Sun, 10 Jun 2007

A Lesson in Diversity at the Mall

I was at the laboratory in the mall yesterday -- sitting in the food court -- when I got to thinking about the people around me. I was struck not by the differences, but by the similarities among the various ethnic groups.

To be politically correct, I guess you can't call them differences. It's PC to call it diversity. There were a large number of people of color at the mall this evening. Of course, I have always thought of the pinkish/brownish/beige of my skin as a color and white is technically all colors while black is the absence of color, so calling an African American a person is color is a bit of a misnomer . . . of course, black people really aren't black but some shade of brown which is a color . . .

Anyway, whatever the pallet, here they were, people of all colors, eating, talking, laughing, shopping, going about their daily lives. If God had turned out the light, you would not be able to tell one family from another. The mothers did mother things, the fathers did father things, the kids did kid things, the teens did . . . well, you know whatever teens do. In short, if you were blind to the physical differences in appearance, you would be hard pressed to tell one family from another.

The kids were spilling things, running around, acting like kids everywhere and the mothers and fathers, with slight variations were getting exasperated like mothers and fathers everywhere. Young couples were tending to their babies, older couples were tending to their grown children and husbands and wives were walking with the grandfathers and grandmothers in the extended families.

As I watched, I realized when you really stop to look at any of us, that' really what we are -- not black, not white, not brown, but, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters -- families. We are more alike than different. More the same than diverse. So why is there so much hate?

posted 13:38 [/WhatAreYou] permanent link