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Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church
Birth of a Movement presents a radical call to dignity and equality for all people. It examines the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, the church’s involvement with slavery, including the decision by Georgetown University to make amends for its past actions, and the Catholic Church’s response to the recent deaths of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor.
In relating the story of the Black Lives Matter movement through a Christian lens, readers—Catholic and others—will gain insights and a deeper understanding of the movement and why it can help the church, and the country, move closer to racial equality.
In relating the story of the Black Lives Matter movement through a Christian lens, readers—Catholic and others—will gain insights and a deeper understanding of the movement and why it can help the church, and the country, move closer to racial equality.
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March 26, 2021
“Birth of a Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church," by Olga M. Segura was, perhaps, the best-written book of its genre that I have ever read. Olga has a beautiful gift of telling stories in a very compelling way, and she is an artist with words. Well done!!!
Aside from that technical aspect of her book, Olga's attempt to co-opt the Catholic Church into the Communist Black Lives Matter movement is underwhelming. The underlying weakness of this book is that it is arguing for humanism; that human agency and efforts are greater than the agency of the Cross. Olga believes that if the "White male" Bishops just take their orders from the founders of Black Lives Matter; that, somehow, the Church will atone for the evil deed of those who identified as Catholics in the past and become a bridge to the future. Such a belief completely misses the point of Catholic soteriology and the theology of the liturgy, which intends not to orient our efforts to human vainglory, but to the glory of Christ. I hope she does more study into the Catholic idea of solidarity, which the only way to resolve the sin of racism.
Olga also wants White people to feel bad about being White and to take responsibility for the agency of bad White people in the past. She directly attributes systematic racism and "chattel" slavery to racial injustice and police violence today, without acknowledging that prior to integration and the expansion of the welfare state that Blacks were better off in every statistical category.
If you are a person who appreciated "Democracy Now" by Amy Goodman, then you will love this book by Olga, which would fit nicely as Chapter 11 in Amy's work, but be under no impression whatsoever that Olga is presenting anything close to Catholic orthodoxy. There is no room for BLM Communism in the Catholic Church, being that Catholics are forbidden from being Communist or promoting Communism under the pain of excommunication.
Aside from that technical aspect of her book, Olga's attempt to co-opt the Catholic Church into the Communist Black Lives Matter movement is underwhelming. The underlying weakness of this book is that it is arguing for humanism; that human agency and efforts are greater than the agency of the Cross. Olga believes that if the "White male" Bishops just take their orders from the founders of Black Lives Matter; that, somehow, the Church will atone for the evil deed of those who identified as Catholics in the past and become a bridge to the future. Such a belief completely misses the point of Catholic soteriology and the theology of the liturgy, which intends not to orient our efforts to human vainglory, but to the glory of Christ. I hope she does more study into the Catholic idea of solidarity, which the only way to resolve the sin of racism.
Olga also wants White people to feel bad about being White and to take responsibility for the agency of bad White people in the past. She directly attributes systematic racism and "chattel" slavery to racial injustice and police violence today, without acknowledging that prior to integration and the expansion of the welfare state that Blacks were better off in every statistical category.
If you are a person who appreciated "Democracy Now" by Amy Goodman, then you will love this book by Olga, which would fit nicely as Chapter 11 in Amy's work, but be under no impression whatsoever that Olga is presenting anything close to Catholic orthodoxy. There is no room for BLM Communism in the Catholic Church, being that Catholics are forbidden from being Communist or promoting Communism under the pain of excommunication.
March 7, 2021
As a Catholic who has been a strong supporter of BLM for years, I wanted to love this book. I have been looking for a resource to share with fellow Catholics who are unsure about allying with BLM due to methodology or other points of focus. Unfortunately, this book will not do BLM any favors with faithful Catholics.
The author consistently speaks of herself as a member of the Catholic Church, but this seems to be based entirely on her parochial education. She has received none of the sacraments and does not attend Mass. She disagrees with many of the teachings of the Church and often presents them poorly.
While she provides ample resources and notations for most of her sources, statements like, “As the Vatican proclaims that people who reject their natural birth are merely swinging between sexes to antagonize tradition, women of color face particular risks of violence in their everyday lives, from higher risks of domestic violence to higher maternal mortality rates,” have no supporting evidence or understandable train of thought. What do maternal mortality rates have to do with the (uncited) supposed Vatican proclamation about transgender motivations? Why is the plight of all black people being tied so inextricably to that of all transgendered people?
