Dear Parishioners and Friends,

The celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, January 16th (celebrated to honor his Jan. 15th birthday) provides an opportunity for all the parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago to reflect on the sin of racism. In April of 2001, Cardinal George issued a pastoral letter on racism, “Dwell In My Love.” He wrote that the face of racism looks different today than it did thirty years ago. Overt racism is easily condemned, but the sin is often with us in subtle forms. In examining patterns of racism today, he identifies four forms that merit particular attention.

Spatial racism refers to a pattern of metropolitan development in which some affluent Whites create racially and economically segregated suburbs or gentrified areas of cities, leaving the poor—mainly African Americans, Hispanics and some newly arrived immigrants—isolated in deteriorating areas of the cities and older suburbs.

Racism also finds an institutional form. Patterns of social and racial superiority continue as long as no one asks why they should be taken for granted.  People who assume, consciously or unconsciously, that White people are superior create and sustain institutions that privileged people like themselves are a part of and habitually ignore the contributions of other peoples and cultures. This “White privilege” often goes undetected because it has become internalized and integrated as part of one’s outlook on the world by custom, habit and tradition.