Opting for Black Lives

The Preferential Option for the Poor and Marginalized is one of the most prophetic and powerful teachings of the Church, and partly due to its oddly-worded title, might be one of the least understood social teachings.

Option here does not mean optional - it comes from the word "opt," meaning to choose. Preferential does not mean we should prefer to be poor but that the poor and marginalized deserve to be thought about intentionally.

At its core, opting means to actively consider the poor and marginalized in every decision we make personally, communally, and socially.

A lot of good thoughts have been provoked recently by this clever cartoon,
that follows the same basic principle of the option for the poor and marginalized.

A good metaphor to encapsulate opting for the poor is to think of parents with several children. Parents strive to love all their children as much as possible and to give them all the care and support they can. However, when one child is sick, it tilts the balance. All of a sudden, the parents will direct more care toward the sick child - taking their temperature, making doctor visits, filling prescriptions, bringing meals to bed, etc. Does it mean the parents love the other children any less? No, but it means as long as the child is sick, they are in need of greater care so that they can get well again soon. And hopefully the other children can act with compassion and patience as they support their sick sibling and parents through that tough time.

This is a call that we must strive to answer in our social attitude and actions. When we make our budgets and spend our hard-earned money, we have to think about marginalized people and how our decisions and actions impact or ignore them. When we consider our voting decisions, we have to think about whether our political actions lift up marginalized people or push them further away, toward the edges.

After hearing the metaphor of the sick child, someone asked me recently, what if the child won't get better? what if their illness is chronic or terminal? I think the metaphor holds up - that shouldn't change our attitude toward caring for them. It may cause frustration or angst to know that the care we give may not cure their illness, but the dignity and value of their life and the love given and received in that care remains essential.

I think of all these wrinkles of the call to opt for the poor and marginalized as we face these escalating issues with race relations in our country. With the growth of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, I have been tempted to wonder why a separate, specific emphasis is needed, why black lives have to be named and lifted up separately from white lives or all lives.

The answer rests in the call to opt for the marginalized in our society.

Black people have disproportionate remained and become victims of these tragic situations because we have socially allowed them to remain marginalized people. We have not cultivated and developed an attitude of inclusion. We have not culturally and socially honored black people. We have allowed black people to remain a "them" rather than sustaining a society that is more comprehensively an "us."

Because we have allowed the situation to reach a point where black people have remained and become victims, we do need to intentionally and actively consider black people in our decisions, individually, communally, and socially. So we do need to state specifically that black lives should matter and must matter. Of course, all lives should matter, but when we allow ourselves to devalue or belittle the lives of black people, it is fitting to lift them up and move away from perpetuating their marginalization.

The how here is tougher to discern.

Is affirmative action in college decisions, job applications, and other competitive situations helping to rectify the disparity that marginalizes blacks and other minorities? Are corporate policies like the NFL's Rooney Rule making an impact on minority access to elite jobs? Are community outreaches succeeding in educating people and bringing them together?

We are at a crisis point with this issue, and I hope the option for the marginalized can give us Catholic language that directs us as we ponder what to do. Marginalized people must be opted for as we make decisions and take actions. How can you consider the marginalized, especially black people, in your decisions individually, communally, and socially?