I took down my rant about nobody benefitting from racism. It was just too much of a red herring. After all, I don't think anyone is suggesting that people who are not directly harmed by racism should be discriminated against just to be fair -- obviously the goal is the opposite, that discrimination should be eliminated instead.
And if I truly want to overcome racism and demonstrate the oneness of humanity, then I think I need to cultivate patience. After all, an ill that was inflicted by hundreds of years of brutal slavery, systematic destruction of families and cultural institutions, followed by decades of legislated discrimination and hostility, cannot be cured overnight. And not patience to wait for things to get better, but patience to accept and forgive any anger or bitterness that people may feel, rather than belittle it as irrational or misplaced, and yet still work to realize universal brotherhood. No need to argue.
Here's a story from today's local newspaper:
Records show police use Tasers more often on blacks
If someone's mad about that, it's not helpful to ask them not to direct their anger towards me. Obviously, a sympathetic ear will go much further.
When my brother David (the father in these pictures) was younger, he and Zivar, our sister (who has even less biographical material on the web than David -- the best I can find is this snippet from her high school's alumni page, and here's a picture of her, third one down, in our back yard) were extremely nice to each other. Their resources, however were limited. David explains:
Zivar had been making me treats and snacks and stuff, so I wanted to make a special snack for Zivar and me. A special snack That I knew would be yummy. I stuck some olives (the green kind -- not the black kind) onto some cheese and poured powdered sugar over it. Because cheese is good, and olives are good, and powdered sugar is good.
He was probably 5 or 6 years old. He found that olives and powdered sugar are best eaten (or fed to one's sister) separately.
So today, I thought, "I like peppermint tea", and "I like decaf coffee", and "mint chocolate is pretty good, so what about mint coffee?" Well, I'm sure it tasted better than olives and powdered sugar, but the first sip was a bit of a shock. I don't really know how to describe it. Sweetener helped, but I'm not sure whether I'd try it again.
However, David informs me:
I mix coffee and tea bags quite a bit. Flying J coffee is actually a good quality coffee, but it's so weak that it's disgusting. So if you put a teabag in it, it actually makes a decent flavor. It passes as a drinkable flavor.
He even endorsed peppermint. Flying J: David is a truck driver, and Flying J is a chain of truck stops with amenities such as showers and hot coffee.
So finally, he asked,
Have you tried the Ramen noodles and coffee yet? Because I'm not going to.
I haven't. I had talked to David about it when someone left some old Ramen packets (someone was cleaning out their office) sitting in the coffee room at work. Without David's help, I may never know how they taste together. It will have to wait for a future generation of experimenters.
