Concerning Charlottesville

                                   
Just yesterday, before Charlottesville made it above the fold, I had a conversation with a friend of color about the unjust and unsolicited "advice" he's gotten from people because of his skin.

We weren't talking about the 50s. Or the 60s. Or 70s, 80s, 90s, or early 2000s.

We were talking about today.

"You boys from around here?
....You plannin' on stayin'?
.....You better not be back here when I go down there and come back....."

He told me of a billboard that was on an interstate that read something along the lines of:

"A black man was shot and killed here because he was out here after dark.
Verdict: NOT GUILTY"

He also told me of the downright bigotry and prejudice that he faces in his own neighborhood that he's lived in his entire adult life.

Not only because he's not white,
but because his wife is.
And shock of all shock, their kids are mixed.

Apparently, people don't take too kindly to kids who don't have their mama's milky white skin tone but look closer to their daddy's rich, darker shade.

He told me how a "neighbor" of his keeps confusing him with "the other black guy" in the neighborhood, even though the other guy looks nothing like him and stands a good 5 or 6 inches taller and is of a slimmer build.

HOW IS THIS STILL HAPPENING??

By the way, all black people DON'T look the same, in case anyone is confused.

This is not a matter of education.
Education can't save.

This is not a matter of colorblindness.
God isn't colorblind. Otherwise, we'd all have the same melanin.

This is not even a matter of seeing eye to eye.
You can stand with someone at eye level and never even look at them.

It's a matter of seeing INTO each other's eyes.

It's a matter of seeing color and celebrating its beauty. Its story. Its history.

And, it's a matter of valuing someone else above ourselves.

Until we realize that this kind of stuff DOES happen, even if it doesn't happen to us, we actually perpetuate the brokenness.

Just because we get to live in a bubble doesn't mean that everyone floats above it all.

It's time to commit.