I think a lot about the subject of racism, and I love to read books by and about people of other races, religions, nations and cultures. There’s just something to be said for learning the differences and recognizing the sameness, those common threads of all humanity.

Regrettably, hatred and fear of those who are different from us seems to be a common thread of humanity, a fact of life. The Gospel According to Shug says, “Helped are those who are enemies of their own racism,” recognizing that we all have a capacity to hate and the ability to fight against it. (from The Temple of My Familiar, Alice Walker)

On Live’s Mental Jewelry album, they sing, “This is not a black and white world. To be alive I say the colors must swirl. And I believe that maybe today we will all get to appreciate the beauty of gray.” It’s a little idealistic, but a lovely image nonetheless.

May we all be, “Helped.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 10th, 2007 at 9:44 pm and is filed under meanderings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.