I walk away from this book no clearer on what alternative to our current police and justice system is being proposed. Abolishment is a heading, not an answer. When someone has committed a crime, who is the authority who will enforce the laws?
Overall, this book has moments of clarity and inspiration that are lost in a sea of poor editing and unfinished thoughts. There are very few actionable suggestions, and far too many tangents that detract from the necessary discussion at hand.
The author consistently speaks of herself as a member of the Catholic Church, but this seems to be based entirely on her parochial education. She has received none of the sacraments and does not attend Mass. She disagrees with many of the teachings of the Church and often presents them poorly.
While she provides ample resources and notations for most of her sources, statements like, “As the Vatican proclaims that people who reject their natural birth are merely swinging between sexes to antagonize tradition, women of color face particular risks of violence in their everyday lives, from higher risks of domestic violence to higher maternal mortality rates,” have no supporting evidence or understandable train of thought. What do maternal mortality rates have to do with the (uncited) supposed Vatican proclamation about transgender motivations? Why is the plight of all black people being tied so inextricably to that of all transgendered people?
I walk away from this book no clearer on what alternative to our current police and justice system is being proposed. Abolishment is a heading, not an answer. When someone has committed a crime, who is the authority who will enforce the laws?
Overall, this book has moments of clarity and inspiration that are lost in a sea of poor editing and unfinished thoughts. There are very few actionable suggestions, and far too many tangents that detract from the necessary discussion at hand.
May 26, 2024
A CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVE THAT INCLUDES WOMEN AND TRANSGENDER PEOPLE
Olga M. Segura a Black immigrant from the Dominican Republic, who is a freelance writer and opinion editor at the National Catholic Reporter. She wrote in the Introduction to this 2021 book, “When signing the contract for this book in 2019… my intention was to provide Catholics with a history of the Black Lives Matter movement, including both its successes and its criticisms… I envisioned a book that would … gently challenge our white bishops to grapple with the movement’s mission. I wanted the body of all male, almost all white, bishops to internalize the movement’s beliefs and imagined white Christians reading this book and feeling inspired to dismantle the white supremacy within our church… but then 2020 happened. For the first time since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the city that raised me… shut down [due to COVID]…
“As the global pandemic ravaged Black and Latino communities, police officers across the country were harassing and killing Americans. In New York, the police used the enforcement of social distancing to justify their disproportionate harassment of Black and Brown citizens… In June, I attended a protest---my first in years. The message from the marchers, a majority of whom carried Puerto Rican and Dominican flags, was clear: there would be no equality in a world with policing. A liberated world meant abolishing law enforcement and the prison industrial complex that belonged to it…
The antiracism rebellion and the COVID-19 global pandemic politicized me, and countless others, unexpectedly. This book, in turn, was reimagined as a call to white Catholics, both lay and clergy, to work actively and consistently to abolish every system that oppresses, rapes, and murders Black women, men, and children. [This book] is structured to include histories of the Black Lives Matter movement and the church’s history with white supremacy. We discuss the Catholic perspective, the birth of modern American policing, abolition, racial capitalism, reparations, and church leadership. This book is also… my love letter to the women---both within and outside of the church---who have shaped my politics and Catholici identity…. The goal is to help Catholics, and all Christians, work toward a Christ-centered, Black liberation.”
