Unit 3

 

Monday, November 14: A video and a reading

• Video of Cornel West: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f18n-tngDmU
• Reading—Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church, Introduction

 

VIDEO

1. West: Most of human history is the history of domination, oppression, hatred, contempt, envy, resentment. How do we create sustainable interruption of that history? How do we break that cycle?

 

2. Some are willing to do whatever it takes for WHPPetc. Others are willing to do whatever it takes to pursue the good.

 

3. Seeking systemic change has its proper foundation in self-transcendence—going beyond the established self to a higher self. The higher self is always present as a desire, a potential, an ideal, an aspiration.

 

Birth of a Movement, Introduction

 

4. This book is a call to white Christians to “work actively and consistently to abolish every system that oppresses…Black women, men, and children,” to “work toward a Christ-centered, Black liberation.”

 

5. Catholics and Christians in general have tended to be suspicious of BLM as a movement. Do you think this suspicion is justified? Why or why not?

 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=john+mcwhorter+vs+ta+nehisi+coates (Mark Lamont Hill vs John McWhorter)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tjgXQDyqno (John McWHorter on Bill Maher)

Wednesday, November 16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To5pNgLSyjQ&t=383s

 

• Video of Cornel West: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyuRIt7IDxM
• Reading—Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church, Chapter 1

 

Cornel West Video

1. West: People are afraid of freedom because there are costs to it and takes courage. What costs? Why is conformity easier?

2. West: it’s all about image vs substance in our culture.
3. West: we aren’t messiahs, but we can inspire, encourage, enable, and ennoble one another.

McWhorter on what would actually help Black people:  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CU3hQfyEKQ at 3:00)

Birth of a Movement, Chapter 1

4. BLM hopes to “center the lived experiences of society’s most vulnerable.”
5. BLM promotes a “culture of discernment” or introspection, so that we might unlearn any internal biases and privileges.

6. Segura faults Pope Francis for promoting the “valuing of one’s own body in its masculinity or femininity” (14–15). Do you agree with her? Why or why not?

 

7. “The most criminalized people on the planet are Black Transwomen who cannot pass.” What evidence do you think Patrice Cullors, founder of BLM, is appealing to in saying this? Joe Biden has said similar things. What evidence do you think he has seen for this?

8. “No American institution, including the Catholic Church, is free of internalized white supremacy.” Do you agree? Why or why not?

 

 

9. Segura: BLM is a secular version of Catholic Social Teaching. Do you agree? Why or why not?

 

10. “As Catholics, we are called to learn from all experiences, including those most unlike our own.”

 

Friday, November 18: A video and a reading

• Video of Cornel West: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr-RvxacAn4
• Reading—Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church, Chapter 2

 

VIDEO

1. West: It’s not just about symbolic representation, but substantive transformation. That last thing we need is superficial spectacle without substance. More examples of superficial spectacle when it comes to combating injustice? Is the Woke Racism McWhorter talks about an example, or do diversity trainings about implicit bias lead to substantive transformation?

 

2. West: Anyone of any race can be well-adjusted to injustice. The choices we make, not skin color, determine if we are on the side of justice or not. Are John McWhorter and, on the right, Candace Owens and Ye, well-adjusted to injustice? Does that explain their hesitance to follow the left’s  narrative about race? What else would explain it?

 

3. …the primacy of the moral and the spiritual, and of the artistic to facilitate the moral and spiritual…

 

4. Comedy and art bring people together. Performance authorizes alternative realities, new ways of seeing. Examples?

 

5. West: don’t underestimate transcendent moments—life consists of moments, which give us a “memory” of what could be.

 

Chapter 2, “The Black Women of the Movement”

 

6. Garza: “Policing as a whole in this country is deeply, deeply corrupt and cannot be reformed.” Do you agree? Why or why not?

 

7. What do you think of the category “lived experience”? How should it be used in theology?

 

8. Of Segura’s theological method: Is it ok to assume readers have already “done their homework” learning about issues like defunding or reparations, or are theologians required to present the evidence themselves? If the former, is theology just an interdisciplinary mixture of watered-down philosophy, psychology, sociology, biology, etc etc??

 

Monday, November 21: A video and a reading

• Video of Cornel West; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGeIElmCebQ
• Reading—Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church, Chapter 3

 

Video:

 

1. West: I don’t hate individuals, but I hate the greed and injustice that are filtered through these individuals.

 

2. West: both capitalism and socialism need democratic accountability. What’s the difference between capitalism with democratic accountability and socialism with democratic accountability? Or do they both leave you in a moderate middle ground, one leaning right and one leaning left?

