The priest in charge received a call from a woman who told him when she took her first communion, she had looked up to the crucifix and the face of Jesus was white. The church is as divided by racism as every other religious community and every other segment of our culture. Efforts directed toward the eradication of racism have been by and large unsuccessful. Attempts to make change have been largely attempts to awaken the moral conscience of the nation. Laws guaranteeing justice for all have been passed and enforced but have failed to create a just society.
Racism continues to kill.
We think of the Klan and other white supremacy groups as marginalized and rather powerless extremists. They are, but their racism is not nearly as damaging as the systemic racism that pervades our society. We want to believe that racism ended with the Civil Rights movement because segregation ended. Racism's roots are long and deep. The history of colonization, the Civil War, Reconstruction, immigration and the ebb and flow of the economy all have a major racist theme.