Reflections on Race

We were given today off to reflect and recharge, a generous gift of time that I (as always) struggle to use as wisely as possible. The day is meant to mark a pause in the tensions that have roiled this country over recent instances of police brutality against African Americans. 

I've done some reading to mark the day, but for me race relations are a lived event. Because both the grand-babies I'm waiting to welcome will have brown skin, I think often about the world they will inherit. What kind of prejudices will they fight? What kind of opportunities will they have? Will they be roughed up by police because they happened to be jogging in the "wrong" part of town? 

Suddenly it is not "the other" — it is flesh of my flesh. So whatever I think is no longer a matter of mind only, but also of heart. Which makes me wonder ... is this what it will take? Will things truly improve only when most marriages are mixed-race and most families blended? 

I certainly hope not; I certainly hope it happens much, much sooner than that.