October 24, 2006

• A Brief Musing About "Race"

  This short essay by Maya Angelou embodies my basic philosophy that, in order to overcome our stereotypes and prejudices, there is no substitute for having close personal relationships with the "other"...who is, we discover, not so very different from ourselves after all.

  Excerpt from Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now

  By Maya Angelou

  Our Boys

              The plague
  of racism is insidious, entering into our minds as smoothly and quietly and
  invisibly as floating airborne microbes enter into our bodies to find lifelong
  purchase in our bloodstreams.

              Here is a
  dark little tale which exposes the general pain of racism.  I wrote ten one-hour television programs
  called Blacks, Blues, Blacks, which
  highlighted Africanisms still current in American life.  The work was produced in San
  Francisco at KQED.

              The program
  “African Art’s Impact on Western Art” was fourth in the series.  In it I planned to show the impact African
  sculpture had on the art of Picasso, Modigliani, Paul Klee, and Rouault.  I learned that a Berkeley
  collector owned many pieces of East African Makonde sculpture.  I contacted the collector, who allowed me to
  select thirty pieces of art.  When they
  were arranged on lighted plinths, the shadows fell from the sculptures on to
  the floor, and we photographed them in dramatic sequence.  The collector and his wife were so pleased
  with the outcome that at my farewell dinner they presented me with a piece of
  sculpture as a memento.  They were white,
  older, amused  and amusing.  I knew that if I lived in their area, we
  would become social friends.

              I returned
  to New York, but three years
  later I moved back to Berkeley to
  live.  I telephoned the collector and
  informed him of my move.  He said, “So
  glad you called.  I read of your return
  in the newspaper.  Of course we must get
  together.”  He went on, “You know I am
  the local president of the National Council of Christians and Jews.  But you don’t know what I’ve been doing since
  we last spoke.  I’ve been in Germany
  trying to ameliorate the conditions for the American soldiers.”  His voice was weighted with emotion.  He said, “You know, the black soldiers are
  having a horrific time over there, and our boys are having a hard time, too.”

              I asked, “What
  did you say?”

              He said, “Well,
  I’m saying that the black soldiers are having it particularly tough, but our
  guys are having a bad time, too.”

              I asked, “Would
  you repeat that?”

              He said, “Well,
  I’m saying…”  Then his mind played back
  his statement, or he reheard the echo of his blunder hanging in the air.

              He said, “Oh,
  my God, I’ve made such a stupid mistake, and I’m speaking to Maya Angelou.”  He said, “I’m so embarrassed.  I’m going to hang up.”  I said, “Please don’t.  Please don’t. 
  This incident merely shows how insidious racism is.  Please, let’s talk about it.”  I could hear embarrassment in his voice, and
  hesitations and chagrin.  Finally, after about
  three or four minutes, he managed to hang up. 
  I telephoned him three times, but he never returned my telephone calls.

              The
  incident saddened and burdened me.  The
  man, his family and friends were lessened by not getting to know me and my
  family and friends.  And it also meant
  that I, my family, and my friends were lessened by not getting to know
  him.  Because we never had a chance to talk, to teach each other and learn
  from each other, racism had diminished all the lives it had touched.

              It is time
  for the preachers, the rabbis, the priests and pundits, and the professors to
  believe in the awesome wonder of diversity so that they can teach those who
  follow them.  It is time for parents to
  teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is
  strength.  We all should know that
  diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the
  threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter their color, equal in
  importance no matter their texture.

              Our young
  must be taught that racial peculiarities do exist, but that beneath the skin,
  beyond the differing features and into the true heart of being, fundamentally,
  we are more alike, my friend, than we are unalike.

   

  …Mirror twins are different

  although their features jibe,

  and lovers think quite different
  thoughts

  while lying side by side.

   

  We love and lose in China,

  We weep on England’s
  moors,

  And laugh and moan in Guinea,

  And thrive on Spanish shores.

   

  We seek success in Finland,

  Are born and die in Maine,

  In minor ways we differ,

  In major we’re the same.

   

  I note the obvious differences

  Between each sort and type,

  But we are more alike, my friends,

  Than we are unalike.

   

  We are more alike, my friends,

  Than we are unalike.

  We are more alike, my friends,

  Than we are unalike.

   

  Pages 121-125

  • 12:09 pm
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