The race problem

Morgan freeman solves the race problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3cGfrExozQ

I agree with Morgan.

Carol

I agree with Morgan.

Carol

I agree with Carol.

Morgan Freeman is my favorite actor. His recent hostings on the Science Channel about space and physics (Through the Wormhole) are wonderful. He can play virtually any role and make it believeable. I am not surprised that he would hold a reasonable and considered opinion on this issue.

cc

Thanks Abe for that quick answer to a complex problem in the world. I so agree. However, it's easier said than done. We just have too much subliminal programming that makes us behave idiotically in all cultures and races.

My friend of years ago was Japanese and disowned because she married Chinese and vice versa. They were a couple unto themselves until there was a grandchild - that brought the families back into the fold, with great difficulty.

The Chinese husband (third generation U.S. Chinese) was sent on assignment to Taiwan because the company he worked for thought he must speak Chinese (they didn't even think to ask him). When he came back with some hilarious stories from the Chinese expecting him to speak Chinese, his employer asked why he didn't tell the company he didn't speak Chinese. "Because you assumed I did." He lost that job, but went on to get a patent on some miniscule thing that made him a millionaire, a short Chinese millionaire, third generation, as American as me who never spoke Chinese.

Jews and Arabs hate each other. My girlfriend's husband has never set foot in Israel and never lived as a practicing Jew. He doesn't hang out and never has had friends of his background. Yet, he hates anyone from the Middle East that is not Jewish. He's an intellectual. Go figure.

Didn't God punish the people for building the tower of Babel by having them speak in many languages so they could not communicate? (I think that was the story I read as a child.) Anyway, we are still suffering from that offense.

7/24/2010

I always believed we are all human beings, no matter our color, national origin or religion, we all cry, we all eat, we all go to the bathroom, we all get ill and yes we all die. I have been on the side of the fence where I have seen racial discrimination, as I've stated before when I was 9 my mother re-married and she married a black man in 1958 which was a no no, even in NYC
there was discrimination, I remember once when I was with my step-father he was visiting his daughter from another marriage , she lived in a browntsone in Bklyn. Two black ladies were standing on the stoop, they saw me with him and said: " What's the matter you can't marry your own kind." These two women didn't know my step-father, what a kind and gentle man he was, he married my mother with five small children, he was a great man and I always cherish him in my heart, he died 15 years ago.

Cheers..Joe

P.S.

I''ve always admired Morgan Freeman as an actor and a great man. A few weeks ago I mailed him a letter offering him a copy of my first book " Is Your Father Black ?," I thought he would be great for the part of my Stepfather....

My friend's daughter as teenager stayed at a hotel where Morgan Freeman was staying. She hung at the bannister until he came into the hotel (about 3 hours). Then she went up to him and he was gracious, spent quite a bit of time talking to her and her friend, signed pictures for them and invited them to attend some event (that slips my mind).

I've always enjoyed his movies. I remember reading once that he was one of the longest working actors - always in a movie - in Hollywood. He was always receiving scripts and didn't have to hope for a new picture on the horizon.

The same story said he believed acting was a profession; he was not more special than any one else in any other profession. He went to work. His work was acting.

cc

I found it interesting that when Mike Wallace was asked about celebrating a "white" month, he replied, "I'm Jewish."
I didn't know that religion had its own color.

This discussion reminds me of a poem I wrote some years ago. It was based on a real situation in a real place.

The International Village Boys Club met at our house today.
David proudly brought his friends inside to meet me.
Chien is from Vietnam. Ahmed is from...
"I don't think I know," David once said.
"His mother speaks a funny language
I don't understand. I think it must be
Spanish or British or something like that."

They talk awhile, the question is answered.
Ahmed is from India, near Bombay.

"Where are you from, George?" they asked.
George's big brown eyes almost showed dismay,
for a moment. He lowered his kinky brown head.

"From here," he mumbled. "Me too," said David,
and David's green eyes met George's brown eyes
In shared disappointment at not being different.

Ann

Abe, that's part of that subliminal stuff we all carry. Sometimes it comes out sideways.

Your poem, Ann, is so on point.

My youngest son went to school off-island so I didn't know his school chums. He was so excited when I took a day off work to be a Disneyland escort because all his friends were in his group. I think I mentioned in another post the details, but he was the only blond, blue-eyed boy. My little group included every child that seemed different in a very white school. We looked like a mini United Nations walking around Disneyland.

Why does this not surprise me?

My father and grandfather tried to teach me to be a racist. My father did it subliminaly. My grandfather did it openly. My mother provided some balance.

They were outnumbered from the start. Even without my mother I had Art Tatum. No pianist can ever be a white supremecist.

http://www.alstevens.com/alstevens/tunes/misbehavin.mp3

Abe F. March wrote:

I found it interesting that when Mike Wallace was asked about celebrating a "white" month, he replied, "I'm Jewish."
I didn't know that religion had its own color.

