Big Dreams

Contribute to humanity. I have a dream. When I get discouraged by racial or social class disparity, I do try and remember how far we've come. But there is so far to go!

My tall white son tells me of a TV show where a black family and a white family trade places. The white man says that sometimes the expectation of the black people cause trouble to come to them (I do not remember the quote---that is the gist of it). My son thinks that there is some truth to that.
My tall white son says this and I am so discouraged.

When has he known prejudice? He is not a female and he is not dark. He is the priviledged. My husband is too. They cannot know how it feels to be dismissed due to your skin. I really would not have known either because I was raised in California and my parents never subjected me to prejudice discussions. I moved to Louisiana at age 12 to find that you were either black or white--and I was white there. But when I moved to Texas--I had a couple of occasions (three for sure) where someone thought I was hispanic in a derogatory way....and believe me, I knew it immediately. Now, I was so shocked by the unspoken but obvious prejudice, I did not bring it on myself by expecting it to occur. Even then, I was outraged, but did not want to justify their prejudice by denying that I was hispanic. But I admit that it made me ashamed of my skin. And want to be white. and not understand how these things happen. and I realized that the black people in LA, MS, and AR were not dramatizing the problem---they KNEW in their guts when someone dissed them.

So I want to help underrepresented minorities to succeed in the academic field. As I succeed, I will mentor others and be the pipeline for faculty representation matching undergraduate graduation rates.....and I'd like to improve that too! More on that soapbox later, but I get SOOO upset at the white men and women who angrily say that they have "made" it by their hard work and that blacks have the same opportunities. Baloney.