My White Bread World
We went out to grab a bite to eat one night at a
bar/restaurant that we hadn’t been to before.
The food was very good and the service was fine as well.
Usually I am not too fond of places that have
a thousand television sets with music playing overhead because I like to be
able to converse while I eat, but this place wasn’t too loud and we were
entertained by what was going on in the world of sports, surrounding us at
every possible viewing angle.
I was very disturbed though, as we were finishing up our
dinner and getting ready to leave. I
looked around us as I was putting on my coat when it hit me.
All of a sudden I realized that the other diners were not
all white.
Now before you misunderstand me, the fact that they weren’t
all white didn’t bother me at all, but, rather, I was bothered by the
realization that our usual dining places must have no diversity at all, or very
little. You see, if that were not the
case, then this crowd probably wouldn’t have stood out to me as they did.
How did that happen?
How is it that I never noticed my community looks like the white-bread
section of my grocery store?
Curious, I looked up the statistics for my township. Sure enough, the statistics reflect the
reality to which I have slowly grown accustomed over nearly 28 years:
The top four entries, roughly looked like this:
82% White
10% African American
4% Asian
2% Hispanic
10% African American
4% Asian
2% Hispanic
When I was young I went to a racially diverse public
school. My community college was the
same.
You could defend my lack of
awareness in the restaurant that day by saying how wonderful it is that I don’t
notice race, but that’s not true, and even if it was, I’m not sure that would
be a compliment, because one’s color or ethnicity isn’t something to go
unnoticed, but something to be celebrated.
I’ll celebrate you, and you celebrate me, and may our unity
be a thing of beauty.
Janet Cassidy
janetcassidy.blogspot.com
janetcassidy.blubrry.net
janetcassidy.blogspot.com
janetcassidy.blubrry.net
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