She recounts, “after killing Trayvon [Martin], [George] Zimmerman… was acquitted of all charges. Following the acquittal, the activist and writer Alicia Garza… wrote what she described to me … as a love letter to Black people on Facebook… She described her Facebook message as a call to fight for a world that genuinely valued Black women, men, and children… a world where racist men such as Zimmerman were no longer allowed to view Black children as unworthy of human life and dignity. Her message was re-shared by Patrisse Cullors, a fellow … activist, with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Garza, Cullors, and Arizona-born organizer Opal Tometi … created the Black Lives Matter movement on social media. The movement was originally conceived as a campaign to inspire a new generation of organizers. The founders used Twitter and Facebook to get people thinking and talking about the ways that Black life is devalued in America… The women wanted to inspire Americans, especially young people, to get involved in the struggle to eradicate anti-Black racism…” (Pg. 3-4)
She explains, “Black Lives Matters also promotes a culture of discernment, or introspection. The founders encourage organizers who adopt the movement’s mission to unlearn any internal biases and privileges one might carry as well… Garza, Tometi, and Cullors taught me that in order to treat writing as a vocation, especially as a Catholic, I must begin to understand and reject racial capitalism… and work to reject the white supremacist indoctrination I have undergone since arriving in the United States… if our church leaders were not ready to dismantle our institution’s white supremacy, then young Catholics, like me, must use the intersectional, anticapitalist, and Catholic framework of Black Lives Matter to demand a better church.” (Pg. 12-13)
Later, she adds, “The movement’s religious undertones have a lot to do with the respective religious upbringings of Tometi and Cullors, who both grew up in religious homes. While Cullors has moved away from her faith and identifies as spiritually always seeking, Tometi currently identifies as Christian. Her faith and work are influenced by liberation theology…” (Pg. 16) She suggests, “Black Lives Matter is not a movement pushing an extremist agenda that contradicts our faith; it is the secular version of our Catholic social teaching.” (Pg. 19) She notes, “[Tometi’s] family is Christian, and her parents started a church to help African immigrants new to the United States.” (Pg. 30)
She states, “Garza, Tometi, and Cullors have created a decentralized community of activists who stand in solidarity with the rallying cry, ‘Black Lives Matter’ and center the lived experiences of society’s most vulnerable, Black transgender and queer women and men.” (Pg. 11) She adds, “Garza, Cullors, and Tometi … promote a movement that centers the lived experiences of those our church would rather ignore. This focus on the lived experiences of those in the LGBTQIA community owing to the queer and transgender people who risked their lives to protest in Ferguson in 2014…. [Cullors] writes, “the organization makes sure to always introduce, whenever talking about BLM, the organizing efforts of transgender and queer activists, and work with organizations that amplify Black transwomen.” (Pg. 15)
She says, “Cullors writes that queer and transgender people were some of the most visible faces on the ground during the Ferguson uprising that summer. Despite this, she notes, coverage of the movement focused almost exclusively on cisgender Black women and men. In recent years, over a hundred transgender women and men have been killed in the United States… In spite of the violence trans women and men face daily, many traveled through unsafe cities on their way to Ferguson. The Black Lives Matter movement founders used this critique as a learning experience, and after Ferguson, the founders acknowledged their mistake and committed to uplifting those in the queer and transgender community. The Black Lives Matter movement, they declared, would always affirm and support trans women, men, and children and center their lived experience.” (Pg. 33-34)
She points out, “BLM’s focus on the experiences of Black women is significant because if taught a generation of young organizers how to create inclusive language in affirming spaces and policies focused on reparation for the years of oppression Black women and men have faced. BLM founders and organizers drafted policy, making concrete efforts to be more inclusive and affirming, and helped to launch a movement focused on demanding justice for the female victims of police brutality.” (Pg. 34-35)
She argues, “How can the bishops claim to understand that Black Americans have suffered for generations from various institutions born out of slavery but not courageous enough to reject one of the most oppressive and violent institutions in the United States? Our church fathers must apologize for harming Black Americans, from the church’s participation in slavery to its current alliance with police enforcement to its continued refusal to acknowledge the work of Garza, Tometi, and Cullors. If we are to be a universal church, then our church leaders must commit to a process of true and transformative accountability.” (Pg. 49)
