Gene's Blog

A girl like me.

A girl like me

What I want to talk about this morning is this video. It was made by a young black woman and it is a series of vignettes in which young black women talk about what it is like to be  a young black woman in this free country in the 21st century. I’d like the world to see this video. All of it, the world I mean. It speaks to the “closeted” racism so deeply embedded into not only American society but in to the very psyche of the entire world, including that part of the world which is primarily dark-skinned.

Pay particular attention, please, to the young woman who replicates research used by Dr. Kenneth Clark the landmark case Brown versus Board of Education. Her research is just the saddest part of this entire video, for me. Even at those very young ages, those children have already been conditioned to think that white is better. The little girl who was asked to give the researcher the “bad” doll, SO wanted to give her the black one, you can see the conflict within her as she pushed the black doll forward. We thought we got rid of racism in this country a long time ago. We pride ourselves on being a colorblind society. We are fooling ourselves. Racism is as alive now as it was in the 1950’s when Dr. Martin Luther King began to speak against institutional racism and was murdered for his efforts.

The point these young women drive home well is amazingly insightful. Virtually every other population group in this country, or any other, knows their heritage, the country of origin and often something of the culture and mores of the original home. African-Americans, have none of that sense of history. They know they came here from Africa but there are many regions, cultures and different values in different countries in Africa, these children can never know that in the way that the rest of us do and take so granted.

I honestly think the eventual answer is to lose all ethnic cultures, for this world to become, one people. I visited the Body World exhibit while it was here last year and it made such an impact on me, not only for the excellence of the presentation but for the absolute realization that when you remove our skin, our “color”, underneath we are the same species, with interchangeable parts and identical structures. We are NOT 200 different countries, and many times that different cultures, we are all, under our skin, the SAME people. We have to expand our vision of family, beyond the narrowness of us versus them, to understand, accept and embrace, that we are all one people. Yes, we have different understandings and different experiences depending on the area of the world we grow up, but we NOT what we think. We are not “just” catholic or lutheran or buddhist or white, black, yellow or brown. We are one people living on one world. And the sooner we embrace that idea, that TRUTH, and realize that all the separates are various human inventions and conventions, we will be able to move forward together, to grant equality and the right to the pursuit of happiness to all people no matter where on this world we live. Then will we become a civilization, then and only then will we be able and willing to afford the same opportunities to all of our people and all of our children. Then we can approach issues, cultural difference, medical issues and educational issues from a global and equal position. We are taking baby steps toward this goal now, young people like Kiri Davis. who made this film, are leading us now. showing us what We Really Are and what we need work on – in the same way, albeit much more gently, that Adolph Hitler showed us the worst of what we can be. I’m hopeful, truly hopeful that this is the beginning of a New Age. Young women like this one, young people like her are showing us what we can be. We only need open our hearts and listen. Much love, :^) gene

If today brings even one choice your way
choose to be a bringer of the light :^) gene