The January topic for discussion, selected at our December gathering, is the state of race relations in the United States. Obviously this is a difficult social topic and a highly emotional topic politicized for generations. Also, undoubtedly there are countless volumes of books and articles regarding racism that can be read and referenced. With this said, I would propose that the conversation be started by relating our own experiences, if any.
FYI ..when the news gets us depressed over the bigotry and hate today perhaps this will provide some hope…albeit generations away, but a step.
I put on Liz’s Blog August..Brandeis/Bolli
Color Blindness by Barry David with an assist from Liz
My 7 year old granddaughter Lakshmi and I went miniature golfing. Kids love that, especially when they beat papa; albeit their scoring needs attention. This outing was so successful that I promised to take her to the golf driving range some day and give her a lesson in “hitting them far”.
Kids don’t forget promises.
So a few days later we took my clubs (I don’t play golf, I “play at golf”!) and her older sister’s clubs to the range.
We unloaded our clubs and picked out a couple of spots with open mats. She was very interested in this new experience and asked me many questions. Among them, “who comes here to hit golf balls”? I explained that people come to practice their swing . A few minutes later she came over to tell me she saw Tiger Woods a few positions down and “he really hits them far”. I responded that “I’m not sure he practices here but let’s go see.”
We saw some people driving golf balls very well.. All genders, races, colors, sizes, shapes ; couldn’t tell their religions. It was simply a Norman Rockwell American scene.
She took me over to see Tiger, who she was watching, a good golfer swinging away; however, he was not a black golfer.
Turns out this was the first white Tiger Woods I’ve ever seen.
I merely said,”great swing but I don’t think that’s Tiger.” We continued the lesson I was giving her. She does very well at sports and enjoyed our day especially since we stopped for ice cream after.
I got to thinking that night about the song from South Pacific that goes “you’ve got to be taught to hate and fear…” she was into golf, a good golfer’s swing, not color.
I wonder if there is hope that she and her generation will change the dynamic and, as they grow up, open our hearts and minds to create a world that is color blind and a fully inclusive society.
That would be a “hole in one”!