Msgr. Paul v. Garrity
In 1962, John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth in a spacecraft called Friendship 7. The mission was to complete 7 trips around the world but was cut short because of concerns over the heat shield that would prevent the capsule from exploding upon reentering the earth’s atmosphere. The drama of that first orbital flight was recounted in a movie a decade-age called Hidden Figures.
Sophisticated mathematical equations would eventually save the day and the life of John Glenn. The hero of the story is a Black woman named Katherine Johnson. In 1962, segregation was still the law of the land. Johnson and her equally bright co-workers Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson endured the discrimination that racism enables and rose above the Jim Crow atmosphere in which they lived. Long before the powerful computers of our day, these gifted Black women made an enormous contribution to the success of the Mercury Project that set the stage for future endeavors in outer space. After their retirements from NASA they were awarded Presidential Medals of Freedom because they were rose above the barriers of racism and sexism that continue down to our present day.
Johnson, Vaughan and Jackson were highly intelligent and gifted mathematicians. They were competent Black women who were an anomaly in a white man’s world. They are important people to remember today because February is Black History Month. With its roots in Negro History Week of the early 20th century, it has become an important part of American life as we strive to become a more inclusive and just society.
It is only because of Black History Month that many of us have heard about Black Wall Street. This was a thriving Black Community in Tulsa, Oklahoma of over 10,000 people. In its time, it was described as one of the most commercially successful and affluent majority African American communities in the United States. It boasted of lawyers, doctors, real estate agents, teachers and successful businessmen. It was burned to the ground in 1921 in a 2-day white supremacist massacre and remains one of the worst race riots in the history of the US. In the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s, the story of Black Wall Street and its demise never made it into grade school history books. Lincoln freed the slaves but that’s all that many people ever learned in Grammar School.
The exclusion of people from job promotions, educational opportunities, membership in gold clubs and anything else in society based upon the color of one’s skin, religion, national origin and sexual orientation is wrong and morally indefensible. This is what German Nationalism in 1934 began to practice in its antipathy toward Jews, Gays and disabled children. This should remind us that inclusion should always be the response not only of governments but of all citizens of goodwill, as well. Inclusion is about recognizing the human dignity of all people. It is about treating everyone justly. It is about understanding that some people are not more equal than others. Everyone deserves to be treated with honesty and equity.
DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion, has become an anti-woke mantra as if there is something terribly wrong with making sure that wrongful discrimination is not tolerated. Equity is what our Constitution already says that all people are created equal and need to be treated accordingly. Diversity is the simple recognition that if all Italian and Irish people are unemployed in the work force, there is something pernicious going on. It was not that long ago when helped wanted signs hung in windows with the added note that No Irish Need Apply.
The Hebrew and Christian Scriptures invite all people who believe in God or in a higher power that diversity, equity and inclusion are Biblical values. Think of Noah’s Arc and the inclusive ministry of Jesus who Christians believe came to bring a message of peace and unity to all people, everywhere and for all times.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion do not promote incompetent people beyond their abilities. These are Biblical values and Gospel values that make the world a better place for all. Critics of DEI are marching to a different drummer than people of faith, of whatever faith. The anti-DEI philosophy has roots in an influential German philosopher who rejected traditional morality and who famously said that woman was God’s second mistake. What needs to be rejected are all the people who think Nietzsche was right.
Msgr. Garrity is a Senior Priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and former pastor of St. Mary’s Parish and School in Lynn.
