1. Some previous letters have attempted to share Church teaching, especially on sexual chastity. This is different: it is my personal cultural observation. On this, a prudential judgment, Catholics disagree. Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory allege that our nation is systematically white racist. I do not think so..
2. My story: I recall no overt racism during my childhood in a homogeneous, working class, urban, Catholic ethnic neighborhood, mostly of Irish and Italians...not in in family, school, Church or work. My strongest, clearest childhood memory is learning, circa age 8, of the starving in China: I paced up and down our first floor, tormented by the thought of the suffering of these innocents. This concern was encouraged by family and education: we had Maryknoll missionary magazine, my parents sympathies were entirely with the working and poor classes, we often heard in school about the missions. In high school I read America and the NY Times, with an eye to the conditions of the poor, especially overseas. My father, as a UAW union organizer, was at Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington DC. Graduating high school, I decided to enter the Maryknoll Missionary Society to serve the poor overseas as a Catholic priest.
For the entirety of my adult life, over 50 years, I have lived as a minority white in diverse environments: Jersey City, the most diverse city in the country; 25 years in UPS management; Catholic schools; Urban churches; Magnificat Home. Ethnically and racially I am normally outnumbered; and entirely comfortable with that. You are unlikely to find anyone with more inter-ethnic, inter-racial experience.
All my life-worlds...UPS, Jersey City, little league, schools and parishes, boarding homes...are blissfully free of racism and anti-racism both. On the rare occasion such do raise there ugly heads, it is startling and dissonant. In it place: small-c "catholicity." "Catholicity" means universal, inclusive, welcoming, diversity. This is not just me personally but the worlds in which I have lived. My thesis: any pursuit of what is good-or true-beautiful is "catholic" in its spontaneous, irrepressible outreach to others, of all races, classes, backgrounds.
3. Anecdote: My high school senior retreat, Spring 1965, Loyola Jesuit Retreat House, Morristown, NJ: the priest was speaking strongly against racism as a structural sin. I was entirely in agreement. A classmate raised his hand: "I understand, Father, that racism is sinful. But my father is a barber in Newark and he could not accept blacks because he would lose his white customers." The retreat master doubled down: "That is exactly what I mean: that is cooperation with systematic injustice." The loyal son defended his lower-working class Italian father. It became heated: could have come to blows! I remember sitting there thinking: "You are right Father, but can't we cut the hard-working guy some slack?" Even then there was about anti-racist zeal a shrill, moralistic, condemnatory tone. (BTW I often get my hair cut in black or Hispanic barbers in Jersey City. They seem to get a kick out of me. This is unusual. Barbershops tend to be segregated: rare to see a black in a white barbershop and vice versa. Is this systematic racism?)
4. During my teenage years (1962-8) all major cultural institutions of social conscience renounced racism and became systematically anti-racist: Church, academy, entertainment, media, law, sports, politics (excepting a transitory, futile white backlash of George Wallace.) A complex system of laws, regulations and quotas was implemented. Racism became overnight a thing of disgust. A little later, in the 1980s, management in UPS (and the entire capitalist world) was put through diversity training in which we were strongly, and correctly, told that racism was intolerable: the logic of capitalism required diversity/inclusion of employment and customer base both. UPS, traditionally dominated by white (largely Irish) male truck drivers, became fervently welcoming of non-white/non-males. Systematic anti-racism prevailed corporately and institutionally.
5. Blacks suffer inordinately by all indices: income and wealth, health, imprisonment. This is a shocking racial inequality. There can be no doubt that this is largely due to the past history of slavery and then Jim Crow. That ended decisively by 1970. The big question: is this injustice continued in some degree by racism, systematic or even unconscious ("systemic")? I have been thinking about this, reading about it, and observing in various situations for over 60 years. My answer is emphatically: NO!
6. It is CLASS and CULTURE, not RACE that keep people poor, powerless, and marginalized today in the USA. Poverty, oppression and powerlessness are all color-blind.
In the post-war period, the poor of all races advanced economically and socially; the gap between rich and poor closed; blacks especially made huge gains. Since that time a large number of blacks and minorities continued to advance. But there has been a growing gap between the rich and the poor, of all races/ethnicities. I am not talking about the 1% who are obscenely wealthy, but about the underprivileged in contrast to the well-educated, affluent, secure, upwardly-mobile middle class.
