A friend read a piece I wrote that said the heritage of Black people has produced a set of character traits we all need to learn from. Specifically, I said Black people have demonstrated survival skills that we need in our current embattled times. My friend challenged me. Wasn’t I other-ing Black people? Wasn’t this positive spin the same as when people say negative stereotypes about them? They are just people, she wanted me to write, people like everybody else. No different.
From the end of Reconstruction until now the White culture and the Black culture were developing so separately that it would be naïve to claim there is no difference. Many have said Sunday morning at 10:00 is the most segregated time in the week. I’ve been to Sunday worship at many local churches, both Black and White. Styles of singing and preaching clearly follow color lines.
I’ve promoted my book, Walters Way: A Coach, His Runners, and His Race, to Black audiences and White. There is rarely an audience with a mixture of both. As a result, I’ve become aware that the conversation about race is dramatically different according to which audience is present.
To my friend I say, yes, there are differences. And no, I am not stereotyping. I am attuning to culture. If we do not attune and learn, we miss a true understanding of America’s rich mix of humanity. For centuries, Black achievements have filled the air we breathe. They are as numerous and as invisible as oxygen molecules in the eyes of White society. How did they manage all that success in a hostile environment? That is the lesson I want to learn.
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