There are no race problems! Only people problems–begins an interesting article from The Voice of Unity published many years ago in The Roanoke Tribune that seems as timely today as ever-–if not more so. With the continuous reference to “race problems, the concept appears to get invariably stuck in Black and White in this American nation in particular, yet spreading undetected as such throughout the world. Could it be that our attention is still being sought through fires, floods, erupting volcanoes, etc. throughout this nation and the entire human world from personal relations status to international threats and insecurities?
Through the centuries there have yet to be any discernible intrinsic solutions to racial or territorial prejudices and divides. And the only ones to benefit from the devastating results are the ones who don’t live to reap them. Occasionally we hear or read of a “flare-up” of race problems when what we really have is another eruption of people problems -too easily agitated. There are several holidays and other special occasions during which people of different races and/or religions commingle with pride only to return to the their respective comfort-zones immediately afterward.
During Brotherhood Week there is always a concerted effort to co-mingle lovingly and respectfully. But too frequently it seems that both sides are more comfortable in returning to status-quo. Why not have a “Hate Your Neighbor Week” instead. This way you can get it all out of your system during the 7-day prejudice and ill-will period and spend the other 51 weeks of the year treating all people as “brothers” and loving human beings. Wouldn’t that make more sense?
No one is born with prejudice! “They have to be taught, before it’s too late, before they are 6, 7 or 8, to hate all the people their relatives hate. They have to be carefully taught,” go the lyrics of one of the songs from “South Pacific.” Another controversial cliché’ is taking pride in being “My brother’s keeper!” In order to be a keeper someone or something has to be kept–not an amiable position for the one being kept! NO! You are not your brother’s keeper–you’re your brother’s BROTHER!
The weakness of all programs in solving “the race problem” is that the emphasis is always on what “we can do for Black Americans or the Native Americans herded onto reservations on their own homeland where they remain to date! Nor is it in building walls to keep others out!
On one bus excursion to the Big Apple (where I had lived and worked at different times) had been added a special boat trip to the Stature of Liberty standing in New York Harbor! There are no words to describe the feeling, standing docked at her feet with torch held so high you could not see its top, while reading the words inscribed: “Give me your tired, your poor; your huddled masses yearning to breath free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
This is truly representative of America–Black, White, Red , , ,and the beat goes on and on . . .
