to transform in regard to intercultural competency. Anabaptist colleges and seminaries offer extensive coursework in restorative justice and nonviolent conflict resolution. International government workers and leaders take part in the STAR (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience) at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va., for people who work with populations dealing with current or historic trauma.

These models of reconciliation teach that seeking, listening to and understanding the truth from the experience of the oppressed must be a priority.

Self-proclaimed “Anablacktivist” Drew Hart recently wrote on his Christian Century blog about the problems inherent in white people learning “scripts” for conversations on race from what the dominant culture says. “Rather than doing the hard work of careful in-depth investigation of the matter, quick cliché dismissals are used to uphold the status quo,” he said. “The status quo is silence about racism other than pointing out the overt cases.”

Anabaptists cannot be silent about racism and must continuously work at recognizing and then undoing it in our own communities. A place to start might be recognizing that Anabaptist resources — school curricula, justice training programs, worship materials, hymnals — are written mostly by white people.

The solutions to the problems white people have caused will not be solved without involvement and true relationship with those who have been harmed. The current U.S. climate on race relations should make us recognize racism in our midst even as we do our best to share resources of reconciliation.