Black Liberation Theology And Black Catholics: A Critical Conversation

Theological Studies, Dec, 2000 by James H. Cone

No Black Catholic theologian should feel the need to reassure White Catholics that Blacks are not separatists. That shoe belongs on the other foot. Whites need to prove to Blacks that they are not separatists, especially regarding the sources and the content of their theology. They need to explain to African Americans why they ignore Black Catholic reflections in their theological discourse. They engage Feminist, Latin American, and other White reflections on God. Why are they silent on Black theological reflections? If one read only White Catholic theologians, one would hardly know that Blacks exist in America or had the capacity for thought about God. White theological reflections are limited to their own culture and history as if they are the only thinkers on the planet. This is clever, hidden separatism.

The Black separatism issue is a White problem, derived from White guilt about the long and violent history of White separatism in the Church and society. Black separatism is almost inconsequential when compared to deadly consequences of White racism. The great danger for Blacks is not their separation from Whites but rather their separation from themselves, their culture and history. We spend much of our lives getting away from each other because our survival and quality of life often depend upon making a successful integration into White controlled institutions and communities. To become successful theologians in the Church and the academy, Blacks must not isolate themselves from the people who wield the power to exclude them from meaningful work. For White theologians to become successful, they do not need Black approval. They do not even have to acknowledge Black people's presence. Whites can be blatant racists and still achieve a degree of success in their Church.

What Black Catholics cannot be--and White Catholics are likely to be--are committed separatists. Blacks know they need Whites but Whites do not think they need Blacks or anybody else but themselves. That is why they are usually the first to leave when too many Blacks move into their neighborhood or achieve too much power in a mainstream institution. I am often puzzled why supposedly clear thinking, liberal Whites ask Blacks about separatism when the evidence is so overwhelming that this danger lies with the dominant White community.

No people in America need to learn how to love themselves more than Blacks. The violence we commit against each other is a poignant expression of that fact. We do not kill Whites, except in rare cases and usually by mentally disoriented persons. Blacks kill each other daily at the slightest provocation because we have internalized the hate Whites have toward us. That was why Malcolm said, "the worse crime the White man has committed has been to teach us to hate ourselves." We must develop a theology that will speak to the problem of Black self-hate and thereby create a religious value system that encourages us to love blackness passionately and without compromise. If White theologians call that separatism, that is because they want to keep White supremacy in place.