Racism, White Privilege and Black Lives Matter

“As I see it”

Racism, White Privilege and Black Lives Matter

Live from Lynn, it’s “Godspell”.

Hello, this is Fr Paul Bresnahan, priest of the Episcopal Church.

It has been a few weeks since we last visited. I took a break for Father’s Day and some  family time.

Welcome back to “Godspell”: a time to spell it out.

Who is God, and how is God involved in our lives?

“Godspell” is a nice old English word for the Gospel or, what I call, the language of God, the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Silence

Blessed be God; The Most Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity. 

And blessed be God’s Kingdom for ever and ever. Amen

Collect at a time of Conflict: 

O God, you have bound us together in a common life. Help us,

in the midst of our struggles for justice and truth, to confront

one another without hatred or bitterness, and to work

together with mutual forbearance and respect; through Jesus

Christ our Lord. Amen.

Gospel: Matthew 10:40-42

Jesus said; ’Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; 42and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.’

In the Name of God; The Most Holy, Undivided, and Everlasting Trinity. Amen

Friends I begin a new segment today; “As I see it”; Racism, White Privilege and Black Lives Matter

While I was the rector of the Church of the Epiphany in Euclid, Ohio in 1983-1990, the question of Integration came up in the city schools. The Clergy Association wanted to avoid the subject. So the Black Baptist Minister, The Rabbi and and I went to work on a collaborative effort. Yes I know; “the minister the rabbi and the priest” sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. Well we did have fun together. We took on the school committee, the city government and yes, in the end we integrated the public schools peacefully. Each of us, by the way had children in the system, so we put ourselves and our families on the line.

There is always an undercurrent of Racism going on in every corner of life and at all levels of society. Once Sunday just before the Eucharist, a parishioner approached me seething with contempt; “You G. D. Irish, you’re just an N-word turned inside out.” I was somewhat taken aback, but thankfully I did have the presence of mind to thank him for the compliment. 

Racism friends. We were brought up with it and live in it as a reality. My grandmother played the N-word pool. Nowadays that is called the State Lottery. The N-word and other epithets were used frequently. After my mother re-married and we became solidly middle class; my step-father who was an executive in a major corporation used to say “Why don’t those lazy epithet deleted go to work?” and then almost in the same breath he’d say “I would’t hire one of those lazy epithet deleted to work for me!” I did have the presence of mind to challenge him saying “How then can a black man get a job in your world?” 

Racism is alive and well in our whole white world.

Therefore, especially in the context of this moment in history I would like to begin by speaking with you my white friends about White Privilege. You may or may not realize it but we are all children of extraordinary entitlement.

In my case alone let me describe where I began my journey as a child of White Privilege. To be sure, it was a modest beginning in a Blue Collar family on a single parent’s income.

My mom did have a full time job with full benefits including health care, sick leave and paid vacation. She worked payroll in a bank and was paid a different pay scale than men doing the same work. She was told the men had families to support. My mother asked: “What do you think I have; sliced liverwurst?” This often repeated story led me to become a feminist of sorts if you want to call me that.

We had three squares and a roof over our heads. There were two grocery stores within walking distance of our home. My mom eked out enough to buy a modest house in a working class neighborhood in West Somerville which is close to Boston where she worked. 

We had outstanding health care. We had a family doctor and when there were health issues we all went to Massachusetts General Hospital. That’s la crème de la crème of health care in the United States.

Our schools required the best of us. There were good teachers, new text books and clean buildings. We were instilled with confidence in our future and we were disciplined firmly but fairly. 

On the matter of public safety, the police were there to serve and protect us. Jimmy the cop knew us by name and if there were scrapes with the law, he’d take us by the ear to the house where we received yet more discipline. He was one of us. All of our police were one of us in those days. Irish ones of us. On the way home from school Jimmy often gave us a few M&M’s and stopped the traffic to make it safe for us to cross busy Somerville Avenue. We all loved Jimmy because he loved us. Perhaps you are beginning to see where I am coming from and where I am headed with this notion of White Privilege. 

