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The Call to Unity, the Call to Maturity
Posted by Wallace+
Below is a response, from parishioner Dave C., to a recent Word from Grace Street. The vignette that Dave relays for us speaks both to our call to unity, as well the call to maturity. With Dave's permission, I pass his message along, with thanks to him and to his daughter Lucy!
How timely! I was just playing Michael Jackson's "Black or White" in the car. Michael sang "If you want to be my baby, it don't matter if you're black or white." To which she said: "or be my friend."
"Like your friends, I said."
"Or the men in your prison writing workshop."
"Yeah."
That's where it starts. In a conversation about difference and sameness. It seems so simple. And yet I still meet white college students who tell me they came to Richmond to escape the racism of their hometowns.
"You notice a difference." I explain to Lucy. "But you don't make a big deal out of it."
"I won't spend my life just being a color," Michael concludes.
I realize these pronouncements won't win any awards for subtlety. Race does matter, as Michael's mysteriously changing color indicated. But if a kid can understand the basic premise of unity because of a pop song, either we should all spend less time with subtlety or we need to practice being kids again.
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