One Blood

In the 1950s, reporter John Howard Griffin performed an interesting experiment. He was an Anglo who wished to understand the African American experience, so he took medicine that darkened his skin and made him appear to be African American. His disguise was so convincing that Anglos and African Americans alike took him to be an African American, and he learned many valuable lessons by figuratively stepping into another man’s shoes. One of Griffin’s most important—and saddest—discoveries was the lack of meaningful relationships between the two people groups. He noted, “Though we lived side by side throughout the South, communication between the two races had simply ceased to exist. Neither really knew what went on with those of the other race. The Southern Negro will not tell the white man the truth. (Griffin, Black Like Me , 1). Almost 60 years later, some things in the United States have changed drastically. For example, society no longer is just Black and White because large...

Last week in Memphis, Tennessee, the city began to remove the statues of Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis, two prominent men who supported the Confederate cause during the Civil War. In addition to serving as a general, Forrest also was one of the earliest members of the Ku Klux Klan, which organized soon after the Civil War ended. Davis was president of the Confederacy from 1862 until 1865, when the South admitted defeat and officially ceased fighting. The removal of the statues evoked strong reactions from supporters and detractors alike. On the one hand, those who praised the act cited the South’s support of slavery and expressed concern that the statues were celebratory reminders of this cause. As proof of their claim, they noted that this particular Davis statue did not appear in Memphis until the 1960s, at the height of the Civil Rights movement (and likely as a reaction to that movement). On the other hand, individuals who opposed the elimination of the statues wa...

In 1903, W. E. B. Du Bois remarked, “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” [1] Roughly a century later, professors Jennifer Lee and Frank Bean asserted, “the question of the 21 st century could be one of multiple color lines .” [2] Given the sheer rapidity with which multiethnic people are increasing in numbers, [3] they appear to be more than justified in their statement.             In fact, progressively sophisticated genetic studies reveal the nation is more intermixed that anyone imagined. A full 75 to 90 percent of African Americans possess Anglo ancestry, [4] which has contributed between 20 and 25 percent of their genetic makeup. [5] This intermixture, however, is not limited to African Americans. A considerable number of Anglos also have African ancestry, unintentionally labeling branches in their family trees as Native American instead of realizing the truth of their heritage. [6]...

Recently I had the rare opportunity to speak with a man who quickly is approaching his middle nineties. Throughout his long life he has observed many interesting things, and has been a witness to numerous historical events. I found one of his earliest recollections particularly shocking. He related that as a young child at a parade, he saw elderly Civil War soldiers marching down main street. Let that sink in for a moment. There are people still alive in 2017 who saw with their own eyes veterans of the Civil War. It stands to reason that if the most elderly of our population knew Civil War soldiers, there are people still alive today who knew slaves. The point of drawing your attention to this fact is that events in our minds that may seem very far removed from the present are not as remote as we might think. Someone once wrote that the past is prologue, which means that the past continues to exert an influence in the present. When some hear about ethnic reconciliation, they bristle ...

          Although certain people groups have lived side by side in the United States for centuries, generally speaking, very little meaningful interaction has occurred between them. [1] This observation was certainly true during the heyday of the Civil Rights movement, [2] and unfortunately remains a factor in the early twenty-first century as well. For example, a 2016 Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) Survey determined: Fully three-quarters (75%) of white Americans report that the network of people with whom they discuss important matters is entirely white, with no minority presence. . . . Approximately two-thirds (65%) of black Americans report having a core social network that is composed entirely of people who are also black. . . . Less than half (46%) of Hispanics report that their social network includes only other people who also identify as Hispanic. . . . [3] These problematic numbers reflect one of the most enduring problems of race...

When Americans discuss issues related to race, people often remark that what our society needs is to be colorblind. The topic of colorblindness is something that I know a little bit about because I’m medically colorblind, which in my case means that I’m unable to perceive most shades of red and green. When individuals apply this medical condition to race, what they are suggesting is that we should ignore people’s heritages and learn to get along. There is a considerable problem with this logic. Medical colorblindness is an inability to see certain colors, while racial colorblindness is the practice of deliberately ignoring ethnic differences. No matter what we say or do, however, ethnic and cultural differences exist. [1] The key to ethnic reconciliation is not pretending that such differences do not exist. Rather, just as we appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of different colors, we need to learn to embrace the beauty and uniqueness of difference cultures. [2] ...