She proposes, “What would a Catholic transformative justice approach be in the fight for Black liberation? First, our church fathers must address, through a formal pastoral letter, the harm that has been done to Black Americans by the Church and apologize for how the Church has been and continues to be complicit in white supremacy… Second, the church must acknowledge the ways in which our church leaders, as a body of mostly white, male leaders, have benefited from privileges and resources not given to U.S. Black, Brown, and indigenous communities. Third, our white bishops must … publicly answer the following: Why does my white skin allow me to move through the world without a fear of authority? Why does my white skin allow me to cling to fables of officers fighting for justice and morality while being blinded to the brutality Black communities have faced for years?... Finally, tell us how, by centering the experiences of the most marginalized members in our church, you are going to build a church where white Catholics and church leaders denounce anything that belittles and dehumanized Black people, who deserve to live safely; a space where bishops condemn violent attacks by police against Black bodies because Black Lives Matter.” (Pg. 51)
She asserts, “Since the creation of the first jails and prisons, the prison-industrial complex---America’s strongest economic industry since chattel slavery---has always been protected and served by U.S. law enforcement… Policing enables the exploitation, torture, and slave labor of the prison system by violently harassing and targeting already marginalized communities, particularly Black women and men.” (Pg. 116-117)
She proposes, “Abolition [of police] is the key to a world free of violence and oppression; and in order to achieve it, we need to shift society from one that relies on the prison-industrial complex to one that is committed to using radical approaches to eradicate social ills the cause incarceration, including addiction, homelessness, mental health problems, and housing. To work toward such liberation, toward resurrection, our church must be committee to an abolitionist-centered transformative justice.” (Pg. 122) She continues, “Transformative justice is the process toward a society free of policing as a way to respond to violence and other harms. This is a radical approach that demands that we collectively reexamine the ways that we talk about crime, mental health, violence, and gender… If we care about creating a world in which ALL… are to thrive, we need to create a world that is free of policing. Transformative justice provides the rhetoric and tools to work toward abolition.” (Pg. 125)
She concludes, “A world without these ills is a world without prisons, without police, without the very systems responsible for violence and inequity. The Catholic Church has a crucial role to play in the struggle for liberation… the United States bishops must appoint a Black liberation consultant who can liaise between the church and various organizers involved in the right for Black liberation… bishops must give women like Garza, Cullors, and Tometi the same space they have given people like Brian Stephenson and Abby Johnson… I want my church and leaders to be committed to saving and uplifting Black lives. Black women have given us the blueprint for freedom. Let’s become a truly liberated and resurrected church.” (Pg. 130)
This will be of most interest to progressive Catholics, as well as progressives of other types.
Olga M. Segura a Black immigrant from the Dominican Republic, who is a freelance writer and opinion editor at the National Catholic Reporter. She wrote in the Introduction to this 2021 book, “When signing the contract for this book in 2019… my intention was to provide Catholics with a history of the Black Lives Matter movement, including both its successes and its criticisms… I envisioned a book that would … gently challenge our white bishops to grapple with the movement’s mission. I wanted the body of all male, almost all white, bishops to internalize the movement’s beliefs and imagined white Christians reading this book and feeling inspired to dismantle the white supremacy within our church… but then 2020 happened. For the first time since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the city that raised me… shut down [due to COVID]…
“As the global pandemic ravaged Black and Latino communities, police officers across the country were harassing and killing Americans. In New York, the police used the enforcement of social distancing to justify their disproportionate harassment of Black and Brown citizens… In June, I attended a protest---my first in years. The message from the marchers, a majority of whom carried Puerto Rican and Dominican flags, was clear: there would be no equality in a world with policing. A liberated world meant abolishing law enforcement and the prison industrial complex that belonged to it…
The antiracism rebellion and the COVID-19 global pandemic politicized me, and countless others, unexpectedly. This book, in turn, was reimagined as a call to white Catholics, both lay and clergy, to work actively and consistently to abolish every system that oppresses, rapes, and murders Black women, men, and children. [This book] is structured to include histories of the Black Lives Matter movement and the church’s history with white supremacy. We discuss the Catholic perspective, the birth of modern American policing, abolition, racial capitalism, reparations, and church leadership. This book is also… my love letter to the women---both within and outside of the church---who have shaped my politics and Catholici identity…. The goal is to help Catholics, and all Christians, work toward a Christ-centered, Black liberation.”
