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WE WEAR THE MASK
An African American Worldview
John T. Crestwell, Jr.
12/4/05
revised 1/20/06

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.   

Second, we all need more exposure to other nationalities and ethnicities.  If you’ve ever spoken to a well traveled person in the military or some other service, you find in many instances that their experiences changed their perspective.  They tend to be progressive and open-minded.  Many I have spoken with said they witnessed thousands of non-Americans living by a different code.  They experienced different diets, saw different religions, different customs, and different mores.   They asked themselves the question, “What sort of God or nation could condemn all of these people?”   The lesson for them is that life had to be much bigger than one religion’s exclusive claim.   The point is WE ALL NEED A HEAVY DOSE OF MULTI-CULTURLISM so we can see that our way, our belief, is not the “end all-be all”.  Echoing the thoughts of Dr. King, we are all a part of a beautiful symphony of sisterhood and brotherhood.  And science confirms this fact as well.  Studies tell us that we are all 99.9% alike biologically.  We are homoiousian “of the same essence or substance.”  Yes, we have to shed our individual arrogance and learn more about other people, places and things. 

Third, we have to let go of superiority syndromes and understand that systems may be superior to other systems (Democracy is brilliant in theory but flawed in praxis) but there are no superior and inferior races.  We cannot subjugate other peoples based on a premise that our way is the ultimate way.  We cannot force nations to succumb to our will because we feel we have a mandate from God or some other source to make the world like us.   We have to see that our democratic way is one way to the universal sisterhood and brotherhood but there are other systems for humans to get there.  Just as there are other religions for humans to get there.  And so we must work to heal the world of its brokenness and not be a part of the problem of keeping it broken.

I don’t know about you but I have to ask myself all the time “Can I see another’s woe and not be in sorrow too?  Can I see another’s grief and not seek for kind relief?  Can I see a falling tear and not feel my sorrow’s share?  No, no never can it be.  Never, never can it be!”  And so, if I am using my race or political system to promulgate ideas of supremacy while subjecting humans all across the world to brutality then I am not projecting freedom and love, rather violence and hatred, and the result of this shows that we are not living up to the best of our ideals.  

Solution four goes with the last thought…  We must develop a new story that embraces all people.  We cannot accept a story that is built on the notion of dominance.  This is where the ideology of Joseph Campbell comes into play.  Mother Culture is what he called “the song of the universe.”  Her (Mother Culture’s) tune is similar all across the world but based on where you live and what you learn and are exposed to, you sing a variation of her song.  Therefore, we must find a song that embraces diversity instead of erases!     This song is like listening to jazz or to a symphony where many instruments play their part; each one important; each one contributing in its own way.  And when it all comes together, it is beautiful music— a polyphony of sight, sound, color, motion and emotion.  This is the Beloved Community.  Perhaps in this generation and perhaps the religion we call Unitarian Universalism can be an example and say with boldness, “I ‘aint gonna study war or hate no more!  I’m creating a new reality that nurtures, embraces, and loves.”    We have the power to change or world!   We must deconstruct and reconstruct any mythology that divides instead of unites.  Dr. King said it well “We must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or we will perish as fools.”  If we can do this, then perhaps we can begin to build a world where peace and justice are the order of the day. We can build a world where people use their intelligence, not their tribal instincts to solve problems. We can build a world where we treat people as we wish to be treated. We can build a world where people will not live distant and in fear of the other, rather in community where every human is treated as a sister or a brother. We can build a world without the “us against them” mentality but a world that embraces the “we are together” reality. We can build a world of mutual respect and love when humans listen more, read more and think more. And this will be a day when goodness and conscientiousness will not be brutal forces leading to more and more shameful crucifixions, but a time of healing and understanding as we celebrate life, that great web of interdependence of which we are all a part. 

No, I don’t want to wear the mask anymore.  I don’t want you to wear the mask.  I don’t want anybody to wear a mask!  I want us to live free, in spirit and in truth when justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Amen.

I leave these words in the memory of David Eaton, A. Powell Davies, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Might their example live on and in me!  Let it be so!

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