Race: Black and White

Race is a topic that many stay away from because it is so controversial. There are many different views about race depending on what era, background, and influences an individual has been impacted by over their lifetime. Coming from a diverse background, I can honestly say that I understand the reasons behind the mixing of races, especially between blacks and whites.

It was not until I got older that I even noticed the racism within my own family, and it is on both sides. I have an uncle on my mother’s side (who is white), who did not meet my father until after my grandfather died at his memorial gathering. He had refused to talk to my grandmother and her family for over a decade due to the fact that my mother had married a black man. On my father’s side I noticed that all of my cousins and uncles did not flock to us at family reunions. There was a family reunion that we participated in about three years ago for my dad’s father’s side. I could feel the racism in the room from some of my family members and believe me it do not help having a adopted Asian sister on top of it.

Do not get me wrong I have members that love me and are not racist on both sides, however, everyone has different views on this topic and my family has shown me that very thing. I know on my father’s side everyone is from the deep south, and were and continue to teach things about mixing races. Some individuals in the south do not have a problem with mixing races and then there are others that are still caught up in a fight that was not even theirs in the first place. On my mother’s side I think it is the geographical area that they live in. There are not many blacks there and some may not have even seen a black person until later in their lives. So, when my mother married a black man it was a foreign thing to her uncle. However, it both cases it may not have had anything to do with what they were taught, but just the fact that they did not like anyone that was different then them.

The truth is that as individuals we focus to much on what others look like on the outside that we loose possible friendships, relationships, and knowledge that we could obtain from others. This is sad , because there is so much that we can learn from another.