It’s not easy. We are familiar with and know the feel of the social construct of race. We know what to expect of it and for all the faults that we find with race, we are too familiar with its prejudices, too accustomed to its stereotypes, too comfortable with the life lived racially to let go. We have gotten use to the frustrations, the disappointments, the struggle.
We are accustomed to the hand held tightly, unable to hold on to anyone, we raise our fists and wave our fists. Our fingers are stuck together it seems.
I don’t know when or where or why it happened; but, I write for this struggle with identity to end. I write in hopes of loosening the grip that we have on race. I write with the vision that we will open our hands, freeing ourselves of what has never been, who we have never seen. I write with hands wide open with the faith that you too can receive the life of the Spirit.
Race is not holding on to us. We are holding on to race. Let go. This is my prayer. Amen.
The Raceless Gospel 
This is troubling
Suicide Among Elementary-Aged Black Children Doubles
https://www.linkedin.com/grp/post/152739-6006997755162017796
Thanks for sharing this troubling reality. There is certainly lots of work for us to do.
This letting go of race sounds interesting, but people have too much identity tied up in it to let it go. Don’t you think?
No. I don’t think that our identity is tied up in race. Race is not a representative of who we are as human beings. I think that letting go of the belief that race identifies us as human beings is not as hard as we think.
This reminds me of this funny thing that happened this morning.
I’m friends with this Black chef at work and we chat in the morning as I get my espresso at an island station in the cafe. People walking in can not see me getting my espresso. I’m White. So, the chef and I both start walking in the direction where people enter. She’s about two or three steps ahead of me. Then I see a Black employee entering doing the Solidarity Fist to her, then he sees me a split second later and changes his Solidarity Fist to a wave and tells her ‘Good Morning’.
I had the biggest smile on my face as I walked away. And was thinking of what I should have said. I could have said nonchalant ‘Solidarity!’ or I could have said really loud so the whole cafe hears ‘All Power to the People!!”