The diocesan dismantler-in-chief, Rev Christopher Belle seems to think that the diocese is a veritable hotbed of racism, although he did have to reach back to the 1840s in order to find something to dismantle. This, of course, is how the church strives to be relevant.

As an aside, how do you dismantle racism? You can dismantle an electric kettle because it has parts. Islamists like to dismantle humans by removing their heads. But how do you dismantle an idea?

Rev Belle seems to be under the impression that if we all stop singing “Jimmy Crack Corn”, that will be a good start. I know it will be hard, you are probably humming it as you read this, but now you will have to stop. I have and I know I feel better for it.

From here:

Dismantling Anti-Black Racism in the Diocese of Montreal

Our television screens have been inundated with images of racial discord as thousands upon thousands band together to speak out against police brutality aimed at people of colour. There have been cries for justice, racial equality, defunding the police, ‘Enough is enough!’, and so on. For a while, it felt like there was a new instance of racial discrimination, perpetrated in a violent and, all too often, fatal manner, every other week. The rallying cry “BLACK LIVES MATTER” has been heard loud and clear for years now, as people all over the world stand in solidarity with Black people who have had to suffer life-threatening injustice for way too long. Enough is enough, indeed.

[….]

Sooo…why do we need to worry ourselves with dismantling racism in the Diocese of Montreal? We’re a bunch of God-fearing people, who love the Lord, and love each other. So many of us would insist that we don’t have a racist bone in our bodies. Surely there’s no anti-Black racism to dismantle here. Hang on. The lyrics printed at the beginning of this article come from a little ditty called ‘The Blue-Tail Fly’, a song performed during those delightful minstrel shows from the mid-Nineteenth century.

[….]
When it was time, I took my song sheet. I looked it over. I heard somebody say, “Let’s sing Jimmy Crack Corn”. I was on board. I knew this one. I did not know it was a full song. I scanned the page until I found the lyrics. I started to sing. And then I stopped.