In the Margins: The Power of Discernment

Last week our Parish's Antiracism Committee shared with you the vision of St. Ignatius Parish as an antiracist multicultural parish. Beginning this week, I invite you to reflect on the journeys of community members who have agreed to share their experiences and struggles around the issue of racism.
 
As it has taken courage for them to share their stories with us, it will also take courage for us to hear them. Their stories have made me more than a bit uncomfortable. But I believe that it is a discomfort that is of God, that it is a personal invitation both to greater life for me and into the Kingdom as God hopes it to be. As a Parish family, then, let us open our minds and our hearts to each other and to the truth that will set us free.
 
Oremus pro invicem,
 
Fr. Greg
 

The Power of Discernment

by Larry Simi

When it came to race relations, I always considered myself progressive.  After all, in high school I volunteered to tutor children of color, while in college I participated in Civil Rights groups.  I worked in an agency serving Black youth, and in my city government position I steered resources to community-based organizations serving the African American community.

In the early 2010's, I first heard the term “White Privilege.” The term engendered a visceral negative reaction from me.  It struck me as demeaning, indiscriminate, divisive, and inaccurate.  Could anyone seriously argue that poor white people in Appalachia or the rust belt whose jobs had disappeared were the beneficiaries of any societal privilege? Besides, I was secure in the knowledge that I had achieved educational and career success on the basis of merit.  I had overcome a chaotic home environment and substance abuse, as well as paid for my own college education.  So, who was anyone to tell me that I had any kind of privilege?

It wasn't until 2020, when Father Greg instructed the members of the newly-formed Antiracism Committee to spend some time in self- and group examination, that I examined my reactions to the term "White Privilege."  Through discernment, I identified several episodes in my life where the outcome would likely have been dramatically different had I been a person of color.  In high school, for example, I had an interaction with the police that resulted in several hours in a precinct holding cell and my mother being called to pick me up.  As I took the time to reflect, I recognized that had I been Black, I likely would have entered the criminal justice system.  I remembered that following basic training in the Army during the Vietnam era, White college graduates returned to their reserve units, where they were unlikely to be called up or sent overseas, while the young men of color and the poor Whites went directly off to war.  

The discernment process was both revelatory and humbling.  As Dr. King said, "Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability but comes through continuous struggle."  Let us as a parish continue to struggle to become the antiracist parish our Church calls us to be.