"Racism Is a God-Damned Thing": The Implications of Historical and Contemporary Catholic Racism for English Language Arts Classrooms

• In Event: Complicated Conversations in Catholic Education

Abstract

Across the U.S. Catholic school system, incidents of anti-Black racism by white students have been evident in racial slurs shared through text messages, social media, and videos (Kandra, 2016; Larimer, 2018; Muhammad, 2016). These racist words and actions from white youth who attend Catholic schools are unsurprising, given that ideologies of anti-Blackness are pervasive among all societal structures in the U.S., including schools and religious bodies (Bonilla-Silva, 2009; Cone, 2000; Matias, 2017). Moreover, racism in Catholic spaces aligns with the larger racial segregation of U.S. Christian denominations (Burke & Gilbert, 2015). Racism in Catholic schools is important to consider in light of the Church's expressed condemnation of racism, as is evident in the principles of Catholic social teaching (Pasquier, 2016). Fr. John Markoe, Catholic priest and civil rights activist, succinctly stated one Catholic orientation toward racial prejudice: “Racism is a God-damned thing” (McNamara, 2011). Some may argue that the charge to condemn racism in all forms has largely been met by U.S. Catholic schools, a system that many have argued has historically, contemporarily, and uniquely met the needs of Black students (Green, 2011; Irving & Foster, 1996; York, 1996). Still, the history of Catholic schools and other Catholic spaces is replete with examples of white racism and anti-Blackness as well as Black Catholic resistance to racism (Cone, 2000; Davis, 2016; Wiliams, 2013, 2016). Given this tension between the principles of Catholic social teaching and racism in Catholic spaces, how might educators and researchers orient their work toward deconstructing, resisting, and interrupting racism in classrooms?

The purpose of this paper is to consider how English language arts (ELA) classrooms in particular might respond to the historical and contemporary racism in Catholic spaces. The paper is guided by research on race and Catholic schools and Black Catholic resistance through the historical experiences of Black women religious. While specifically noting the ways that ELA classrooms are uniquely situated for the deconstruction of race and racism through the analysis of texts (Baker-Bell, Butler, & Johnson, 2017; Johnson, 2017; 2018), this paper also offers curricular in-roads for educators across disciplines to analyze racism through the historical examples of resistance from Black women religious. This paper centers the need for curriculum within and beyond Catholic schools that attends more fully to the principles of Catholic social teaching in constructing anti-racist worldviews committed to change.

Author

• Mary Neville, New Mexico State University