November 24, 2016
I continue to be driven to make time to read and experience, vicariously through "black" writing and "black" associations, the experiences of my siblings of color. The momentum I feel for this comes from an urgency I just did not feel before I knew the results of our presidential election in the wee hours of the morning on November 9th.
My dear "daughter", how I treasure her. She is actually the daughter of my close friends, the daughter of an interracial marriage, a daughter who adopted me as another "mother", even though she often tells me her biological Mom is the best Mom in the world. I am honored and grateful to have her and her parents in my life. This lovely daughter, Marie, told me that she identifies as a "black" woman. I countered that she is as much "white" as she is "black", just like President Obama. But she would not let me get by with this because, of course, her life experience is as a "black" woman. And thinking about this, I know my experience is not really "white" because being white in America is really like just being of no race at all. In the day to day operation of my life, I do not have to consider race. So herein lies my challenge, to become more aware and to understand as keenly as I possibly can what it means to live and function as a minority in this country.
In regard to a police killing of one of his Howard University classmates, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about being at the funeral and hearing some of the mourners "ask for forgiveness for the officer who'd shot Prince Jones down." He continues, "The need to forgive the officer would not have moved me, because even then, in some inchoate form, I knew that Prince was not killed by a single officer so much as he was murdered by his country and all the fears that have marked it from birth." This just really gives me pause to realize, and I mean really realize, in my gut, just how dishonest and inaccurate the idol of this "great" nation is in our "white", privileged version of it. I have mourned the loss of the myth of goodness and nobility of my country's "founding fathers", an idol that just does not hold up to to scrutiny. Our "founding fathers" were not saints and they were responsible for a whole lot of suffering. To look at their weaknesses and our "white" shortsightedness honestly and own it all honestly is a task we must take seriously as "whites". We must look at our privilege and the privilege of the "founders" and see clearly the irony, the cruelty and the unfairness. Only then can we hope to extend "privilege" to all people and build a world where all people can operate daily without having to constantly carry the burden "race" and "separation". Only then can words like "privilege" and "racial profiling" cease to mean anything. Only when this is accomplished can we honestly describe our nation as a "great" nation. I do not mean that we need all be alike. Differences of heritage are glorious and worthy of celebration; but differences in how groups of people are treated need to disappear. I do not know how this ideal can become a reality, but I know it must start right here with my willingness to grow and learn.
I extend my personal and profound thanks to Ta-Nehisi Coates for sharing through his writing!
I desire and intend to broaden my awareness of other "minority" experiences as I journey forward. I must extend this also to my "white" siblings, many who struggle economically, and many who helped elect Donald Trump. Share, talk, love, be hospitable and present. In the words of the late Bo Lozoff,
"We're all doing time."
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