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By John T. Crestwell, Jr.
December 4, 2005
Revised January 20, 2006
WE wear the mask that grins
and lies. It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes.
This debt we pay to human guile; with torn and bleeding hearts we
smile
And mouth with myriad subtleties. Why should the world be over-wise
In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but oh great God, our cries to Thee from tortured souls
arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile beneath our feet, and long the
mile;
But let the world dream otherwise.
We wear the mask!
WE WEAR THE MASK— Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)
This poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar describes the African American
worldview not long after the Civil War. Being Black meant you were
a necessary commodity while at the same time an invisible minority
regarding your rights as a human being. Dunbar helps us to look at
the world through the African American's eyes in that day and time.
He said Blacks wore a metaphorical mask, smiling when they wanted to
sigh, and laughing when they wanted to cry. This was an overtly
segregated and racist time in our American History.
We have come a long way since the Civil War. There has been much
struggle but much progress has been made. Yet, in many ways, African
Americans and other minority groups still have to wear the mask.
Today, racism still lives in our culture but it is not always easy
to see. Sometimes the cultural biases and prejudices are subtle and
covert, while other times they are quite obvious and overt. But
today, if we want to really SEE the world, we have to look through
other eyes and not our own. We have to put on the mask of those
minority classes in the world to understand their worldview. Why
should we?
Yes, why should we look through the eyes of others and ask
ourselves if the world is fair and equitable for all? Why should we
push ourselves into places that are perhaps uncomfortable? Why
should we be sensitive to the understandings of other ethnicities
and cultures? I say because it is right. But that is the question
you must ponder…
For me, an African-American male in America, I’ve experienced
blatant and subtle racism in my life. I have never allowed it to
stifle my success though. But it is obvious when you look at America
and the world-over the White/Black or White/Other-than White
dichotomy is ever-present.
My first racial experience was quite introspective. It was an
“awakening” encounter—a moment when my consciousness was pricked and
my worldview changed forever. This occurred when I was sixteen years
old during a stay-in-school internship at WJLA ABC TV-7 in
Washington, DC. I would ride the 32- Metro-bus from Alabama Avenue,
in Southeast, to the television station on Connecticut Avenue in
Northwest. I was fascinated by the dynamics of the bus as I rode
from a predominately Black neighborhood to a mostly White area in
N.W. The bus went from one-hundred-percent (100%) Black to
one-percent (1%) Black and I represented the one-percent. By the
time I arrived at my stop, even the bus driver changed colors.
When I got on the bus in my neighborhood, I saw rundown schools,
dilapidated neighborhoods; trash in too many places, poorly
landscaped communities, plenty of carry-outs and fast-food “joints”,
almost no sit-down restaurants and several liquor stores.
In contrast, when I got off the bus on Connecticut Avenue in
Northwest, I saw people walking their dogs, couples walking on the
sidewalk— happy; beautifully landscaped lawns, quality businesses
and several fine dining restaurants. I saw bikers, and people
jogging and I loved it! Then I realized there weren’t many folk who
looked like me. Today, not much has changed today if you ride the 32
from Alabama Avenue to Connecticut Avenue – the south to the north.
Did you get what I just said? You can clearly see the race and
class struggle in the street names too. I know we’ve made progress
in America, as I said, but this revealed to me a world that was very
separate and unequal.
Then some years later when I studied African American culture in
seminary, some startling statistics revealed to me that my color
still plays a role in my ability to live the “American Dream”.
Listen to a few statistics…
POPULATION: Blacks 13% or 36-million of the nearly 300,000,000
(million) total pop.
POVERTY RATE: 26% Black; 11% White; 14% Asian/Pacific Islander; 27%
Hispanic; National rate 13%
MEDIAN INCOME: 25,000 Blacks; $45,000 Asians; 40,000 Whites; 26,000
Hispanics ~ National Avg: $38,000
PRISON SYSTEM: 1,023,572 inmates in federal and state systems
488,000 are Black (48% of population); 364,000 White (35% of pop),
171,000 other--17% of prison pop. Note: Blacks are 13% of the US
population showing a disproportionate # in prison
1 in 3 Black males are involved in the criminal justice system in
some capacity.
