National Conference Reviews Problems and Solutions to Racial Polarization in America
Episcopal News Service. December 12, 1990 [90322]
Winston Taylor
"We've come a long way, but there's a long way yet to go in the nation's ethnic situation." That was the assessment of leaders at a conference on Racism and Ethnic Polarization at Washington National Cathedral on November 28-29. The diverse group of some 80 persons sought to identify the reasons for continued racial polarization in the United States -- and to identify ways to overcome it.
People need to see racism as "a sickness to heal," said the Rev. Andrew Young, former mayor of Atlanta and a minister in the United Church of Christ. "But we need to be careful in the diagnosis and the treatment," because the "reasons and the answers are not always the same."
In a keynote address, Young told members of the conference that his experience in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s revealed a great deal about the causes of racism. "We found that oppression was not only based on color. The elements of poverty and war were related to racism," Young insisted. "We should never analyze any problem as solely racial," although many problems are accentuated by racial aspects, he said.
Young suggested that conference participants try to improve the racial climate -- but not by assessing blame or guilt. "People never change because they're wrong, but because they become secure enough to do better." He expressed hope that "we can share a vision of all of us as God's children and affirm that we are a family."
Young's desire was echoed by Dr. Cain Hope Felder, a United Methodist minister who teaches religion at Howard University. Felder noted that some racists have used biblical passages to support their positions. At the same time, he asserted, "The Bible has much to teach us, including the need to recapture God's vision of a universal, multiracial world." That diversity should be celebrated, he urged, but one of the biggest tragedies about race is that "too many good people choose to do nothing."
Young also addressed the subject of "Afro-centric education." He said that "the Eurocentric myth of Columbus could be celebrated, but in the context of others who were already here.... America is a whole lot more than Columbus."
Felder also referred to the Afro-centric question by calling for "Afrosensitivity" to help give a balance to history, which now "marginalizes the experience of all but Europeans."
Asked about the Episcopal Church's 1991 General Convention scheduled in Phoenix, Young said, "It's up to the church to decide how to use its authority. It's okay to withdraw economic support from Arizona, but it also would be morally acceptable to decide to meet there and take the flack" from those who disagree. In any case, he added, the church must be clear regarding the theological basis for its decision.
Former U.S. Senator Birch Bayh, who now heads the National Institute Against Prejudice and Violence, closed the conference with a plea for a "better job of articulating the problems" of prejudice, which he said is "an epidemic of national proportions eating away at our national fabric."
Bayh expressed concern that, after a period of judicial and legislative actions to help solve racial problems, "complacency in high places" developed, and "few people are now willing to speak out against prejudice." He added that "those in the religious community need to take a look at their own souls" regarding intolerance.
The conference was sponsored by the Washington National Cathedral, Washington Diocese Commission on Racism, National Conference of Christians and Jews, Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, and the Council of Churches of Greater Washington.