Episode Details

Since the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police in Minneapolis nearly two weeks ago, American cities have seen protests over racism and police brutality on an unprecedented scale.

On this episode we speak with Fr. Bryan Massingale, author of Racial Justice and the Catholic Church and professor of theology at Fordham University in New York. Racism persists in America and the church, Massingale contends, because racist policies and structures benefit white people—and white people assent to it through a kind of perverse “liturgy.”

Massingale also tells us what Americans shocked at Floyd’s death, particularly white bystanders, need now: the virtue of courage, motivated by righteous anger. We must move beyond the mere conviction that racism is wrong, and actually begin dismantling it.

For further reading:

• Police Brutality & Protest, The Editors
• A Sign of Contradiction, Gregory K. Hillis
• King & His Mentors, Gary Dorrien