She recounts, “after killing Trayvon [Martin], [George] Zimmerman… was acquitted of all charges. Following the acquittal, the activist and writer Alicia Garza… wrote what she described to me … as a love letter to Black people on Facebook… She described her Facebook message as a call to fight for a world that genuinely valued Black women, men, and children… a world where racist men such as Zimmerman were no longer allowed to view Black children as unworthy of human life and dignity. Her message was re-shared by Patrisse Cullors, a fellow … activist, with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Garza, Cullors, and Arizona-born organizer Opal Tometi … created the Black Lives Matter movement on social media. The movement was originally conceived as a campaign to inspire a new generation of organizers. The founders used Twitter and Facebook to get people thinking and talking about the ways that Black life is devalued in America… The women wanted to inspire Americans, especially young people, to get involved in the struggle to eradicate anti-Black racism…” (Pg. 3-4)
She explains, “Black Lives Matters also promotes a culture of discernment, or introspection. The founders encourage organizers who adopt the movement’s mission to unlearn any internal biases and privileges one might carry as well… Garza, Tometi, and Cullors taught me that in order to treat writing as a vocation, especially as a Catholic, I must begin to understand and reject racial capitalism… and work to reject the white supremacist indoctrination I have undergone since arriving in the United States… if our church leaders were not ready to dismantle our institution’s white supremacy, then young Catholics, like me, must use the intersectional, anticapitalist, and Catholic framework of Black Lives Matter to demand a better church.” (Pg. 12-13)
Later, she adds, “The movement’s religious undertones have a lot to do with the respective religious upbringings of Tometi and Cullors, who both grew up in religious homes. While Cullors has moved away from her faith and identifies as spiritually always seeking, Tometi currently identifies as Christian. Her faith and work are influenced by liberation theology…” (Pg. 16) She suggests, “Black Lives Matter is not a movement pushing an extremist agenda that contradicts our faith; it is the secular version of our Catholic social teaching.” (Pg. 19) She notes, “[Tometi’s] family is Christian, and her parents started a church to help African immigrants new to the United States.” (Pg. 30)
She states, “Garza, Tometi, and Cullors have created a decentralized community of activists who stand in solidarity with the rallying cry, ‘Black Lives Matter’ and center the lived experiences of society’s most vulnerable, Black transgender and queer women and men.” (Pg. 11) She adds, “Garza, Cullors, and Tometi … promote a movement that centers the lived experiences of those our church would rather ignore. This focus on the lived experiences of those in the LGBTQIA community owing to the queer and transgender people who risked their lives to protest in Ferguson in 2014…. [Cullors] writes, “the organization makes sure to always introduce, whenever talking about BLM, the organizing efforts of transgender and queer activists, and work with organizations that amplify Black transwomen.” (Pg. 15)
She says, “Cullors writes that queer and transgender people were some of the most visible faces on the ground during the Ferguson uprising that summer. Despite this, she notes, coverage of the movement focused almost exclusively on cisgender Black women and men. In recent years, over a hundred transgender women and men have been killed in the United States… In spite of the violence trans women and men face daily, many traveled through unsafe cities on their way to Ferguson. The Black Lives Matter movement founders used this critique as a learning experience, and after Ferguson, the founders acknowledged their mistake and committed to uplifting those in the queer and transgender community. The Black Lives Matter movement, they declared, would always affirm and support trans women, men, and children and center their lived experience.” (Pg. 33-34)
She points out, “BLM’s focus on the experiences of Black women is significant because if taught a generation of young organizers how to create inclusive language in affirming spaces and policies focused on reparation for the years of oppression Black women and men have faced. BLM founders and organizers drafted policy, making concrete efforts to be more inclusive and affirming, and helped to launch a movement focused on demanding justice for the female victims of police brutality.” (Pg. 34-35)
She argues, “How can the bishops claim to understand that Black Americans have suffered for generations from various institutions born out of slavery but not courageous enough to reject one of the most oppressive and violent institutions in the United States? Our church fathers must apologize for harming Black Americans, from the church’s participation in slavery to its current alliance with police enforcement to its continued refusal to acknowledge the work of Garza, Tometi, and Cullors. If we are to be a universal church, then our church leaders must commit to a process of true and transformative accountability.” (Pg. 49)
She proposes, “What would a Catholic transformative justice approach be in the fight for Black liberation? First, our church fathers must address, through a formal pastoral letter, the harm that has been done to Black Americans by the Church and apologize for how the Church has been and continues to be complicit in white supremacy… Second, the church must acknowledge the ways in which our church leaders, as a body of mostly white, male leaders, have benefited from privileges and resources not given to U.S. Black, Brown, and indigenous communities. Third, our white bishops must … publicly answer the following: Why does my white skin allow me to move through the world without a fear of authority? Why does my white skin allow me to cling to fables of officers fighting for justice and morality while being blinded to the brutality Black communities have faced for years?... Finally, tell us how, by centering the experiences of the most marginalized members in our church, you are going to build a church where white Catholics and church leaders denounce anything that belittles and dehumanized Black people, who deserve to live safely; a space where bishops condemn violent attacks by police against Black bodies because Black Lives Matter.” (Pg. 51)
