Introduction

Let me begin by thanking the administration of Saint John's University for their gracious invitation to deliver this annual Vincentian Chair of Social Justice Lecture. I am honored to be among the ranks of the distinguished predecessors of this Chair, and most especially in the company of Fr. Bryan Hehir, Mary Ann Glendon, and Bishop Howard Hubbard. Even more than the privilege of being numbered in the company of such dedicated and gifted people, this evening gives me the opportunity to share with you some of my converging passions: a conviction about the relevance of religious faith in our contemporary society; the central importance of faith-based critical intellectual inquiry and formation; action for social justice and transformation as a "constitutive dimension" of the Christian faith;[1] and racial justice as the litmus test for the adequacy and credibility of Catholic social reflection in the United States. I commend St. John's University, and its Vincentian sponsors, for providing this forum where such passions can be shared with a wider audience, and especially with those who are the present and future leaders in our Church and Society.Ê I hope this evening to do justice to the intent of this chair, expressed so ably by the Very Rev. Robert Maloney, CM: "to transform our society into a more just one...[through] an appeal to conscience, creativity and competence."[2]

The theme chosen for this year's Founder's Week observance, Human Work: Genesis to Genome, is especially appropriate for this year as we celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Pope John Paul II's encyclical on labor, Laborem Exercens.[3] This document has the distinction of being the only one in the long heritage of Catholic Social Teaching devoted entirely to the topic of human work. In it, the Pope declares that human work is "the essential key to the whole social question,"[4] that is, the pivotal arena engaging the struggle for justice. Laborem Exercens both reaffirms and further develops central insights in Catholic social reflection; e.g., the dignity of work flowing from the transcendent dignity of the human person who works; the insistence upon a just wage; the right to form unions, and the priority of labor over capital. Novel to this document, however is John Paul's distinction between the direct employer, the person or institution with which the worker has a labor contract, and the indirect employer, that is, the whole network of social, political, and cultural factors within which the workplace is situated and which influence the work contract and labor policy.[5] This means that one cannot pay adequate attention to, much less insure justice for, the situation of laborers without attending to the broader social context within which work occurs.

This leads to the rationale for my contribution to this discussion: "Tribalism or Solidarity?" I want to situate the theme of work in the context of the seismic shift taking place in the composition of the American population. In the compass of a brief lecture, I will describe the trends present and to come; speak of the existence of social estrangement and impact of social tribalism; propose the virtue of solidarity as a means of healing social estrangement; and conclude with the challenges that the choice between tribalism or solidarity presents to Christian institutions, especially inÊ the Vincentian tradition.

The Demographic Shift

We stand at the threshold of a new century. While the opportunities and challenges of this era are still to be uncovered, without doubt one of them will be a significant and unprecedented demographic shift in the population of the United States. Ten or fifteen short years from now, at least one out of every three Americans will belong to the group we now term "people of color." Twenty to twenty-five years after that--well within the lifetimes of those whom this university educates--for the first time in the living memory of U.S. history, the group designated as "non-Latino whites" will be a "minority" group. America will cease being "a microcosm of Europe" and will become "a microcosm of the world."

Living in New York City, this audience is already familiar with this shift. For New York City, along with Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston, is among those cities where whites are already a numerical minority.[6] Thus, the effects of this seismic transformation in American demographics are already being felt. From events as insignificant as Betty Crocker's recent makeover--being morphed to look like a "typical American": one part Connie Chung and three parts Mariah Carey[7] to the more startling realization that the United States is now the fifth largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world; from the theme of the recent Encuentro--"Many Faces in God's House," to the recent observation of my own Ordinary, Archbishop Rembert Weakland--namely that the church "suddenly has become multiracial and multicultural, but it doesn't know it;" from the reality that currently people of color, women, and immigrants comprise 53% of the workforce, to the projection that by 2005, 85% of those entering the workforce will be women, people of color, and immigrants; we are becoming ever more aware that our social and ecclesial life is more diverse, complex and varied. Indeed, we even struggle with how to name the challenge that faces us. Are we "multicultural" or "intercultural"? Is our task "cultural adaptation" or "interculturation"? Like it or not, because of the demographic shift in progress, these concerns are here to stay. The landscape is being, and already has been, decisively altered. Our society, our Church, and our workplaces are multiracial and multiethnic in ways many might never have imagined, dreamed, hoped or desired.

