“To Stacey, strangers are just friends that she hasn’t met yet.”
I promise that exact line was included in a personality assessment report that I received from a team building workshop that I completed at my former job. It made me laugh, but it’s so true. I’m a ‘people person.’ Put me in a room with pretty much anyone, I can almost always find something that we have in common to connect about. I’ve always carried that sense of having shared bonds with people, which is why I think I’ve enjoyed opportunities for socializing so much: from summer camps to student associations to mom groups, and, of course, producing my own events.
On the whole, we do identify with one another and we truly do have a lot in common. It’s often life circumstances that cloud our perception and create distance between us. Take the George Zimmerman trial for example, that just ended this past weekend – live on television for all of America to see. Among the most-talked about pieces of the trial was the testimony of Trayvon Martin’s friend, Rachel Jeantel who has sparked a public debate about the cultural differences between her and both the defense and prosecution attorneys. In short, there was chatter that the inability of the attorneys to understand her way of speaking or why her demeanor is such that it is, is because they don’t understand her reality given their own backgrounds. I have no idea whether that’s right or not, but I can say that recognizing our similarities rather than our differences, and exercising compassion, always, allows us to connect over what really matters.
Let’s turn the clock back to 1839. Mary Ann Graham, a slave owner, recognizing the universal importance of family writes a letter – held by The Kinsey Collection – allowing Henry Butler, a freed slave, to buy his family’s freedom for a radically low price. It would have been so easy to for her to let their life circumstances create an insurmountable distance between them remove any possibility of compassion, but she didn’t…and forever changed the lives of a family of 5. Watch socially conscious hip hop artist, husband and father Talib Kweli share the story and his own perspective on the ties that bind us:
In the end, we’re all ‘people’ people. All it takes is making the time and the the effort to connect over what really matters.
This post is part of the Wells Fargo sponsored ‘Untold Stories: Our Inspired History’ campaign celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and surrounding “The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey –Where Art and History Intersect.” Go see it!! The exhibit contains a world-class collection of art and artifacts chronicling African American history and culture dating to the 1600s, including an early copy of the Emancipation Proclamation. Learn more about the collection and exhibits, HERE.
a stalker, a racist, a person with no right to carry a gun ( mental issues ),a person who disobeyed a direct order from officers of the law, a criminal ( past ), was allowed to walk free and given back a weapon…no matter what language this young woman spoke; this sends a very clear picture not only to our youths, but to the nation and other nations. America shows favoritism to males who are not viewed as men of color. Even though Zimmerman isn’t white , because this crime was against a brown/black young man ( I have read lots of this same thing happening all over America ,I love America( my home country,), but will anyone anywhere ever respect us as we feel they should , when this kind of injustice still exists. How can we as a people ( apparently our law makers don’t believe in the very first part of the Declaration of the United States…”We the People ” ), they have and we, the people let them never abide by this …we are not the people of this country, we all are the ” Slaves ” of this country. We help the rich get richer ,off our child -like beliefs and trusts. How many government officials are willing and do take pay cuts. How many parents take responsibility for the children” s complete up bringing. We don’t care what or how our children are educated, as long as it doesn’t effect our property taxes. A family lost their son, a child can’t read , a criminal goes free…oh and did you hear about George Clooney, or the Kardashians, what star is sleeping with who, we have a black man in the white house. Yet our young are being hunted, our police and military are going nuts with their power., government wants to control all women’s bodies…we need to grow up fast . If we are not growing then we are dying.
@ outsideLittles – You may genuinely believe your point, but you relegate yourself to internet troll with so many bombs thrown out. Your attempt to manipulate pieces of someones past and try to paint the as something they are not is why you will not get respect. For every post like this you will invite someone to dissect Travyon’s flaws and post similar hate speech “Stoned, drug addict, racist, homophobic, gun touting,wanna be thug” Stupid in both cases. Imagine what somebody could post about you?
And while you may have read that non-black on black crime happens all the time, non-black violent crime actually only accounts for 10% of all violent crime, black offenders account for the other 90% (2009; justice department). So again your attempt to dramatize and embellish just makes you look foolish and gives the people you complain about more ammunition.
Jeantel can speak a hundred languages, but if she is not fluent in the language she needs to be fluent in to be successful, then her intelligence is really in question, since she has had a fair opportunity to learn proper English. For an in-depth analysis of Interracial Relationships in Early America, google and read a book by Ray Charles called, “Color Struck!”
