by Joseph Stoutzenberger
When Ibram X. Kendi, a fellow Temple University Ph. D., published How to Be an Anti-Racist a few years ago, I immediately got the point. Someone can say, “I am not racist,” or “I harbor no animosity toward members of other races.” Given conditions in the world today, that is not enough. If you truly claim to be not racist, it is necessary to look for ways that people are hurting because of their race and seek ways to change policies and practices that are discriminatory and hurtful.
I had a student at Holy Family University who had graduated from the Baltimore, Maryland, school system. He was clearly bright and spoke well about the material discussed in class, but he seemed to lack sufficient reading skills and writing skills to do well in coursework. I asked him, “Didn’t you have to read textbooks when you were in high school?” He told me that the textbooks at his school were hand-me-down, outdated textbooks donated by suburban school districts that students were not allowed to take home for fear that they would never be returned. He said that his school was not sufficiently staffed to offer extra tutoring in reading and writing, so most students struggled to get through on their own.
I had another student, also black and on the basketball team, who graduated from the Louisiana school system. He said that in his state, public schools had an overwhelmingly black student population. White families who could afford it sent their children to “Christian” schools, whose population was overwhelmingly white.
In Philadelphia, the majority of public school students are black. For a long time, Catholic schools offered a safe haven for most Catholic white children to attend predominantly white Catholic schools so as to avoid the inferior public schools. Poorer black children were left to attend the public schools, where extra services were needed but seldom available. A system of charter schools now also offers a way to avoid the general public schools and attend schools that are de facto predominantly white. No schools say that they discriminate against anyone because of their race. However, Catholic schools are predominantly Catholic and white. Recently, thanks to the generosity of some wealthy Catholic business leaders, Catholic entities have taken steps to offer free or inexpensive quality education to children living in poor neighborhoods, and they have met with a great deal of success.
The U.S. Catholic bishops identified racism as a sin as far back as the 1970s. They had in mind not just the prejudices of individual people but the systemic racism that results in members of certain races suffering hardships and lacking opportunities simply because of their race. Systemic or institutional racism is measured in statistics such as infant mortality rates, accessibility to grocery stores where affordable healthy food choices are available, average wages, and school supplies. No one wants to be a statistic, but real people are hurting or lack power and privileges represented by statistics. Problems are intertwined. What’s to prevent poor black people from moving out of crime-ridden, drug-infested, run-down neighborhoods to safer suburban ones, often just a few miles away? Many poor Irish and Italian people did. Maureen O’Connell addresses this issue in her book Undoing the Knots: Five Generations of American Catholic Anti-Blackness. In it, she gives expression to one of Ibram X. Kendi’s principles for being anti-racist: embrace being uncomfortable.
I recently saw the reality O’Connell describes firsthand. I went to a swim meet at a beautiful private country club. As I heard the names of the children participating, I noticed that most of them had Irish names. The young staff serving food and drinks were mostly black. I couldn’t help but think that the Irish members of the club would have been the servers and servants just two generations ago. Would the black workers have the same opportunities available to them?
Hearing the stories of my two students who received an inferior quality education was discomforting. What might I do in response if I aspire to being anti-racist? How might it affect my teaching, and what might Holy Family do to address this reality of American society? Unless discomfort leads to action, we remain awash in guilt and shame or denial—never healthy places to be. Hearing stories helps. Sharing stories helps. Having a goal helps—to create an equitable society where no one is left out.
Joseph Stoutzenberger 