Camosy: Many Catholics find themselves perplexed about how to respond to our current moment. Overwhelming majorities are horrified by the murder of George Floyd, want justice done in the legal cases against those who killed him, and want fundamental change when it comes to racist police officers and racist police departments. But many are at the same time deeply skeptical of movements to abolish the police and worry that issues that go well beyond racial justice that also seem to be part of the conversation. Can you help them make sense of all of this?
There is a saying that extreme situations call for extreme measures. The extreme situation here is that the plight of blacks and other racial minorities in this country has become so bad that it has become almost unbearable. George Floyd is only one of the more recent episodes of this extreme situation. The average black person in this country, no matter how highly placed, has many stories to tell of institutionalized and individual racism which is overtly or implicitly directed at him or her. The George Floyd case has become a tipping point. People are therefore saying they have had enough. Read more.