Boring White People are Stereotyped at Afrocentric Mass

They look so uncomfortable and ill-at-ease.


How often are we confronted by unattractive stereotypes of non-practicing Catholics cramming into the Gathering Space to sing Eagle's Wings and attempt to show how tolerant they are of other cultures and sexual preferences?

These negative stereotypes of boring white people who are overly sensitive to other cultures are overrepresented at these events, especially at Black History Masses. It's so hard to live down those stereotypes created about us in the media.

Afro-centric Mass celebrated for Black History Month

Created as a way of welcoming Catholics of every persuasion, the Afro-Centric Mass at St. Mary's Catholic Church also has become a celebration of Black History Month.

Patsy Turner, who chairs the Multi-Cultural Committee at St. Mary's, said this is the 17th year for the Afro-Centric Mass, which will be held at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. A short performance by the St. Augustine Gospel Choir will precede the service, shortly after 10 a.m.

Jackson originally had two Catholic parishes, St. Mary's and St. Joseph's Catholic Church, a mostly African-American parish, Turner said. The bishop of the Memphis diocese closed St. Joseph's in the 1960s and expected those congregants to attend St. Mary's, Turner said.

"But they didn't feel welcome," she said. "In the early '90s, I began to look around and noticed virtually none from St. Joseph's were at Mass. So we decided to bring them back in a welcoming way with an Afro-Centric Mass."

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