Whose lives matter?

There is a lot of racial tension going around the world. The latest manifestation of this is the deep unrest caused by the unlawful death of George Floyd Jr at the hands of the police. Given that Mr Floyd had been convicted of eight crimes prior to this fatal interaction with the police does suggest that there may have been sufficient reason for his lawful arrest. Yet the video evidence is compelling that the poor man had an officer kneel on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Why was there no due care and diligence from the officer?

The other fact that has to be acknowledged is that the outrage it caused has to have come from somewhere - no smoke without fire! It is clear that many members of the black community do not feel that their lives matter. This is why the Black Lives Matter movement has arisen.

Of course, many will counter this with, "all lives matter!" Of course, that is very true but we do have to be careful. Simple Aristotelian logic tells us that if all human lives are lives that matter and that all black lives are human lives then black lives are lives that matter. Barbara comes to the rescue again! It's very easy to get behind a slogan and allow that slogan to allow us to find some emotional equilibrium without confronting the issue.

The death of Mr Floyd raises the question as to whether people who say "all lives matter" really mean that or whether they mean "black lives matter no more than anyone else's". The trouble with this last meaning is that it allows for the possibility that black lives do not matter as much - this is precisely the problem!

If we really mean "all lives matter" then we need to be showing it. The content of the Lord's commandment, "love thy neighbour as thyself" is precisely motivated by the fact that all lives do matter to God and that He is capable of demonstrating that. Of course, He requires that each of us demonstrate that, too.

White people can never know the abject suffering of black people at the hands of slave-traders. It's for good reason why we cannot appropriate their culture nor try and buy their affection by trying to be like them as if our whiteness somehow makes black cultural acceptable. If anything, the statues of those involved in the slave trade should remind us of our cultural shame. In this instance, Shame is no bad thing. We all need to feel shame for our sins because that shame demonstrates that we recognise our own personal wrong-doing. Just as the Germans must live with the fact of Nazism so must we live with what we have done.

No, we have no personal guilt but our lives today are the results of the sins of our fathers. We are infected by their sin even if we are not guilty of it. This is precisely what the doctrine of Original Sin says.

I've been reflecting on the dreadful case of Emmett Till who was a black boy mutilated and murdered because he whistled cheekily at a white woman and whose white murderers got away scot-free. His mother tore the lid off of his coffin at his funeral because she wanted the world to see what had been done to this perfectly happy young man. Those who express outrage at the death of George Floyd are doing the same.

As with all movements, there are some who jump on the bandwagon in order to pursue some violent antisocial agenda. There will be those black people who seek vengeance and the extermination of whites. These are consumed with anger and bitterness and will perpetuate the violence if they are allowed to become prominent. 

The Catholic Faith teaches us that Baptism makes us dead to sin and that we must now seek to live lives worthy of our calling to be Christian. It is not a dismissal or rejection of the past: we need that past to remind us of why Jesus had to die so horribly. The Cross is both our shame for its necessity and our joy for our salvation through it. It is a sign that our lives matter but that this is not mere lip service to a slogan nor a subscription to a political ideology.

If we really want to show that all lives matter then we need to enter into meaningful and humble dialogue with those who believe that they are being told that their lives don't matter. Why do so many young black men go to prison or fall victim to gang violence? What is our collective contribution (or lack thereof) to that?

The Catholic Faith teaches confession, repentance and forgiveness. We also have to remember that forgiveness is not a right  for the penitent nor that it is immediate. Forgiveness takes time to complete and requires true contrition for it to work. We have to earn forgiveness with tears and sincerity: we have to let people earn forgiveness with both justice and mercy.

If people are crying out that their lives matter then we must accept that they have a reason to believe that their lives don't matter. Of course this does not give them carte blanche to make unreasonable demands: a life without the latest mobile phone is not an unvalued life but demands for that phone on the grounds of rights are rather evidence that someone has a system of value judgement that actually undervalues human life and dignity. Unreasonable demands make light of the sufferings that many endure.

Let us just talk. Let us get away from soundbite, slogan, sign and signalling. Rather let us listen - really listen - and then speak words which have some substance, address real issues, and express true sorrow. Let none of us try to be someone we're not but rather learn to live with the repercussions of our fathers' failures and seek to bring good out from them in the eyes of God who knows all.

Keep the statues and remember the history - the shame together with the triumph, the sin together with the virtue - for that confusion of Saint and Sinner is preceded what we humans are until we are transformed by God into His likeness.

Above all, let us continue to learn to love our neighbour as ourselves. Our neighbourhood is multicoloured and all lives matter because they are worth living just by the fact of their existence.