Social Estrangement or Tribalism

Undoubtedly, this is an exciting and rich time. It is also a time of potentially explosive division and fragmentation, for we have little experience or precedent to draw upon in negotiating this demographic shift. The "melting pot" metaphor, which described the previous American approach to diversity (that is, becoming as indistinguishable as possible from the white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant majority) fails us, as we confront the fact that many cannot--and have little desire to--be so assimilated. We have little concrete experience or models for how to be a "salad," or "stew," or "gumbo," or "quilt," or any of the other metaphors we haltingly apply to our new situation. Rather, we are all too often communities that live in the same space but are separated by chasms of understanding and life experience. Allow me to give a broad sketch of the factors which constitute the present divisions and tensions in society.

Isolation

Despite the fact that racial and ethnic groups live in the same cities or geographic areas, they often lead parallel, non-intersecting lives. In the words of a noted author:

We may have a friend or two of another race or culture, but, for the vast majority of us, that is as far as it goes.... Don't we attend school together, work together, play together? In fact, we do not actually do these things together; we do them in the same place and in each other's presence, but we still do them separately. In desegregated schools, workplaces, and recreation areas, a strict but informal segregation still exists.... And, as soon as school, work, or play is completed, whites and people of color still go home to their segregated communities knowing, for the most part, little or nothing about each other's lives.[8]

Because of the racial and economic segregation that still marks the American housing market, it is uncommon--indeed, highly unlikely--to find stable integrated neighborhoods whose residents know one another on terms of ease, familiarity, and shared exchange.[9] The paradox is that while we are more diverse than ever before, many of us have less first hand experience of those from whom we differ.

The "Glass Ceiling" Phenomenon

Despite measurable progress during the last twenty years, people of color still must negotiate subtle obstacles and overcome covert barriers in their pursuit of employment and/or advancement. According to the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission, even after three decades of affirmative action, a severe racial disparity continues to exist at the top ranks of corporate leadership. For example, white males, numbering only 29% of the nation's workforce--still hold 95% of corporate senior management positions.[10] This Commission further notes that the "fears and prejudices" of white middle managers are most responsible for this continued racial disparity.[11]

Fatigue

Clarence Page, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist for the Chicago Tribune, coined the phrase, "integration fatigue," to describe how the effort to get along without tension, misunderstanding, and acrimony in a multiracial and multicultural workplace was so taxing in a Washington office that at the end of the workday, each "group" retired to separate bars located on diagonally opposite street corners.[12] This "fatigue" is also evidenced in the "meeting after the meeting" phenomenon, where the different parties gather separately to both debrief and congratulate themselves that things didn't escalate out of control. Page attributes this "fatigue" to the "deep-seated ambivalence" that Americans continue to have over racial and cultural mixing. Whatever its cause, the result is a tenuous fragile state of tolerance and co-existence, or stated less eloquently, "putting up with each other."[13]

The Chasm in Wage Disparity

Nowhere perhaps is the social fragmentation and division more evident than in the "gulf" separating the wages earned by the highest and lowest tiers in the American workplace. A recent study noted that in 1960, the average CEO of a Fortune 500 company earned a little over $193,000 in total compensation; the minimum wage at that time was $1/hour. In 1997, average CEO compensation had increased to $7.8 million; the minimum wage was only $5.15/hour, or about $10,712 a year. Noteworthy, is not only the glaring disparity, but the extent of the disparity--which is only grasped when one notes that the minimum wage would need to be $40.97/hour just to keep pace with the rise in CEO compensation and preserve the 1960 rate of disparity.[14] Not only is there a "gulf" between the rich and the working poor; the chasm or social divide is becoming deeper and wider.

Time constraints prohibit a fuller development of this theme, yet I hope my remarks are indicative of the profound challenge we face. This challenge is not simply negotiating the major demographic shift now taking place. The challenge of racial and ethnic pluralism is not simply the fact of difference, but also, the human interpretation of difference. Because of this history of interpretation, the differing racial and ethnic groups exist in relationships of unequal status, privilege, and power. Demographic pluralism thus becomes "tribalism," that is, a defense of self and group interests--what is "ours"--against those "others" who are seen as a threat to one's entitlements.[15] A noted social commentator expresses this fear:

My biggest fear, as this nation moves into an inevitable browning, or hybridization, is that there will be a very powerful minority, overwhelmingly composed of Euro-Americans, who will see themselves in significant danger as a consequence of the way democracy works; winner-take-all. And they will begin to renege on some of the basic principles that created the United States and made it what it is.[16]

As my examples demonstrate, patterns of work and conditions in the workplace both reflect and exacerbate the social divisions and estrangements present in society. Confronting the reality of social tribalism then is absolutely essential to any adequate understanding of work and any adequate praxis of justice.

The Virtue of Solidarity

One response to the challenge of multicultural diversity, one common in the corporate workplace, is to "manage" it. In the business world, diversity is "managed" by training employees in sensitivity and respect for those who are "different." The goal is toleration, so that racial and ethnic differences do not compromise an organization's productivity, public image, or legal liability. Cultural diversity is rarely seen as a good; it is accepted reluctantly as a fact of life, as something to be endured and made the best of.

