First published July 27, 2020

I’m trying to be civil, but it is becoming increasingly difficult.

I’m trying to accept that some people simply don’t know what they don’t know, but sometimes I think they don’t want to know?

I’m sorry – not sorry – that if one more (white) person tells me that navigating this issue of systemic racism is exhausting and uncomfortable, I may “lose my religion” (you can ask one of your southern friends to translate if you don’t know what this means).

Please be assured that your discomfort does not mean that you are in danger. And it can’t begin to compare to the “discomfort” (which could be related to actual danger) that Black and brown folks experience each and every day. And don’t even get me started about the exhaustion.

Anyway, while I pause to restore a little decorum, I have given some inquirers a few things to ponder/research:

The Civil Rights Movement never ended.

Racism is systemic (but that doesn’t exempt individuals from being racist).

America was founded on genocide, slavery, and oppression.

We are still dealing with the lasting effects of slavery and America’s (fictional) view on race.

Forty-one slave owners signed the document declaring “all men are created equal.”

Abraham Lincoln declared that “there is a physical difference between the white and black races” which “will forever forbid the two races from living together on terms of social and political equality.”

White supremacy is not confined to cross-burnings, lynchings, and using the n-word.

Black folks and white folks have been taught the same revisionist history.

Black and brown lives have been minimized in a number of ways, including redlining, the war on drugs, gerrymandering, the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, accessing quality healthcare, and securing equitable educational opportunities.

Black and brown people are still fighting for their full humanity.

And if that isn’t enough, help me answer this question: Why do white folks want to jump over the hard personal work of mitigating the impact of white supremacy to get to (half-baked) “solutions”?

First published April 20, 2020

What will our lives look like when we emerge on the other side of this pandemic?

That question keeps resurfacing in my mind, particularly when I hear people say things like we will return to “normal” – whatever that means. I think “normal” is different for different people.

But I digress.

My hope is that we will emerge better than before. My hope is that we will have more compassion for each other.

My hope is that we will lose the superiority complex that causes us to judge people based on job titles or earnings. My hope is that we will have the wisdom to embrace one humanity and recognize our interdependence on each other.

My hope is that we will have discovered reservoirs of power and resilience to address critical global challenges, including economic injustices, disparities in access to quality healthcare, peace and nonviolence, and the climate crisis.

It has been reported that in China (where pollution is believed to cause as many as 1.6 million premature deaths annually) the reduction in pollution caused by the COVID-19 lockdown may have saved 50,000 lives.

Could it be that our concept of commuting and polluting needs to change, at least in part? Could it be that we need to re-evaluate our travel patterns and the effectiveness of things like working remotely, online education, limiting air travel, carpooling, public transportation, smart energy, and alternative fuels?

Could it be that we can create a peaceful environment, free of violence and war?

Could it be that we can implement a plan that provides quality healthcare for everyone?

Could it be that we can stop treating “essential” workers as if they are expendable and provide a living wage to all workers that will eliminate poverty?

Through our response to the threat posed by this pandemic, we have demonstrated that it is possible to rapidly and drastically transform our systems and societies.

It is possible to carry our “new awareness” beyond this current emergency.

We can change our behavior —why not change it for the better, for the common good?

What will our lives look like when we emerge on the other side of this pandemic?

That question keeps resurfacing in my mind, particularly when I hear people say things like we will return to “normal” – whatever that means. I think “normal” is different for different people.

But I digress.

My hope is that we will emerge better than before. My hope is that we will have more compassion for each other.

My hope is that we will lose the superiority complex that causes us to judge people based on job titles or earnings. My hope is that we will have the wisdom to embrace one humanity and recognize our interdependence on each other.

My hope is that we will have discovered reservoirs of power and resilience to address critical global challenges, including economic injustices, disparities in access to quality healthcare, peace and nonviolence, and the climate crisis.

It has been reported that in China (where pollution is believed to cause as many as 1.6 million premature deaths annually) the reduction in pollution caused by the COVID-19 lockdown may have saved 50,000 lives.

Could it be that our concept of commuting and polluting needs to change, at least in part? Could it be that we need to re-evaluate our travel patterns and the effectiveness of things like working remotely, online education, limiting air travel, carpooling, public transportation, smart energy, and alternative fuels?

Could it be that we can create a peaceful environment, free of violence and war?

Could it be that we can implement a plan that provides quality healthcare for everyone?

Could it be that we can stop treating “essential” workers as if they are expendable and provide a living wage to all workers that will eliminate poverty?

Through our response to the threat posed by this pandemic, we have demonstrated that it is possible to rapidly and drastically transform our systems and societies.

It is possible to carry our “new awareness” beyond this current emergency.

We can change our behavior —why not change it for the better, for the common good

February 16, 2021

First published June 29, 2020

Where do we go from here?

I’ve heard a lot of people asking that question lately.

