Anonymous,
Ann Arbor, MI
Understanding Race Project- University of Michigan

Race is an abstraction that can only be interpreted emblematically through the eyes of its creators. It fragments the whole. All people are racist, racist we are. With varying depths, some people are racist at the deepest and darkest level, never seeing light, never able to view the beautifully diverse world in which they reside. Some racists hold their breath; hoping pockets of air never seep to the surface. Their densities cause them to become a fixture in the middle. For the others, they are floaters: floaters who believe they are dry, yet unaware of dangling limbs. Admittedly, I do not believe one word of this, but I believe that there are lifeguards, lifeguards like Dr. King, prepared to die, to dive, to save lives. If the goal is to help move toward a colorblind society, making “one nation, invisible”, then it is illogical to ask that we constantly think about race: that is counterintuitive. The point is not to say that racism does not exist because it does; nor is it to suggest that we should not talk about it because we should. But as we go forth, we should strive to make race a sea of memories and desert it to a desert, left to be vaporized. We need good people to manifest their good intentions into physical systematic actions! We need lifeguards to protect rights, liberties, and lives! We need… to bridge the divide. The mind can be flooded, but the heart cannot.