I've been struck by those written about race and ethnicity. Conversations around race are often limited by our inability to listen, our fear to openly share, our ignorance and lack of experience with the "other," and all sorts of unseen and unknown factors due to a process of racialization that begins at birth for each and every one of us. There are usually voices missing or silenced in the conversation (which makes me wonder if we can call it a conversation at all), and there are huge ideological and cultural barriers that prevent us from getting to the bottom of things. The thing about these secrets is that they're totally anonymous and honest, and they seem to provide an outlet for thoughts otherwise kept private. Interestingly enough, I haven't come across very many from white people talking about being white (that's a whole nother story in itself), but I have come across lots and lots from people of color being honest about being people of color.
I'm curious to know what y'all think.
I'd like to meet this person and have a conversation, white person to white person, about why our white people do this.
How different would it be to have a history built on racial equality and cultural sensitivity? Which leads me to what my "secret" might be:
3 comments:
I have wondered why white people seem to have the greatest need to dominate. Why we appear to be, in the end, the most fearful of the races and therefore willing to do horrific things to save ourselves. Could it be something as simple as protecting our recessive genes? And why have we been more traumatized by death? Something to do with the climate we survived in? Less warmth, less time to grieve. Do I sound like a Cultural Anthropologist???!
How far do we need to go back to understand and forgive?
I was trying to identify all the faces in the last postcard, attempting to understand why each was represented in the "shame". What I tentatively decided, not being able to quickly put a name on each, was that the ones I knew about represented a mix of great contributions to their country as well as behaviors/attitudes we NOW consider unpalatable. The postcard that said "I like my Asian half better than my white half" hit me hard, as I wondered again what Chika and Rohit have experienced in their lives. Yes, Kim, you do sound like a Cultural Anthropologist, and your thoughts are worth pondering, for genetics really could be an underlying factor in these issues. How far to go back? Time for a night under the stars. Ma/Sis
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