Person

Rachel Laser

Nationality:

American

Organization:

Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AUSCS)

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Rachel Laser is the president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AUSCS), a left-of-center advocacy group. She formerly worked for Planned Parenthood, the National Women’s Law Center, Third Way, and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

For two years, Laser ran her own racial justice consulting firm, Rachel Laser LLC. She has written extensively on racial issues from a left-of-center perspective.

Early Life and Education

Rachel Laser grew up in Chicago to two activist parents. 1 She was raised in the Reform Jewish faith and has remained active in the Jewish community. 2 3 Laser attended a left-of-center, predominantly white high school which she would later say produced an “unintended artificiality” by failing to encourage students to reflect on contemporary racial problems in society. 4

In 1991, Laser graduated from Harvard University. In 1995, she earned her JD from the University of Chicago Law School. 5

Career

Nonprofit Advocacy

From 2001 to2005, Laser was senior counsel to the National Women’s Law Center 6 and ran its Pharmacy Refusal Project which filed legal challenges against pharmacies which refused to fill prescriptions on religious grounds. 7

From 2005 to2010, Laser served as the director of the culture program at Third Way, a left-of-center policy think tank. 8 She worked with pastors Joel Hunter, who pastored President Barack Obama (D), and Sam Rodriguez, a Latino preacher who led a prayer at President Donald Trump’s (R) inauguration but later broke with the president, 9 to draft a supposedly bipartisan sexual health bill that was never voted upon. 10 Laser also led a team which presented a bundle of bi-partisan policy proposals to President Obama. 11

From 2012 to 2015, Laser was deputy director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. She managed campaigns on “racial justice,” gun violence, LGBT, and immigration reform. 12

Laser is a former national board member of NARAL Pro-Choice America. 13

Rachel Laser LLC

From 2016 to 2018, Laser operated Rachel Laser LLC, a “consultant on bridging cultural and racial divides” that catered to schools, universities, companies, law firms, government agencies, and religious communities. Her services included an “Implicit Bias Workshop” and a “Let’s Talk About Race Workshop.” Laser gave speeches, wrote think pieces, and hosted a workshop for the NARAL Pro-Choice America national board. 14 15 16

Laser founded a “Diversity Task Force” at Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, D.C. 17 The Task Force later discussed renaming the high school due to President Woodrow Wilson’s pro-segregationist policies. 18

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State

Rachel Laser became the president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State in 2018 after the retirement of Barry Lynn, who had led the group since 1992. 19 Laser is the first non-Christian and first woman to lead the organization. 20 In the role, Laser emphasized that maintaining a secular government was a key component of religious freedom since it prevents any one religion from using the state to enforce its will on other religious communities. 21

When asked about some of the biggest challenges of running the AUSCS, Laser said she was trying to make the secular governance movement more diverse, in her words: “because we’ve been very white for too long.” 22

Views on Race

Rachel Laser has written and spoken extensively about racial issues in America. In 2015, Laser gave a speech entitled “Uncovering my White Privilege on Yom Kippur” in which she explores her own white privilege, which she acknowledged as “every single thing in my life is easier” and that it makes her feel “guilty.” Laser recounts first acknowledging her white privilege during her freshman year in college when she felt “uncomfortable” sitting at a table with only Black students and later having a Black friend join a table with all white students, eventually leading to the end of the friendship. Laser stated that she was using the holiday to “do some of my own reflective and repentant work about white privilege.” 23

The following year, Laser gave another Yom Kippur speech, “Why I Am Atoning for Racism,” in which she said, “I benefit from racism and I perpetuate it” even though she did not “intentionally or consciously participate in racism.” 24

Also in 2016, Laser wrote Flawed but Determined: Becoming a White Supporter of Racial Justice, in which she describes confronting one of her personal manifestations of white privilege as a “fear of appearing to assume, and of assuming, an inappropriate level of power when I accompany my black brothers and sisters in their work for justice.” Laser endorsed using the term “accompaniment” instead of “ally” when describing white supporters of racial justice because the latter “centers whiteness in the conversation.” 25