The lower class, of whatever race, is drowning in the CULTURE OF POVERTY. This is a dense, complex, interlocking system of many components: low income, bad schools, poor health care, violent neighborhoods, low Church attendance, high rates of addiction and mental illness. But the primary, foundational factor: NO FATHER IN THE HOME. Poverty is overwhelmingly feminine: mother with children and no husband/father. A low-income family, with a stable, employed, responsible father in the home is not caught in the Culture of Poverty. Most of our immigrant ancestors came here poor, lived poor, but were not culturally poor because they were sustained by a family-with-father and a religious-tribal-culture rich in "social capital." Social capital is not money, but strong bonds of loyalty, family care, Church, discipline, mutual self-support, and trust in God. The culture of poverty is fatherlessness...and the entire universe of impoverishments that this brings. Money is the least of the problems. The young men, unmentored, become gang thugs or impotent addicts. The young women, un-fathered, throw themselves recklessly into the arms of men incapable of caring for them and little ones they abort or raise in poverty.
7. We see here that the inordinate amount of black poverty comes from the historic breakup of the black family during slavery and the disenfranchisement of the African slave father. This was an assault of boundless perversity! The root cause of black poverty today is the continued CRISIS IN FATHERHOOD. Increasingly, this crisis is spreading in the white underclass as well.
8. But that is not all of it. Since the triumph of the Civil Rights Movement around 1970, things have gotten much worse for many, but not all black families. At that time about 70% of black babies were born to married couples; today it is about 30%. In areas like NYC two out of every three black babies are aborted. Around 1970 the two black communities went in divergent directions: the fortunate, with fathers and access to education and employment, flourished. The unfortunate, fatherless and trapped in the Culture of Poverty, went from bad to worse. Two developments made things worse: the Cultural Revolution, especially the liberation of sex from marriage but also detachment from tradition, religion and authority; and the culture of entitlement, victimization, and dependency.
9. The Cultural Revolution had two components: sexual freedom and rejection of authority/tradition. The first was a calamity for the lower classes: men were given license to have sex without worry about children because of contraception. Since birth control often fails, the consequence was a torrent of abortions and poor young women with children but no fathers. The rich are smart and selfish enough to avoid this development. Additionally, the rejection of faith, tradition, and authority was devastating for the poor who lacked strong social support systems of money, connection, education and privilege.
Additionally, a small but strong culture of resentment developed a narrative in which blacks continue to be victimized by systematic white racism. On the one hand, this fed rage and the urge to violence of unhinged, un-fathered males. On the other hand, it induced a feeling of weakness, impotence and being a victim. On the one hand criminality, gangs and violence; on the other hand despair, addiction and masculine impotence.
10. The Black Lives Matter Movement is an outgrowth of these two trends. It is expressive of largely unconscious feminine rage at pervasive abandonment by men but supportive of sexual license, a rejection of religion, an insistence on entitlement, and a posture of helplessness and victimization.
Morally and spiritually, it is the polar opposite of Martin Luther King's Civil Rights Movement with its gospel roots, confidence, small-c catholicity, sense of purpose, alignment with other communities, forgiveness, non-violence, generosity, gratitude and hope
12. The BLM narrative of systemic white racism is toxic and destructive on many levels.
- First of all, it is patently false. Certainly there are pockets of racism. But our national systems are stridently anti-racist and our dominant culture systemically so.
- Secondly, and this is the very worst aspect, it makes the black man to be a victim, weak and impotent before The (white) Man. The sense of agency, virility, competence of black youth is further weakened. It deepens the black crisis in masculinity by arousing rage or despair. Imagine you are an 18-year old white pulled over for doing 80 in a 65 mph zone: you ready yourself and hope for the best. Imagine you are an 18-year-old black pulled over and you have been hearing a lot about the racism of the police: you will be either enraged or overwhelmed by fear as you rash-judge it to be racist.
- Thirdly it slanders white people and especially the police. Slander, a sin against the 8th commandment, is serious. With the police (as with all human organizations) there are systematic problems: it attracts some violent, angry and sociopathic men; it maintains a "blue wall" of loyalty that often shields wrong-doing; the unions overprotect with the complicity of Democrat urban politicians who rely upon the unions for support. These issues are far more pervasive than racism: and they hurt all of us, especially the poor, of whatever race. This slandering of the police is serious. The vast majority are honorable, even heroic, in risking their lives to keep us safe. The disparagement and ingratitude they have endured is despicable.
-Lastly, it polarizes our society, enflaming racial suspicion, resentment and false guilt. The election of Obama seemed at the time to be a culminating point in the victory over racism; an era of racial peace was anticipated. What followed was the opposite. Why? Did things get worse? No. Was there some shattering new discovery? No. Rather, there was a contagious spread of this false narrative of systematic racism.
