Perhaps, instead of what color (race?) do you identify as, we could ask everyone which minority they feel they are part of. Everyone feels that their group is under pressure. I've been happy to see that so many young couples have very different backgrounds. I hope the blending continues and brings an end to all of these questions, but I feel people will come up with new ways to discriminate.
True but it will never be as easy and straightforward as skin color is. There will come a day when people won’t see themselves as a middle aged white female, for example. They will know themselves as the life that breathes them. They will see that everyone is THAT.
I see improvement from when I was a kid. I can remember the stark brutality of the Jim Crow South. I knew by the age of five that I was White. My grandson, now 8, who once would have been discriminated against because of his darker skin, I seriously doubt has any concept of the social construct of race. I don't know, and I don't think he knows, what he will put as his "race" on the Census form when the time comes.
No need to scold yourself for seeing the two ways, that people are seen both as individuals, completely unique unto themselves, and also seen through the lens of stereotypes. We were raised to believe the latter. It was pounded into our heads. Let’s add the third one. That I am you and you are me.
I am an “older than dirt” privileged white male who lives in southern California where my “whiteness” has officially become a minority. While “ethnicity” has shifted, class structure seems to be more resolute. Power is more complex than simply race or even gender. Our subconscious minds seek power archetype symbology that is likely more spirit than form. But archetypes are not static. I was surprised how this old man from the Jim Crow South quickly accepted Barack Obama as the face of our nation with the true spirit of a leader. It seems new archetypes, like the humans who create them, are born, mature, and possibly die to be replaced by new generations. Somehow that gives me hope.
Perhaps, instead of what color (race?) do you identify as, we could ask everyone which minority they feel they are part of. Everyone feels that their group is under pressure. I've been happy to see that so many young couples have very different backgrounds. I hope the blending continues and brings an end to all of these questions, but I feel people will come up with new ways to discriminate.
True but it will never be as easy and straightforward as skin color is. There will come a day when people won’t see themselves as a middle aged white female, for example. They will know themselves as the life that breathes them. They will see that everyone is THAT.
I see improvement from when I was a kid. I can remember the stark brutality of the Jim Crow South. I knew by the age of five that I was White. My grandson, now 8, who once would have been discriminated against because of his darker skin, I seriously doubt has any concept of the social construct of race. I don't know, and I don't think he knows, what he will put as his "race" on the Census form when the time comes.
No need to scold yourself for seeing the two ways, that people are seen both as individuals, completely unique unto themselves, and also seen through the lens of stereotypes. We were raised to believe the latter. It was pounded into our heads. Let’s add the third one. That I am you and you are me.
...at its most fundamental.
I am an “older than dirt” privileged white male who lives in southern California where my “whiteness” has officially become a minority. While “ethnicity” has shifted, class structure seems to be more resolute. Power is more complex than simply race or even gender. Our subconscious minds seek power archetype symbology that is likely more spirit than form. But archetypes are not static. I was surprised how this old man from the Jim Crow South quickly accepted Barack Obama as the face of our nation with the true spirit of a leader. It seems new archetypes, like the humans who create them, are born, mature, and possibly die to be replaced by new generations. Somehow that gives me hope.
Thank you, John, for an uplift this morning. Let’s all keep talking and sharing our found wisdom.