I live in a primarily Black community within East Nashville. Actually, where I live there are but a few white people. Over a week ago my husband was sitting on our balcony and witnessed a young boy struck down by a motorist who got out of his car to pull the youth from underneath his car. He then fled the scene. I ran down the block with my husband to help. I gathered several people together, we held hands and began to pray for the child lying in the street while others attended to him, waiting for the ambulance to arrive. I broke down sobbing in the arms of my husband. A young Black man approched and put his arms around both of us and said, Its all right mama. He is going to make it. The child talked to me. Dont worry mama. I didnt know him. He didnt know me. But in that embrace our lives will be forever changed in some way. Of this I am certain. Love removes distrust and suspicion. It creates connectedness, affiliation, and a whole lot of joy and laughter. Am I afraid of where I live? Should I be afraid? I am perceived as a friendly neighbor, a member of a community of people who are clearly happy we chose to move into the neighborhood. I dont live in the ghetto, or the projects, or whatever you call those places where human beings cannot and never will find their way out, a place of abject hopelessness, where the disease of internalized racism feeds on its residents, and self hatred turns outward, where a population of people without opportunity exhibit this sense of inherent inferiority handed down by those of privilege who exhibit the sense of inherent superiority. In many cases it is an unconscious form of suicide when a young Black man puts himself in a place where the liklihood of his death is eminent (a poor paraphrase from Joy DeGruy).Until we integrate our neighborhoods with all socioeconomic levels, and our city planners, build and encourage such efforts of integration, we will never have racial unity and more importantly racial harmony and appreciation of each others cultures. Fear of living in my neighborhood is not a factor with which I struggle. Recurrence of a fifth cancer and the pain it would being my children trumps everything. Racism runs deep. It infects the hearts of both White and Black Americans. Since without conscious, deliberate, and sustained effort, no one can remain unaffected by its corrosive influence, both groups must realize that such a problem can neither easily nor immediately be resolved. Let neither think that anything short of genuine love, extreme patience, true humility, consummate tact, sound initiative, mature wisdom, and deliberate, persistent, and prayerful effort can succeed in blotting out the stain which this patent evil has left on the fair name of their common country. Both groups must understand that no real change will come about without close association, fellowship, and friendship among diverse people. Diversity of color, nationality, and culture enhances the human experience and should never be made a barrier to harmonious relationships, to friendship, or to marriage. O well-beloved ones! Baháulláh wrote, The tabernacle of unity has been raised; regard ye not one another as strangers. Ye are the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch. And to those of you who might get tired and bored of my ongoing racial rants at times, because I have been told that I tend to post a lot of racial stuff (the exact words), I dont think I have the capacity to keep silent. Please dont get me wrong. I love a lot of white people. I even have white friends. Take my sarcasm with a grain of salt. I am just playing with words. But please consider my purest of motives for the racial stuff.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 22:15:27 +0000
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