I think he was just uncomfortable with Morgan's direct question. It made him give a dumb answer.

One of the things I love about my family is it's diversity. We have so many different religions and races blended in. But all I see is the love. We are simply 'family'.

When I see their faces, I see their names, not colors not religions not political views.

When I first moved back to the United States after living in Mexico, a girl in school asked me if I was Mexican.

I told her "No. I am American."
She told me, "But you moved here from Mexico."
I told her "Yes. But I was born in Oregon."
She asked me, "But you have a Mexican last name."
I told her, "My last name is Spanish. My father is from Mexico."
She told me, "So, you are Mexican."
I told her, "No. My father is Mexican. My mother is American. I am American."
I had no idea what this girl was getting at.

I lived in Mexico for six years, where people who knew me called me 'American', as that is what I am. My cousins from Mexico, referred to me as an American cousin. I was taught that Mexican, Italian, African, Chinese, etc etc was a NATIONALITY. It was NOT a race.

When people filled out forms in Mexico, there were no boxes to check indicating race (or nationality). Kids did not call me "American-Mexican".

I HATED being forced to pick 'only one' box to indicate my race when I finally was introduced to pigeon-hole racial statistic keeping. I just wanted to check two to prove a point. )I have grandchildren and nieces and nephews who would have to check three or four to give an accurate account.)

Funny story.
My sister in law (she is married to my brother) is an anesthesiologist (like my brother). She was chief of staff at her hospital as well. Some years ago she received a phone call from a Latin Women's organization. They asked her that if, as a successful Hispanic woman, she would address their group.
She chuckled and told them that she appreciated being asked. But, that she was an African American woman married to a man with a hispanic name. She said she could speak as a woman who is successful in her field, but not as a Latina.

My baby sister (blond hair /blue eyes /white skin ... recessive genes) had picked African-American (she's half/half) as her race on some school paperwork. The lady at the counter pointed out her 'mistake'. My sister told her, "No. That's right." The lady frowned at my sister and told her she wasn't black. My sister told her, "Ma'am, I know what I am ... and I am black!"

Quite a few people in our family have stories of mistaken race identity.

I come from a family of mutts.
You can't even tell "what" half of us are.
But aren't mutts the best dogs?

7/25/2010

Jo Elle..

I love it 1 I have a friend in NY who I've
known for over thrity years, she was my neighbor in
my bldg. She's part Irish & Scotch, tough, going to be
97 in August. I told her one day I got tired of people
asking me my background , she told me : " The next
time someone asks you, just say your a cross between
a bull bitch and a window shade."

Cheers..Joe

You know, that's one of the things that has always (among many) amazed me about color prejudice is that the white races are made up of many more ethnic backgrounds than most of the dark skinned people I have known.

I watched a couple great movies about South Africa and in one, the man on trial was asked by the judge why he wanted to be called black when his color was closer to brown. The response was, why did the judge want to be called white when he was closer to pink. These are all arbitrary things that separate people and are passed from one generation to the next with no rational reason.

My Scandinavian great grandparents came here to be married as one was from Norway, the other from Sweden. They were forbidden to marry because of the hate between the two countries at that time. I don't know the history of the Irish and English coming here, but I know the English came to the south to be awarded a homestead that passed down through generations including one that had slaves (as recorded in the county records and found by a relative searching out her roots).

My friend is Irish and English and African. I'm Irish and English and Scandinavian. She is dark skinned; I am fair. We both are "mutts." We are both Americans and U.S. Citizens. Yet, some places I will be treated better than her.

People are people. Who cares what color they are?

Far more important is what they think and do.

It seems a lot of people care.

The questions of race and religion have and continue to divide.

America as been called "the melting pot". It shouldn't matter what color or religion one has. They are American.

Why do we refer to some as "African American"? Do we hear Italian American, Irish American, German American, English American, etc? Why are some referred to as Muslim or Jewish? Do we refer to others as Christian Americans?

The problem lies within. We are free to think what we will, but when we verbalize those thoughts it affects others. Is that freedom of speech?

I have heard Italian American and Irish American, as well as several other cultural and ethnic designations, quite frequently. I think they are positive in many ways, because they help us form a cultural identity and heritage which can help us better understand ourselves.

We are all different, and that is a good thing. It only becomes a problem when we think that everybody should be and think like us, or that our way is the only right way.

Ann

Intermarriage would take care of the race issue. Everyone would be light brown--not black or white.

Where I grew up, no one cared about their origins. They were Americans. I learned about my origins when I became interested in geneology.

And America is a country made up of diverse cultures. Knowing and honoring where we came from is an important part of knowing and respecting who we are. When we know, accept, and genuinely respect our own heritage, we can become accepting of others.

Difference is a good thing. I think that's where we need to focus our attention.

Some Americans are so different they choose to live elsewhere. And that's an OK thing, too.

Ann