What price, race?
Salon.com Life | Was he black or white? -googled because otherwise you have to jump through Salon.com’s hoops.
Cecelie S. Berry wrote an interesting piece from a slice of pie in her day. She came across an ideal in the coming generation:
Even as the conversation unfolded, I knew that it would change us. It was a turning point in the compass of our relationship: a black mother and her children having careless fun, and then the issue of race spins us clockwise or counter — I’m still not sure which. That night, I stumbled upon the mores of a new generation that believed — they didn’t just say it, they believed — that race didn’t matter. My children’s utter faith in this impressed me. They exhibited unwavering conviction and — warming to a mother’s heart, if contrary to my will — they were fierce allies, utterly united. They fought me (me!) for an ideal world where they were ultimately human, and race was simply not worth mentioning. I had discovered the vast new territory of their idealism, as unspoiled and fertile as the Americas must have been to explorers of yore.
I have seen this, as well, I just didn’t think much of it, from my white ‘it is good to be unbiased’ perspective. It didn’t hit me in my culture comfort zone.
I wonder what will be the long range outcome of this? Have we taken things too far in our idealistic homogenization? It seems a pity to lose the sense of individual flavor in culture and heritage, histories and celebrations of who we are.
“Sam, ever loyal to his mother, gave in. “He was black.”
That’s what I thought.”
But it doesn’t make it go away to idealize it away. As men and women we have our distinctive differences, As races, as cultures, we have things that identify us…not for comparison purposes, but for the varied beauty that is life.
But maybe wiping the slate lean rids us of the filters that distorted the true picture.
“Our speech, dress, interests are expected to conform to the topography of “blackness” as we know it.”
Maybe it gives us a chance to see with new eyes of discovery and move toward improving ourselves- apart from being judges as worthy or unworthy by others.
Interesting to note….
I disagree with people who say that God is colorblind. He can see very well that we are different colors and how that affects our lives. Whether the color differences started at the Tower of Babel or just the language changed, we’re different. This isn’t to be either feared or revered, merely acknowledged in daily life.
Nowadays you can barely acknowledge color among conservatives/some pastors without them screamin either racism or multiculturalism, even when you’re just recognizing someone’s physical heritage.
It’s a huge roadblock.
You are so right. I think we should appreciate and celebrate the distinctives. In Revelation it talks of all tribes and nations and I always imagined that as a procession of praise -each one with their unique expression of dance and language and music.