Christian faith takes a different approach. Christians must do more than simply tolerate cultural differences. Because we are "catholic--" that is, "universal" and inclusive--the variety of peoples, languages, cultures and colors among us must not only be tolerated, but also cherished, cultivated and celebrated. For the diversity of languages, cultures and colors in the human family is a holy gift of God.

This faith conviction, rooted in the mystery of Pentecost and the Trinity, is conveyed in Catholic social thought by the virtue of solidarity. Solidarity emerged in Catholic theology in response to two paradoxical "signs of the time": the growing awareness of the interdependence of human societies on one hand, and on the other, the sad reality of human divisions, alienation, and injustice. Solidarity is that virtue which commits us to the common good, and to the overcoming of patterns of social exclusion and division. In the words of Pope John Paul II, solidarity is not "a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress" at another's social plight. Rather, it is "a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good...to the good of all...because we are all really responsible for all."[17] Solidarity is based upon the conviction, the deep-seated belief, that the concerns of the despised other are intimately bound up with my/our own; that we are, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., "bound together in a garment of mutual destiny." Solidarity, according to John Paul, is exercised in a society when "its members recognize one another as persons." Since the poor, racial outcasts, and culturally marginalized are those whose personhood is most often attacked, questioned, or reviled, the acid test of solidarity is our sense of connection with and commitment to the poor and excluded.

Thus solidarity is that virtue that responds to both the reality of our human interdependence and our sad legacy of social estrangement. The acid test of solidarity, of a life committed to the common good, is our welcome and embrace of the "stranger," the poor, the outcast, and excluded. The task of solidarity is the struggle against and overturning of the patterns of exclusion present in social life, whether based on gender, race, class, or ethnicity.

This means that a core dimension of solidarity is social reconciliation; welcoming the Ôstranger" in our communities and reconciling estranged social groups. Solidarity entails a constant effort to build a human community where each group participates equitably in social life and contributes its genius to the good of all. In view of the seismic demographic transformations occurring in the United States, cultivating and promoting the cause of solidarity is a major challenge facing religious believers and institutions.

Solidarity and the Vincentian Charism

The challenge of cultivating solidarity in the face of social tribalism is a task which would seem to have particular resonance with a Vincentian ethos. For example, Frederic Ozanam, the founder of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, looked at the society of his day and saw it on the verge of collapse, radically divided between the comfortable and the miserable. His vision was that "The Conference of Charity" was to be a force of social reconciliation and renewal, healing the splits and wounds of society. His hope was that through the "force of love," justice and social renewal would prevail.[18]

I conclude, then, by proposing two ways in which an institution devoted to the Vincentian charism can make a contribution to the cause of solidarity. The first is by being true to your mission of seeking and teaching the truth, especially as this truth is discerned from the perspective of the outcast, stigmatized, and excluded. My claim here is not that these groups alone possess the truth, or that all truth claims must yield to their readings and understandings. Yet it remains true that the poor and outcast cannot participate in the life of society if their voices are not attended to and their stories are not heard, studied, or thought. Nor can a university be faithful to its mission to promote knowledge and truth if it is complicitous in excluding or overlooking perspectives, which are unpopular and discomforting. One of the best contributions a Catholic, Vincentian university can make to the promotion of social solidarity is the discovery, dissemination, and promotion of truths that come from the "underside of society," examining--even changing--its curriculum to achieve this end.

A second way a Vincentian institution, faithful to its charism, can promote social solidarity is by being a place where alternative futures can be imagined and dreamed. So often, the enemy of social justice is a failure of imagination, the sense of futility struggling against realities, which seem impervious and unchangeable. In our times, I believe that the Catholic university needs to be a place of learning, not only in the narrowly academic sense, but also in the cultivation of dreams and nourishing a vision of hope. Hope not in a na•ve escapism; but hope founded on the empirical fact that what is now need not be always and the future need not be a mere repetition of the past; a hope also grounded in its faith heritage, which celebrated the life present, even where death once reigned.

I conclude on a note of hope and dreaming. As I do so, in the words of the African American poet, Langston Hughes, I thank St. John's University for providing this opportunity for us to look deeply, examine critically, confront hopefully, and dream prophetically about our world in the light of faith.

To Make Our World Anew

To sit and dream, to sit and read,

To sit and learn about the world

Outside our world of here and now--

Our problem world--

To dream of vast horizons of the soul

Through dreams make whole,

Unfettered free--help me!

All you who are dreamers, too

Help me make our world anew

I reach out my hands to you.

Endnotes