 

Chapter 3, “Chattel Slavery and the Catholic Church”

 

3. Segura: U.S. Bishops should (1) write a letter apologizing for the Church’s racism, (2) remove their support for police departments, and (3) acknowledge their white privilege.

 

4. Is there still room for patriotism/church membership given America’s/the church’s histories of oppression? Why or why not?

 

5. Segura: the bishops should not support police departments because Black Catholics, from their lived experience, have denounced policing as a “violent threat to Black livelihood.” Agree/disagree/why?

 

6. Segura: white skin allows people to “move through the world without fear of authority.”

 

 

7. Segura: “white people created racism, and therefore they, solely, have a moral duty to work to abolish systems of oppression.”

 

Monday, November 28: A video and a reading

• Video of Cornel West: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAiwoUHKl8A
• Reading—Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church, Chapter 4

 

Video

 

1. West: we all have fear and anxiety because of our impending death, and we need structures of values to make sense of this life. Where did you get your structure of values?

 

2. West: we are historical and thus should be both grateful and critical of what has come before. Do you think changemaking as practiced tends to make room for both, or is one overemphasized among social justice warriors?

 

3. West: God’s grace is manifest in those who loved me into loving. I didn’t deserve it, it is “gratuitous”. That’s the primary instance of grace, the non-unearned existence that we all have.

 

4. West: How can we be examples for others, loving them into self-transcending judgments of value and choices?

 

5. West: it’s not about imitation (impossibility), but knowing what greatness is (actuality), which might spark the creation of greatness that could be (possibility).

 

Chapter 4, “A Servant Leader”

 

6. Segura: Affirming the value of Black lives which means standing behind the anti-capitalist work of the Black lives matter movement. Agree/why/why not? If you disagree, how can Catholics affirm that value without supporting the movement?

 

Nightclub shooting and Christian Social Justice…

 

7. Does the fact that some people are morally opposed to all-age drag shows fully, partially, or in no way explain violence against LGBTQ+ people, and whether it does or not, is it bad for people to express that viewpoint publicly?

 

8. More generally, can someone be (1) against violence against LGBTQ+ people and (2) morally opposed to LGBTQ+ sexual behavior? (The Catholic Church would claim to be in both categories.)

9. The mainstream media assumed that the nightclub shooting was an anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime and that the shooter was influenced by right wing media personalities. The latest evidence seems to indicate that the shooter is themself a non-binary member of the LGBTQ+ community. Now the media has shifted the narrative from anti-LGBTQ+ hate to that of gun control. Does any of this increase, decrease, or not affect your current level of trust/respect for the media, and why?

10. Some in the mainstream media are questioning whether the person really is non-binary because that fits better with the hate-crime narrative. Is this a good idea to question, or is the media involved in hateful erasure of LGBTQ+ identities and shamefully deadnaming someone by even using their previous name on air?
11. All in all, was the shooting caused by—and what it’s caused by is a really important question for social justice—anti-LGBTQ+ hate, lack of gun control, a deranged individual, all of the above, or what?

Wednesday, November 30: Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church, Chapter 5

1. Is there a non-selfish version of individualism that includes “community building,” and what would that look like? Is there a golden mean between selfish individualism and collectivism?
2. Do you agree with Segura that not everyone has the opportunity to succeed? If so, what are the factors that keep them from doing so?
3. Racial capitalism is the (disproportionate) exploitation of marginalized communities for profit. Is this still happening today, or is it just the after effects? In either case, what solutions do you propose?

4. Theological method: Segura emphasizes the importance of personal narrative in making theological arguments. Do you like this approach, or should theologians just stick to the arguments and bring in personal biography in only when needed for such arguments?

 

5. Segura used to use “every buzzword [she] saw on Twitter.” Do you think she has fully evolved away from doing so? What’s wrong with buzzwords?

 

8. Segura said she became “fully politicized” in 2020. What does that mean?

 

 

Friday, December 2: Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church, Chapter 6

1. Segura: the “desire to control” is the power that fuels white privilege. What principles distinguish bad control from good control? Good power from bad power?

2. Segura: “White Americans…have been indoctrinated to believe that it is their right to be superior to all other citizens, a bias that is often unconscious.” How does this indoctrination occur, especially for those who wouldn’t identify as racist?

