Thanks for your response as well.
As far as focusing on difference between skin color as a way of- for a lack of a better phrase- bringing us closer to understanding our common humanity, I would point to the Civil Rights Movement- though of course, there are likely examples before and after- this one is just the most well-known.
As you know, the CRM was led by black leaders, many of them ministers, and even as they faced pushback, racism, and violence from many whites, especially in the South, they were also joined by many white allies.
The boycotts, freedom rides, nights in jail, sit-ins, marches, and so forth very much focused on the difference in race because the difference in race is what made one group oppressed and the other… well, privileged.
King notes, as I think is important to you, that we should be judged not on the color of our skin but on the “content of our character”, but there was an emphasis that this was not an immediate reality but a sign of the “Promised Land” well off in the future.
It’s my opinion that absolutely(!) the goal is to think primarily of common humanity before differences according to race but as in the Civil Rights movement, and still now, the problems have to be diagnosed before the healing can fully take place. I’ve tried, in those 30 days, to find places in my life where this was the case, though I know these are only my experiences (though shared by many) and are not universal.
I agree with you completely that we should celebrate life for each and every person… but I also think that we are not yet able to do so without acknowledging that the playing field is not level and reshaping it until it is.
Thanks,
