I won’t lie, I’ve been looking forward to this one. My conversations with Ray are among those I’ve been most keen to share here. There are a few reasons for this...
Ray sounds like the parent of the kids I knew in high school that had inculcated a real grievance based on skin color because they had lived through the tail end of Jim Crow and frankly they were deservedly angry.
But…they couldn’t (and can’t) let it go.
So this means that they teach their kids to be suspicious and, if possible, viciously cruel to those with lighter skin because they are coming from a position of pain. Again, they deserve to express their pain. No question.
But what it means on the other end is some kid who was carefully raised by well meaning parents to try their best to love people equally gets shit on and abused because someone else’s parents told their kids to get even.
There was a LOT of damage done.
As always, damage done in the name of skin color ignores the human underneath that skin. Can we finally let it go? It’s decades after that pain - do we need to teach another generation that whitey is evil and act accordingly?
I can (and have) cried for my younger self, bullied for my skin tone over things I was raised to reject as evil.
With the bitterness and anger from Ray working its way through another generation, egged on by race profiteers who can’t simply proclaim victory, where does this really end?
Your thoughtfulness, Steve, keeps me hopeful. Your striving for truth, ability to cut through the crap, and willingness to peel back the stereotypical onion to find the kindred souls beneath- that’s hope that we can find a way forward that leaves behind the dross.
Wow.
Ray sounds like the parent of the kids I knew in high school that had inculcated a real grievance based on skin color because they had lived through the tail end of Jim Crow and frankly they were deservedly angry.
But…they couldn’t (and can’t) let it go.
So this means that they teach their kids to be suspicious and, if possible, viciously cruel to those with lighter skin because they are coming from a position of pain. Again, they deserve to express their pain. No question.
But what it means on the other end is some kid who was carefully raised by well meaning parents to try their best to love people equally gets shit on and abused because someone else’s parents told their kids to get even.
There was a LOT of damage done.
As always, damage done in the name of skin color ignores the human underneath that skin. Can we finally let it go? It’s decades after that pain - do we need to teach another generation that whitey is evil and act accordingly?
I can (and have) cried for my younger self, bullied for my skin tone over things I was raised to reject as evil.
With the bitterness and anger from Ray working its way through another generation, egged on by race profiteers who can’t simply proclaim victory, where does this really end?
Your thoughtfulness, Steve, keeps me hopeful. Your striving for truth, ability to cut through the crap, and willingness to peel back the stereotypical onion to find the kindred souls beneath- that’s hope that we can find a way forward that leaves behind the dross.
Thanks for sharing this -
"I know you don’t believe this. Care to explain what you’re actually trying to say here?" I love this. I'm going to try using it.
I am guessing that Ray is a big Marley K fan?