It's OK for those interested; I wouldn't mind if it was made part of the public school curriculum. Personally, I've had the race question up to here and find the whole thing tedious. I won't subject myself to any more of it.
I've wearied myself trying to talk sense to other blacks who, I felt, really should know better. People are impervious to reason.
If there is one thing I, as a northwestern European-descended American, would convey to my African-American friends, it is that a constant emphasis on race and racial identity is self-isolating, and blinds one to the commonalities of human experience.
As an example, I once moved to a very insular Italian-American community, where virtually every activity was seen by them as part of their Italian identity. Indeed, there are many outstandingly wonderful cultural traditions that serve to shape their community life and even their personalities. But I couldn’t help but notice the very many times the neighbors would “helpfully” explain to me their customs that were nearly universal in all American subcultures, such as, “You know, we make a really big deal of the senior prom!” This comment was made by my next-door neighbor as we watched the people across the street taking snapshots of their high school senior and his date in their prom attire. I mean, who doesn’t?
As another example, I saw a headline today quoting a black billionaire saying he still experiences racism. While I have little doubt that it is true, and confess I didn’t read the article yet to evaluate the quantity and type of affronts he has experienced, I can only offer my experience as an unusually intelligent and somewhat accomplished, self-made woman, that I am so routinely underestimated and undervalued that when someone does recognize my originality early on, it’s quite surprising. In my seven decades, I have almost never been afforded the respect even a lesser-qualified male (or a more sexually glamorous woman) would unthinkingly be given, even when I have been specifically hired via a recommendation (and for a substantial fee) to do a project the “insiders” couldn’t or wouldn’t tackle; and even though I’m not half bad looking myself. I even notice this iin church and.volunteer groups. It comes from women as much or more than from men.
Unconscious prejudice against women is something I’ve had to put into historical perspective—deep cultural changes take a long time—in order to craft some proactive strategies to share with younger women, but mostly to forgive. The last thing I want is to go through life with bitterness or worse, hatred. I like men and respect their difference from women, and never want to lose that.
It is tiresome, though, and without a doubt has blunted my potential. It’s my cross to bear to keep having to prove myself in every new situation in order to do the tasks to which I believe I’m called. At least as an older person now, I’m off the “front lines” of daily struggle. Yet no Christian is ever relieved of the possibility of tribulations that may lie ahead.