ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 17, 1996 TAG: 9606190010
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
IT DOESN'T matter whether the outbreak of arson attacks on Southern black-congregation churches - some three dozen in the past 18 months - has been perpetrated, as seems unlikely, by a vast conspiracy.
Indeed, it might be easier to marginalize the arsons' significance and wash America's hands of these cowardly and despicable deeds if they were the plot of a secret organization of racist lunatics. White supremacist groups, despised by all decent people, may be involved in several cases.
But most of the fires this time, as last, are reminders of a more rampant racism, local in eruption but national in spirit, which the country remains loath to face up to.
Lack of coordination doesn't change the motivation. Sick minds may be copycatting one other, but the sickness is not genetic. The real conspiracy, it may be said, is among white Americans who are content to believe that virulent racial hatred is a thing of the past.
It is good that America has awakened, finally in the past couple of weeks, to the torching of black churches and expressed a collective revulsion. It would have been better had the outcry heard now been more in evidence before the number of churches burned passed 30.
It is good that federal authorities have given top priority to investigating these hateful acts, and that President Clinton went to Greeleyville, S.C., last week to dedicate a rebuilt house of worship destroyed by fire a year ago. It would have been better had Clinton's response not been criticized in some quarters as electioneering, as though leadership in such a time is less than a vital role of the presidency.
It is good that the National Council of Churches has established a fund to help rebuild other churches damaged or destroyed. It would have been better had every major church and religious organization in the country, early in this epidemic of terror, mobilized a massive outpouring of solidarity and assistance.
As the arsonists (those who can be found anyway) are arrested and punished, much of white America will see them as deranged, pathetic, alienated individuals, which they no doubt are. But church-burners aren't the only ones stoking fires of irrational resentment.
Last year, in a survey by the Washington Post and Harvard University, 58 percent of white people said they believe that the average black American has a better job than the average white American. Where did they get that idea?
It is heartening to see Americans, black and white, expressing their sorrow and outrage, gathering contributions, helping to reconstruct houses of worship. But we have to realize that not just burned churches need rebuilding. Burned bridges do, too.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines KEYWORDS: ARSONby CNB