My 15 year old and I were having a discussion about segregation in schools and we realized something. When I was a kid (say that in an old person's voice) schools had only been desegregated for about 20 years. I went to elementary school in South Carolina and I don't remember any of us caring if we were white, black, or purple. It wasn't until middle and high school that the real separations occured. In high school, I moved from SC to MD and we moved to a town that was highly acceptable of anybody, any race, any color. I remember visiting my old school in SC after living in MD for about 8 months and couldn't believe the difference! The difference in myself and in my old hometown. I wasn't used to separation anymore, I wasn't used to having to even think about what color people were.
Back to the conversation between myself and my 15 year old. She said in her high school there really aren't color distinctions. People hang out with people and color doesn't factor in. She is going to school about 40 years after desegregation. She is friends with a white girl, an African boy, a Hispanic girl, and the whitest of white girls. She makes me look real tan. My older daughter has a white friend who is dating a black guy and she is also friends with an Asian girl and a biracial girl. All these beautiful people mixing together, sharing their lives and not worrying about what color they are.
I know there are still pockets of segregation and hate. In our own lovely state of Maryland there is still an active Klan in a town not far from our house. My husband has reffed there before, he was the only black person present. I know there is still work to be done but it is getting better. I hope that when my grandchildren go to school, about 60 years after desegregation, they will be shocked to hear that blacks and whites used to be separated on purpose. I hope they are horrified, just as we were horrified to learn about the Holocaust when we were kids.
I am not asking people to be colorblind, color is beautiful! All my kids are a different color and each one is gorgeous and unique. I am asking people to look at character, look at souls, actions, and color. I can't help being born white and wouldn't ask to be another color. I am guessing that that is true about most people. They can't change their skin color and wouldn't want to. But you can change your attitude. You can stop stereotyping people. You can stop separating yourself from people who don't look like you.
What about you? Did you go to school during segregation times? Do you remember the separation of color when you were a kid? Do you think it's getting better? Do you have a story to share? Tell me about it!
