Race & class in the US: Black Catholics told 'no' by white school league

June 27, 2001
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SAN FRANCISCO — Every time you think there is real progress in race relations in this country something ordinary occurs that tells you otherwise. Chicago's mostly white Catholic athletic league recently refused to allow the mainly black St. Sabrina middle school from the city's Southside from joining its league. Why? Fear.

As a former resident of Chicago's mostly African-American Southside, I had first heard about this not atypical black-white race story from friends. But it didn't fully hit me what the controversy was really about until I read a succinct summary in the June 6 New York Times. I became outraged.

Listen to how the good archbishop, Cardinal Francis George, justified this defiance. In a sermon to Sunday Mass, he said: "The desire to protect a child is evidence of a parent's love. There are statistics about levels of violence in certain neighbourhoods."

Neither George nor the Democratic mayor, Richard Daley, also a Catholic, refused to criticise the white school league for its decision. But Cardinal George is no racist. He quickly issued a pastoral letter condemning racism and supporting diversity!

Another church apologist, Father William Quinn, said "We don't have anything against kids playing their games". Quinn, who is pastor of St. Louis de Montefort, in Oak Lawn, just west of Chicago, added: "There was a concern about going into that area with, what can I say, a higher crime rate and all. Just because you express a concern like that, it doesn't mean that you're a racist or that this is racism."

What twists and turns. The best contortionist would be proud of the Father Quinn.

Racism is racism, period.

As is generally true for all "good citizens" who bend to racist prejudices, code words are commonly expressed to hide racism. In this case, it's because of "safety" and "certain neighbourhoods".

The white priest of the mostly black congregation at St. Sabrina, however, refused to give up the fight for justice. "Why is it a bad neighbourhood?", he asked. "Because it's a black neighbourhood. You don't say it like that, but you're saying that. Because it's black, because it's Southside, it must be dangerous."

Of course, the obvious question for the Catholic archbishop to answer is "What about the safety of the black children who attend schools and walk those same unsafe neighbourhoods?"

The exposure of naked racism is ironic since the coaches of St. Sabrina were innocent. They weren't trying to expose the bigots in the Catholic Church. They simply requested joining the mostly white league to give their kids some new challenges. They wanted to give their students an opportunity to play tackle football instead of the flag football they play in their current athletic league. And they also thought it would be good for the middle school students to play some mostly white teams.

"St. Sabrina made a bid to join the Southside Catholic Conference, an athletic league comprising 21 mostly white Catholic schools", reports Pam Belluck in the Times article.

"But late last month, the conference voted 11 to 9 not accept St. Sabrina. Those who voted against the school said they felt the church was in a dangerous, gang-ridden neighborhood and they were not confident their children would be safe."

To give the conference higher-ups their due, it is true that many black areas on the Southside as well as other areas of Chicago tend to have more petty crime. But it's not because blacks live in the communities. It's because racism causes social and economic conditions to be worse so there is higher unemployment, worse housing and poorer schools.

Racism is the reason why there are more false arrests and cases of cop violence in the Southside. Young black males are particular targets. Racism is why there are so many black men in prison. It's not genetic, as some bigots might believe.

The only reason the issue of Catholic racial tension is public and hasn't gone away is because the white priest refused to give in. The archdiocese even offered to let the school in if it agreed that its home games with white schools would be played outside the community. This, in fact, is what a mostly Hispanic school did a few years ago to join the league. Father Michael Pfleger refused.

"We're not going to do any double standard", he said. "What message would that send to our kids? Their place is good enough to go to, but your place isn't good enough to go to?"

In reply to a question from a group of seventh-grade students about the controversy and what it says about churches, Father Pfleger said: "I never pretend that people in church are any better than anybody else."

Racism has a way of raising its ugly head when you least expect it. Racism is so institutionalised in US society that it happens all the time in the most ordinary of ways. It's why issues such as racial profiling exist. It's why hypertension is so high among African-American men and women.

I'll never forget an incident that occurred when I was working as a machinist in 1979 in a factory in the Chicago suburb of Cicero. Cicero became famous in the 1960s as a place the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was unable to complete a civil rights march because bigots attacked the demonstrators and the cops did nothing.

One early morning a black co-worker came to work with a sweat running down his face. "What happened?", I asked. "I was just chased here by some white bigots", he replied.

It turns out his car wasn't working that morning, so he took the city bus. I knew from my own experiences in the neighbourhood that black and brown people were not generally welcomed. Besides the bar across the street, where my co-workers went after the graveyard shift, I never went to establishments in Cicero to eat or drink.

Some 22 years later, after integration and some real progress, the private Catholic schools are still playing the race game. Fortunately, there is a white priest and others who again refuse to back down.

BY MALIK MIAH

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