I was chatting with friends recently and we got talking about recent events in racism. We shared the ways large and small our children/relatives have been impacted, as our families span white, black, hispanic, southern Mediterranean and southeast Asian ancestries. And then I shared a story from my years in high school that still makes me think. Grab a beverage and your running shoes, and join me below the story break after a word from our sponsor…
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My school district was rather large geographically, and students from four K-6 elementary schools came together for Jr-Sr High. I wasn’t an athletic kid and didn’t have a huge friend base, so when I joined the cross country team in Junior High, my mother was both thrilled I’d found an activity, that I’d make friends in my new bigger school, and truth be told nervous I’d get sick running outside in all that rain and wind :-)! I never did get sick, but I made friends. At our first meet, I excitedly told my Mom to watch for my new friend L. Back in the day, we all wore these godawful striped gymsuits (think something that looked like this). Most of us had red ones, but L wore a blue one. So I told Mom to watch for a girl in a blue gymsuit who probably would be the fastest girl on either team.
Mom watched, and eventually I finished — while I thoroughly enjoyed cross country, I was NOT particularly good at it. Still, I persevered. She was confused. “I looked for your friend, but the only girl in a blue gymsuit can’t have been her.” I asked why not? ”She was black, and you didn’t mention that.”
Well, to be honest, no shit I didn’t mention it… I didn’t give a rat’s ass what color my friend was, she was the only one of dozens of us in a freeking BLUE gymsuit at a school where the colors were red and black!!!! How ELSE would I describe her besides fast, and wearing blue?
As I related this story to my friend, I started to say “I’ve never seen color”… and then stopped, because saying that is, literally, Number 8 on the #NotRacist checklist. What I realize is back then, I was shielded from seeing color because I was a teenager in a rural area and have NO idea what my school friends who weren’t white went through. I need to remedy that, hear and own what my own lack of awareness back then caused me to both miss, and perpetrate.
Times were different then. I hope that when MY kids are long-grown and reminiscing about their own school experiences, they can say the same.
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Top Mojo ala mik!
For Monday, April 16, 2018, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on the subject.
Top Pictures
2018-04-17, courtesy of jotter!