JUSTICE: FEBRUARY: BLACK HISTORY MONTH

 
February is Black History Month. February 4 is the National Day of Prayer for the African American and African Family. Let's use these opportunities to explore Blacks and racism.
 
"[R]acism … is a denial of the truth of the dignity of each human being revealed by the mystery of the Incarnation."  U.S. Catholic Bishops Pastoral Letter on Racism, 1979
 
Surely, our country is mostly free of the sin of racism.
 
During the aftermath of Charlottesville, Virginia, I met with a black acquaintance. She and her black friends had been keeping low profiles and staying indoors. They were frightened. KKK flyers had appeared on windshields in her neighborhood. This was Portland. I was oblivious that Blacks in Oregon would be personally affected by the events in Charlottesville. My ignorance embarrassed me.
 
Oregon is the 18 ^th whitest state, where 75% of Oregonians are white. (Only four states and the District of Columbia are less than 50% white. The United States is 61% white.) Seventy-five percent is just a statistic, however, that says nothing about Oregon's attitudes, practices, and realities.
 
Statistic aside, what about our State's attitudes, practices, and realities?
 
13.3% of Oregonians struggle to live below the Federal Poverty Level. Unless you're Black, then it's 27%
 
The unemployment rate for Oregonians is 6.5%. Unless you're Black, then it's 11%.
 
The State can do better.
 
I've been reminded that over 50 years ago the United States enacted laws protecting the civil rights of Blacks. Segregation ended by laws. The grief and humiliation of segregation were not and cannot be ended by laws.
 
Keeping Blacks in poverty through redlining – steered by banks and realtors to certain neighborhoods, separate from whites – kept property levels lower, which deprived them of the opportunity to build asset wealth. Although eventually illegal, this practice continued through the 2010's.
 
Removing Blacks from society continues to this day. Here's an Oregon reality:

• Blacks make up 1.8% of Oregon's population.
• Blacks make up 9.4% of Oregon's prison population.
• One of every 21 Black men in Oregon is in prison.
• Oregon imprisons Blacks at the seventh-highest rate in the country. 
• In Oregon, Blacks are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites.

(The Sentencing Project, 2016)
 
It's not that Blacks commit more crimes than whites do. "People of color are frequently given harsher sanctions because they are perceived as imposing a greater threat to public safety and are therefore deserving of greater social control and punishment" (The Sentencing Project, 2016). We call this "implicit bias."
 
The State can do better.
 
We can do better!

• We may not be racist, but racism permeates the systems and structures of society. Centuries of legal, institutional racism are not erased simply after a few decades of federally mandated equality.

 
Rather than personal sin (with personal culpability), this is what Saint John Paul II called “social sin:” the sins of our structures.
 
Society’s attitudes towards Blacks must change. How can we change the sinful structures of society? Through advocacy.  As advocates, we must stand with others. Let's change Oregon's sentencing laws.

• Since Portland is the whitest major city in the country, the Black culture is likely unfamiliar to us. That's understandable. Perhaps our first step is to accept that Black culture is okay and there is no need to assimilate into white culture.

• "Be the change you wish to see in the world." Acknowledge that we don't know if we're unintentionally engaging in microracism, aka "microaggression" ("brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color").

• Make decisions affecting Blacks with Blacks, not for them. I appreciate seeing black parishioners leading ministries and staffing our offices.Open ourselves to encounter:
  • Meet with Blacks.
  • Talk with Blacks.
  • Collaborate with Blacks.

"The fact that we were created in the image of God should remind us that each person is a living expression of God that must be respected and preserved and never dishonored." ( U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops)
 
Lest we forget, Jesus was not white. Neither were Mary and Joseph.