Talk About Race - We Need To
As you know, one of my favorite commentators/editorialists is Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald. Once again, he has a good point. For the full text of his thoughts check out:
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/914575.html
Today he is talking about how we really don't talk about race. Not in any meaningful way. We dance around it, we don't listen to each other (not really at any rate)... we simply don't "get it" when folks of one race are trying to talk to folks of another race... neither side gets it by the way. Pitts doesn't shy away from pointing out that there is fault on all sides. He doesn't have to do that. After all, he is African-American, he could jump on the Sharpton bandwagon and see racism everywhere and blame the non-African-Americans alone for this silliness but he doesn't.
So it got me thinking. When was the last time I had a meaningful conversation about race with a person of another race? Sad to say it was in college. Two girls I had met freshman year (one who was to be my roommate the following year before she transferred) from Chicago and I would sit around and talk about what we each considered racist, how different things people said and did made us feel and what we as three young women might one day do about it.
I am sorry to say I have lost touch with both of these women. I do know that one went on to become a lawyer and the other a teacher. None of us had really come from affluent families although one had a father who was a lawyer and she had certainly grown up with more than we other two did but still very middle class. Neither were we complete poor folk yet we'd all dealt with some form of discrimination or another. Theirs was race related mine was the stigma of being raised by a single parent in a time when that simply didn't happen.
I like to think that they too worked on President Obama's campaign in their own neighborhoods, that we were still working together although miles (and maybe now worlds)apart.
The key to all this? NONE of us saw color when we met new people. It simply didn't matter. And it shouldn't. But it will until we can all sit down over a cup of coffee or some other bonding beverage and really talk ... really listen ... to each other.
If we don't reach out to each other we never really will understand each other. Thank you Sharon and Jodi for helping me to understand!
http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/leonard-pitts/story/914575.html
Today he is talking about how we really don't talk about race. Not in any meaningful way. We dance around it, we don't listen to each other (not really at any rate)... we simply don't "get it" when folks of one race are trying to talk to folks of another race... neither side gets it by the way. Pitts doesn't shy away from pointing out that there is fault on all sides. He doesn't have to do that. After all, he is African-American, he could jump on the Sharpton bandwagon and see racism everywhere and blame the non-African-Americans alone for this silliness but he doesn't.
So it got me thinking. When was the last time I had a meaningful conversation about race with a person of another race? Sad to say it was in college. Two girls I had met freshman year (one who was to be my roommate the following year before she transferred) from Chicago and I would sit around and talk about what we each considered racist, how different things people said and did made us feel and what we as three young women might one day do about it.
I am sorry to say I have lost touch with both of these women. I do know that one went on to become a lawyer and the other a teacher. None of us had really come from affluent families although one had a father who was a lawyer and she had certainly grown up with more than we other two did but still very middle class. Neither were we complete poor folk yet we'd all dealt with some form of discrimination or another. Theirs was race related mine was the stigma of being raised by a single parent in a time when that simply didn't happen.
I like to think that they too worked on President Obama's campaign in their own neighborhoods, that we were still working together although miles (and maybe now worlds)apart.
The key to all this? NONE of us saw color when we met new people. It simply didn't matter. And it shouldn't. But it will until we can all sit down over a cup of coffee or some other bonding beverage and really talk ... really listen ... to each other.
If we don't reach out to each other we never really will understand each other. Thank you Sharon and Jodi for helping me to understand!
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