Racism and a Privileged White Kid from Braintree

September 21, 2021

The year was 1966, my fourth year of studies in a Catholic seminary. My classmates and I attended classes at St. Louis University and lived in a multi-decker in a predominantly black section of St. Louis. It was here that this white kid from Braintree would first observe the antagonistic and malicious manifestations of racism against black teens and young adults living next door to us and throughout that section of the city.

I was amazed at the restraint demonstrated by these young people, and began to recognize that if it had been directed at me, I would probably have done something that resulted in an extended term of incarceration. Only then did I begin to understand what white privilege was all about, although I didn't hear that term used until many years later. It was not long thereafter that I left the seminary, wondering how someone like me studying for the priesthood and guaranteed living accommodations and three squares a day could consider a life of preaching to others about trusting in God.

Shame on me for those times since then when I have failed to speak out about white privilege and the toxic blight of racism.