Walker - "I just realized that i don't know if i hate all races or love all races. By that i mean there are no races. My grandmother's father came from Switzerland, but was really Italian, but most Italian where either immigrants or slaves from the roman empire, and wherever they are from before that is probably the same thing......immigrants or slaves...one can't identify as any race because we aren't anything...or are we everything? How long does it take to become a race? i just needed to tell someone, and you're the only one who would be intelligent enough to appreciate it, if there is anything to appreciate in this. anyways, thanks."
ME - "Well, one of the very first things I learned in Anthropology, was that there was no significant variation between different ethnicities. I'll never forget it actually. My professor sat on the front edge of her desk and said. "There's something that you should know about me. I'm racist." and the crowd had this kind of, collective tension that soon turned to confusion when she went on by saying "...and so are you." She continued by saying that there are no biological differences between races, and that the lowest common denominator of human is the one who discriminates because of a person's ethnic or cultural background.
You'd be astonished to discover the genetically molecular similarities of some of the people on this blue dot of ours. It's just our ridiculous ability to discriminate against social and cultural groups that have been carried over from one generation to the next. Cultural identity (especially in America) is fuzzy at best, so when we do find colorful expressions of humanity, we point and laugh, or fucking HATE because of a lack of understanding of cultural diversity, OR our subconscious desire to find a sort of comradeship in a culture that is so obviously lacking in it, especially if you are a fucking white dude in America. Ha.
Get the idea of "race" out of your mind permanently. It's a foolish concept not grounded in any sort of science. Replace the word with "Ethnicity" and you will begin to see the fear, and anger, and jealousy associated with the negative or pejorative application of that word in society. It'll cause you to look inward, and face your fear, or whatever unease you might feel about particular ethnic groups, and just generally raise your awareness that culture is a thing to be admired and shared.
Embrace humanity, and live a fucking happy life. Thanks for the comment. Take care."
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"Behavioral economists" have suggested that we hate in others what we hate or fear most about our inner selves. Deflecting hate is not easier than reflecting love, it's simply safer. To live with open arms is to subject yourself to unimaginable harm and to face your own frightening darkness. Still, the man who welcomed all through his door out of love for humanity died brutally at the hands of those for whom he outstretched his generous heart. They have tried to tell me that true tolerance includes tolerating intolerance, while I can sense a fragment of truth in it -- I simply don't buy it, and I certainly can't abide by it. I imagine I will always be tracing these mutable lines in the sand... like a gentle, winding path leading to the core of who I am, always feeling like I could be anybody, struggling sometimes to just be somebody while lost in great dunes of thought.
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