13. In our two boarding homes we have had hundreds of visits from police, firemen, EMTs. They are a mixture of ethnicities, of men and women, and unfailingly courteous, professional and reassuring. Is Jersey City exceptional?
14. Senseehray, my dear friend of happy memory, a large, strong, black woman, passed her years on the tough streets of Jersey City. Her son spent time in prison. She told me that if she sees a group of young black men on the street, she avoids them. She does not do so if they are white. I asked if she experienced white racism; she said No. I got the same response from other black friends. One insisted on systematic racism but could not give a single concrete example.
15. White guilt is the primary force behind BLM. In the black neighborhoods I frequent I did not see a single BLM sign on a house. The white, affluent suburbs of Essex County NJ had one on every third lawn. White liberals live safe, sequestered, privileged lives; welcoming people of color of their own class and culture, educated and progressive; away from the poor, suffering and afflicted of any skin color. They suffer an unconscious guilt because they know they have it so good while the underclass suffers deprivation through no fault of their own. They really know the system is rigged for them, in terms of class, not race. They don't go to Church to confess. They don't want to be around deplorables. So they silence their conscience by virtue-signaling with a BLM lawn sign.
16. Now two years out from the explosion of Black Lives Matter we can judge the consequences. Violent crime, especially in poor urban areas, is surging. The police are discouraged. Many retiring. Others reluctant to enforce the law as engagement with criminals may go badly for them. Prosecutors are refusing to prosecute. The legacy of "defund the police" is lethal.
17. Now two years out from the George Floyd killing we might, soberly, reconsider it in contrast to the Uvalde massacre. Those children and teachers truly were innocents: victims of a lunatic, of loose gun laws, of faulty doors, and the passivity of the police. In no way did they provoke their death. George Floyd was no innocent: a career criminal (8 convictions), he had invaded and menaced a woman in her own home; he was intoxicated, committing a crime, and resisting arrest. Resisting arrest always creates a life-threatening situation as the police, armed with guns, have to restrain the resistor. It was the size and strength of Floyd that provoked the excessive use of force. It was not the color of his skin. If he were Serbian or Mongolian would he be alive today? I doubt it! If he were an anemic 125 pound black, would he be alive today? Definitely! We see in the contrast of the two police responses, one tragically too strong and the other even more disastrously too weak, the immense challenge of police work. The police are not above criticism (I myself sat on a jury that found a policeman criminally guilty of a excessive force, white-on-white), but the broad-brush allegation of "systematic racism" is a slander.
18. I have, always and everywhere, experienced "the catholicity of the good." Any shared pursuit of what is true, good or beautiful moves inexorably, powerfully, to include others, of whatever race, ethnicity, class, or background. If you are a student in love with learning and truth, you welcome a companion, especially one from another background. If you are working to help the suffering, sick, poor and afflicted, you are thrilled to be joined by others, different from yourself. Same if you are an actor, musician, artist! If you coach little league you welcome enthusiastic, talented athletes without concern for skin color or background. Even a good capitalist wants good workers and lots of customers...it is the nature of the thing. In contrast to the dreary, whiney narrative of "systematic racism"...I been blessed by systemic catholicity in everything I have done the last 75 years.
I hope you, my grandchildren, are and will be similarly blessed!
Autobiographical Postscript You may wonder why I am so passionate about this, so fierce in my anti-anti-racism. It is quite personal for me. I have been accused of being racist. Few things so infuriate me. My entire adult life I have been a front line, street level manager: as teacher, supervisor of truck drivers, and director of a small boarding home. I did not climb the ladder of career success, status, and influence. I have wielded a modest amount of power, circumscribed always by surrounding protocols and the reaction of my students, drivers, residents. I have carried the responsibility conscientiously, often with a sense of inadequacy and failure, keenly aware that my authority is in the service of something greater: learning and truth, getting the packages delivered on time, or providing a good home. Color of skin is the last thing on my mind. If I find it necessary to confront or discipline someone, nothing is so toxic as this false accusation. The last time it happened: getting complaints of loud music from a resident, I asked her calmly to lower the volume on her radio. Snide and snarky she replied: "I don't see you correcting any of these white women about their radios!" How does one respond to this?
So you see that the entire BLM-CRT agenda is to my ear this vile accusation writ-large: a pity party, a slander and a sin against the "catholicity of the Good."
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