She asserts, “Since the creation of the first jails and prisons, the prison-industrial complex---America’s strongest economic industry since chattel slavery---has always been protected and served by U.S. law enforcement… Policing enables the exploitation, torture, and slave labor of the prison system by violently harassing and targeting already marginalized communities, particularly Black women and men.” (Pg. 116-117)
She proposes, “Abolition [of police] is the key to a world free of violence and oppression; and in order to achieve it, we need to shift society from one that relies on the prison-industrial complex to one that is committed to using radical approaches to eradicate social ills the cause incarceration, including addiction, homelessness, mental health problems, and housing. To work toward such liberation, toward resurrection, our church must be committee to an abolitionist-centered transformative justice.” (Pg. 122) She continues, “Transformative justice is the process toward a society free of policing as a way to respond to violence and other harms. This is a radical approach that demands that we collectively reexamine the ways that we talk about crime, mental health, violence, and gender… If we care about creating a world in which ALL… are to thrive, we need to create a world that is free of policing. Transformative justice provides the rhetoric and tools to work toward abolition.” (Pg. 125)
She concludes, “A world without these ills is a world without prisons, without police, without the very systems responsible for violence and inequity. The Catholic Church has a crucial role to play in the struggle for liberation… the United States bishops must appoint a Black liberation consultant who can liaise between the church and various organizers involved in the right for Black liberation… bishops must give women like Garza, Cullors, and Tometi the same space they have given people like Brian Stephenson and Abby Johnson… I want my church and leaders to be committed to saving and uplifting Black lives. Black women have given us the blueprint for freedom. Let’s become a truly liberated and resurrected church.” (Pg. 130)
This will be of most interest to progressive Catholics, as well as progressives of other types.
March 29, 2021
I want to acknowledge the author's thorough research, interviews, and emotional labor in creating this book. Her call to actions are (mostly) clear and consistent, and the substance of what she is asking for is certainly something I agree with.
That said, she is very much writing for an audience that already agrees with her. She makes statements like "the church participates in racial capitalism" but doesn't really dig into that. Some Catholics aren't going to know what she means and others are going to vehemently disagree. That chapter had better explain things thoroughly and anticipate counterarguments rather than being mostly about her family's experience in 9/11 (often her anecdotes weren't clearly connected to the arguments). I personally wouldn't send this to any Catholic I was trying to sway to the author's causes, I would only share with people who get it already.
As I say to my bar exam students, you have to show your work. Anticipate counterarguments. use transitional statements and connect the dots clearly. The author needs a strong editor and to expand this volume much more to create a solid source of support for reforms in the church.
That said, she is very much writing for an audience that already agrees with her. She makes statements like "the church participates in racial capitalism" but doesn't really dig into that. Some Catholics aren't going to know what she means and others are going to vehemently disagree. That chapter had better explain things thoroughly and anticipate counterarguments rather than being mostly about her family's experience in 9/11 (often her anecdotes weren't clearly connected to the arguments). I personally wouldn't send this to any Catholic I was trying to sway to the author's causes, I would only share with people who get it already.
As I say to my bar exam students, you have to show your work. Anticipate counterarguments. use transitional statements and connect the dots clearly. The author needs a strong editor and to expand this volume much more to create a solid source of support for reforms in the church.
March 8, 2021
I write this directly after finishing this work of art and… wow. to be clear, I am talking about Olga M. Segura’s Birth of a Movement. I may be biased, as I have been following Ms. Segura’s career for years, but I continue to be amazed by her brilliance. her ability to interweave her personal story with reporting and analysis while combining theology, religion (specifically Catholicism), history, sociology and politics is unmatched.
this book makes liberation frameworks accessible for the those familiar with the gospel and it makes the gospel accessible for those familiar with liberation frameworks. it breaks down complexities of the USA’s past, details the present, and provides a road map for the future of the Catholic Church. this is all done while repeatedly centering the work, scholarship and achievements of Black women. by doing this, she effectively creates a blueprint for the calls to action she provides for the US bishops and for a fully liberated Church.
overall, Birth of a Movement is an absolutely inspiring and worthwhile read. I look forward to what the future holds for Ms. Segura.
this book makes liberation frameworks accessible for the those familiar with the gospel and it makes the gospel accessible for those familiar with liberation frameworks. it breaks down complexities of the USA’s past, details the present, and provides a road map for the future of the Catholic Church. this is all done while repeatedly centering the work, scholarship and achievements of Black women. by doing this, she effectively creates a blueprint for the calls to action she provides for the US bishops and for a fully liberated Church.
overall, Birth of a Movement is an absolutely inspiring and worthwhile read. I look forward to what the future holds for Ms. Segura.
