I send out frequent newsletters from my blog and my Politics Done Right (PDR) program. Today’s email featured much on Joe Biden’s racial insensitivity and more. Well, one of the recipients, a white man, called me out in the prose below for not holding other Democrats accountable. He has two black children and had a few things to say about racism. I decided to change the media/radio program topic and feature him today. So check him out on PDR at 3:00 PM today.
Here is the email he sent me.
He wants to be heard on Racism
Egberto,
Peace and All Good:
Thank you for all that you do, I run a faith rooted social justice organization. the Franciscan Action Network Network www.franciscanaction.org. I am the co-founder of the Global Catholic Climate Movement.
Last week I was honored to give the closing reflection at Rev Barber’s Moral Congress. I attached a copy fyi. I appreciate your blog about Biden. We need to speak out when friends make comments that indicate they do not understand racism. It does not mean they are racist, just a lack of understanding about racism and white privilege.
How come you have not written a similar blog about Bernie Sanders. In November of 2018 right after the election, Sanders said that he could understand how some white people who are not racist would feel uncomfortable voting for a black person.
With all due respect, if you are a white person and you feel uncomfortable voting for a black person, then you are racist. And if you do not see that then you do not understand racism.
In January after Trump gave his State of the Union address, Stacy was asked to give the democratic response. The first time a black woman was invited to give a response. Instead of congratulating Abrams and saying what an awesome job she did, Bernie used his position of white privilege to give his own response.
I read a book recently White Fragility why its so hard for white people to talk about racism. It really struck a cord with me. My parents were poor Irish Catholic immigrants who came to America in 1950. They had nothing. My mom would often say she got off the boat with one baby in her arms, another in her belly, and not two nickles to rub together.
I grew up in a poor Irish Catholic neighborhood that was transforming into a racially mixed neighborhood. So I had friends who were people of color. When I got older I intentionally lived in neighborhoods that were racially mixed. I participated in marches and rallies.
I thought I understood racism until about 20 years ago when my wife and I became foster parents. We fostered two children who are biological brother and sister and are African-American. A year later we adopted them. It was then that I began to to understand systematic racism and how ingrained it is in our society.
When my son was pulled over for the umpteenth time for DWB. Or when he was around 11 and was playing with a few of his friends who were white. One of his friends said to me, “You know Mr. C., we know that we can fool around in class and Delvon (my son) will get blamed for it.
The teacher in a thousand years would not have thought of himself as racist and in fact attended rallies and marches, but was viewing my son as the trouble maker because of the color of his skin. I could share hundreds of stories like that.
Peace
Patrick Carolan