Does anyone remember Lokai and Bele? They were played by the late Frank Gorshin in the original Star Trek episode: "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." They were mirror images of each other. One character was half white and the other one was half black. Can you remember what their other halves were. Yes Black and white respectively. What was the plot? I leave that to you to discover.
What is race? Is it a quantitative or qualitative identification? Only skin color? Is there a mental ability difference or a difference in the capacity to love? What is the difference? There are so many historical underpinnings for the justification of racism from Hamm to “the white man’s burden;” separate but equal to affirmative action. One wonders if Iraq and Iran are the new white man’s burden.
We have now before us a man of mixed heritage who was raised by a white mother and white grandmother in the middle of the cornbelt. Is he white? Is he black? Or is he a unique expression of humanity and testament to the wonderful creative power in this universe?
Whether or not he should be president of the United States should in no way be judged by the color of his skin but by the content of his character. Is he qualified by this measure? Does it matter? Will people vote against him because he is black; people voted against Kennedy because he was Catholic. The Supreme Court decision making Bush president was child's play compared to the Chicago machine that gave Kennedy the election. How will it play out today?
There are people of different hue, texture, size, shape, and physical characteristic throughout this world. What makes "THEM!" different? Is the difference an important factor in my decision to relate to "THEM!"
Oh, he’s white. Oh, he’s black. Oh, she’s Korean. Oh, their Mexicans. My father said, Oh, its Japanese. THEM! What would you say to the young woman and her new born baby who both died at childbirth because the doctors standing around watching would not touch them. They were THEM! Dalit (untouchable). You want to save the people of Darfur, yes? Do you have a spare bedroom and can your daughter date one of the guys?
Did your blood pressure just go up?
What makes us different and what makes sense as a standard of judgment? Dr. Martin Luther King pointed out, the content of our character; not the content of our body must be the standard of judgement. Is his point valid? And in this judgment, again we are not so different. We all have the capacity for love and hate, joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, compassion and resentment.
I’m not a fool. I’m not going to walk down many streets in Harlem at night. I have been mugged before. My wife and I were within blocks of the Towers on 9/11 and we lived in Israel, feeling the reality of unreasoned hate. These are the result of the hate generated by racism that we have to deal with.
Racism is real. I am white in Japan and know very well the advantage that gives me – and the disadvantage my friend from The Congo experiences (not to mention his half Japanese children). Racism is real and comes in many forms having nothing to do with color. If you stand a Korean next to a Japanese I am hard pressed to see a difference in most cases, but my wife can in a heartbeat.
We live in the real world and deal with real people. I fully expect the Immigration service in New York to do “racial profiling” when looking over the arriving passengers and I would be thought several kinds of fool to sit next to an Arab student with a backpack on a bus in London without first being very observant. But most “terrorist” acts are not carried out by “THEM” but by “US,” like Timothy McVeigh.
All that aside, it doesn’t mean that we have to accept it. As Cleveland K. said, “The idealism though needs to be looked at.” I very much appreciated Senator Obama’s efforts to express this in his speech on racism: 'A More Perfect Union' in Philadelphia, PA at the Constitution Center (Please note: I do not support the Senator for president). If we don’t look at it and talk about it and resolve to put forth an ideal to live for that will change it, then we are certainly doomed because people who hate create people who hate which create ever increasing levels of resentment. No happy ending can result.
To any person who would like to try to understand the feelings of their fellow man (and woman) I recommend that you see two movies: The Great Debaters and Amazing Grace. I recommend these particular movies, not because they are enjoyable videos to take pleasure in but because I think that they would resonate with the scholastics and thinkers in this audience and hopefully move them to deeper discourse with the person you sit next to. Yes, speak to one of “THEM!” with total and uncompromising mutual respect.
1 'A More Perfect Union'
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