Let’s recognize our shared humanity and tackle injustices colorblind

Let’s recognize our shared humanity and tackle injustices colorblind

Commentary By Pete Haug | FāVS News

They called me “halbschwartz”  (half-Black), a label I wore with pride. It meant I’d been accepted into the small contingent of Black students in my class. We studied German together in a Massachusetts boarding school. We all came from middle-class families.

I wasn’t aware of racial issues. My childhood was spent in an all-white village during the1930s and 40s. Occasionally the “N” word was dropped around my home by an elder relative, but my mother took pains to discourage my usage. My first personal awareness of its ramifications came from a classmate.

Prep school

My parents sent me, age 13, to live and learn at a college preparatory school in Massachusetts, 165 miles from home. One day I dropped the “N” word. Kelman, a Jewish friend, called me aside and suggested I not use that word because Monroe, another classmate, was “colored.” Monroe bore no visible signs of being a “Negro.” Thus, began my personal interactions with both Blacks and Jews. I harbor broad affection for friends of these minorities, often stigmatized by us white guys.

Our sophomore year Monroe, Kirk and Marshal, the latter two also Black, and I began learning German. We studied and generally hung out together. By spring, we were sunbathing and comparing tans. That’s when they branded me “halbschwartz.” During our last two years, Monroe and I roomed together. One of the dorm masters once commented that if a stranger were asked to identify which of us was Black, he’d choose me, such were my roommate’s and my comparative physical characteristics.

Monroe was from South Carolina. During long holidays he traveled home by train, changing trains in Washington, D.C. South of Washington, Jim Crow laws kicked in. Coming north to school wasn’t a problem. He’d leave his hometown in a segregated section with other Blacks. After changing trains in Washington, he’d board an integrated train for Massachusetts.

Jim Crow steps in

Returning home was another story. When Monroe changed trains in Washington, conductors would steer him into a white car, despite his protestations. Monroe well understood if someone who knew him spotted him getting out of a white car in his hometown, he would be in big trouble. But he survived several years of travel, went on to study medicine and became a successful physician like his father. 

For four years my Black friends shared stories with me about racist affronts they had experienced. They taught me a simple mantra that still applies: “If you’re White — all right; Brown — stick around; Black — stand back.”

Those accounts helped me understand, at least partially, issues faced by multiple minorities, outsiders in a basically white Christian culture. Clearly, I will never understand the full complement of injustices facing Blacks, Jews, Native Americans, immigrants and numerous other minorities. But I can be aware of them, sympathetic to what they might face.

Race politics

This month our book club is reading “The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America,” by Coleman Hughes. Based on my experiences, the book is long overdue. Hughes, Black himself, draws heavily on speeches and writings of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others. He builds a case for “colorblindness,” i.e., not allowing race to influence our personal decisions.  

Biologically, race simply doesn’t exist. It’s not part of scientific taxonomy. We humans, Homo sapiens, are a single species. As Hughes observes, race has been socially constructed to be used for diverse purposes across the political spectrum. The “one drop” rule, for example, fostered white supremacy by asserting that one drop of “Black” blood bestows “Blackness,” a tradition even codified into law last century. Jim Crow’s pernicious reach is long. 

So, if race doesn’t exist, where is the value in “equal opportunity” legislation? And what about reparations? Both are well-intentioned absurdities. If race is the only criterion for various types of aid, how do we choose recipients? It might be more effective to use contemporary social disparities, like poverty.

One humanity

Instead of focusing on differences, why not mount a serious campaign to recognize our essential oneness, with its infinite varieties of hues, talents, intelligence and other shared characteristics? Why not strive for unified thoughts, ideas and actions to advance our civilization? We can try to understand global problems, such as in Africa, the Middle East, Asia — even America. We’re many shades of the same family of man, becoming increasingly interdependent as our shared planet warms. 

Mandate for America

Early last century Baha’u’llah’s great-grandson, the last individual to head the Baha’i Faith, wrote about America’s racial problems. He told American Baha’is that racial prejudice “has bitten into the fiber, and attacked the whole social structure of American society,” calling it “the most vital and challenging issue” facing America. Tackling this issue, he wrote, requires sacrifices, care, vigilance, moral courage, fortitude, tact and sympathy. 

A tall order? Perhaps not.

The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. FāVS News values diverse perspectives and thoughtful analysis on matters of faith and spirituality.