The bus to Lechmere station was a block away. We had access to the entire subway system that could take us to the Beach, all the Boston Museums or to downtown shopping. All within a short walk away. We were welcome everywhere. It was all ours. 

We were free go to the public parks and play in safety. While we had to be street smart, we never had to fear anything like drug dealers or serious crime of any sort. That kind of thing was unheard of then. 

We all paid our taxes. During the Eisenhower years the Rich paid a whole chunk of taxation, far more than they pay now.

All this was a given. Good Jobs. Good Food. Excellent Health Care. Good Public Education. Cops who cared. Good public transportation. Free Access to Parks and Recreation, Beaches and cultural enrichment. And the Rich paid their taxes and paid the bulk of the bill.

Listen up my fellow white folks. All of this is denied. Let me repeat; All of this is systemically denied to Black folks, people of color and other minority people. As to Native folks, they didn’t even get that far but were herded off to reservations to fend for themselves. To be sure there has been some progress. But to be very sure the vast majority our our sisters and brothers of color have been been given the very short end of the stick.

We’ve been down this road before. Race riots are nothing new in America. The Tulsa event is just one of many. After the Chicago Race Riots of 1919, a panel of 6 blacks and 6 whites met to make sure this would never happen again. In that case, a black teenager went swimming and strayed into the white section of a beach in Lake Michigan. He was stoned and drowned. The police refused to arrest anybody. Riots ensued. Pent up rage burst forth. The final report of 1921 urged us to be fair to black folks and make sure they had jobs, health care, decent housing and good public education. You guessed it. Nothing happened. Chicago and other American cities continue on their merry de facto segregated way denying the basics of what White Privilege gives to us as a matter of course.

For Black Lives to Matter we white folks need to step up to the plate and make sure Black Lives Matter. I know All Lives Matter. But when you say that to me, you’re letting yourselves off the hook. We cannot say All Lives Matter until we put some heft into the words Black Lives Matter. We cannot erase 400 years of slavery, Jim Crow, and systemic racism without making things right.

If you want Peace here’s what’s going to happen. You must step up to the plate and provide Justice first. Here is a partial prescription.

One. You must provide good paying jobs to everyone in this country who wants to work. The rate of pay must be at least twice the poverty rate. After all the years of slavery, this is the least you can do. Make sure everybody has a good job. This means all poor folks in Appalachia too who have been sold a bill of goods by that New York snake oil salesman. The rate of unemployment in the Coal Fields of West Virginia still remains near 70%. 

Two. Make sure there are Black owned, Black managed and Black staffed grocery stores in every inner city neighborhood. Same thing in Appalachia and all of rural America…local ownership, management and staff.

Three. Provide good housing throughout America. Locally owned, built by local tradesmen and women. 

Four. Make sure everyone has first rate health care. Period.

Five. Provide first rate public schools. Led by and taught by people from the neighborhoods. 

Six. Rethink Public Safety. As a priest of 48 years, I’ve had to do”pa-lenty” of soul searching every step of the way. At the very least the police should be from and live in the neighborhoods they serve and protect. 

Seven. Provide good public transportation to make sure everyone can get to work, shop, cultural attractions, parks and recreation and churches, synagogues, and mosques. 

Eight. Provide nice Parks and Beaches and Cultural enrichment for all.

Nine. You may ask; how are we going to pay for all this? That really is quite easy. You pay for it. In your taxes. There was a time when rich folks paid their fair share and it wasn’t all that long ago. In the fifties during the Eisenhower Administration, you rich folks ponied up big time and there was a redistribution of wealth from the rich to the rest of us. 

