Youth / OPINION : ‘Dear Dad: No One Race Is Perfect’

Dear Dad,

Growing up with you as one of the people who has molded my values has been confusing. We have had several long discussions while on the way to school, the library or some other place I have demanded you take me. As we rumbled along in the truck that you have fixed so many times with your own hands, our discussions have been interesting and humorous--other times they have been serious and depressing. During some of those more serious discussions you have repeatedly stated your opinions on one subject that I refuse to accept, your dislike of “white” people.

For a long time I couldn’t see why you felt this way; didn’t you send me to a predominantly white school so (that) I could get a better education than that which was being provided by the school near where we lived? On another one of our trips you revealed more about yourself. I found out that you were born and raised on a cotton plantation in Mississippi. Once you told (a) tale about being caught taking a shortcut through the peach orchard; “the man” ran you off because he thought you were stealing. Even though you told it with humor, I could feel, by your voice, that it was a memory associated with anger.

Later, your construction business collapsed. It happened soon after a white building inspector refused to allow you (to) go ahead with a building because of minor issues not supported by reasons. After that, you became venomous about your dislike for certain white people. Every conversation we had became a forum for promoting black power and pride. You even got dreadlocks in your hair as a statement of your “blackness.”

Dad, I try to understand what your opinions are based on so that I can understand you better, but it is still hard to respect them. I just cannot go through life thinking that a particular group of people is the personification of all things hideous and evil. Dad, just because some mishaps occurred to you because of a few people does not mean that all people in that race (want) to “keep you down.”

Dad, I remember when I bluntly stated that you were a racist. Your reply was, “You’re right. I am a racist, but I didn’t want to be this way. I never wanted to be a racist.” When you told me this I was very surprised. I never realized that you were really aware that how you felt was racist.

Dad, now that you have confided in me, I am able to understand you better, at least the part that made you the way you are today. I hope that you will change your views, and I want to be a part of helping that reformation come to pass. I know that you don’t think that all white people are “the enemy,” but I would like you to understand the issue the way I do. No one race is perfect. We all have faults and have done injustices to others. Knowing this, how can we as a people--black, white, Hispanic or Asian--identify one single race as the omniscient, omnipotent oppressor?

Dad, you love to play the piano; in fact, you tried to teach all your children to play. I would like you to take some words of wisdom from a song that says:

Ebony and Ivory

Live together in

perfect harmony

side by side on my piano keyboard

Oh Lord, why can’t we?

Daddy, why can’t we?