3. Rebecca Christian: “redemptive suffering is not a license to commit or excuse harm.” Do you think Christianity, with its emphasis on the redemptive possibilities of suffering, is more likely than other religions to be used to justify harm?
4. Cardinal Dolan of NY: as we must not stereotype people on the basis of race, we should not stereotype the police. Is this a false equivalency? Why or why not?

 

5. Trying to summarize Jesus and Justice (aka God and ethics) (aka theology and social ethics) as we approach the end…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOQ0F9dDjGo

 

6. If God is still “guy on a cloud” for you, this class has been a waste of theological time.

 

7. What-it-isthat God creates when God creates the universe is the meaning (form/essence) of life, and why/what forGod creates the universe is the purpose of life (telos/end).

 

8. The purpose of human life is…

 

 

9. …to appreciate and change the world in accordance with the roles for which you are uniquely fit. #yawn #crickets

 

 

10. There is freedom within those roles, but there are also boundaries and limits beyond which you aren’t living your role or living it well. Sorry. Yes, you’re a unique snowflake, but you must also constantly “kill your clone” to be the best snowflake you can be.

 

11. Stop thinking I’m saying it’s a guy on a cloud telling you what your role is.

 

12. But your role is written into the universe, so you don’t just make it up out of thin air. Figure it out.

 

13. Finding one’s role is a process of discovery, and it may go counter to what religious people are telling you your role is (e.g., be straight etc.)

 

14. Finding your role as a cooperation with the role of others gets us into social ethics, and a social ethics that encourages people to find and live their roles is a recipe for a flourishing and happier society.

15. Why is role fulfillment a better standard for freedom than upholding the value

16. Because doing whatever you feel like doesn’t lead to the life you really want unless you’re lucky enough to always feel like living your role, which is the only thing that will bring the life you really want.

 

17. Why is role fulfillment a better standard for society than the Rawlsian (and liberation theology’s?) focus on structuring society to provide the most for the least?

18. …Because role fulfillment is the key to the flourishing of the least and of those who should help them. It’s a more fundamental principle. Role fulfillment leads to liberation.

19. If you haven’t questioned any of your political beliefs about the roles of humans in making the world a better place this semester, this class has been a social-ethical waste of time.

20. Stop procrastinating. Know your role, question your role, but don’t procrastinate. Take action. Find your role as you stumble around in the dark to find the light. Move. Do something, then do better, and better. That’s the purpose of your life.

21. None of the above is privileged. Individual and social responsibility aren’t privileged. Anyone can do it, and you should. Stop not doing it.

 

Wednesday, May 11: Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church, Chapter 7

 

 

1. Othernessis a challenge to the self that has the potential to enrich the self. It’s tempting to reject that challenge and thereby miss out on the enrichment.

 

2. Do you ever think there’s a reason to choose the American way of life over particular American lives, as Segura quotes conservative politicians as saying? In any case, do you agree that it’s “white supremacist” rhetoric to say so?

 

3. General ethical question: to what extent is it ethical to put human life at risk, and what reasons would warrant such a thing?

 

4. Can you summarize Segura’s argument that the pandemic revealed the reality of racial capitalism? Can you make her argument better by further explaining or illustrating this claim?

 

 

 

Friday, May 13: Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church, Chapter 8

 

1. Segura: “All the violence of our current world…was caused by the white supremacist need to dominate people seen as other.” Is there a way to make the case for the truth of this?

 

2. Copeland: the resurrection means that Christian faith is about liberation from unjust suffering.

 

3. Segura: the prison industrial complex is the most violent oppressive institution in America, and funds should instead be directed toward eliminating the circumstances that make crime more likely, e.g., poverty. What do you think of Segura’s abolitionism? Were you clear on what she meant by it?

 

4. Segura says the Harper’s Magazineletter written by liberal intellectuals, in arguing that open debate about transgender issues should be allowed, was promoting “the very culture that was killing Black transgender women.” Do you agree? When does free and open debate need to be restricted to save lives, and what risk to life should be allowed for the sake of free and open debate?

 

Your life hinges on the event that is Brian Traska’s course on Jesus and Justice. Like BC and AD, your life can be divided into what happened before you took this course and what happened after. You’re welcome. Any final insights on Jesus and Justice you’d like to share before you start the rest of your life?