Real Evils

We hear endlessly now about white privilege and racism. 

As so often happens, self-proclaimed victims have hijacked the meaning of racism, claiming that it can be inflicted only on non-whites, people of color.

So many years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his speech I have a Dream. The declaration which gave a name to his speech was:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!

Today I sat through a lengthy presentation on white privilege. Let me now offer the definition of bigotry, of which racism is a subset:

obstinate or unreasonable attachment to a belief, opinion, or faction; in particular, prejudice against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group.

Dr. King, looking down on what has become of his dream, must surely be weeping. White privilege is a textbook example of bigotry, no less offensive than any of the derogatory terms which have been applied to people considered "people of color." How can it be less offensive to judge nominal whites for their skin color than to judge any visible minority? 

Anyone who calls himself Christian must reject bigotry in all forms. 

Jesus' second Great Commandment directs that: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

There is no option there in support of bigotry. Neither does it allow for seizing victimhood as a means of exacting special rights -- or anything else.

Today's Realities

Over two years ago, I lost one of my dearest friends. He was also my confessor of choice, a former microbiologist, and the most reliable spiritual guide I have known. Fr. Charles had been raised in Nigeria, and would have disagreed with the assessment of his then bishop that the biggest problem in the archdiocese of Atlanta was racism.

Father would also have been deeply saddened at the current epidemic of racial exploitation.

Yes, there is racism in Atlanta, though the assertion was, I am certain, intended to portray white racists. Sorry, Abp. Gregory, but the most common source of racism I observed during my years there was black racists.

Racism is a major issue because those who profit by their ranting will not let the issue die.

Fr. Charles was my friend, my brother, and a very holy man. He was a frequent guest at our table. He was a gentleman and a gentle man. He was kind, and always generous. He often laughed at the notion of a day off for a priest -- "should I take a day off from serving the Lord?"

But in Atlanta, not all priests are of that spirit. One I encountered online through a friend who is a deacon is proudly a member of Black Lives Matter. There are some problems with that:

• BLM favors socialism, condemned by the Church.
• BLM is in favor of disrupting the economy, doing damage to the poor.
• BLM is pro-LGBTQ, and anti-family, which are also positions contrary to Church teaching.

I am thankful he is unlike any priest I have experienced in a parish setting.

For the last week I have been flooded with online articles on racism, almost entirely devoted to the notion that whites are inescapably racists, and that blacks are incapable of racism. That view is one fortified by profound ignorance of reality. Everyone is capable of racism, as much as of other sins.

Conventional wisdom holds that whites are racist and that racism is rife in the South. Sorry, all of you in the media, but in 2020, all evidence suggests that you are inverting reality. I encounter racism and hatred in blacks, and only rarely in whites. And I see more evidence of racism in the North than here in the South.

What is deeply disturbing is that the hate mongers are so often self-proclaimed Christians. Even men of the cloth. The plank in their eyes...

Father, my brother, you are sorely missed.