Today, I want to talk to you all about separation between skin colors. What causes division amongst us because of our differences. I believe that if we can understand THE TRUTH about what REALLY separates us, then we can also understand, what will TRULY bring us together!
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I was 16 years old the first time I truly felt it, the separation between people of two different colors. I was traveling with my family through Mississippi when we stopped to get something to eat. For some reason not everyone was wanting to get out of the car and for whatever reason we weren't going through the drive thru, so I was selected to get out and get the food for everyone so we could just eat on the road. I walked in with my money into Wendy's. The moment I walked through that door EVERY HEAD TURNED AND EVER EYE in the fast food joint looked at me. I felt awkward but I wasn't sure WHY...
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As I stood in line I realized something, there were A LOT of BLACK PEOPLE in this place! ACTUALLY, every single person in the building was BLACK!!! Hmmmmm...that's interesting I thought...buuuuut I LOVE BLACK PEOPLE, soooo WHY do I feel uncomfortable??? I placed my order to some less than pleasant employees, who were also ALL BLACK, then I stood in a corner wishing I could disappear as I waited for our food!!! As I waited, the people continued to stare at me, some even whispered as I grabbed our bag and jolted out of there.
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I don't remember saying anything to my family about it when I got back to the car. I just remember feeling BUMMED!!! I couldn't believe that I had felt soooo AWKWARD around these people! People that I had been waiting my whole life to be around!!! I remember thinking, I guess its just because their black and I'm white and because we're different colors, it just makes it uncomfortable. I thought, it must just be ME feeling awkward because I was THE ONLY WHITE person in the room.
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I thought, that MUST BE how black people feel around where we live. It must feel uncomfortable for them to be THE ONLY BLACK person in the room...I was like, WOW, I never thought of it that way. I felt bad for any black people I knew of that lived around mostly white people, it must make them all feel awkward too. Not that I actually had any black friends of my own at the time...buuuut still I felt BAD!!! I was SO disappointed, I couldn't believe that JUST our DIFFERENT skin colors could cause such friction and separation between us. My heart was saddened!!!
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It wasn't until I was probably in my mid 20's, I had already started working with the African kids, that I all of the sudden realized something. I NEVER felt uncomfortable with the African people. How many times had it just been me and them hanging out together?! How many times had I been in the home of these people who to were also black and YET I didn't feel that awkwardness that I felt in the Wendy's that day. These people, didn't even dress like Americans or speak like Americans, or eat like Americans, PLUS they were a different skin color, yet I felt NO separation from them like I did in the Wendy's that day!
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That's when I realized something, it was NOT our skin color that had separated us from each other that day, it was ANIMOSITY!!! It was HOSTILITY!!! It was DISLIKE!!! It was RESENTMENT!!! It was LOATHING!!! It was MALICE!!! It was SPITE!!! It was BITTERNESS!!! Dare I even say, it was HATE!!!
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Unbeknownst to ME, a naïve 16-year-old walked into what was considered a "black" Wendys! I had NO IDEA at the time that in part of this country, people STILL segregated themselves from each other. And it GOES both ways in these places, the black people don't want the white people coming in on THEIR territory, and the white people don't want the black people coming in on THEIR territory. I was COMLETELY clueless as to the fact that I was in THE SOUTH and that I was walking into BLACK TERRITORY that day. The reason for all the hostile stares that day was because this white chick was breaking the unwritten law of going where I didn't belong.
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I experienced this again more recently when I was traveling with my mom and sister in Florida several years ago. I had NO IDEA that Florida was considered a Southern state...Oooops...LOL Anywayz, we were looking for a Walmart and somehow, we ended up at the "black" Walmart! Of course when I walked in my first instinct was OMW THIS IS SOOOOOO AWESOME!!! All chocolate people!!! I was sooooooo EXCITED!!!! Once again, much to my surprise, the people there DID NOT feel the same way about me being there, as I felt about being there with them.
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I would as questions and get short, snappy answers and the lady at the customer service desk just blatantly IGNORED ME...to the point that I honestly didn't even think she had head me! So I said, "Excuse me Ma'am!" for like the fourth time and she finally said, "I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME!" I was soooo shocked!
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Later on when we were visiting our family from there, my mom mentioned to them that we had gone to Walmart earlier that day. She said that we had gotten lost but eventually we DID end up at a Walmart, EVEN THO it wasn't the one on the GPS. They asked which one and my mom gave them the cross streets, they all like GASPED, that's THE BLACK WALMART! We don't EVER go there!!! They were saying all kinds of stuff and I felt so weird hearing them talk about the black people that way. Despite the way they I had been treated at that Walmart, I still HATED the way they were talking about them.
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However, even MORE recently I had the opportunity to go to the Bahamas! (Read about that HERE!) That was an AMAZING EXPERIANCE!!! Once again, I had NO IDEA that Bahamian people were all black. Sooooo I was COMPLETELY thrilled to find out on our cruise ship that we were heading to an island of CHOCOLATE!!!
And let me tell you something, those people were JUST as excited to see me as I was to see them! They welcomed us all with open arms! They were so kind, and so friendly! The majority of the island is Christian so they are such happy people.
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Once again, here we are, with ALL CHOCOLATE people and yet, there was no friction, no awkwardness. I felt completely comfortable and thoroughly enjoyed talking and spending time with them. And once again I see, its NOT color that will ever separate us from each other, its HATE!!! If we want UNITY, we only need to learn how to LOVE!!!
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"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” (MLK)
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Even between people of the SAME skin color, bitterness will always bring friction and separate us. So many of the wars and destructions that we hear about overseas are cause by hate amongst people of THE SAME COLOR!!! No matter the skin color, HATE between ANYONE will ALWAYS DIVIDE, however, LOVE between ANY SKIN COLOR, will ALWAYS bring people together!!! Skin color doesn't bond people together, LOVE DOES!
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"Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." (Philippians 2:2)
Annnnnd we, the people of God, have the greatest love of all to bring us together, God's LOVE!!! We have available to us today, a LOVE that is so great, so strong, so powerful, that it is made possible, that every color, every nation, every kindred, every tribe every tongue, can be brought together, in one mind and one accord....
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"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." (1 John 10-12)
♥Mary Frances :)