Interestingly enough, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. posed that same question in 1967 (during the annual convention of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference). He suggested that to answer the question, we must first HONESTLY recognize where we are
.
King said: “When the Constitution was written, a strange formula to determine taxes and representation declared that the Negro was sixty percent of a person. Today, another curious formula seems to declare he is fifty percent of a person. Of the good things in life, the Negro has approximately one half those of whites. Of the bad things of life, he has twice those of whites.“

Thus, half of all Negroes live in substandard housing. And Negroes have half the income of whites. When we turn to the negative experiences of life, the Negro has a double share: There are twice as many unemployed; the rate of infant mortality among Negroes is double that of whites, and there are twice as many Negroes dying in Vietnam as whites in proportion to their size in the population.  In other spheres, the figures are equally alarming. In elementary schools, Negroes lag one to three years behind whites, and their segregated schools receive substantially less money per student than the white schools. One-twentieth as many Negroes as whites attend college. Of employed Negroes, seventy-five percent hold menial jobs. This is where we are.”

To all of my well-meaning white brothers and sisters who are asking the question today – eager to move to “action steps” in a quest to end racism, I have a question for you: Do you know where we are? If not, I suggest that you find out before moving to treat the symptoms rather than working to root out the disease, which is racism.

To all of my Black and Brown brothers and sisters, I suggest that we follow King’s advice: “First, we must massively assert our dignity and worth. We must stand up amid a system that still oppresses us and develop an unassailable and majestic sense of values.”

He warned, however, that arousing human worth within a “people that have been taught for so many centuries that they are nobody is not easy.” He stressed how even semantics/language have perpetuated a false sense of inferiority in Black and Brown children while perpetuating a false sense of superiority in white children.

“In Roget’s Thesaurus there are some 120 synonyms for blackness and at least sixty of them are offensive, such words as blot, soot, grim, devil, and foul. And there are some 134 synonyms for whiteness and all are favorable, expressed in such words as purity, cleanliness, chastity, and innocence. A white lie is better than a black lie.  The most degenerate member of a family is the “black sheep”, he said.

King urged us to affirm our own self-worth, to reach down to the inner depths of our own being, and sign our own emancipation proclamation, telling the world that we are human beings with dignity and honor.

I signed my own emancipation proclamation decades ago, and I will not apologize for my truth: that I am Black, that I am proud (not arrogant), that I am valuable, that I have a rich and noble history, that Black is beautiful, that Black men are not a threat, that Black Lives Matter.

And I will not apologize for hesitating to applaud the institutions, corporations, organizations, and individuals who insist on treating the symptoms of racism while white supremacy continues to drive the operating system in America.

A Lenten blog by
Sister Barbara Kane, OP

Meister Eckhart, a great Dominican mystic, taught: “Every creature is a word of God and a book about God.” Isn’t that a wonderful image?  You and I, all of us, are unique words of God for the world… helping the world to know about God’s great compassion.  There are two expressions that are uniquely human; one of which we share with God. They are “I’m sorry” and “I forgive you.” Phrases that will elicit great inner peace when sincerely given.  God always whispers, “You’re forgiven” whenever we ask.  As we begin the season of Lent, can we be God’s words to those we’ve hurt or who have hurt us?  Can we be open to admitting our offenses and sharing forgiveness with

others? If we can, then we will hear those words God longs to whisper, “You are my beloved” and we will ourselves experience God’s compassion and peace.

Celebrating Lent Together at Home
We enter this Lent differently than ever before. The traditional practices of Lent: PRAY, FAST, GIVE ALMS have taken on a much deeper and more spacious meaning in our lives as a world community. As a way to weave together these three practices, Sisters Maureen McGrath, OP (Adrian), Joan Scanlon, OP, and Teresa Tuite, OP, invite you to celebrate Lent together at home via ZOOM. This online Lenten observance will begin on Ash Wednesday, February 17, and continue on consecutive Wednesdays (February 24, March 3, 10, 17, 24) at 7:00 PM EST. Each program will include a common prayer, followed by a guest chef who will demonstrate a simple recipe that can be used for one of your own Lenten meals. The recipe will be provided for viewers’ use. The program will end with a short closing prayer or song. Each session is independent, so please join when your own schedule allows it. No registration is needed. If you are able to join us, click here.

Meeting ID: 994 3701 7988
Passcode: 840174

Dominican Sister of Peace Associate Sandra Bonneville has a very close, personal connection to the Ninth Station of the Cross. She shares it in a Lenten Reflection published in the Columbus Catholic Times.

The Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, Office of Peace, Justice, and Ecological Integrity has prepared a Lenten Calendar entitled A Lenten Journey from Racism to the Beloved Community. The quotes beginning each week are from people of color.

Click to view and download the 8 ½ by 11 version
Click to view and download the 8 ½ by 14 version