We interrupt our normal schedule to bring you this special commentary from Tom McMahon written in the wake of rioting that broke out in Oakland, California, following the trial of a white policeman who shot dead a colored man, Oscar Grant, on a train in January 2009. Tom's essay takes a deeper look at the racial tensions that continue to lurk just below the surface in American life.

Disturbing events in Oakland, California in recent days…

Thursday, July 9, 2010 Downtown Oakland looked like a mini war zone the evening after a verdict of involuntary manslaughter was announced at the Los Angeles trial of former Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) policeman Johannes Mehserle. After my questioning e-mail to Australia, Editor Brian responded that Catholica would be interested in this American's view point. I had mentioned to Brian that I sensed Race was on trial in the United States — unfinished business since the days before and during our Civil War in the 1860's. This is the approach avenue upon which I will venture in this commentary.

QUICK BACKGROUND TO THE SITUATION BEHIND THIS COMMENTARY For a quick overview of the riots in Oakland following the verdict against policeman Johannes Mehserle click the images below to reports in the San Francisco Chronicle.

For a quick overview of the trial, verdict, and the subsequent violent reaction in Oakland, California click on the images in the side box to this commentary to see the stories from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Oakland is 50 miles distant from Tom's home in San Jose and ten million light years removed from the Silicon Valley which local police refer to as "the Golden Ghetto". As I watched the violence last night on TV I reflected on the underlying causes that surround the whole Mehserle experience, namely poverty, joblessness, and racial segregation. I am white, anglo-saxon with a long standing tradition of European immigrants, way back to the 1800's and I can easily immune myself to the social inequality in America. I'm a first class American, top drawer, and I own my own home, and can pay my bills. I can merely turn off my TV and the whole tragedy goes away ... so this dreamer pretends ... and I can block the whole from my religious life. I can also justify a mean spirit to those whom I see as different. I've got mine and they better pull up the boot straps!

The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor pleads to give her "your poor and destitute". A study of immigration from Europe to America tells us a woeful story of taking advantage of those who had little formal education and were illiterate. Chains, and a broken shackle, are at the Statue's feet and cannot be seen from below. This symbolizes the Statue as a goddess free from oppression and servitude. It took the pennies of American children to enshrine the Statue, the business world having little interest in the French gift and its message. The American Revolution was based in the financial gain of the well to do.

The aftermath of the American Civil War with its Ku Klux Klan and lynching of the now freed Negro race is part of an ongoing refusal to accept those of different ethnic origins and facial color. There is a heavy financial component. Foreigners could come here to work but we must see to it that they never attain first class status. Only after WW2 would the issue of race be seriously considered nationally, President Harry Truman integrating the military services and President Lyndon B. Johnson getting Congress to pass civil rights legislation. We have a national holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, one that is ignored in some States. Racial injustice has not gone away in America, yet it is now in the open battlefield of social justice. Will Catholics become interested? Who will teach them the mind of John the 23rd as expressed in Pacem in Terris? Can the Roman Church stand back and plead it does not know what is going on? The Roman Church in America holds deeds to much property and its bread and butter comes from wealthy suburbs.

My take on the killing of Oscar Grant by Johannes Mehserle begins with a secret thought: Is Johannes Jewish and German? My Irish parental generation, now virtually dead, held its secret prejudices against Germans, memories of WW1 and 2. They did not understand the Holocaust and my mother's hero FDR was anti-Semitic. Pearl Harbor clarified the American distrust for the Japanese while Asians in general would be looked upon with prejudicial suspicion from as far back as the Gold Rush days. I am well aware of 1920's prohibitive California ethnic laws and I have a picture of armed civilians stopping refugees from Okalahoma from entering California — they now the very rich who fight off Mexican immigration. In my middle age years the flood gates of Asian immigration poured into our university systems, my own son experiencing a multi-ethnic milieu at the University of California Berkeley campus. We have become a global village yet bigotry and prejudice still abound. The genes that have piled up in our European based immigrant families have mixed globally with the East. Our genetics system is loaded with genomes dating back to the Crusades and the struggles between the Levant (the land of the rising sun) and the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne. We humans are extraordinarily complex and we are most of the time unaware of this powerful complexity. Few assess the individual's genetic historical profile. I sense that an emotional approach to race was a core issue in last nights rioting.

