At the start, I must admit that this article comes more from my heart rather than an intellectual pursuit or expression.

 

As a young boy, now over 70 years ago, my family lived in what was considered a “Negro section” of town. My father was native-American, and my mother also had native-American heritage. The people in my neighborhood considered me to be “White” and the children and families beyond the neighborhood considered me to be “from the Negro side of town”.

 

While I attended a segregated “White” school, once the children’s parents of my classmates learned where I lived, the discouraged their children from playing with me.

 

I did, however, have some friends from my neighborhood, and from school. They did not seem much different to me at the time. Some were nice and some were “not so nice”. I did see skin color, but that soon faded in the background as we became more familiar with each other and played “pretend” games together.

 

At about ten years old, I began to sell afternoon newspapers on a corner of my town. The corners were not assigned, and it was necessary to defend possession of the corner or move to a less favorable spot.

 

While the “White*” boys controlled the afternoon corner newspaper sales business, the “Black*” kids controlled the corner “shoeshine” business. Therefore, the newspaper boy and the shoeshine boy had a mutual interest in defending their corner together. Often, we would have to unite in warding off contenders that threatened to take over our corner.

 

Naturally, this led to a special friendship and respect that faded skin color and united us in common interests. This experience, I’m sure, is why I look on racial division today as a treat to our mutual interests as citizens of America. Now it is not just our “corner” that is threatened, it is the prosperity and survival of OUR Nation that is threatened.

 

The Shoeshine boy and the Paper boy could not have continued to enjoy the mutual benefits of their special “Corner” if they had not stood together and united, ready to defend what they shared together.

 

This early experience had a lifelong effect on my attitude toward the benefits of racial harmony in America. It brought into focus the meaning behind the biblical quote from Mark 3:25, “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand”.

 

Another incident that had a similar effect on me and my feeling toward unity among American Citizens happened when I was even younger…about 5 years old.

 

My aunt took me to my first “Cowboys and Indians” movie. After the movie was over, I was in a complete meltdown. While trying not to show it to my aunt, I was confused and devastated.

 

When I arrived home, I immediately went to my dad. When I saw him, I could not hold back the tears. Half crying, I asked my dad, “Are you a savage?”. He looked serious but responded, “No, I’m a printer, son”. I then continued, “Am I a half breed?” (I knew my mother was considered to be “White” and my dad was considered to be “Indian”.)

 

My dad, with a slight smile said, “Sit down, son”. We were in the kitchen, and we both took a seat at the table. What he told me next had a lifetime effect on me that not only changed my life but gave me the foundation to take the most advantage of my citizenship.

 

My dad looked at me in the eye and said, “Son, you are a full-blooded American Citizen…most Americans are mixed. That means you have something called ‘The Constitution’ that gives you individual rights as a citizen that protects you from the Government and even from other citizens that would try to take your rights away.”

 

Later, I found out that my dad believed strongly in the founding principles of America. Even though he had “native-American” heritage, he felt it was “useless to dwell in the past” and far more beneficial to focus on the future.

 

When my uncles tried to impress upon me the fact that “White people had invaded this land, killed most of the people who lived here and stole the land from the rightful owners such as our Shawnee forbearers”, my dad told me a story about what happened to the ‘Shawnee Clan’ of his predecessors, that was told to him by his grandfather.

 

He told me that a Missionary had visited his grandfather’s ancestor’s clan and became friendly. Eventually, the Missionary persuaded an elder of the clan to travel with him to Pennsylvania. When the clan elder returned, he told all that would listen about what he had seen and experienced. He said that he felt like he had visited ‘another world’. He described all the ‘wonderful things he had seen’. He told them that, he felt, that the native people could not overcome the ‘new people’, and their ‘new world’, and that the clan should become part of the new world to survive and enjoy the benefits of that world.

 

It was after that, that some members of the clan broke away with the intention of joining the “new world”. With the aid of the Missionary, they made their was to what is now “Hillsville Virginia” and slowly began to assimilate into the “American Cultural Melting Pot”.

 

With this background, it is easy to understand why my father had a very positive attitude toward being a ‘Citizen’ in this wonderful ‘New World’. He saw no benefit if holding a grudge for past grievances or dwelling on past injustices. While we were very poor compared to many of the people in our neighborhood. (We lived up an alley behind a shoe shop in a two room apartment…a small kitchen and a somewhat large single room used as a combined living room, bedroom, etc.) Actually, the most wealthy family in the neighborhood was a ‘Black*’ family that owned a funeral home and lived in a very large house.

 

At that time there was a ‘Black’” owned bank (the Merchants & Farmers Bank), a ‘Black*’ owned newspaper (The Carolinian), a ‘Black’ owned theatre (The Royal Theatre) and ‘Black’ owned Printing Company and a street (the 200 block of Hargett Street) that had mostly ‘Black*’ owned businesses.

 

Most of the ‘Black’ families lived in small houses in a large area near downtown…and most were families with both parents and children who were taught to be respectful of their elders. Certainly, there was “Segregation”, but, like my family, we might have been poor, and somewhat ostracized, but we were not resentful and full of animosity toward others more fortunate. We were actually enjoying our lives!

 

I sometimes wonder today, what happened to so called “Black*” people. Although most seem to be better off financially, and in many other ways, they do not seem, to me, to be better off emotionally or in attitude.

 

Which Brings Us To
Critical Race Theory 
(Finally).
 

One of my favorite expressions goes something like this:

“No matter how thin you slice it,
there are always two sides”.

 

I recently read an article about CRT. The article takes a look at both sides of the issue without seeming to take sides. The title of the online article is appropriately “Critical Race Theory”. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the subject. There is a link to the article below.

 

It seems to me that people, who consider themselves to be part of a group of citizens designated as ‘Black*” today are faced with a similar dilemma as were members of my father’s ancestorial Shawnee clan. Do they hold on to the past or do they reach out toward the future. Do they dwell on past inequities and injustices, or do they choose to take a positive outlook toward the future to unite as “full blooded Americans”?

 

All actions have a consequence. Do we promote division, or do we join together to protect our ‘Corner of the World’ from outside threats? Do we focus on equanimity, or do we focus on animosity. Do we feed resentment or do we nourish reconciliation.

 

Do we further divide our house', or do we 'strengthen our home' together?

 

We will not get a second chance. Our antagonists, in the world, are growing stronger and more determined as the threat increases. There is a “New World” looming out there.

 

Which path will you take? Which path will you encourage others to take? Should Critical Race Theory be in our future or in our past?