this letter was in today's macon telegraph:
I have spent most of my adult life trying to find ways to build bridges and confront my own prejudice, as well as pursuing paths that could help me to find healing from the wounds caused by racism. It has not been an easy road, but it has been a good one and it has led me to this place today.
This is a place that allows me to speak about some of the issues facing us in this country regarding race and to try to help others to have hope about overcoming their racial woundedness.
Also, I have been thinking about the terminology that we have used for so long regarding the effort to build racial bridges. I have come to realize that "racial reconciliation" implies there was a previous relationship that has been breached in some way, but the truth of the matter is, that is not true. There was no authentic relationship between blacks and whites in this country and in too many instances, there are not any authentic ones now.
I think that this is true, because I see how difficult it is for the average white person to relate to the average black person as one human relating to another. I find that most interactions are limited to interrogations designed to determine if the person standing in front of the interrogator is really worthy of recognition. So I think we need some new ways to talk about what we are trying to achieve and that a place to start is with "acknowledgement."
Whites in America need to work on learning to see a black person as a worthy human being regardless of their achievements, and to decide that an interaction with that person can occur; because as one human being to another, a connection can be made.
Blacks need to do the same thing and to learn to expect to be acknowledged as a human being and to learn to be careful not to fall into the role of answering questions and explaining enough to become worthy of acceptance.
Thus, my intention is to work toward making sure that there is "racial acknowledgement," instead of racial reconciliation, because when that occurs, the chance to form a genuine relationship can occur as well.
Our ability to replace the racial monologue in this community with a racial dialogue, depends upon all of us being willing to take a deep breath, and to accept where we are at the present time. Then we need to make a conscious decision to make the necessary changes.
In order to do this, we all need to look at who sits in our living rooms with us, because true acknowledgement and dialogue are likely to change who is in the living room of a lot of our houses.
It is clear that this is a change that needs to happen if there is ever going to be substantial and sustainable systemic change in our community and in our country.
Dr. Catherine Meeks is the executive director of the Lane Center for Community Engagement and Service at Wesleyan College.
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29 comments:
Very heartwarming and true. I just find it ironic that you publish this for us in light of all the racial slurs and cursing you let slip through these blogs.
i would love to see her carry this message into the hoods'.
POWP
Why do people associate hate with race?
Maybe the old folks do, but us young folks of today don’t hate someone because they are white, black, yellow, brown, purple, or what ever.
People of today hate someone if they cut them off in traffic, steal from them, shoot their friend or loved one, and so on. Not because the color of their skin.
I think this article was pointless. If people were color blind they would hate some one because they were taller or hair style or what ever. It is in our nature to not get along with everyone.
Why do you think we have a Bible? To try and tell us how to act and live with one another, and look what happend. Now we have wars because people cant agree on which religion we should believe in.
zda
This is a blog set up for people of Lamar County to vent or pat each other on the back!
The last thing we need is an As$hole like you trying to monitor everything we say and go complain about it.
THANKYOU Walter for letting us speak our minds without every little detail having to be P.C. or worthy of a Nuns approval.
You can't talk about race in public if your white so how else are we going to discuss these issues without an anon. blog?
Some things could be left unsaid but then again I would rather just hear it and get it out in the open.
EVERY SINGLE PERSON HAS PREJUDICE IN THIER MIND, some are able to overcome it and not react, others act on it and never can overcome it but talking about ANY situation lets you figure out where you want to stand and puts your ideas in check.
Welcome to the real world.
Rev.
Walter,thank you for sharing this enlightening article with all of us!
It is such ashame that so many people in this county hold so much prejudice and hate in their hearts!
I hope all of the ignorant, narrow minded bloggers read this article.
All people should be treated with respect and dignity!
big load of bullsh@# maybe in a perfict world yes but not in this one ,i just find it ironic that raceism is allways directed toward the white person,folks you need to understand there are far more biggots in the black community that in the white now go back to your holding hands and singing kum ba ya while you dance around the love tree and quit looking at life through blinders and except the fact that it will never be a world of peace and love where every race walks hand in hand it has never been and will never be
Anybody who uses the word "woundedness" is an Oprah/Dr. Phil wannabe and should be considered accordingly.
what?why post and article like that on a free thinker blog page crap like that needs to be on some church or leftwing liberal bolg page not where people are allowed to say what they think about an issue and to HELL with OPRA the fat cow
Rev I appreciate the concern, but I will comment on whatever I feel like. If Walter wants to block out non-Lamar County views then that is his right - he just won't have a very good blog without a diversity of opinion. Any good editor knows that.
i have only seen a few racist statements on this bolg i feel the marority are simply the truth just because you can't face that doesn't make it racist comment this thing called life is real
In a perfect world there may be peace and tranquility but in the world we live in everyone has a bone to pick with someone or about something and if you can't speak your mind about issues that concern you then you should just lay down and die because you really aren't living if you don't have an opinion about something. In the Garth Brooks song "We Shall Be Free" when we accept a person as a person and judge him by his integrity and not by the color of his skin then we shall be free.
