Catholic Social Teaching and Racism

I read through this document called Catholic Social Teaching and Racism. I want to comment on the following bits of it.

The Many Faces of Racism:

"Catholic teaching “emphasizes not only the individual conscience, but also the political, legal and economic structures...”[6] Racism is about people and about group behaviors and societal organization. Individual racism includes conscious acts, spontaneous attitudes, “the tendency to stereotype and marginalize,”[7] indifference, and “the triumph of private concern over public responsibility…” [8]

"Laws such as U.S. segregation or South Africa’s apartheid [9] represent blatant systemic racism. More subtle racism treats groups as “second-class citizens with regard, for instance, to higher education, to housing, to employment and especially to public… services...”[10] Even more subtle racism is now masked in appeals to equality that guarantee that past inequalities are perpetuated by blocking corrective efforts. “At times protestations claiming that all persons should be treated equally reflect the desire to maintain a status quo that favors one race and social group at the expense of the poor and non white.”[11] Social, economic, educational, and political advantages from the past are cemented as the often unconscious privilege of the present. Thus, “Racism obscures the evils of the past and denies the burdens” that history imposes on people of color today.[12]"

This makes two important points that aren't always mentioned: 1. Equality does not mean "not racist" and 2. Not all racism is systemic racism.

1. "At times protestations claiming that all persons should be treated equally reflect the desire to maintain a status quo that favors one race and social group..." In other words, if we have laws that favour one group over another, even though all are "treated equally" one group is undermined and that is still racism. Take First Nations for instance, for whom "ownership of the land" did not exist. They had their traditional territories and each family had their traditional hunting ground. For First Nations, you do not own the land, the land is personified, the earth is your mother and she provides for you. Because the First Nations did not "own" the land in the same sense that Europeans own land, the Europeans claimed all this "unowned" land for their King(s). But the land was NOT theirs to claim. This would be part racism and part complete ignorance of First Nations' way of thinking. It never occurred to the Europeans to figure out First Nations' social structure or their relationship to the land. That was a mistake. This difference in how land is viewed was the basis for unjust laws that, while treating all as "equal", disadvantaged the First Nations' because their social structure and way of life was completely different.

Not being racist doesn't just mean treating everyone the same and having the same laws for all people. It means treating everyone as an individual first, and second, taking into consideration the language, customs, culture, social structure, etc of different nations, and when necessary, coming to a compromise that benefits all parties.

2. Racism is prejudice based on race. Prejudice can be based on a number of things, including class, wealth, family, age, etc. Racial prejudice IS racism. Activists have redefined racism to mean systemic racism, but not all racism is systemic. Much of it is individual. You can have a country in which all people are given the same opportunities, but you will still, unfortunately, meet people in your life who will judge you and discriminate against you, based on your race, sex, language or whatever. We cannot change other people's hearts, however, we CAN make our laws as just as possible for everyone. The problem with changing the definition of racism is that we target one single group for it. We change the narrative: only "white" people can be racist, and no "white" person can be a victim of racism. We HAVE a term already for segregation, apartheid, slavery, genocide, the holocaust, laws that favour one race over another, laws that discriminate one race, concentration camps, etc. THAT is systemic racism. It is MUCH worse than individual racism. Individual racism is NOT systemic racism. It is, quite simply, any person who judges another, or mistreats them, based on their race. ANYONE can commit individual racism or be a victim of it.

The whole Revolution Tranquille in Québec in the early part of the 20th century was actually due to systemic racism. In an English-Canadian society, French-Canadians had very little rights. In fact, even IN Québec, where the vast majority of the population spoke French, French-Canadians were not allowed to take on higher-level jobs. You could not climb the corporate ladder or hold office if you were not English. Irish-Canadians were similarly discriminated against. I put "white" in quotes because "white" is not a race. It is a group of races, better defined as "European." Where my mother grew up, French-Canadians were "not to be trusted." So, if people had a choice between hiring an English-Canadian or a French-Canadian, they often preferred to hire the English-Canadian. My father and possibly my uncle or a friend of his were roughed up by police in northwestern Canada BECAUSE they were French-Canadian. Sound familiar? Denying that ONE certain group (based on skin colour - not even race) can be victims of racism takes away their voice. It makes them invisible. Their stories do not count. Their experience is no longer valid. They are told that they "cannot understand racism" because they "cannot be victims of racism" and they are cancelled. They don't exist, because they don't fit the narrative.

I was beaten up and targeted for bullying (by individuals, not the whole society) because of my skin colour for YEARS when I was growing up. If you silence me, because my story doesn't fit your narrative, it feels exactly like the relentless bullying I went through as a child. It feels like someone is holding their hand on my mouth to keep me quiet. You are putting me in a box and telling me that everything I suffered as a child is "nonexistent" based on my skin colour. You are gaslighting me. If any other child, of any other race, had been bullied because of his race, that would be racism. But because I am white, it is not. It is actually, ironically, racist to determine that, based on race, a person cannot be a victim of racism. 

It is also counter-intuitive to shut us up and tell us that we "can't" understand, because we are actually ON YOUR SIDE.