December 17, 2021
There are probably many (Black) Catholic people who know much of the Church's history regarding race in the U.S. - and elsewhere, I'm sure. I'm a seventy-four year old white man who did not know most of that history or at least had not connected the dots. So I am grateful to have been leant Birth of a Movement by another 70+ white man. I learned of another disgrace of the U.S Catholic Bishops and more generally of the lack of interest on the part of Catholics towards this issue. Ms Segura is proselytizing here and the narrative is both redundant and pedantic and is also somewhat disjointed. Segura tells her personal story of being oppressed and being awoken to much larger issues. She is passionate. Although there is scholarship it is not a scholarly work. Whether one agrees with Ms Segura's solutions to the problem is not the point. The point is that she has nailed the problem to the Cathedral doors. Now there needs to be an adequate response by the "The Church." Bishops and laity alike. I encourage people to readit. Even if you don't like it the book is short and it has something important to say.
December 30, 2021
See also Valerie's 3/29/2021 review. I agree with much of the substance of this book. Segura has attempted to integrate a lot of solid research. However, it is so poorly written and edited, that I cannot recommend it to anyone seeking to understand more about the role the Catholic church can and should play in racial justice.
While reading the book, I wanted to take the purple pen I use on high school student papers and make multiple corrections on most pages. Instead of building a cogent, powerful, well-evidenced argument, Segura's text is marred by disjointed anecdotes, incoherent chapters and paragraphs, poor transitions, and shallow presentations of Catholic teaching. The text feels like Orbis rushed to publish the book in order to attract an audience in the 2021 social-political context.
I would rush to read a second edition of this book if it were well-organized, well-edited, and expanded in its analysis of Catholic teaching. Until then, I will continue to seek out the wisdom of M. Shawn Copeland, Bryan Stevenson, Bryan Massingale, the many sources listed in Tia Noelle Pratt's "Black Catholic Syllabus," and articles in America and NCR by Segura herself.
While reading the book, I wanted to take the purple pen I use on high school student papers and make multiple corrections on most pages. Instead of building a cogent, powerful, well-evidenced argument, Segura's text is marred by disjointed anecdotes, incoherent chapters and paragraphs, poor transitions, and shallow presentations of Catholic teaching. The text feels like Orbis rushed to publish the book in order to attract an audience in the 2021 social-political context.
I would rush to read a second edition of this book if it were well-organized, well-edited, and expanded in its analysis of Catholic teaching. Until then, I will continue to seek out the wisdom of M. Shawn Copeland, Bryan Stevenson, Bryan Massingale, the many sources listed in Tia Noelle Pratt's "Black Catholic Syllabus," and articles in America and NCR by Segura herself.
October 9, 2024
Incredible book, I wish it was longer!!
I was totally unsurprised when Segura left the Jesuitical podcast, especially as I was leaving seminary at the same time for reasons very similar to hers. It was a relief to discover she was working on a book at all, and then this book specifically, and then that the book was published, and at last when my local public library notified me it was available. After a few dozen pages, I realized I must get my own copy to keep beside my Diana L. Hayes & Shannon Dee Williams books.
THANK YOU!!
I was totally unsurprised when Segura left the Jesuitical podcast, especially as I was leaving seminary at the same time for reasons very similar to hers. It was a relief to discover she was working on a book at all, and then this book specifically, and then that the book was published, and at last when my local public library notified me it was available. After a few dozen pages, I realized I must get my own copy to keep beside my Diana L. Hayes & Shannon Dee Williams books.
THANK YOU!!
February 27, 2021
Segura’s work here in curating not only an action item list of things Catholics both lay and clergy alike need to be embracing but a detailed and thorough list of (re)sources is phenomenal. I thank her for the time, energy, and emotional labor.
January 16, 2023
The Catholic church introduced chattel slavery into what is now the US and has been a pillar of white supremacy ever since. This isn't news to those of who grew up in the church, nor those who've read other books on the subject like Fr. Bryan Massingale's. This book doesn't present much in the way of original research, but it's a compelling read and a conversation-starter. I hope US Bishops will heed the author's call to meaningfully address racism, but it seems they're more occupied with destroying Biden and any last shreds of moral relevancy the Church has. What a shame, as people are leaving in droves to find a community that *will* fight for the "least of these."
December 31, 2022
Takeaway: Black Lives Matter is a pro-life issue.
American Media/Jesuit Book Recommendation. 67/100/2022
American Media/Jesuit Book Recommendation. 67/100/2022
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