I never understood white folks, and having lumped all of you in a category based on what I deemed as a collective inhumane treatment of people of color, I could never bring myself to being comfortable liking any of you. Now there were exceptions of course, like Ms. Kessell at Crane Jr. College, who initiated my getting a scholarship to a predominately white college where I met another exception named Zack, who knew where to get the good weed. There were others as well, at the jobs I held from graduation up until the time spent in Seminary in New York. Keep in mind however, that my attachment to pigment challenged individuals was still restricted by an undeniable lack of trust, fueled by an inability to fully comprehend what it was about me that might coerce some of you into desiring to be my friend.
Well, time should and does bring about a change, and although the trust factor is still compromised, and complete comprehension of some white folks’ motives are still challenged, I am exercising an open-mindedness that allows me to look at everyone as a human being first and then allowing our subsequent interactions to determine what role race plays in our relationship. It’s been working well thus far, and although I hesitate to assert that ‘some of my best friends are white’, I can honestly say that my knowledge of and appreciation for ‘you people’ has been noticeably intensified.
I’m not being pretentious about my newfound desire to purposefully interact with people of a different persuasion, because what had happened was that some of the white seminarians I shared time with in New York literally expressed that they wanted to know what made black folk do what black folk do. In turn, my African advisor at the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education in Chicago, who I informed that North Park seemed too white oriented for me to pursue a masters degree there, told me that I needed to go so that I could teach them about us while I learned more about them. Then there was the move to Long Beach, California and an assignment in Irvine, California that convinced me that it was for the benefit of all that I get in y’all grill(face).
Me and my wife Nicole are on a plane from Paris right now and if I gained nothing else while there, I have been assured that my intent to better understand others is precipitated by an internal drive to better understand myself. Our trip to France was a collaboration of the ‘Black Earth Ensemble’ from Chicago and the ‘Laborintus Contemporary Ensemble’ of Paris. The intent was to mesh the cultural aesthetics of a group of African descent, with those of a group of Caucasion lineage, through a musical interaction. The two groups practiced together for two full days and culminated their labor with a melodious presentation that tore the roof off the concert hall, leaving the audience in a state of total admiration and appreciation. After having conversed with both the French and African American musicians, as well as some of the patrons, I now return to my native land with the feeling that somebody beside myself had been challenged to see others in a different light and to appreciate that difference while recognizing our alikeness at the same time.
Racism is an invention of those seeking to control by division and distraction. As long as we seek what the other has, and spend our time keeping others away from what we think is ours, then our eyes are off the prize of freedom and fairness for all. Well I’m black and right now I refuse to go back. If you’re white…what you gon do?
I'll Holla...
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