Racism Today - Do we have our Blinders on?

My parents farm land consisted of only about fifty acres of pasture and fields during my growing up years.  The two old mules, Kate and Mary, had outlived their usefulness during my Dad's last years of farming.  He had turned them out to pasture to live out the rest of their lives in leisure.  They had done their share of work on the farm and had earned retirement.  Being the last of seven children, I was not privilege to being behind the plow of either of them.  That was left up to the older ones, and by the time I was old enough to work on the farm, the tractor was in use much more often than the mules.

I do remember once asking my father why he had put blinders on old Kate as he was working the small patch out next to the highway.   He explained to me that mules were easily distracted and often skittish.  If they couldn't see what was going on around them, they were perfectly content to just keep plodding along the rows, not getting off the beaten path.

Too often, we get complacent in our own little worlds.  The blinders we choose to wear prevent us from seeing the truth - the truth about racism in the world, in our country and in our neighborhoods.  I am a white middle class American born during the baby boomer years of the late 1940's.  I have never been turned away from a restaurant or had to use the back door of an establishment because of my skin color.  My speech patterns and my language have never been the topic of snide jokes.  I've never been told, "You should just go back to where you came from".

But those are days of the past, we may say - and this is today.  Today?  Today, how many people of different races do we know that can say, "I have never been turned down for a job because of my skin color"?   How many do we know that can say, "I have never had a racial slur slung my way"?  And most importantly, how many people of a different race have we taken the trouble to get to know - I mean truly know.... know so well that we can see what's going on in their lives without our blinders on?  

It's hard not to wear blinders.  They're safe, they're comfortable, they keep us from being skittish.  They keep us plodding along on the same beaten path, not taking a step to the right or to the left. 
 

Today we celebrate the life of  Dr. Martin Luther King who did more for racial relations in our country than anyone before him or since him.  One of my favorite speeches by Dr. King was one that he delivered in Washington, DC in April of 1968, "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution".  Here is an excerpt from that speech that speaks volumes about the ongoing social issues in our world.

"I am sure that most of you have read that arresting little story from the pen of Washington Irving entitled "Rip Van Winkle." The one thing that we usually remember about the story is that Rip Van Winkle slept twenty years. But there is another point in that little story that is almost completely overlooked. It was the sign in the end, from which Rip went up in the mountain for his long sleep.

When Rip Van Winkle went up into the mountain, the sign had a picture of King George the Third of England. When he came down twenty years later the sign had a picture of George Washington, the first president of the United States. When Rip Van Winkle looked up at the picture of George Washington—and looking at the picture he was amazed—he was completely lost. He knew not who he was.

And this reveals to us that the most striking thing about the story of Rip Van Winkle is not merely that Rip slept twenty years, but that he slept through a revolution. While he was peacefully snoring up in the mountain a revolution was taking place that at points would change the course of history—and Rip knew nothing about it. He was asleep. Yes, he slept through a revolution. And one of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find themselves living amid a great period of social change, and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses, that the new situation demands. They end up sleeping through a revolution."

Have we fallen asleep like Rip Van Winkle?  Have our blinders prevented us from developing the attitudes and the mental responses of working for equality.  I would like to think that Dr. King would be pleased to step into the world today and see what a difference his peaceful revolution made .  Maybe he would even be pleased to see a black President in the White House.   But only when the  skin color of the President in the White House is not an issue will we live in a world that Dr. King could be proud of - a world that is color blind.






Beverly Diehl's Writing in Flow blogpost invited us to be a part of her Martin Luther King BlogFest.  See what others are writing by visiting her blog.