Not quite the whole truth…Black African Kings etc. started slavery in Africa, but it was the white Westerners that exported slavery and made it a whole-wide commodity. To better understand Interracial Relationships in Early America, google and read a book by Ray Charles called, “Color Struck!”
Not quite the hole truth here either. Black African kings probably did not start slavery. Maybe in their part of western African but slavery has existed almost since the start of civilization, which is believed to have first occurred in the Middle East. Even if it were true that the African kings started it, it was a wholly different type of slavery that was begun in the Americas. This was the first form of slavery in which the slaves had no rights and the status was automatically passed down through generations.
Hispanic refuses to allow his head to be slammed into the concrete more than half a dozen times. The resultant blatantly obvious self defense shooting becomes a white on black crime in what can only loosely be called the “minds” of the race baiting and racist black community. P.S. “We don’t need you to do that.” is NOT a police order to stand down. In the english language a command would be “Don’t do that.” also the 911 operator was not authorized to issue police orders. I get it that none of you “Traybaggers” are asking why the kid didn’t call 911 but Zimmerman did. The answer is so simple that you can’t see it. He didn’t want the police to know what he was doing. Just like that. Also, slavery became legal in the Colonies because A BLACK MAN SUED FOR THE RIGHT OF OWNERSHIP OVER ANOTHER BLACK MAN. Anthony Johnson, look it up. Ok mix that into your skittles, iced tea, and robitussin and drink up.
When President Obama was elected President, even though I did not vote for him, I thought, maybe not just the black race, but now the white race would have a spokesman, being that Obama is half white and half black. After the Zimmerman verdict of not guilty, Obama, Eric Holder, Rev, Sharpton, Jackson and even black musician Stevie Wonder protested against the verdict. Sharpton said, they ( whites ) were not going to be able to kill us like they use to.. Jackson said, Fla, was the modern day Selma Alabama of the 60’s Congressman Charlie Rangel spoke about those in Fla. He said, they were the same of racist ” white crackers ” they ( the blacks have always had to deal with.
Did they forget that one of the jury memebers was part black and she found Zimmerman not guilty or does her being only part black not count in the sceme of things ?
I ask, who is being the most racist here ?
According to John the evangelist, God created men of different color and put them at different place in the world…..
Now tel us? Do you think God is a racit????
Christian
A. Who gives a shit..Iam so sick of the BLACK PLIGHT! Here’s an idea, you have so much time to bitch about what the white man has done to you..then you have time to find a job and raise your thug kids, or at least keep them off the streets
Still active slavery in Africa…not whites (psst, they stopped most slavery in the world). Arabs, muslims and blacks enslave blacks. From muslims in Sudan to young boys being sold by their families to arabs to be camel jockies, lots of black/muslim active slavery…but his isn’t a problem, Jesse and Al didn’t even care about Sudan, whites in the US and Britain worked to get these slaves freed.
Jeantel is a dolt, ignorant, bad attitude with a dirty scowl on her face. Inner city loser and embarrassment, purposely ignorant of the world and racist…but it’s not her fault, it’s white’s fault she’s a failure, she’s being kept down just like St. Trayvon…they’re both saints and pathetic.
Speaking 3 languages has more to do with exposure than it does intelligence. if a child is exposed to 3 languages the child will learn 3 languages especially before the age of 3 to 5 years old.
I have a mixed grandson. Growing up he saw me (his grandfather) working hard, and his mother on welfare. He is in his 20s. He started out working but was influenced by his mother to try to get disability. He went that way for over a year, now he is back working. He got 2 jobs, then he got a good job working in a warehouse. He told me the other day he is proud of himself for working hard.
He has given me a great-grandson 14 months old, and they are going to buy him a program that will help him learn to read.
people forget how many 1000’s of whites left their families and died to free African-Americans in the civil war. Were these whites racists? Absolutely not!! Also all the countries at that time like brazil and many other countries throughout europe bought slaves from africas own people These were horrific events that occurred, but all American whites seem to recieve all blame for that history of events, when most whites were against slavery and helped our African-americans brothers and sisters become free by sacrificing their own lives during the civil war, which still occurs today as our great nations military protects and frees nations from oppression around the world sacrificing their own lives to protect our freedoms and help others around the world. Today we should unite as citizens of a great nation and love all races, and understand that great people exist in every race and country and also understand unfortunantly each race has small groups of people who are ignorantly racist. I personally know great people of all races.
