Phyllis W. Allen,
Fort Worth, TX.
I am a sixty year old woman who has lived through segregation, integration, Colored, Negro,, Black, African American, segregation, marches, integration, Pan Africanism, opulent consumption, financial catastrophe and now I’m just me.
It has take all of us a long, long time to realize that it is what’s inside of us that is most important. You and I are in the same generation of Baby Boomers. At one time, most of us thought that we would change the world and help make it a better place to live in….make our own country a more harmonious community of educated, tolerant and loving individuals. Things did not quite unfold in the way we thought they would. While there has been definite social and economic progress in some areas, the divide between the poor and wealthy in the United States has only grown wider. And, that old standby, the “Middle Class” has slowly been eroded away to the point that it is almost non-existent anymore. And, despite the fact that intermarriage between the races and ethnic groups has increased in the past 40 years, the tolerance of and the acceptability of children of mixed parentage is still where it was when we were in college. These kids are often rejected by one race or the other….or in some cases….ignored and denigrated by both. It’s sad…for all of us. I’m glad you have finally reached your comfort zone about who and what you are. Me, too. I’m an ex-altar boy who divorced his Hispanic-American Indian Catholic first wife and had joint custody of our daughter. Then, several years later I married a Russian Jewish woman, with two kids. Both families learned the benefits and joys of passing the love and tolerance. I’ve also learned, after genetic DNA testing, that nearly all of us are part of the same core families that lived more than 70 thousand years ago. I don’t care anymore who I am or what I look like….and the same goes for everyone else. Everyone has something to offer society. And, everyone also has a certain amount of foul smelling personality garbage that should be left missing and presumed lost. Congratulations upon your discovery of “You.”