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An American Legacy

By Jillian Wheeler | May 7, 2008

Several readers have asked me to republish an article I wrote on my old blog a few months ago.  Here it is:

Some Personal Thoughts on MLK Day

As you may know, I’m part of an ethnically blended family. Two of my siblings are adopted and Hispanic, and one of my sisters-in-law was Korean. My husband is African American, and after the death of his sister, we raised our three nieces, two of whom are themselves biracial. Some of my grandchildren are Hispanic. We occasionally get what my husband and I privately refer to as “the look,” but for the most part, we go through life if not unnoticed, at least unremarked. Forty years ago, it would not have been possible for us to live in the South, or comfortably anywhere in this country.

I did a lot of my growing up in the South, during segregation. My grandparents had an elderly neighbor whom we called “Aunt Susie,” who had been a little girl during the Civil War. I remember listening, astounded, as Aunt Susie tried to explain to me that Black people didn’t have souls, at least not like White people. I was six at the time, but I knew deep in my bones she was wrong. That conversation, and a few other searing experiences of racism, led me to grow up and protest and march for change.

There is still racial injustice of course, and plenty of bigotry on both sides of the color line. But the South in which I grew up – that world of “whites only” signs, and separate bathrooms. and service through the back door, has passed away. It is gone because of the courage of thousands of Black people, and a number of White people, who risked jailing and beatings and even death. It is gone because of the action of a few politicians who decided the time was finally right and stretched out of their comfort zones to vote their consciences. And to a large degree, it is gone because Martin Luther King stepped up and accepted the call to lead us all out of the mire of history to the possibility of a new way of living. In the process, of course, he lost his own life.

I am very grateful for Dr.King and other leaders and workers in the Civil Rights movement. I’m grateful to be living in the new South, where I see my husband treated as a man, with respect. I’m grateful to be in a world where my nieces, whom I love so deeply, can go to any college they choose, and work in any field they desire. One of my nieces is a model, and I treasure the fact that today, a dark-skinned Black woman is regarded as beautiful. I’m grateful that all my children and grandchildren are living in a world where people are judged by the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin.

The following are not meant as political comments. I’m far from apolitical in my private life, but this isn’t a political blog. Instead, please read these as simply my human responses to current events.

I am proud that after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the overwhelming majority of Americans did not respond by vilifying Arab Americans, or middle Easterners in general.

This year, I’m exhilarated by the fact that a Black man – and a woman! – are running for President. In the world in which I grew up, both of those were inconceivable. I’m grateful that so many Americans will vote this year for the person whose political platform they support, and that for many people, race and gender will be important, but not the deciding issues.

I urgently hope that as Americans consider the issues around immigration, they will not fall into the trap of seeing the people who come here from beyond our southern borders as “others,” but will instead see them as individual human beings – as much God’s children as those of us, of every race, who were born here.

We have only to look at Iraq, and at some of the countries in Eastern Europe and Africa, to know that ethnic tensions are the ever-present dark underside of human relations. As Americans we are so fortunate to live under a Constitution that provides civil liberties and honors human values. We must treasure and protect the legacy left us by the Founders – the legacy reaffirmed and strengthened and more fully realized, through the life and work of Dr. King.

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