It is time again for you to pony up. After 400 years of slavery and oppression all we are asking for is a fair shake. Did you notice? Jesus said so in today’s Gospel; “whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

When I was growing up, one income provided for all the necessities of life; housing, food, education, health care, vacations and so on. I could work summers and pay for my tuition and housing. No more. The Reagan “trickle down” sleight of hand has hood winked us all into quiescence. Now we’re working two and three jobs just to tread water. The harder we work the further behind we get.

This is the essence of the Green New Deal but I hasten to add we cannot merely ask for it politely. We will have to “take it”. One thing I do know about White Power is that mere moral suasion is not sufficient to effect change. We have known the difference between right and wrong for a very long time. And still we traded in human lives as if they were property. If anyone knows about “taking” what’s theirs it would be the Irish. We simply took over the government and it was ours!

No. It is time for us to vote. Black and white, rich and poor, male female and every orientation in the rainbow, young and old alike. Honorable and decent people everywhere must be done with this national nightmare that has so clouded the good name of America to make us the Pariah among Nations. 

So listen up all you who have taken to the streets. Keep it up. Don’t let up for a minute. March, organize and vote and then as the Good Book says; “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” ~Amos 5:24

In the Name of God; the Most Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity.

Amen.

Prayers for the Church and the World.

I ask you prayers for Jackie Smith Miller form First Parish Church in Duxbury. She had a massive stroke last night and is not expected to live beyond today. Peace be upon her and may light Perpetual shine upon her. 

And for Nicolina recovering from surgery in North Caroline. Please say a word for her too.

Lord’s Prayer

A Blessing

See that ye be at peace among yourselves, 

and love one another.

Follow the example of the wise and good

and God will comfort you and help you,

both in this world

and in the world which is to come.

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,

wherever He may send you.

May He guide you through the wilderness,

protect you through the storm.

May He bring you home rejoicing

at the wonders He has shown you.

May He bring you home rejoicing

once again into our doors.

And may the Blessing of God the Most holy undivided and everlasting Trinity be upon you this day and always. Amen.

God  Bless us everyone!

Fr Paul

Politics, Spirituality and Silence

Politics, Spirituality and Silence

Years ago, when I was on retreat at Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, New York, I was walking about keeping the required silence. I came across a simple piece of art in a hallway written in exquisite calligraphy that said “Silence is the guardian of charity”. I stopped and thought about that for a while and wondered about the number of times I had used a hasty word or two and when others in my family or in my circle of friends had also used hasty words. There can be hurt, harm, and worse, there can be insult and injury. Carry that out far enough, and sharp words can lead to even more serious consequences, like actions that incite violence and even warfare.

As I thought about family history and world events I thought about the value of silence and how the keeping of it can guard the peace and kindle compassion and charity among human beings. I thought about the pursuit of justice among and between various races, ethnicities, nationalities, even in our more intimate relationships. Gender relationships are often strained and folks of various orientation can find themselves marginalized by thoughtless, insensitive and hasty words. Yes, silence is indeed the guardian of charity.

I thought of the art of listening to one another, and now, especially after the last two weeks of oratory in Cleveland and Philadelphia, I find myself "listened out". A friend of mine posted a meme on Facebook in which a large red circle was drawn. Green represented the number of times your opinion changed the opinion of someone else who disagrees with you. Red represented the times your opinions changed nothing at all but managed merely to incite anger in both the the writer and the reader. There was only the angry color of red in the circle.

Conversation is a lost art form particularly in our political life, it would seem. And yet, when practiced toward perfection, conversation can become a vehicle in which the ministry of reconciliation can occur. 

When I lived in Toronto, I remember living with a family while I attended college. In exchange for babysitting, I had a room and meals. It was a good deal. What struck me most about living with this particular family, though, was that during the evening meal there was a lengthy ritual of conversation. As the family sat down to dinner, the father of the family would preside. He happened to be the Department Chair of Greek and Latin Classics at the University of Toronto. He would call upon his children to share the events of the day. Sometimes it required a bit of encouragement. Sometimes it took a great deal of encouragement. But eventually he was able to elicit a good story or two from each of us as we recounted the events of the day. He was a masterful educator. He listened with care, he supported his children, he probed their thoughts he supported them and then he’d often challenge them to think more deeply and more critically about the convictions they were beginning to form. Dinner lasted for hours, particularly as we lingered over tea and biscuits. 

