i am not white. there i said it. if i was at my computer instead of my husband's i'd put that poem in here for you. but i'm not, aren't you glad?
we need diversity folks. it is a good thing.
today i happened upon some ebonics in conjunction with a dearly beloved author, dr. maya angelou.
it felt like someone had just slapped my mother. i wanted to lose my lunch, toss my toast, you get the idea. hurl.
i felt all queasy and just wanted to cry. have you noticed a theme here? i cry a lot. but that is okay. crying purges the body of toxins. i eat a lot of junk food, i have a lot of toxins, so let me cry it out already. geez man.
but if you are a writer and don't want to offend, even if you do want to offend, ebonics and african americans in the same breath, page, sentence, work, do not mix. it's like kerosene and fire. it only takes getting burned once to figure that one out.
so here is my brilliant solution. as dr. maya angelou says, "realize that people who differ from you can be founts of fun."
meet a minority. let them infect your world with their color. their foods. their crazy ways of having fun. their big families.
don't stay locked in your little world any longer than you have to. if you have to meet them over the internet, so be it. cyber minorities are still minorities.
and remember this, just because you don't think you're being racist, doesn't mean minorities won't agree. painful truth but true.
i had a beloved white friend who told me what it felt like to be the only white woman visiting an all black church. she described it in vivid detail. how uncomfortable it was. how difficult it was until worship started and she forgot her color and worshipped God.
i asked her, what if you had to live your whole life that way?
think about it.
just because you are a majority doesn't mean you got it goin' on.
besides, everyone needs a little color in their life.
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3 comments:
Okay, so I'm white. I have some hispanic friends and some black friends, but my world is pretty white. Sometimes I get scared and wonder if I've offended. I mean--I don't want to see color at all, but I do want to learn about the cultural nuances that differ. I think they're cool. I've been the one of the only whites in a hispanic service where I couldn't follow the language. (Thankfully, one of them translated). I LOVED, LOVED the homemade tortillas afterwards. I stayed in a hispanic home and discovered that I love beans for breakfast. Felt better all day than on pancakes and oatmeal. I've often been in my black friend's home. Being with them is being with family. I enjoy our time together more than most people I hang with. But--is it okay to ask questions about the differences, to recognize them? I always wonder if it hurts someone. I made a new cyberfriend recently. She is absolutely delightful and passionate as I am about God's grace. We chatted about this and that. My last email I told her I lived in a pretty white world and was interested in hers. I haven't heard back from her so I wonder, is she just busy? Likely the answer . . . but what if I offended?
I'm so glad God made us all different. I think life is richer when we learn of each other.
Here in Miami, us white-folk are the minority. The biggest community here is the Hispanic one. They are rapidly outgrowing even the African-American community and you can feel a bit of unease buzzing in the air.
I've lived around different cultures most of my life. My stepfather was in the Air Force and we traveled lots. I learned how to blend in whatever group of people I happened to be with. I have this thing called the Chameleon effect that causes me to pick up the mannerisms and accents of whoever I'm talking to. I do it subconciously most of the time. Some people get annoyed or offended.
I look at it as somewhat of an asset. After all, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 that he became like the people he was with in order to win them to Christ.
I do not try to be something I'm not. I accept who I am and accept others as they are. I do not look at them differently unless they give me a reason to. I hate stereotyping! We are all created equally and loved equally by God. How can we do any different?
My biggest desire is to make people feel comfortable, which is probably a big reason why I have a tendency to "blend" with others.
I love the richness of variety of people here on the earth. Life would be so bland if we all were the same, wouldn't it?
Peace
i have said to a newfound friend, don't tell me, color doesn't matter in this imperfectly human state. tell me it does matter, and having said that, then you can go on to tell me in God's eyes it doesn't matter, and i will respect you more for that.
i am not trying to blame anyone for anything, just saying, race does matter. if you have ever experienced prejudice you would know this. if you have ever been pulled over by the police and threatened to be thrown into jail just because you are not white (yes, it has happened to me) you would know this.
once you know this, the great challenge begins, getting beyond it. seeing men with the eyes of God and not the failing eyes of humanity.
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