Racism – 1
Dear Friends,
I thought of giving these columns a softer, maybe more nuanced title, but decided against that.
I need to be comfortable – and probably we all do – using the word and talking about racism, even though it may not be easy.
I don’t have any super insight or solution.
I am just going to talk about this from my own personal experience.
I believe that talking about racism and owning up to the truth of it will lead us somewhere – somewhere positive.
My first memory of racism was when I was growing up in our family home.
We were in a neighborhood that was all white, and then the first blacks moved in – a husband and wife about the age of my grandparents.
In some way, I got the message: stay away from them.
In fact, be afraid of them.
And I, probably about twelve-years-old, heard the message; and I was afraid.
Then, one day, when I was outside playing baseball with my friends, our ball went onto the property of this black couple.
I had to go and get the ball, and this black man and woman were on their porch.
They said hello to me, told me it was alright to go onto their lawn, and introduced themselves to me.
They were kind and gracious, with welcoming smiles on their faces.
I wondered: what is there to be afraid of?
As I look back, at that age I got the message to be afraid of blacks and even the message that I as a white am better than all people of color.
That message was and is racism.
At the same time, maybe with the grace of God, my young experience was also telling me that blacks (and other persons of color) were really okay, maybe much like me, and not to be feared.
More to come next week!
“The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it.”
(I Corinthians 12: 12, 26)
Father Michael Schleupner
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Racism – 2
Dear Friends,
Today’s thoughts pick up where I left off last week – learning at an early age to be afraid of black people, but also learning to question that fear.
I remember that soon after the first black family moved into our neighborhood, other blacks also moved in.
“White flight” quickly got into high gear.
“White flight” was the expression for white people selling their homes in a panic before the values would go down because of blacks moving in.
I believe that the values really went down because of white racism that led to lots of whites putting their homes on the market all at once.
So, “white flight” was happening, but my parents decided not to move.
They got a grip on their fear and remained living in an increasingly integrated community.
The pastor of our parish took a leadership role in developing a community organization to help create a new community of whites and blacks.
Very positive effects of his good leadership remain today.
Some years later, my parents did move out of that neighborhood but for other reasons, not out of fear of blacks or as part of white flight.
While all of this was going on, the famous March on Washington happened, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I was in the eleventh grade, and I really liked Dr. King and what he was saying.
I am not sure where it came from, but my sympathy as a teenager was with the blacks and for racial justice and equality.
I remember being happy with the Civil Rights Law of 1964 and the Voting Rights Law of 1965.
My parents had taught my brother and me to think, and to think for ourselves.
We were already doing that.
More about racism next week!
“The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it.”
(I Corinthians 12: 12, 26)
Father Michael Schleupner
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Racism – 3
Dear Friends,
One summer day when I was in high school, a classmate invited another guy and me to come to his family home in southern Maryland.
I knew that this classmate came from a wealthy family.
They owned and lived on a tobacco plantation.
It seemed as if we drove several miles on their property to get to the main house, but the impressionable thing for me is what we saw while driving on that property.
There were small, old, wood-frame houses where the blacks lived.
And these blacks worked on the plantation.
I looked and just didn’t understand; I felt confused.
It looked like pictures of slavery in the antebellum period that I had seen in history books.
And there it was – poor blacks, living in substandard and maybe inhuman conditions – there it was, accepted as a fact and way of life.
Our classmate, our host, a good guy, just referred to this pointed out these blacks and their dilapidated houses as simply part of plantation life.
Later that day, after swimming in the pool of the plantation house, this classmate took us to his parish church.
And again, I remember becoming silent.
There was a break in the pews on each side of the main aisle.
It was explained that the whites sat up front, in front of the break, and the blacks sat in the back, behind the break.
That day, I, a young and naive teenager, knew that I was seeing racism.
Slavery had ended, more or less, but racism and inequality had not ended.
And my Church was participating in the racism as, I eventually learned, it had also participated in slavery.
More on racism next week!
“The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it.”
(I Corinthians 12: 12, 26)
Father Michael Schleupner
*********
Racism – 4
Dear Friends,
I had been ordained about ten or twelve years and was working for Archbishop Borders at the Catholic Center.
One day I happened to be talking with the administrative assistant of one of the auxiliary bishops, a woman named Theresa, an African American.
In some way, maybe because of something that was happening at the time, we began talking about the experience of blacks and black Catholics.
I was moved to share with Theresa a very recent personal experience.
I had been at a family gathering.
In the course of this gathering, at least one of my family members made racist comments about black people and was repeatedly using the “N” word.
I told Theresa about this experience.
She, very graciously and respectfully, said nothing about those in the gathering.
However, she did ask me: “Father, what did you do when you heard this?”
I realized how penetrating her question was.
I responded: “I did nothing. I think I just remained silent and said nothing.”
Theresa said: “Father, that’s how this continues. You need to speak up. People need to know that you are uncomfortable with the “N” word or other racist slurs. They need to know that you think this is wrong.”
Well, that conversation, probably about thirty-five years ago, is still with me.
I learned that one person can make a difference, that it is not good enough to stay silent and allow racist conversation, much less actions, to continue.
I have a moral responsibility to assert what I think is right and to do my part, as small as it seems, to end hatred and bigotry and racism.
I thank Theresa for her lesson and for expressing it in a way that I could receive it and not be defensive.
More on racism next week!
“The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it.”
(I Corinthians 12: 12, 26)
Father Michael Schleupner
***************
Racism – 5
Dear Friends,
About ten years ago, some black friends of mine told me about “The Talk.”
In the black community, “The Talk” means the conversation that black parents must have especially with their sons, and maybe also with their daughters, about the police.
It is a conversation about how they are to behave and not behave with the police.
It is about what to do and say and what not to do and say when they are around a police officer who has a gun.
Keep your hands open and out in front of you, don’t make any sudden movements, keep your mouth shut and be respectful – that’s the core of “The Talk.”
And the black community finds it necessary to have this “Talk” because they sometimes find themselves, maybe especially their men and their sons, treated with a different standard and with less fairness than their white counterparts.
A teenage son of the couple who told me about “The Talk” had experienced racial stereotyping and treatment at the hands of a law enforcement officer.
I personally know that this was an excellent and respectful young man.
I have had the honor of officiating at his wedding.
Now, let me be clear: I am not bashing our police.
I have known police officers especially throughout my many years as a priest.
They have a challenging job; I respect them and want to encourage that respect among all of us.
The presence of racial prejudice in some definitely does not mean that all fulfill their responsibilities with bias.
Nevertheless, the insight I got from learning about “The Talk” is that there are racist attitudes, maybe subconscious, in some of us, maybe in a lot of us.
And those attitudes in us as individuals can enter our institutions and systems.
That’s something of what is meant by systemic racism.
I will conclude this series on racism next week!
“The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it.”
(I Corinthians 12: 12, 26).
Father Michael Schleupner
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