Another time Fr. Steve was walking outside and he said hello to a black man who's first reaction was "I'm not going to hurt you." Fr. Steve paused, with a puzzled look on his face, and asked, "Why would you say that? Why would you think that I think that you were going to put me in danger? You're another person and you're going about your business."
And then Fr. Steve told me, "Here and many other places black men in particular are so used to being pegged by whites as violent, dangerous, or criminals, that it has so often become instinct to immediately state something like 'I am safe. Don't worry.' How screwed up is this? That the first thing someone would say, based on the color of the skin of someone approaching them, would be, 'I am not a threat. I am not going to hurt you. I am a human being?' Whether we like it or not, racial profiling is very real and very present in our society, and even in our parish which has been integrated for some 40 plus years. The fear in that women's eyes as she left church, the presumption of that man that I was afraid of him, says more than you can imagine."
So I ask: why do we as a society uphold this? Why do people feel uncomfortable walking down a street, walking on their own church property in broad day light, when there is a black man there? Is it nothing other than racial profiling to assume that because statistically there is a disproportionate amount of black males in prison that any man of color is a threat? Is this not wildly screwed up?
I know there are very strong feelings about the Martin and Zimmerman trial, but our president, regardless of what you think of him or regardless of your opinions on the verdict, has raised perhaps the most legitimate question concerning the case:
"And for those who -- who resist that idea, that we should think about something like these Stand Your Ground laws, I just ask people to consider, if Trayvon Martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? And do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman, who had followed him in a car, because he felt threatened? And if the answer to that question is at least ambiguous, then it seems to me that we might want to examine those kinds of laws."
Do we really think if that had been the case that Martin would have been acquitted? Or would he, like so many others, been judged a violent, hostile man who hated white people just because of his skin color? That is a question no one with a conscience can ignore.
For those of you who did not see the president's full address, I highly encourage reading it:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/19/politics/obama-zimmerman-verdict
For those of you who may not think that racial profiling is part of the every day life for countless people, I encourage you to study and to study well the Civil Rights Movement--all that led up to it, occurred during it, and followed after the main push in the 60s until today. I encourage you, if you ever get the opportunity, to visit the museums, the memorials, the sites of bombings, shootings, and extreme abuses of authority that have haunted our nation, particularly our Southern states in the past and very recent 50 years. I encourage you to think of what could possibly lead someone to killing young children in a church on a Sunday morning in Birmingham. I encourage you to question why white folks--men and women--were chased down highways, ran off roads, and shot for bringing blacks to voting registrations. I encourage you to ask what it is that makes someone want to beat a young man--a professional with a family, an outstanding citizen--within inches of his life, then proceed to tie cinder blocks to him, and throw him off a bridge into a deep river. I encourage you to read about the lives of the men and women, young and old, lay and cleric, black and white and everything in between, that fought nonviolently for better lives, for basic acknowledgement as citizens for blacks in our country. I encourage you to read about those ones in particular who gave their lives so that all may have a chance at equality.
Some people wonder why many were so extremely troubled by the Supreme Court's decision to overturn aspects of the Voting Rights Acts of 1965. To them, I say that racism, racial profiling and hatred is still very real in our country. Why were certain states' voting procedures overseen by the federal government? Because people were being fired, threatened, attacked, and killed when blacks tried to register to vote. Sure, the Klan was bankrupted by a case in which they brutally murdered a black 13-year-old boy who looked at a white woman. Sure, burning crosses and church bombings are not so much a part of our every day reality any longer. But do we think, as an NAACP statesmen said, that just because we have elected an African-American president that racism is suddenly over? That fear of someone based on their skin color is no longer a problem? That seeing a black male on the street means he is going to rob or attack you? That the fight against racial hatred is has just magically been won?
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| Jimmy Lee Jackson. Shot twice in the abdomen in February 1965 after trying to defend his mother who had just been beaten by Alabama state police officers. |
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| Viola Liuzzo. Chased down Highway 80 by four Klan Members in a truck. As the truck pulled aside her car, they shot her in the head twice in March 1965. She had spent the week driving blacks with no transportation to the marches. |
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| Viola Liuzzo's car as it was found on the Selma Highway (Highway 80) |
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