“Your Race…Human”
A newspaper article caught my eye a few weeks back about a mother who was wondering what she was going to tell her young son one day when he approaches her asking what his race is. These thoughts caused her to be very uneasy. She was made aware of why she happened to be thinking of this because she knew she would soon be filling out a census form that was shortly going to be mailed out across the U.S.
Her thoughts caused her insides to stir uncomfortably…“What is my son’s race? I know he’s going to ask me someday. When the census comes, I know they are going to ask what race our family is. I am Hispanic. But Hispanic is not a race. There are black Hispanics and white Hispanics. Roberto Clemente and Celia Cruz were Hispanic. So is Martin Sheen, the all American man who played John F. Kennedy.”
Her troubled thoughts continued…”I am brown, a descendant, likely of European settlers, African slaves and the “indigenous” population of the Caribbean…and my son is Hispanic. But wait. His mother is not. His mother is 100 percent Italian. And another 100 percent Scottish, and Polish. What is my son’s race? He is going to ask me someday, I just know he will. And I’m going to answer…Human.”
There is power in this woman’s thoughts. There is truth in her words. The divide we create by identifying ourselves by a particular race, nationality, religion or believing we are different because of the color of our skin, is what keeps us from realizing the truth that all people, every human being alive, belongs to the same race. We must continue to evolve to this realization if we are ever to become part of a world that lives in peace and harmony.
As the devastation continues to unfold in Haiti from last months horrendous earthquake, we witnessed humanity once again coming to together as one race, reaching out to help those who can’t help themselves. We’ve seen it close up throughout the past decade with the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 taking with it more than 200,000 lives, the horrible tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005 and when terrorists struck on 9-11, killing almost 3,000 innocent people. At these times of tragedy we came together as one color, one class, one generation, one gender, one faith, one language, one body, one family, one soul, one people and ultimately, one race. But it is not enough to answer this call only when disaster and devastation strike. Let us all learn from this latest event that it does not have to take a tragedy to bring us all together. We can live this way and feel this way everyday when we put all of the division away and come to see every person on the planet as our brothers and sisters…together as one race. The human race. Can you see it? I can for sure. Peace out.
Jack Bloomfield is the co-founder and executive director of One Planet United, Inc., a non
profit 501(c)3 organization.
One Planet United's mission statement is: To bring unity and understanding to all people through
experiential and educational programs, projects and resources.
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