Maybe there's something positive about trying to have a conversation, but let's try honesty rather than snark and finger-pointing.  We may like to think that someone else's fault somehow makes us innocent, but God's justice doesn't work that way.  The destruction of families directly caused by slavery, Jim Crow and Mass Incarceration have deep and long-lasting effects on all of us.  We've never had racial reconciliation in this church or this country.  The destruction hasn't ended because we haven't wanted to deal with the problems as a shared community.  It's too easy to blame someone else.  Catholics are supposed to examine our consciences and seek  reconciliation.  Helen mentioned Alex Mikulich, who reviewed a book we might all want to read:  Ghosts of Jim Crow: Ending Racism in Post-Racial America.  https://www.ncronline.org/books/2013/10/exorcizing-our-racial-ghosts.

Thank you, Fr. Massingale, for helping us try to talk with each other.