My Little Book on Racism and Religion

By Dr. R.D. Carter Jr.

Since each of the Abrahamic religions is composed of human beings that are supposed to administer the Word of God to the people of God, conveyance of the Word is left up to the minister, rabbi, and imam's own biases and prejudices that they carry as human beings. This formation of thought by religion has justified slavery, racism, and Jim Crow i

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: Feb 28, 2023
• ISBN: 9798822900424

Dr. R.D. Carter Jr.

Dr. R.D. Carter, Jr. is the director of The Institute for Social Entrepreneurism, a 501(c)(3) corporation whose mission is to provide entrepreneurial services to underserved communities. He has a BA in community development and planning, an MA in counseling psychology, and an MBA/DBA. Dr. Carter has directed social service programs under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act program, whose focus was on employment and training for community residents in Washington, DC, and has worked as a consultant providing mental health services to various agencies. He and his wife, Juanita, currently reside in North Michigan Park, Washington, DC.

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Introduction

A

s a native Washingtonian, I have never understood how this city that I have lived in for most of my life can represent itself as the nation’s capital and promote, as America does, racism to people of color. A nation that is all together founded on egalitarian principles forgot about slavery and the millions of people it has oppressed since its beginning. The topic of race and racism has always fascinated me. Growing up in Washington, DC, during the 1940s was a challenge unto itself. Everything was segregated, even religion. Was God a White man? Did this mean that people of color, especially Black folk, were not worthy of being counted as children of God? The institutions’ economic and social policies surely reinforced this idea of inferiority. There were stores that you could not go into to make a purchase. There were parts of Washington, DC, that you could not go into after dark under fear of arrest. The images I saw on television showed Black people as buffoons and criminals, neither group having at least average intelligence. As to policing, yes, there were Black police officers. These officers could only arrest Black people; if they observed a crime being committed by a White person, they had to call a White officer to make the arrest.

Our public school system was no better. We got old textbooks and poor equipment for learning. The buildings were run down. What saved us was a dedicated and well-educated teaching staff. We were told over and over that we had to be better than the dominant population to succeed. The fact that housing was segregated meant that if you lived on a block within segregated DC, you might have a neighbor who was a teacher, doctor, lawyer, or some other professional, as they were restricted to move into other neighborhoods due to racism. You might also have skilled craftspeople who could do needed repairs to your home or apartment. If you called on dominant contractors, they might or might not show up, and the workmanship would be less than acceptable. If they showed up at all, you might incur higher fees and poor workmanship.

Given all this insanity, I would ask myself and friends, Are we not citizens of this country? Didn’t our parents and our parents’ parents fight in every war this country has engaged in? Have we not built this country up with our own blood and tears? I would believe at times that God turned his or her back on Black people. The church of my family was Shiloh Baptist, where my grandmother was a founding member. As a young person, I did not understand the cultural effect that is associated with the Black Church. It was and still is deeply rooted in African spirituality. The music was somewhat blaring at times, and as a young person, I was a bit intimidated. Since my feeling at that time was that God may not look like me, I opted to convert to Catholicism. My cousins were Catholic, and I always admired their worship services. I started catechism at the oldest Black Catholic church in Washington, DC, St. Augustine. St. Augustine was started by a group of Black Catholics before the Civil War (1858). The church was located in the basement building in the 1700 block of Fifteenth Street NW, Washington, DC. The Catholic Church began integration much before Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The current location of St. Augustine is at Fifteenth V Street NW. The original church was St. Paul, after which St. Augustine congregants were merged with St. Paul’s White parishioners. The name was changed to Sts. Paul and Augustine. That name did not last for long, as the Whites left the church to go to other parishes that were predominantly White.

Going to Mass as a young lad, I had the opportunity to hear priests talk about Jesus and the gospel, but also something I did not hear a lot of in the Black Church: social justice. One priest stands out: Father Gino Baroni. Father Baroni was from a small mining town in Pennsylvania. He spoke about poverty, poor medical care, worker exploitation by coal companies, and of course, racism. St. Augustine’s was and is a church that feeds the poor and negotiates rents with landlords; in