The Doctrine of Discovery was a principle of international law developed in a series of 15th century papal bulls and 16th century charters by European monarchs. It was essentially a racist philosophy that gave white Christian Europeans the green light to go forth and claim the lands and resources of non-Christian peoples and kill or enslave them.
President Obama keeps promise to sign an expanded Hate Crimes Law.
Bishop Charles Jenkins flew to South Africa last week to talk with church leaders and others there about that country’s experience with its Truth and Reconciliation Commission, its role in bringing some racial healing after the fall of apartheid, and asking whether New Orleans might benefits from a similar process.
Two Catholic bishops are raising the question of whether opposition to President Obama from within their church is a sign of racism. Archbishop (emeritus) Quinn
Once a beacon of hope for thousands of Black students denied access to higher education by predominantly White institutions, historically Black colleges and universities have educated generations of Black scientists, doctors, lawyers, educators and social activists. But today, these institutions face serious challenges.
Bayard Rustin: Every indifference to prejudice is suicide because, if I don’t fight all bigotry, bigotry itself will be strengthened and, sooner or later, it will return on me.
“Toward a full and faithful telling: repairing the breach of slavery, segregation and racism in the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta” is an initiative our diocese has begun to help facilitate the process of building stronger bridges across the racial divide within the church. This is an initiative that all churches could embrace because everyone of them is impacted by slavery, segregation and racism regardless of their members’ race.
As we made our way to the venue for the lecture, a sister who had gone ahead turned back and spoke to me before I could enter the building, “You are white,” she said, “and Angela Davis has said that only blacks may attend.” I was crushed. I had journeyed thousands of miles to come home only to be told by a foreigner that I was not welcome.
The stone church, on Henry Street near Montgomery Street on the Lower East Side, was built for a patrician white congregation. But although it was completed in 1828, a year after slavery was legally abolished in New York State, behind the balcony and on either side of the organ are two cramped rooms, built so that black churchgoers could worship there without being seen by white parishioners.
There could be no law, and so no civilization, absent the imputation to persons of responsibility for their wrongful acts. But the sum of a million cases, each one rightly judged fairly on its individual merits, may nevertheless constitute a great historic wrong. This is, in my view, now the case in regards to the race and social class disparities that characterize the very punitive policy that we have directed at lawbreakers.