This past Tuesday, I had the opportunity to attend a clergy march in Minneapolis at the site where George Floyd was killed by police early last week. Archbishop Hebda had passed along an invitation to us priests the day before. And so, at least a few dozen of us priests attended, joining what seemed to be several hundred other clergy of various denominations.
The march itself was quieter and humbler than I was expecting. I didn’t’ hear any megaphones or shouting. All walked quietly, some holding signs. It was really quite solemn and somber. When we arrived at the intersection where Floyd died, a few words were spoken which I couldn’t hear for lack of microphone. Then we all took a knee and prayed the Our Father together, and it was over.
While it was such a simple experience, it was one of many things in the past few days that has caused me to think more about how deeply racism has penetrated out society. This is not something I’ve had to think about much because I’ve never been on the receiving end of it myself. But there are many who do experience it daily, and therefore can’t help but think about it constantly.
One thing that I’ve become more aware of lately is how often people are disadvantaged in hidden ways because of their race. One study, for example, found that minority-race job applicants were more than twice as likely to get a callback if they used a white-sounding name.
As Catholics, we might see this as the world’s problem, not ours. But this is not the case. Did you know, for example, that Fr. Augustus Tolton, the USA’s first black American-born Catholic priest was rejected by every American Catholic seminary due to the color of his skin? He had to be sent to Rome to study because racism was not prevalent there. Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the nine justices on the US supreme court is an African American practicing Catholic. He had originally intended to be a priest, but he left seminary after overhearing another seminarian say that he was glad Martin Luther King was shot and hoped he died. He soon left the Church, saying that he had grown disillusioned with it for not doing enough to combat racism. Fortunately, though, he did eventually return to the faith.
As challenging as the events of the past two weeks have been, they provide us with an opportunity to reflect on some important things we might not otherwise have even thought to reflect on. I’d like to offer a few questions for us to reflect on here:
Am I more likely to presume innocence or offer excuses for someone of my own race than someone of another race? Am I more likely to presume guilt towards someone of another race before knowing all the facts (e.g. “he must have been on drugs/resisting arrest.”)? Have I ever thought about how hard it would be to get out of poverty without having been given a good education or having access to jobs through family connections? Have I ever thought about how tempting selling drugs would be if my minimum wage job wasn’t enough to pay rent? Have I ever thought about why those who come to America illegally take the risks they do in order to come? Do I know how hard is to learn a new language? Did my own first-generation ancestors learn English when they first migrated to America?