I would like to say that I am seventy-five soon to be seventy-six. My journey with race relations began in kindergarten. I need to say that I have white skin.
One day after school I brought a friend home whose skin was dark brown. She stayed at my house until her mother picked her up. Then my mother had a chat with me conveying that there was nothing wrong with my friend because of her color but we had neighbors that might object. Therefore, she didn’t come home with me again.
A few years later our neighborhood changed from being all white to being integrated. My mom owned a duplex rented to a lovely Afro-American family. We also had a wonderful Chinese family across the street.
I am writing this from memory so there are probably gaps in time. We attended Ashland Avenue Baptist Church in Toledo, Ohio. One of the first contacts I recall, since the girl in kindergarten was a wonderful man who took care of our church facilities. His name was George Deeble. George exuded a wonderful attitude about him at all times. He was well always friendly and caring. I was probably in middle school when I met George.
About the same time, I attended Robinson Junior High School. There I had an Afro-American music teacher, Mr. Carter. Mr. Carter like George was warm and friendly. No one ever knew it, but I had a crush on him. He later taught music at Scott High School. I graduated from Scott High School, so I had him as a music teacher for four years. I learned a lot from him about music and enjoyed participating in choir.
After high school I worked in a bank and had an unusual experience. A Caucasian teenager came to my window and handed me a large sum of money, I do not recall the exact amount, and asked that I give him smaller bills. The next day he returned and did the same thing. I questioned him about this and said he had been given money for his birthday. I reported the instances to my boss who called the police, they came to question me. While they were there the teenager returned and came to my window again. At that point they took him into custody. He and a friend had robbed a retired professor and they had no clues as to who had committed the crime until he was caught at my window.
All of that said to say one of the detectives, Ed Turner, was Afro American. My mom and I frequently shopped at the Lion store and ran into him one day. He served as private security when off duty. We became great friends. He like the other men had a wonderful spirit about him.
At about this same time Martin Luther King began peaceful protests for equal rights. I was not aware that the rights for black people were not equal to whites. But I admired him and believed that all should have equal rights.
Then came the riots of the sixties. The National Guard station was set up one block from my house. An elderly black gentleman whose name was Carnie, looked out for me and my family.
During that time there was an Afro American young lady at my church that needed a ride home late one night. I had just bought a used mustang convertible. It was hot and I had the roof down. I dropped her off at her house and headed home. I caught a red light. I noticed there were a lot of men making noise in the street and it dawned on me that here I was in my convertible, a white girl, and wondered if they were going to attack me. I quickly prayed for protection just in case they had bad motives. They didn’t! The light changed and I went home.
As a white person I physically see the color of people’s skin. You do too! You look in the mirror every day at yourself and see yourself as whatever color your skin is. This means anyone with a different color skin is different from you physically. I can’t change that, and you can’t change that. My point of reference when I hear a discussion of people generically is to visualize them as white. If your skin is non-white and people are being discussed generically I bet that you mentally visualize them with your color of skin. I believe this is normal based on what we see in the mirror.
Just because I see your skin as different from mine does not make me prejudice. We are who we are physically. But all of us are more than our physical being. God made us up of body, soul, and spirit. It is not my intention to judge a person by how they look. The soul and spirit are more important than the body. Your body does not define who you are your soul and spirit does.
I remember what my mom said to me when I brought my friend home from school. I determined that I would do my best never to say or do anything that would instill in my children the distinction of a person based on color. My hope at that time is and still is that discrimination can be extinguished one person at a time one generation at a time.
Legally we have come a long way. But George Floyd’s murder has shown we still have a long way to go. The law can only do so much. It can’t change a person’s heart. Only God can.
I have a dear friend in Detroit who is a pastor. I have discussed this with her a few times to see it from her perspective. I may not have nailed it, but I am getting there. I haven’t walked in your shoes.
When I worked in Detroit, I had to take my car to a repair shop in the city. When I got there, I noticed I was the only white person there. I wondered what the other people thought about my presence. I will never know.
I don’t know what it is like to be racially profiled. Well, maybe I do but not to the extent people of other colors have. I know that white people are judged by people of other colors because of there whiteness. Many assume all white people are alike. Unfortunately, some but not all white folks make the same assumption of people of color. This is wrong!
God made all people in His image. When God made man, He made him a three part being, body, soul, and spirit. God is spirit and it is His spiritual image that we are made in.
God is love, and He expects us to love one another.
When I see a people, I do see the color of their skin. But I make friends base on the soul and spirit of the person.
I am grateful to live in the United State when I see the racial diversity we have. I have brothers and sisters of all colors. I am grateful for them.
Please pray that God will change the hearts of all people to judge a person not by color but by soul and spirit.
Picture Annie Spratt/Unsplash