Segregation, But Woke

“I’m your black friend,” B. L. Wilson assures us, “but I won’t educate you about racism. That’s on you.” This has become a common refrain in the anti-racism movement. White folks (like me) are supposed to come to grips with our own subliminal anti-black prejudices, but without asking black people to explain what those prejudices look like. We may as well demand the French to learn Swedish without asking a Swede. Those who genuinely wish to purge any unconscious bigotry are forced to pay enormous sums of money to other whites who style themselves as “experts” on white racism.

How will we know if our re-education is a success? Nobody can say for sure but, once you’ve come around to the idea of abolishing the police, you’re headed in the right direction.

White people are tying themselves into knots trying to awoken themselves, and with little success. As the editor of a Catholic magazine, I’ve received a number of submissions by young, white Catholics who insist the Church is racist because there aren’t any black people in their parish. I point out that, for the better part of a century now, our bishops have discouraged “proselytism.” That’s why, for every one person who converts to Catholicism, seven people abandon the Faith. Catholics aren’t trying to convert black people because we’re not trying to convert anyone. The author will nod in agreement, withdraw the submission, and head back to the drawing board.