Always remember there are none so blind as those who will not see. To argue with logic and reason with those who refuse to recognize it’s supremacy is as pointless as administering medicine to the dead. Doubtlessly, someone will find a way to make this a racist statement, especially since racism is what they expect and want to see.
This administrations making things worse dividing this country. Black on white, black on black , white on white. Tearing this country apart that’s what they want. This is America not some 3rd world country, So if you want to point at someone point at them for these problems.
All Trayvon had to do is remain respectful, and answer the questions. He would have been sent on his way. But no, he turned into a thuggish person, and the altercation ensued. It was a really sad encounter, that could have been avoided if he had the fruits of the spirit. If you act like a hateful thug, you will be treated like one, regardless of race.
sam says Trayvon had no one to respect God was not asking any questions there. No man or child has to answer to another…. Thug and cold blooded Killer. All Righteous Hispanics / White people.Think that you have to answer to them. So see who ends up in the Fire with the hateful THUG.?
I definitely regard the Trayvon Martin verdict a travesty of true justice. Just because Zimmerman was found not guilty does not mean he wasn’t guilty. I firmly believe that OJ Simpson killed his wife and his wife’s lover. He was also found “not guilty”. Zimmerman is white. To a chinese or indian person, they would not be able to tell that Zimmerman was NOT white. That’s the true test for classifying a person as white or not white. (To people who are offended by this style of testing. Why? The average American can’t distinguish between a Chinese person, a Japanese person or a Korean person. Thats why we have historically called them orientals or currently as asians.)
I do believe that racism was involved. Racism exists. People who believe that Racism does not exist are delusional. People who don’t believe racism exists should read some of the twitter comments on the current Miss America, then the uproar over Rue (Hunger Games) being black, the uneven commentary on drug use/gestures between a Trayvon Martin and a Justin Bieber, this odd belief that after the Civil War -which was probably more about state vs. government rights* than slavery – there was no discrimination at all, the odd association with skin color and crime when it is actually economic status that impacts criminality.
Consider the mafia – a criminal organization consisting of caucasians or the irish mob – another criminal organization consisting of caucasians If we are to believe that crime is directly associated with the amount of melanin a person has in their skin then why are there any murderers/criminals/Jeffrey Dahmers in the white caucasian population? Instead – consider the fact that once upon a time, the lazy Italians and dirty Irish were discriminated against and many of them decided to engage in criminal activity. Fortunately for them, within one generation, they could assimilate because you can’t tell the difference between a German person, an Irish person and an English person. They all look “white”. Unfortunately, people of color do not have the luxury of being able to blend in and the unemployment rate is especially high or black males. If society will abandon them, can we really blame them for engaging in criminal activity? I blame the society that creates those rules that preferentially favor one ethnic group over another. In the end, we have only ourselves to blame.
If you fall for the “we fought to fight slavery in the Civil War” you are suffering from naive delusions about how the real world works. The southern states wanted to secede and the US government (northerners) decided to subjugate the southern states in order to stop the secession and keep the US as it was. They used military and occupation (reconstruction – 20 years) to get their way. The propaganda about slavery was used to create a “moral” highground very similar to the US attack on Iraq as an attempt to bring democracy into the Middle East. Please don’t lie to yourself just to feel better. At the end of the day – slavery wasn’t the big issue. In the end, it was all about the money.
Economic empowerment or the control of resources has always been a human frailty along w/ hubris and original sin (acting outside of GOD’s will). We see evil and injustice daily; our present day technology/media allow for it to be sensationally broadcast worldwide on a 24hr/7 day cycle. How we process and react to it all displays our humanness and thereby our shortcomings. Failure to realize how fallen each of us is and thereby our institutions, morals, valued beliefs/traditions, etc. only serve to disguise the realities of a broken world from right in front of our eyes. I contend that the REAL LOVE of JESUS can ultimately serve to bring us into a marvelous light whereby our desires, prejudices, concerns, etc. will be non-issues. ‘Kumbaya my lord’ yes….since death is eminent for us all, why not hold onto the eternally sustainable. Yours truly, w/ LOVE, a past, present and future fallible human being (i. e. sinner).
