Color. It's a phenomenon of light that relies on reflection and perception. Change the atmosphere, the environment, and what appears to be one color one moment, takes on a different hue all together the next. Yet, somehow, we are fixated. We can't seem to take our mind off the momentary reflection. Now, don't get me wrong. Color is beautiful. It is inspiring. But it's only temporal.
Just as the sky is painted in beautifully diverse strokes by day and dusk, the same strokes give way to the color of night. Instead of embracing color and enjoying the canvas it paints for us on a daily basis, there are those who would rather draw lines, create categories, and enforce unknown boundaries based upon a fleeting reflection of light. Reflections can be so misleading and so unfulfilling. Just think of an instance when you saw someone's reflection in a window or mirror, but upon a close encounter, you realized you saw a distortion, something that didn't represent the reflection at all. In the same way, the reflection shouldn't be where our perception ends.
It's the substance that lies beneath.
As one who has grown up in a multi-racial family, I can truly appreciate the normalcy of the insignificance of color. We love our diversity...different shades, shapes, talents, and personalities....so don't get me wrong, the veneer is nice, but it’s just a covering. It takes an intentional, deliberate desire to see the person and the worth within.
The vultures of the dying civil rights victimology industry demand that we see only the reflections, and immediately classify, categorize, and criticize each other. They continue to circle around picking away at the carcasses of the memories of those who blazed paths that led to us focusing on the content of our character and NOT the color of our skin. Their diatribes are divisive, and their rhetoric is downright rabid. The mouthpieces of the media-embraced church of victimology continue their rants, foaming at the mouth about reparations, segregation, and social justice (often at the expense of denying justice to others). Undeniably, there exists racism and inequality and, well, humans who will always wallow in weakness and the destructive proclivities that make us so, human. But racism also knows no racial boundaries. No single race has a monopoly on this repugnant human behavior.
But the voices of division will continue to spew their venomous vituperation—hate that gets dressed up in oxymoronic political correctness. Howard Dean, Jesse Jackson, Cynthia McKinney, Louis Farakahn, Kweisi Mfume, Janeane Garofalo, Julian Bond, Harry Belafonte, Kanye West, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Al Sharpton, Tim Wise...you get the point.
There is so much the binds us together, more so than what should EVER tear us apart. Our color is a mere reflection that can change from sunlight to moonlight. Who we are, and what we stand for, what we so ardently believe...these are what lie beneath the reflection in the deep pools of introspection and discovery. And it's there that we find that it's not whether we're black, white or tan on the outside but rather if what's on the inside is ever illuminated, it reflects character, integrity, love and compassion. These are qualities that know no color.
