Addressing race relations: Now is the time

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

Seeking ways to address racial tensions exposed after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, the Racial Harmony Commission and the Office of Black Catholic Ministries of the Archdiocese of New Orleans will meet July 7 with Auxiliary Bishop Fernand Cheri to forge a local Catholic response.

“As I talk to people, the one thing that is really clear is we need to talk and we have to talk and try to understand and hear each other without judging each other,” Bishop Cheri said. “That’s the bottom line. The only way we’re going to be able to do what is necessary and address the issue of racism is to speak to each other without saying things to each other that will make each other stop hearing.”

Bishop Cheri, who is African American, oversees the archdiocesan Racial Harmony Commission, which has made efforts in parishes across the archdiocese to sponsor dialogue among whites, blacks and other ethnic groups. Archbishop Gregory Aymond has asked him to convene talks within the archdiocese.

Dialogue is key

The racial harmony workshops in previous years reflected on the pastoral letter written in 2006 by former Archbishop Alfred Hughes, “Made in the Image and Likeness of God,” as a starting point for candid dialogue among different racial groups.

More recently, the racial harmony workshops have been analyzing the U.S. bishops’ 2018 pastoral letter against racism, “Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love.”

Bishop Cheri presided at a June 5 prayer service, “Requiem for the Black Children of God,” that drew a diverse crowd of about 250 people to the front steps of Notre Dame Seminary. 

(Click here to view that video.)

As the presider of the prayer service, Bishop Cheri said he received a lot of feedback, both positive and negative. One person called and criticized Floyd for his arrest history and for being arrested for trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. Floyd was killed after a police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes even though he had already had been handcuffed and was under police control.

“People are reacting not because of what (Floyd) did but because of what happened to him – we saw the public execution of a man,” Bishop Cheri said. “People are reacting to the taking of his life for a fake $20 bill, which we have no idea where he got it. He may not even have known it was a counterfeit bill. The bottom line is he didn’t deserve to die. The bottom line is we are better than this. It’s going to take some humbling on everybody’s part if we’re going to move forward.”

A flashback to the past
The scars of racism often are hidden until a current event triggers a memory, Bishop Cheri said. That happened not long ago when Bishop Cheri was scheduled to hold confirmation at a parish church where as a child “I couldn’t even walk on the grounds of that church.”

“I was laughing to myself at how time brings a lot of change,” he said. “I remember Bishop (Harold) Perry (the first African-American bishop ordained in the U.S. in modern times) telling me once he went to a confirmation and they wouldn’t let him get out of his car. People say, ‘That couldn’t have happened,’ but why would he have made that up?”

Experiences Bishop Cheri had as a teenager remain hard to shake. He and four other Black students at  St. John Vianney Prep were driving to get a hamburger after school and were pulled over by police.

“They made us get out of the car, searched our pockets and all but arrested us,” he said. “A couple of the guys asked, ‘Why are you doing this to us?’ And, of course, they didn’t feel like they owed us any explanation. You just didn’t know how far this was going to go.

“I told this to the person who called me after the prayer service, and she said, ‘Well, you’re just traumatized by your experience.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I am traumatized. Wouldn’t you be?’ I do get ‘past’ it. But I remember it. And then when you witness this public execution, it just reminds you of all the experiences you’ve had throughout your life.”

Peter Finney Jr. can be reached at [email protected].