To be clear, I was born and identified as a Negro. Although both my parents were born and reared in the US, they nor my grandparents not even my great-grandparents have ever been exempted from being identified by our race instead of our birth country.
To be clear - I am an American! The blood that runs through my veins is just as red as the blood that courses through the veins of say - Sean Hannity - despite the fact the man will deny, deny, deny our close affiliation based solely on the fact that we are both human beings. I could make the man very uncomfortable by stating that we might even be related!
So, for all the white people that need an in-depth look at what it means to be black, today, in America, I will give you opportunity to explore the conundrum of the differences between black and white folks through my seasoned black person's eyes.
When I wake-up in the morning, I don't think "Hey, I'm an aging black woman". The aging part is a reality and something I don't think much about on a daily basis. Kind of like I don't think about being black most of the time.
Most people use adjectives to describe who they are to themselves as well as other people. I have so many, many adjectives to define who I am and being black is way, waaay at the bottom of the list. I don't understand why, in 2014, people still judge others by the color of their skin, or the color of their eyes or whether or not they are skinny or horrendously overweight. None of those descriptive words convey who that person is or whether or not that individual is a sociopath or a trustworthy person you would allow to babysit your children.
So...this is me. I am on my way to being 70 years old. I am a mother. I am a mother that lost a child when he was thirty-two years old and the pain of losing him is still a reality in my life. I am a grandmother. I am a wife. I have been married to the same man for almost fifty years and our lives together are marked by our losses and our triumphs. I am a friend. I care deeply about others regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation. Truthfully, I do not understand why people need to put others into such neat descriptive boxes?
Why is someone's sexual orientation a necessary piece of information about another human being? Why am I concerned about what God another person chooses to worship? Of what value is this information?
All of these slots that society and people cleave to and require people to faithfully check-off BEFORE being considered a fellow human being to be on the same journey of living life is preposterous.
I dislike being told by other black people that I have to join certain black organizations just to prove my blackness. I dislike feminists organizations that require other women to act and dress in certain ways and to always support another woman regardless of whether or not that woman has lied about being abused and/or rape. I dislike celebrities like Bill Maher spreading his hatred of the Catholic Church and Islam/Muslims as if his claim of being an atheist is somehow grander than being a believer. Please understand that man can believe whatever he wishes but his beliefs should be personal and not used as a cudgel against those who choose to believe in a deity. Religious doctrines typically do not create fanatics. People create fanaticism.
The major thing that disturbs me about all of the discussions about race in this country today is that no one, at least to my knowledge, black or white, have ever stated the obvious - there are not black folks, there are no white folks, or brown or yellow folks - there are just folks. We live in a world where there are some folks that we like and trust and a whole lot of other folks that we dislike and could never trust. I have never disliked someone because of the color of their skin. So, why is it so easy for a person like Sean Hannity to dislike me because of the color of my skin?
I am not who I am because of the color of my skin. I am secure in the knowledge that I have acquired formally and informally that we people are all the same.Yes, of course we may differently execute our life paths but we are all still fundamentally the same. We breath in and out all day everyday. Blood pumps through our veins. Each of us experience something fantastic at least once in our lifetimes. Many, many of us suffer tragedy. We all weep, bleed and stumble when the burdens of life become too heavy. But you'd never know just how alike we all are if you spend just a bit of time listening to Fox News or any media outlet that covers race in America.
My value as a human being is not diminished by the color of my skin. All any of you need to know about me is that I am a human being.