Segregated Thinking

I am honestly amazed that headlines like this still exist:

Segregated churches keep parishioners "cozy"

I remember hearing a lot of sad, racially-charged stories when I was a kid, passed on by television, movies, conscientious teachers, and others. I remember wondering if "black people" and "white people" were really that different. It really felt like "black people" didn't like "white people" very much because "they" thought "we" were responsible as a whole for centuries of slavery and lost freedoms.

I've thought a lot about racism since then. Did the feeling that "black people" would dislike me because of my skin color make ME a racist? Or did that just mean I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder and worry about everything under the sun? I don't know, but the answer is hazy enough to make me uncomfortable.

Since my younger days (I can say that now that I'm "30" right? Sheesh) I think that my perspective has matured enough to understand that no stereotype is healthy or accurate and that people's inner workings are much more complex and varied than the different shades of skin in the world. I do not believe only in black and white, theoretically speaking, but the many shades of grey in between and the entire spectrum of the rainbow.

Which brings us back to the headline I read. It seems that the vast majority of people in the United States prefer to go to a church with homogenous demographics. Seriously? Josh and I love meeting people who are different from us, whether it be their exterior or their ethnic background or just their unique view on life. There is so much to learn from everybody I know.

But why should this even be an issue? I mean: WHY? I don't get it at all. It's like saying, "I only want to go to a church where people have green eyes." Huh? That is completely illogical. Skin color, eye color, hair color, height: those are physical manifestations of the amazing thing called DNA. They have nothing to do with whether or not I can get along with a person.

My son hasn't been taught yet that "race" is an issue. So it's not an issue to him. I have said to him, "Did you know that people used to think that other people weren't as good as them just because of the way they looked?!?" And he laughs and thinks it's a funny joke. I think that's the way it should be.

I have a dream that someday people will stop racist thinking in all forms, including the form where immigrants are treated as inferior and assumed to be less intelligent or less educated or less valuable to society.

I have a dream that one day people will just be people ... and love each other anyway because ain't nobody perfect.