I have my own views of some of the things that the gov't does about the welfare situation and this does not pertain just to blacks it pertains to anyone who thinks that the gov't and the taxpayers should support them instead of trying to do for themselves. I just don't feel that it is right for the gov't to take from the hardworking taxpayer to help support someone who is too lazy to support theirselves. When I or a loved one needs medicine and I can't afford to pay for it it really galls me that the people on welfare gets it and We don't.
Hey 8:01 last time I checked this was a free country and the constitution guarantees Walter freedom of the press which I might add you are enjoying anonymously. Not a country free to print (or blog) just the opinions that YOU think are RIGHT or want to hear. I thought the point of this blog was for EVERYONE who has an interest in Lamar County to share ALL of their opinions. Is Walter not allowed to post what he THINKS? Is he any less of a free thinker than YOU just because you don't like what he has to say? Although the real world that the rest of us live in may not be pretty all the time, I'll take it over the utopia that you would created. If you don’t like the ideas expressed here perhaps you should find somewhere else to spend your time and spout your rhetoric.
zda
Then why do you say "LET SLIP THROUGH THESE BLOGS" if you are not cheering on censorship?
I thought that was an obvious comment sent to Walter to ask for some filtering of ideas and remarks.
I guess I was wrong- or am I?
The plot thickens!
Rev.
Am I understanding this braintrust correctly that peoples of two different cultures do not mesh well collectively as a group due to their respective beliefs in the superiority of their own culture and the inferiority of the other's.....Groundbreaking.
Knowing no more about this author, there a few things I noted during my reading of her letter. Though I believe her heart is in the right place; I must question the whereabouts of her mind and some of the premises on which it formed her argument. Notably, either the lady writing this is an extremely racist white lady, or a black lady suffering from an extreme inferiority complex. Shall we begin?
She writes:
"I think that this is true, because I see how difficult it is for the average white person to relate to the average black person as one human relating to another."
I don't see how difficult that is at all. It has never been difficult for me to relate to a black person as a human being. Either the white author has a hard time viewing her black counterparts as people, or the black author believes every white person she encounters sees her as a lower life form.
Our author continues:
"Whites in America need to work on learning to see a black person as a worthy human being regardless of their achievements, and to decide that an interaction with that person can occur; because as one human being to another, a connection can be made."
This statement alone embodies one of the main problems facing race relations today. Entitlement.
With my apologies to our esteemed authorette, I refuse to base someone's worthiness of interaction on anything but their acheivements. I will not extend this luxury to any of my fairer skinned colleagues, why should I do so based on someone's race? In a capitalist society, if not on aceivements, then on what aspects do we base a persons worthiness of interactions. As the author implies, time spent interracting is a scarcity in today's world, or else it would not be a question of worthiness. And being a scarce commodity, let us compare interaction time with money. According to our author, one should spend their money on products with regard to the skin color of the producer, not to the utility and value they place on the good itself.
Without some sort of screening process for interaction we would all be walking around with a bunch of bad apples. Then, according to my mama, the whole bunch will be ruined; and according to pops, we will all look like a bunch of dumb-asses. I say personal acheivement, which stems from personal values and morals, is much better than skin color, which stems from chance and circumstance.
I see race issues in this country as being in the same boat as our health care system. Until the government gets their fat asses out of the boat, it is going nowhere but down. People acting under government restrictions forcing them to accept one another creates resentment at best, and outright prejudice and racism at worst. As the free market will bring our health care system back afloat, so will a free society turn its prejudices against ignorance, intolerance, and laziness instead of against the color of one another's skin, their country of origin, or any other falsely divisive factors.
PS. Please call Bad Newz Kennelz for all of your pet boarding needs.
Bad Newz Kennelz, where it's not about the size of the dog in the fight, but about the size of the cattle prod on its neck.
