Reagan, MLK And USD

Yesterday, a sculpture unveiled in Boston made some waves.

Please read my other tweets about the sculpture—but here is another angle and the photo of the two “The Embrace” is based on. It’s when MLK Jr. found out he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. pic.twitter.com/Q7Vyk7OPKK

— Amaka Ubaka (@AmakaUbakaTV) January 14, 2023

My first thought, of course, was that it was a terrible sculpture. I had no idea what it was supposed to represent and even after learning what it was, I still don't see it. Maybe the beheading of the subjects had something to do with. In my experience, lopping off heads tends to dominate a conversation if not end it completely.

Thinking about it further, I saw the sculpture as an act of moral masturbation. Yay! We made a sculpture "uplifting black lives" or something of that sort. Meanwhile, at a local high school, West Roxbury Academy, where the population is a mix of black and Hispanic, the test scores tell a tale of illiteracy.

All the statues and speeches emphasizing victimhood and oppression from many decades ago have yet to bear fruit.  This one won't, either. The statue is a symbol of self-congratulation from a group of cowards unwilling to talk about the real problem, families. No one wants to restrain sex, but they still want to feel like they're doing something positive and so we get another statue of MLK.

That made me think of the way Republican candidates all run around talking about how much they love Ronald Reagan every 4 years. 

"I'm Ronald Reagan!" 

"No you're not, I'm Reagan!" 

"You're both frauds! I'm the Reaganiest Reagan to ever Reagan!"

2023 isn't 1980. We're not facing off with the Russkies and trying to stamp out the last embers of racism. Instead, we're facing 100,000 drug overdoses a year and a culture that has gone insane. Reagan was one of our greatest presidents ever, certainly in the top 5. He did his job, but now the job is different.

Everyone wants to be Reagan or MLK, no one wants to confront popular, but destructive behaviors.

USD

Where does USD come into the picture? How about through Matthew 8:5-13.

When he entered Capernaum, a centurion approached him and appealed to him, saying, “Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, suffering dreadfully.”

He said to him, “I will come and cure him.”

The centurion said in reply, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a person subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come here,’ and he comes; and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I say to you, many will come from the east and the west, and will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom will be driven out into the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”

And Jesus said to the centurion, “You may go; as you have believed, let it be done for you.” And at that very hour his servant was healed.

One of the key points of the story is that God sees us as individuals, not representatives of our race. Morality comes from God. We discover it, we don't invent it. To be Catholic is to embrace the racially-blind nature of God.

The University of San Diego is a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California.

Emphasis mine. A search on the terms "whiteness usd" gives you these results. Here's the top hit as of the date of this blog post. Here's a tidbit.

At predominately Jewish institutions, German Students are often burdened with the role of the educator for their Jewish peers. This research explores how Jewish student leaders at the University of Heidelberg engage in conversations around their Jewish racial identity. How do Jewish student leaders understand and discuss issues of race, racism, Jewishness, and Jewish supremacy?

Oh, wait, that's not it. Try this one.

At predominately white institutions, Black, Indigenous, and other Students of Color are often burdened with the role of the educator for their white peers. This research explores how white student leaders at the University of San Diego engage in conversations around their white racial identity. How do white student leaders understand and discuss issues of race, racism, whiteness, and white supremacy?

Those black and Hispanic kids at Roxbury High are still working out how to read, but, by God, the Catholic students paying ~$40K per year at USD are striving hard to shake off their Jewishness, err, whiteness. Whatever that is.

In the person of Jesus, God told us to knock off the whole race thing. Like the dingledorks who crafted, sponsored and selected that indecipherable statue of MLK, the Church proper has shut themselves into an upper room of self-pleasuring where they can close the blinds, pull out their laptops and download images of racial justice.

Thankfully, the insulation in the walls of that room is excellent. None of the cries of despair from the black twenty-somethings who know their illiteracy has doomed them to impoverished lives can get through to the people inside.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. That session of racial justice felt sooooooo good.