Sebastian Gonzalez
Staff Writer
A talk on confronting racism with the Catholic faith was brought to the student body on Wednesday, Nov. 10, in the Gentile Gallery.
Catholic speaker Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, who holds a master’s degree in theology, talked about racism in the culture and how Catholics should confront it.
Burke-Sivers said the way to confront racism in our country is to focus on Jesus Christ and the Gospel. He quoted Galatians 3:28, which says there are no divisions in the body of Christ over race and gender, for they are all one.
Fighting racism, Burke-Sivers said, begins by facing our culture and its misconceptions about love.
“We have to put God back into our culture,” he said. “We are taking God out of our culture completely.”
Burke-Sivers said there is a difference between prejudice and racism. Prejudice is preconceived notions not based on factual info by forms of stereotyping, while racism is a form of belief that one’s race is superior to the others.
Burke-Sivers said there is a culture of Western civilization that cannot differentiate the idea that racism is born internally versus learned.
“No one’s born racist, that’s ridiculous,” he said.
Burke-Sivers said the culture is trying to stop essential conversations about these topics from taking place.
“We’re treating young adults like children!” he said.
Burke-Sivers said campuses across the country are limited in discussions on these topics that are not politically and emotionally charged.
Sophomore Hope Graham said, “I guess it was really refreshing because he was saying this is usually so tense or hateful. Refreshing to know that’s what the church is.”
Sophomore Christian Sponsel said, “I really liked that we have to put God back into the culture, the starting point with this talk. I haven’t heard it specifically talked about (with) race explicitly.”