For Tyson

 I have been misunderstood all of my life because I think I'm making myself understood but I'm not.  The last few days I've been reading Maya Angelou's "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" and I said to Shelley how we white people can never truly understand black people because we have never experienced the horrendous prejudicial treatment they have suffered and still today suffer.  We have no personal reference to that kind of indignity.

Shelley said I had equated racism with ageism and sexism when you, Tyson, took me to task.  I remember the incident but not the details.  I do know that neither the horrors of ageism or sexism can ever be equated with what has been put upon black people.  They equate only in that they are all wrong. I know I never would have meant they were of "equal values" because I have been painfully aware since I was in my teens the evils that were being perpetuated against blacks.  The years haven't changed my mind because the evils have continued to be shown to the world thanks to the free press.

I'm not ashamed of being white...that is pure accident...but I am ashamed of the people (black/white/yellow/whatever) who are ignorant enough to judge a person's worth based on skin color/ethnicity/sex.  One of a human being's biggest flaws is that many have the need to be able to look down on another.  I believe this is where racism started and, because their numbers were few hundreds of years ago, that made blacks vulnerable.  The fact that they were once slaves to whites (and blacks) also made it easy for some to look down on them.

Circumstances, ignorance, and that damned human flaw has made racism what it is.  Demeaning women or the aged is wrong, wrong, wrong, but nothing has been as destructive to our society as demeaning a person because of their skin color.

I don't know how to make my feelings any clearer.  Love you, Tyson!

Update:  I finished the book today and now have no doubt that we whites, as decent as we might be, will never be able to fully understand the psyche of blacks because of their totally different life experiences.  And they, in turn, will be handicapped about understanding whites for the same reason.  I feel the same way about males and females.  We can sympathize and empathize but there is no way we can deeply identify with a member of the opposite sex.  We all come together from different perspectives and the best that can come out of that is inbred kindness and the willingness to look beyond those differences to what is alike.

By the way, Maya Angelou also had no true understanding of whites.  She had a well earned mistrust that I hope didn't blind her to the good in people regardless of skin color.  I think I wrote in one of my previous blogs how ridiculous it is in 2019 to be caring one bit about the pigment in someone's skin.  I'm afraid we might have to wait another few centuries before humans smarten up.