“The shade of a person is just the cover of their story,
And there is no reason not to open their book.”
Natalia Immordino, a 10-year-old girl from London wrote this stanza in response to a call for poem entries by the New York Times. It’s amazing to me how the wisdom of a child can clearly put things in sharp perspective.
I do not like to harbor a negative outlook. However, when I conducted a mini-survey of 10 Recorder readers about what 2014 represented to them, they responded that this year represented bad news for African-Americans.
When I asked them to share something positive that happened to or for Blacks in 2014, each one paused before responding. Sadly, they could not share the positive things as quickly as they were able to recall the sorrows endured this year.
Intrigued, I asked them why negative things were easier to reflect upon. Their responses broke my heart.
“I haven’t seen such obvious discrimination since our days in the movement,” said an 81-year-old man who was an avid demonstrator during the Civil Rights Movement. “Back then I watched us (Blacks) being beaten for demonstrating. Now I’m watching us being shot for walking down the street.”
Another poll participant said the negative treatment of Blacks is a reality that most likely won’t go away any time soon.
“That’s what seemed to be the most consistent thing,” she said in reference to what she felt was negative treatment toward Blacks. “I am only 32 years old and I don’t see how things can improve in the near or distant future. There are so many layers of racism, it may take a couple generations to really address it the way it needs to be addressed.”
The response of a 17-year-old high school senior who is active in his church and excels academically brought tears to my eyes.
“I just feel like they don’t care about us. I don’t think Black people will ever be good enough in the eyes of some people. That makes me sad about my future. I try to do everything the way my parents tell me, but I wonder what difference it will make if I am only judged by others by the color of my skin.”
That young man’s sentiments are why the stanza in Natalia Immordino’s poem is so profound:
“The shade of a person is just the cover of their story…”
We must open books of people who are different than us, and read deeper to learn who they really are. This is parallel to what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said as he encouraged Americans to judge one another by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin.
As you can see from this week’s front page Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper, 2014 was a year full of ups and downs – specifically for Blacks. This prompted our team coverage: “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”
Over its 120 year history, the Recorder has fearlessly covered national atrocities of lynching and injustice, as well as inspiring milestones like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the election of the nation’s first African-American president.
With 2015 now underway, we hope, pray and plan for positive change. Blacks must support each other – there truly must be unification in our community and it begins with you and me.
For inspiration, let me invite you to consider the principles of Kwanzaa, not just now, but to help and guide you in throughout 2015:
Umoja – principle of unity: Strive to maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
Kujichagulia – principle of self-determination: To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
Ujima – principle of collective work and responsibility: To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems and solve them together.
Ujamaa – principle of cooperative economics: To build and maintain our own store, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia – principle of purpose: To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their collective greatness.
Kuumba – principle of creativity: To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani – principle of faith: To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
