One Priest’s Prayer for Unity January 30, 2008

The Catholic Explorer today ran this beautiful piece by Bishop J. Peter Sartain on “The Insidious Power of Racism”. It gives an insight into precisely how racism affects its victims:

From an early age I had been aware that our southern city was divided by race and economics, though at first I did not fully understand how that division unjustly determined so many details of daily life. My parents had taught us to treat all people with respect, and they practiced what they preached.

The grocery and upscale department store in our neighborhood were like many others in the South of my youth. Among the characteristics they shared was a striking symbol: two drinking fountains side by side, identical in every way except that one bore a sign that read “White” and the other a sign that read “Colored.” Even as a child I was struck by the strangeness of that arrangement….

As I prepared for confirmation in the sacristy of an Arkansas parish three years ago, I overheard a young boy ask the pastor if he needed servers. “Sure,” said Father. “You can carry the cross.”

The blond-haired boy quickly reappeared, vested in an alb and carrying the processional cross. A few moments later, he startled me with a question.

“Do you know what the KKK is?”

I was truly taken aback. “Yes,” I said. “That’s the Ku Klux Klan. We don’t agree at all with what they stand for. Why are you asking about them?”

“I heard they’re coming to town, and I’m afraid because my father and my sister are from Mexico.” I tried to reassure him that his father and sister were in no danger, that the police would be aware of anything unusual that might be planned…It broke my heart that evening to confront the painful effects of racism again in such a powerful way. Anxiety was written on his face and in his question. With shame I admit that my brief exchange with the server exposed to me once again my own lack of sensitivity to the insidious power of racism.

A little child. Anxious and scared from racism. Bishop Sartain explains where he believes the root of his lack of sensitivity to said insidious power comes from:

As I mentioned, I was reared in a home where racist attitudes were neither taught nor tolerated, and I grew to understand more clearly why racism is sinful and antithetical to Christian faith. As a priest I have preached about it.

But I have never had to face racist attitudes directed at me.

Hearing his question, I was awakened in a new way to what racism does to little kids, to struggling parents, to aging grandparents, to the courageous pioneers and modern-day workers in the civil rights movement—and to people like me, who aren’t nearly as alert as we should be to its dangerous influence.

Those of us who have been victimized by racism are so much more primed, if you will, for its horrible effects. Those of us who have (and we know that anti-white racism is as damaging to its respective victims) been victimized by racism are the ones second guessing negative social interactions with members of other groups asking, “Is it because I’m…” Pervasive racism can only be denied by those not suffering from it, and Bishop Sartain became acutely aware of this with a simple statement from a child.

Did the other kids in his class know the KKK were coming? Did they even know who the KKK were? While his (probably older) sister and mother knew that the KKK were a fringe group of crazies not to be worried about, this kid said straight out, “I’m afraid.” He heard they were coming and he was afraid.

Bishop Sartain’s piece concludes with his prayer for the end of hatred and division:

[G-d], teach us to build a world where little boys and girls, and their parents and grandparents, don’t have to ask fearful questions. Help us rise above racism in all its forms that we may recognize and disarm its influence. May we never reject or frighten any of Your little ones, for we are all Your sons and daughters, made in Your image. Amen.

Ken y’hi ratzon. So may it be His Will.