The next annual conference of the National Justice and Peace Network (NJPN) will be held at The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, Derbyshire 23-25 July 2021. Yes, it’s a bit of a leap of faith in the context of the pandemic, but the planning group feels that the issues of the conference should not be postponed for another year.

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Geoff Thompson NJPN Annual Conference

‘White privilege’ is the notion I shall retain from 2020. The Black Lives Matter explosion had repercussions for all who have suffered racism, and for those like myself who have worked for anti-racism for decades. “It has brought back all those incidents of pain, anger and self-doubt that we had buried and put behind us,” said one black friend. “We’re reliving the trauma.” I, a white, felt some weariness. Many obvious things had been suggested before more black role models for our young people, recognition of black history in mainstream education, more black religious/cultural imagery, more black leaders. I can think of many reasons for the failures of anti-racists like me: unwillingness to confront injustice; economic disasters hitting black and ethnic minorities the hardest; xenophobic fury encouraged by right-wing groups, and so on. Another reason is indifference and laziness among whites, however. What a wake-up call, that the generation of young black people I myself might have once taught are becoming more vocal about racism. Reni Eddo-Lodge, author of the best-seller, Why I am no longer talking to white people about race, went to a Catholic school near where I taught. She is wounded by the blithe carelessness of white friends, indifferent to the history of slavery. My British-born friend with Jamaican parents has spent years as head of a deprived South London primary school. She tells me that she still attends teacher meetings with her inexperienced white male deputy only to find that he is assumed head, rather than herself. Such casual racism is part of white privilege, or in religious language, culpable ignorance. One black friend talks about the pervasive suspicion he encounters: the crime of ‘driving while black’, the stop-and-search, the casual assumption that black equals criminal. Recently athlete Bianca Williams and her partner were dragged from their car and separated from their baby, under stop and search powers. What can black people do? Have the energy and patience to keep on challenging white privilege. Where can white people start? Learn, urgently, about black history, not just in Black History Month, but all year round, in school and parish; listen with humility to the experiences of black neighbours and parishioners. A few of us, black and white, have produced a 2021 calendar celebrating Africans in Northern England to challenge the all-white view of Northern history. What a great learning experience for me!

For copies contact barbarakentish@talktalk.net.

Barbara Kentish White privilege

NJPN Comment in the Catholic Universe – Bruce Kent: Good news and bad news

In many ways the end of 2020 is a gloomy time. Covid is on an upward move, with already over 70,000 deaths in this country alone. Worldwide, hundreds of thousands more. Aged 91, I am told to be very careful. Neighbours keep at a distance. My admiration for those brave people – doctors, nurses, and workers of all sorts in the NHS – is unlimited. A quick dash around the local park is all I am allowed to manage. Sunday Mass is possible but only if zoomed in from somewhere else. That’s enough gloom for the moment. There IS great news for the whole world, but it doesn’t seem to have been noticed by very many. On Friday 22nd January an international treaty comes into force. The possession and deployment of nuclear weapons will become illegal in over 120 countries which have signed up to the new Treaty so far. The nine countries now possessing nuclear weapons will have to be careful where and how they move them. That is a new logistical problem. More important, the message is now clear. About two-thirds of the world thinks it is illegal to have them at all. In our British case it is stupid as well. We boast about having independent nuclear weapons. What an illusion. We do make those mass murder warheads, but we have to borrow the missiles on which to put them from the United States. It’s as ‘independent’ as a family car for which one has to rely on some distant neighbour for the wheels! Pope Francis has shone a very powerful light on the immorality of nuclear weaponry. He has gone far beyond rejecting the actual use of such weapons, as other Popes have done before. In November 2017 at a meeting in Rome he went much further: “If we take into account the risk of an accidental detonation as a result of error or any kind, the threat of their use, as well as their very possession is to be firmly condemned.” Pope Francis tells us that “security” based on nuclear weapons is an immoral illusion. Real human security is about food, health, human rights, and opportunities for everybody on the planet. Let us follow Pope Francis and take positive action in 2021 to get our government to sign up to the new treaty.

Bruce Kent is a vice-president of both Pax Christi and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Pax Christi England and Wales celebrates Peace Sunday on 17th January. See https://paxchristi. org.uk/peace-sunday-2021

Bruce Kent-Good News and Bad

The latest NJPN Comment in the Catholic Universe – Rob Esdaile – Cacophony or Harmony: Which Future? can be found by clicking the link below

NJPN Comment By Rob Esdaille

The latest NJPN comment in the Catholic Universe, titled Raising awareness of domestic abuse , by Freda Lambert is available to read by clicking on the link below.

NJPN Comment by Freda Lambert