1 in 15 Black males are incarcerated.
1 in 10 Black men addicted to drugs
35% of African-American men 18-25 are unemployed
Black youths are 30-times more likely than Whites to be detained for
drug offenses.
African-Americans have the highest death rate, excluding the
elderly.
Sources: American Correctional Association; Bureau of Labor
Statistics; Census Bureau; Federal Bureau of Investigation
What did you hear? What do I hear? This tells me that the disparity
among the races is obvious and if you couple this with biased media
coverage, what you have is a self-fulfilling prophecy being played
out all across America with African Americans being portrayed
indirectly as a lesser race and more prone to dysfunction. The
statistics confirm to me that we have not dealt fully with ending
segregation and discrimination. Blacks are no longer in the physical
chains of slavery but now they are psychological systemic slaves.
Yes, this data tells me that in overt and covert ways, racism is
still alive and well. But you have to look through other eyes to see
it.
Now imagine you are in your geography class back in grade school.
Your Caucasian teacher is asking you to look at the “industrialized”
“First World” countries, juxtaposed against those countries that are
seen as “developing”, “unindustrialized” or “Third World”. You are a
little African America girl and you raise your hand. Your teacher
allows you to speak and you say to the class, as you look at the
world with innocent, open eyes, “Why is it that the Third World
consists of the darker-skinned peoples like Africans, Brazilians,
Haitians, Indians, Arabs and Asians, and the First World countries
have many of the lighter-skinned peoples like the English, Germans,
Spaniards, French, and Americans?” The teacher, perplexed, looked
again at the globe, and responded“, Sweetheart, that’s just the way
the world is.” Through her sweet little eyes there was something
morally corrupt, something wrong with this organization, but through
her teacher’s eyes, that’s just the way life is…
Let’s go back to that globe… Have you ever examined the globe? Go
home today and examine your globe and you too will see that the
countries above the equator are Northern Hemisphere (mostly “First
World), and below, Southern Hemisphere (mostly “Third World”). For
me, it is the Heaven/Hell metaphor come to life. That which is good
is up or north, and that which is bad is below or south. The globe
is made by humans and this very fine instrument is also subject to
the definitions and prejudices of our culture. It is very
interesting, when you look beyond the earth and you enter the
eternity of space, scientists tell us there is no such thing as
north, south, east and west. These are human measurements. There is
no time, no month, or labels. Space just is. Yet when you descend
from the splendor of the infinite to the impropriety of the finite,
you find classifications, stigmas, and cultural biases that keep the
world separate and unequal.
The globe and the street names signify that racism is a bad spirit
breathed in our culture. It’s quite simple, those in power make the
rules, structure the world out, including our understanding of north
and south, most of them are White, therefore you have a one-race
superiority syndrome projected into our midst. Much of our nation,
much of our world is forced into living a Euro-centric cultural
mythology and it is very much White/Black or White/Other oriented.
It was obvious to me when I was sixteen and now that I’m
thirty-five, that socially, politically and theologically we have
“miles to go before we sleep”—a long way to go to solve the race
problem in America and the world.
How do we live the first UU principle then, that challenges us to
respect the inherent worth and dignity of all human beings when
racism is in America, particularly, is quite cultural? How do we
create Dr. King’s Beloved Community where we sit at a round table of
mutuality and diversity, not a board room table of exclusivity?
My first suggestion is that we must be aware of the problem. We have
to raise our level of consciousness. We have to wear other
people’s masks. And we have to listen more, read more and think
more, as Maya Angelou suggests. Then we will begin to see and hear
mother culture’s flaws and work to change them. We can “speed up
the day” toward the new heavens and new earth reality. Yes, if we
are sensitive enough, we will hear the sound of those cultural
voices that have been historically muted, and we will listen and
hear and respect their thoughts fully and move the world forward.
There are too many monologue mentalities in our world. We need more
dialog.
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