I'm sure most people would agree with this fact, yet lately I have found some people who are very dear and close to me NOT following this practice.
A teacher once told me, "We are not white, black, yellow, and red. We are all shades of brown. Some lighter, some darker." If you think about it, it's true.
You might think this post is because of our newly elected president. In some sense, it is(...but it really isn't.) Was I offended when a friend of mine referred to him as a zebra? Yes. Yes, I was.
Has B. Obama done anything personally to this person to justify schoolyard name calling?? No. No, he has not.
I digress.
My reason for this post is because I have decided to go on a date with a black man - Let me make this ultimately clear - this is not a problem for me!... but I am quickly learning which side of the fence my friends fall on.
See... because I was raised with getting to know the person, not their skin color, I know:
He grew up in Nigeria. He came to the US ten years ago to go to college. He is in the Army national guard. The things he has accomplished so far in his life are amazing to me and he is still on his journey to getting there.
Yet, I have a friend, who basically has told me I am not allowed to date him... because of his skin color. She tried to put him in a group. I explained that no matter what color you are, there are good and bad AND I would not group him just by his skin color.
So, we'll see. We'll see how my date goes... and, we'll see if I need to do a little sharpening with my friends on the colors in their crayon box.
I would like to choose my fence side - on the side of "if you want to date a purple people eater, it's okay with me at long as he is a nice purple people eater." :) I have been appalled at the ugly sides of people that the election has brought out. Open racists like skin-heads don't scare me nearly as bad as quiet closet racists. But..back to the point - enjoy your date! And that was a very cool crayon picture.
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