The shooting of Oscar Grant by a white policeman is a blip on the screen of life; yes, such a death would have made newspaper headlines even if it were two white contesters but its memory would soon fade as reasons would be brought forth of law and order and the need for police involvement for public safety and justice. From Frontier days the gun and violence brought unjust peace to a growing West in America. Both Oscar and Johannes are victims of a brutality sanctioned by the people, a way of control of the people usually for and by the powerful. A Black Oakland or Richmond kid may well have often used the term "disced", which usually means disrespected or more politically disenfranchised. The young who showed up last night after dark, masked and armed, deeply feel they will not be listened to and they are willing to pay with their freedom to force the message home. The black population of Oakland needs jobs and education; they have no need for a glass multi-million dollar Roman Catholic cathedral. Father John Maxwell, the last champion of African American rights in the diocese of Oakland, was buried two weeks ago.

Unfortunately after 911 America quietly ripened to the fullness of a neophyte police state. America is a young country and we are devoid of a peaceful history. The call to arms and the Boston Tea party remind us that freedom is gained by violence. On 911 America was attacked and a blindness came over many who fought back, allowing a confusion to enter the human psyche that "foreigners" were responsible. The catch all now excludes the white man. People who eat hot dogs and stand quietly at baseball games while the national anthem is sung are considered safe but be alert to that Sheik who wears a beard and turban, especially if he does not have an American flag on his suit lapel. Although the African American has been in the United States longer than most ethnic groups, brought here in chains and against his will, the mark of Cain still abides with him and her and their children.

The Black race has a high rate of joblessness. In Richmond and Oakland school drop outs are high, and Cal Berkeley's campus does not teem with African American students. Two years previous five Oakland policemen were killed by a black gunman. They say Oscar Grant had been in a fight on the Bart system. Emotions ran high in an already separated and prejudiced environment. Race was a dominant feature of the tragic involvement. We Americans are poorly trained in the use of our emotions. A jury with no Blacks had the awesome task of convicting a white policeman of a heinous crime. Oscar's mother repeated over and over after the trail that her son was murdered and there was no justice.

God did not escape the picture. Some African-American preachers called for justice, literally an eye for an eye theology and, after dark, and in what looked like a peaceful demonstration against the verdict minority youth took it upon themselves to bring about lynch mob justice by breaking into shops and breaking glass windows, punishing their own in the pursuit of the American way of vengeance. Vengeance is mine says the Lord, but when God did not produce the people take over with mayhem. We need serious education in the history of mankind's concept of gods and goddesses.

There is solution and I recommend a preaching of the Beatitudes. The poor need jobs, the right to own property, and have a good education. They need to become equal to my standard of living. I am part of a wealthy white population that holds the keys to peaceful negotiation. I know that I must surrender some of my goods, money and power, and be taxed nationally so as to achieve equality. When the Watt's riots of 1967 burned the African-American housing a far sighted participant said "next time we burn down Hollywood". Justice may come and hopefully some signs of peaceful settlements were seen in the aftermath of the Mehserle verdict. I recommend to my fellow Americans meetings of education and discussion, mutually respecting one another and hashing out solutions to poverty and injustice. Would that the church of my youth could play a vital role. Years ago and shortly after WW2 Fr. Bernard Haring suggested that we put aside eating the Eucharist in our private Mass banquets and go out into the world and settle some problems. Every human being is God's chosen child. We all need to talk.

PEACE … PEACE … PEACE… I can hear the message of Jesus from the hill of Calvary.

PS Australia: are you ready for something like this? Or should I mind my own business? Maybe the whole mess applies to the global village.

Tom McMahon from the 'Golden Ghetto' and willing to pay more taxes. 09/07/2010

IMAGE CREDIT:
The images used for this article have been sourced from the San Francisco Chronicle: www.sfgate.com

[Index of Commentaries by Tom McMahon]