64 actas del ix congreso católicos y vida pública President Clinton came along and cut funding for public housing by $17 billion while increasing funding for prisons by $19 billion. In 1980, there were 41,000 Americans imprisoned for drug crimes. Today, there are more than 500,000. Most arrests during the peak years were for possession of marijuana. In my own city of Minneapolis, “no knock” entries —where the police burst in through the door without warning— increased from 35 times in 1986 to 700 times in 1996. In 25 years, the U.S. prison population went from 250,000 to 2.3 million. The U.S. now imprisons a higher percentage of its black population than South Africa ever did during Apartheid. Two-thirds of prisoners had incomes below $12,000 a year prior to their arrest and 68% of released prisoners are rearrested within 3 years, the overwhelming majority for nonviolent crimes. There are lots of studies about how racial bias affects the criminal justice system. I’ll mention one. Black drivers on the New Jersey Turnpike —a liberal, northern state— constituted 15% of all drivers, 42% of all stops by police, and 73% of all arrests. However, among those stopped, white drivers were two times more likely than black drivers to be carrying drugs. Philando Castile, a black driver who was killed by police during a traffic stop in my city a couple of years ago, had been pulled over by police 49 times in 13 years, many times for minor infractions, such as failing to signal before turning into a parking lot, or failure to repair a seat belt. Christian realism means that I can’t ignore facts, that I can’t ignore history. It also means I can’t be naïve and conclude that racism will gradually disappear on its own. When Dr. King began his ministry, many white liberals believed that racism would go away naturally as Americans became more educated. King rejected this, knowing that racist structures would not disappear without a struggle. Sin permeates our world, our brokenness means it will not heal on its own. We must fight for progress. So as Christians, what our realism requires is an understanding that systems can be unjust, not just individual acts. That the past can shape the present. And that justice requires more than ensuring that I have the right attitude; I may have to work to improve the system. That’s showing responsibility for life as it is. So that’s the first theme that Pope Francis and Dr. King urge us to embrace: taking responsibility for the world as it is, not as we wish it was.
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