I was doing some thinking....

I had a conversation with a friend last night that got me thinking. And for those of you who know me, I’m a thinker. This can get me into trouble, as I can do more thinking than doing sometimes, but I wanted to share with you these thoughts, though a hornet’s nest it may be.

I was sharing with my friend some of the things that had been discussed in on of my classes and we then started discussing racism. And how, even with the ending of apartheid in South Africa and the demolishment of slavery in the US, that racism still exists and how do you end racism.

I shared with him a talk that he and one of my friends here had recently. This is not a great example, but an example none the less. Take a fine antique table that has a large gouge that has been made on the top of it, that table is now damaged. If you want to repair it, you need to sand it, work long and hard to remove that damage that has been done that piece of furniture. Or you could throw a table cloth over the table and no one could see the damage, covering it up as if it is not there, masking it, though it is still there underneath because you would rather not do the work. Or you could fill it in with some putting and try to match the wood, though it wouldn’t look the same. Or you could try to find a piece of wood that was similar to replace it, but it still wouldn’t be the same, but close. The best is to work hard at sanding out the flaw to remove it with hard work, even though it may still leave a bit of a scar, it will eventually look better. That’s what we have to do about racism. Work hard, sand it, and sand it and work hard. But often we through a table cloth over it and cover it up and say it is gone when it is not. Or we try to use putty to fill it in; some other kind of method to take care of a problem that doesn’t quite fit the problem.

So then we started talking about equality, but what is really equal about us, except that we are all living, breathing human beings? Shouldn’t we celebrate our uniqueness, our differences, our talents, our abilities? Why must we separate and categorize? Why do many whites often feel superior to others? Why do some blacks feel inferior to whites still today? Why do we still check “color” boxes on forms? Why does it matter? Why should it matter? It shouldn’t. The only thing my skin color REALLY matters to is the sun as it makes me more likely to burn and more prone to skin cancer….been there, done that and have the scar to prove it!

We still have a lot of sanding to do, both here in South Africa and in the US.

Then our conversation turned back to the US and my friend mentioned people that didn’t want to learn English that came to the states. But I said, maybe it is not that they don’t want to learn, but that they are afraid to learn. And there could be many fears attached that—fear of being caught because they are in the states illegally, or fear that they can not learn, or fear that they will lose the one thing that still attaches them to their homeland. I know this is an extremely controversial subject in the states, but I have always been proud of the fact that the US has been a melting pot and a dream for people to come as a place to call home and to make a new life for themselves when the place that has been their home has become a place that is no longer a place that they feel they can raise their family. The US provides hope and future for them and their children. I know we can not “save” everyone, but the US has been that for so many and it has always been such a magical place that I hate to see that die. Many of these families turn to the states as their last hope and the language barrier is certainly a problem and many rely on their children to be the conduit for communication. But perhaps it is fear that prevents them from learning our language, not an easy language to learn, and especially for older people who come to our country.

But how often does fear keep any of us from doing something that we want to do? How often does fear keep us from doing something that we feel we should do? We fear that which we do not know. Fear is often what creates such things as racism and hatred, because we do not know better. So we must educate ourselves on that which we do not know. And we do not educate ourselves by listening to what is said on the news or in the newspapers only, as we do not get the full story. We must take the time to read about that which we do not know or reach out to those people we do not know and get to know them.

We must face our fears in order to overcome them.

So what are your fears?