It was not an eat and run kind of family, but we have become more and more, an eat and run kind of society. We are more and more a fast food nation. We are very, very busy. 

Many years after college, I came to learn that in conflict management, listening is a primary skill. It takes time to listen. It takes a willingness to be quiet; to be silent. We have to slow down to hear each other. To listen, we have to suspend our own opinions for a space of time. Listening is hard work.

To help with the management of the communication process, I learned a convenient strategy. We called it the LAPS strategy. The acronym stood for four words:

Listen

Allow 

Probe 

Support

Let me suggest to you that to listen means to repeat what the speaker says and to check that you have heard correctly. You may be surprised how often you will need to hear it repeated because you don’t always listen carefully enough, especially the first time or two.

Perhaps even more difficult will be to allow what the speaker says. You may vehemently disagree for instance, but how can you really show that you care about what anybody says unless you allow them the right to say it?

However, once you get past the first two parts of the strategy then you can probe what the speaker says. This is often when the speaker gets to hear himself/herself and often begins to wonder just a little bit about their convictions. They begin to hear themselves speak. In its better moments, probing, can yield insight to all involved in the communication process.

Then to show that you have the courage to listen, find something to support in what has been said. With any amount of imagination you can find something in what is said with which you can agree.

By the way, this method of communication can be useful in marriage counseling or any other conflict situation. 

Nevertheless what it takes to listen is to:

Listen

Allow 

Probe

Support

Now that you have taken the time to listen to the "other" it is your turn to speak. Can your counterpart extend the same courtesy to you that you extended to them? This is the essential justice question in any conversation.

For a parliamentary system to work we will need to learn how to listen to one another. The word parliament is based, as many of you know, on the French word, “parler”, to speak. It is easy to speak. It is harder by far to listen. Listening requires spiritual discipline. The idea of parliament, whether it is in Britain, Europe, The United States or the United Nations, is to provide a vehicle for us to share ideas, concerns and interests. It is the hope of diplomats the world over, that when we sit down at the table to reason together, we can avoid conflict and warfare. Sometimes that works. Tragically, sometimes it does not.

In today's Gospel, Jesus finds himself in a situation in which he is called upon to be an arbiter in a family dispute. Interestingly he uses the occasion to teach us about our relationship to our worldly goods and verses our relationship to matters of more consequence, such as our accountability to God and to one another. As Jesus clearly says; "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." Paul follows up with his encouragement to seek the things that are above. He says;  "But now you must get rid of all such things-- anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth." Really? Paul must have been listening in to some political speech making in his own time to come up with that turn of phrase.

There is hope you see. 

It sometimes takes silence. It always takes the skill of listening. Paul says that "There is a better way" when we "seek the things that are above". The ministry of reconciliation has been entrusted to us, according to Paul.~2 Corinthians 5:18. Jesus blessed the peacemakers.~Matthew 5:9. The dangers of these ministries are well documented. And while it is clear to me which of the two presidential candidates more faithfully represents Gospel values, I believe that what is even more important than my conviction is finding the pathway to peace and the route to reconciliation. 

Now that all the hoopla of the political conventions is over, a moment of prayerful silence is in order. After all, “silence is the guardian of charity”. And if we are to make our way back to a viable Golden Age of democracy we’ll need to learn to how to hold conversation. Such a discipline will require all the spiritual resources we can muster. 

May God grant us each a part to play in this sacred and holy ministry.

In the Name of God, the Most Holy, Undivided, and Everlasting Trinity. Amen.

Fr Paul