This lady comments alot on WMAZTV, with some well founded points. However, she always discolors them by bringing in the race issue. That is a shame. The White Person is always depicted as a villian. Achievement, no matter the race, creed or whatever, should be the base line. Never Race or creed or whatever.
after reading all the blogs, i would agree that the whites are the villians....you dont hear the blacks talking bad about the whites....we need to start judging people by the content of their hearts and minds and not by the color of their skins......what would be do without the blacks and the browns to do all our work.....and to have someone to blame for our problems liberleft
This is just another thinly veiled attempt to vilify the white person. I found NONE of her statements to be true as far as I am concerned. I work with black, white and hispanic people. I base my professional opinions on their job performances. I base my personal opinion on what I hear come out of their mouths on a regular basis. RARELY do I hear the white people use racial slants in their conversations, but with some of my black co-workers, nearly every thing takes on a racial slant. They do a poor job, the white boss reprimands them and it becomes about race. The latest water cooler rant is over Michael Vick. The lone black male who said he thought he was guilty and should never play in the NFL again was called out as a "wanna-be-whitey". I take from that the general consensus among black people is that you side with the black person no matter what.
Do you REALLY want the world to judge the black race on the contents of their hearts and minds?
If this judgement was passed it would be followed with genocide.
What is the black community going to do to clean up its reputation besides blaming others for being realistic?
What part of the world has a large black population without the senseless crimes that go along with it?
For the ten millionth time-
There ARE great black people in this world (AGREED) but there are far, far, more Unwanteds (If you agreed with the first then you should be honest enough to agree with the last- AGREED).
The black community accepting that THEY need to do something about this is the best foot forward, no one else is allowed to help without being called a racist.
"TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL",Crosby, Stills, and Nash.
unwanted by who...the whiteman...b/s....all are equal in eyes of God.....
Dear Black person,
I am not God and my eyes do not see "equal". You are part of a race that is destroying the world and all you can do is blame someone else or lean on a Bible verse that cannot be compared with HUMAN behavior. God doesn't want us to stand back while your people destroy a great country.
When is the word BLACK going to be a racial slur?
The bible states judge not lest you be judged. but everyone is judged by something or someone. I have found that there are a lot of contradictory statements in the bible which leads me to question the truth in the bible. But then again people intrepret the bible the way that looks best to them. I was told by one of my co-workers that the rumor was that I was a very prejudiced person I then in turn told her I didn't care what color you are as long as you are pulling your weight then I didn't have a problem with anyone, its the ones that don't pull their own weight and expect some else to do the work for them that I have a problem with. This is not in my opinion prejudiced or racist. I pull my own weight and don't expect handouts because I don't beleive in handouts. The gov't should not be giving all the handouts then maybe people would realize that if they don't get out and find a job then they will starve or be homeless or both. Black and white have nothing to do with my argument its all of the lazy good-for-nothings that expect a free ride.
I enjoyed the article and believe that it gets to the heart of the matter. I believe that much of what we experience isn't recism but culturalism. We see something different and not understanding it we often judge it as wrong. It think it goes deeper that racism. American like many countries has a life threating illness call materialism. It's symptoms are racism, classism, the devistation of natural resources and the extermination of the human spirit/soul.
We think all our problems can be solved if only we could have something we don't and we construct a rational excuse to justify what we do to our brother in order to get that, what we think we must have. The rich don't worry about the poor because they can alway hire one have to kill the other half and racism is just one way it is done.
In a capitalistic society one's greatest fear is that of lack. Fear of destitution is what drives this country and what you get is leadership like George W. Bush that has the interest of multi-national cooperations at hand more that the people that voted him in office.
It's a sad state affairs Things are going to get even harder in this country and I wonder how long it's going to take before we wake up and see that we have been had.
no, you are a sad state of affires you towel head-- go back to sand land
I bet you think denial is a river in Egypt.
Most of this so called "Racism" we see now days is nothing but the truth. People who do not except this truth beat it up by calling it racist.
There is no lack of understanding with the black culture, it's the COMPLETE undrestanding that this is a plague set out to destroy our foundation of what it takes to be a prosperous America.
If life were a game your team would be way behind.
There is great hope for a cure but if the ones spreading the plague don't feel like they are sick how are we suppose to contain it?
Blue just admit it, the black culture is failing all of America.
You know whay "Homey" says
" It's just another plan by whitey to keep a brother down."
Hey Blue, there's a lot of people that live near denial in Lamar, land of Egypt.
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