References

  1. Boorstein, Michelle. “For the first time, a woman and non-Christian will lead this group that thinks government is too involved in religion.” Washinton Post. February 21, 2018. Accessed August 11, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/02/21/for-the-first-time-a-woman-and-non-christian-will-lead-this-group-that-thinks-government-is-too-involved-in-religion/.
  2. Laser, Rachel. “Uncovering my White Privilege on Yom Kippur.” Medium. September 24, 2015. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://medium.com/@rachelklaser/uncovering-my-white-privilege-on-yom-kippur-183887491436#.uzhpaoatn.
  3. Laser, Rachel. “Why I Am Atoning for Racism in America.” Medium. October 13, 2016. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://medium.com/@rachelklaser/why-i-am-atoning-for-racism-long-version-3b1fc8e55bc0#.m1y0nmu0w.
  4. [1] Laser, Rachel. “A Reflection on the March on Washington.” Huffington Post. September 19, 2013. Accessed August 11, 2022. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/a-reflection-on-the-march_b_3948982.
  5. “Rachel Laser.” LinkedIn. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachellaser/.
  6.   “Rachel Laser.” LinkedIn. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachellaser/.
  7. Boorstein, Michelle. “For the first time, a woman and non-Christian will lead this group that thinks government is too involved in religion.” Washinton Post. February 21, 2018. Accessed August 11, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/02/21/for-the-first-time-a-woman-and-non-christian-will-lead-this-group-that-thinks-government-is-too-involved-in-religion/.
  8. “Rachel Laser.” LinkedIn. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachellaser/.
  9. “After Praying At His Inauguration, Pastor Splits With Trump Over Immigration Views.” NPR. January 21, 2018. Accessed August 11, 2022. https://www.npr.org/2018/01/21/579584241/after-praying-at-his-inauguration-pastor-splits-with-trump-over-immigration-view.
  10. Boorstein, Michelle. “For the first time, a woman and non-Christian will lead this group that thinks government is too involved in religion.” Washinton Post. February 21, 2018. Accessed August 11, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/02/21/for-the-first-time-a-woman-and-non-christian-will-lead-this-group-that-thinks-government-is-too-involved-in-religion/.
  11. “Gender & Common Ground.” Rachel Laser. Accessed August 11, 2022. https://www.rachellaser.com/gender-common-ground.
  12. “Rachel Laser.” LinkedIn. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachellaser/.
  13. “Rachel Laser.” AUSCS. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://www.au.org/about-au/people/rachel-laser/.
  14. “Rachel Laser.” LinkedIn. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachellaser/.
  15. “Services.” Rachel Laser. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://www.rachellaser.com/services.
  16. “Rachel Laser: Workshops.” Rachel Laser. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://www.rachellaser.com/_files/ugd/3fcdcb_14a93b0c90584c32a4db0894f08852ee.pdf.
  17. “Services.” Rachel Laser. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://www.rachellaser.com/services.
  18. “Cheh Statement on Renaming Wilson High School.” Mary Cheh. Accessed August 11, 2022. http://www.marycheh.com/release/cheh-statement-on-renaming-wilson-high-school/.
  19. “Our History.” AUSCS. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://www.au.org/about-au/history/.
  20. Boorstein, Michelle. “For the first time, a woman and non-Christian will lead this group that thinks government is too involved in religion.” Washinton Post. February 21, 2018. Accessed August 11, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/02/21/for-the-first-time-a-woman-and-non-christian-will-lead-this-group-that-thinks-government-is-too-involved-in-religion/.
  21. [1] Blair, Leonardo. “Rcahel Laser, Frm. Planned Parenthood Lawyer, to Lead Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.” Christian Post. Accessed August 11, 2022. https://www.christianpost.com/news/rachel-laser-planned-parenthood-lawyer-lead-americans-united-for-separation-of-church-state.html.
  22. [1] Thompson, Meredith. “Defending the Separation of Church and State: An Interview with Rachel Laser.” The Humanist. August 6, 2020. Accessed August 11, 2022. https://thehumanist.com/features/interviews/defending-the-separation-of-church-and-state-an-interview-with-rachel-laser/.
  23.  [1] Laser, Rachel. “Uncovering my White Privilege on Yom Kippur.” Medium. September 24, 2015. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://medium.com/@rachelklaser/uncovering-my-white-privilege-on-yom-kippur-183887491436#.uzhpaoatn.
  24. Laser, Rachel. “Why I Am Atoning for Racism in America.” Medium. October 13, 2016. Accessed August 9, 2022. https://medium.com/@rachelklaser/why-i-am-atoning-for-racism-long-version-3b1fc8e55bc0#.m1y0nmu0w.
  25. Laser, Rachel. “Flawed but Determined: Becoming a White Supporter of Racial Justice.” Huffington Post. February 2 2016. Updated December 6, 2017. Accessed August 11, 2022. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/flawed-but-determined-bec_b_9141968.
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