We are doomed and none of you realize it. Since the dawn of our great country there has been 15 Democrat presidents, 18 Republican presidents, 4 whig party , 4 who represented both and 2 from the federalist party. So with that being said, each party, Democrat and Republican both have had a hand at making this country what it is today. im so sick and tired of Conservatives saying its the liberals fault. IT’S BOTH PARTIES FAULT that we are in the mess we are. Before Obama, 2 of the last three presidents were Republican and what a disater they handed Obama. NO, he hasn’t done anything to fix any of the ills. It is his fault, along with congress, this country hasn’t improved, but if you think Conservatives would have done anything to make this better than you have been watching the Fox news cool-aid way too long. The bigger issue is racism. How pathetic are we that in this day and age we still haven’t learned to get along. NO, its not ok to use the ‘N’ word even if you are black. No it’s not ok to committ hate crimes on either race. Yes there are more assaults by blacks on whites these days and that is despiciable but, Blacks have a long way to go to catch up on the number of assaults and henious crimes whites have commited and still do to them. So what do we do, huh? We continue to sit around blaming each other and continue our decent to destruction as did all the great socities before us. Babylon, The Roman empire, the Persian empire, The English empire all great socities that crumble from within. They were at one time the greatest countries or cities on Earth, but in-bickering, name calling, choosing political sides and all the great deadly sins ate away at the great socities and destroyed them. we have not learn from history. Other countries are standing by drooling, plotting, waiting for us to implode and then they will pounce. Watch Red Dawn, you may be looking at our future. So stay comfy in your belief that it’s the whites or blacks or whomever bringing this country down, but I guarantee you as I am part of the problem. We all are. Lets fix this together, not as libs, not as conservatives but as Americans. We all had a part in making this nation great. Now lets do what it takes to make us stay great. Teach your kids the right things at home. That’s where our society starts. Thank you all. I am very proud to be your fellow country man!
I am surprised at some of the narrow-minded rationale being used to justify one side or another. We need to establish some truths first:
The Civil War was about states rights as well as slavery. States rights were the impetus based on the states right to consider slavery as acceptable for their state. However, The Federal government didn’t want to allow new states accepted into the union as being a slave-state and wanted to allow only slave-free states. Since the Union was pressing on the slave-free issue the southern states saw this as an economical hardship being imposed upon them by the Union and not allowing each state the right of self-determination. Taxation imposed upon slave owning states was also an issue. It was more than slavery and secession.. Secession didn’t just happen one day. Read up on your American History.
Slavery: Slavery, as stated previously, has been going on since time immemorial. Slaves weren’t just a people captured from a foreign country. They were also captured from within borders. Slaves being exported and sold to other countries and locales were very common centuries ago. Much of Rome and the pyramids were built using slave labor. As long as one person or population differed from another, there has been slavery. As long as there has been the conquering and the conquered, The loser became a slave of the victors.
Slave trade and the exportation of slaves was a common trade where slavery was concerned. White or European merchants.were searching for slaves as the need for cheap labor was becoming difficult to find in the American south due to the high rate of deaths from diseases carried by the mosquito. When it was discovered that certain African tribes had a natural immunity, they were sought out as cheap labor. The first slave traders were not Europeans but were bought from existing slave traders in Africa. As the demand for resilient labor intensified, White and European traders increased and sought to cut out the middleman and began the capture and trade themselves.
George Zimmerman is not white and never has been. He is of mixed race and it was the media that tried to escalate the racial frenzy by identifying him as white. This escalation came from neither the black population or the white population but from the media. Al Sharpton is a noted race-baiter and was quick to jump on it. This wrongful publicity then caused others to jump into the fray and make themselves appear to be astute and involved, including the POTUS.
The whites in this country no longer try to prevent the black population from getting an education. This is evident in every school district. Blacks are often not in private schools simply because of economics of the family. That is not the fault of any one race or religious group. If it was true that blacks are educationally oppressed, then the African-American History needs to leave out many notable and historical citizens that just happen to be both black and well-educated.World renown pediatric cardiac-surgeon Dr. Ben Carson happens to be one. Musicians Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles have 2 things in common: neither allowed being black and poor to interfere with an education. Quit blaming someone other than yourself for your problems. The problem is the fault of the person in the mirror. When you learn to accept that, you and only you will be on the road to a better life. Quit listening to ignorance.