Question of the Month: BALTIMORE – MANY QUESTIONS

QUESTION

We have not dealt with race relations very well, and it is time we address this in an inclusive way. I was born in Kenya and have friends that are white, brown, black and every other color. Skin color does not determine the character of the person. Yet we have to answer these ridiculous race questions. The choices are not intelligent or representative of a civil society. Here are the choices we have on those typical forms:

1. Hispanic but not white
2. Native American but not white
3. Then the usual choices of Caucasian, African American, Asian, etc.
4. And then a last box says “Other.”

I always select this fourth box and answer “Human.”

At TKF, one of our core teachings is that we are one human race. As a society, we need to get that. If we don’t we will never get to peace. Young children do not differentiate race if you see them playing together. In a short 250 years, the United States has created the world’s best economic, meritocratic super power. Nations that are several thousand years old have not been able to do so. Why is that? Because we are by far the most diverse society in the world. In Los Angeles we have 140 spoken languages. I truly believe that the reason we have become the most amazing nation in the world is because of our diversity.

Diversity is strength. We need to get rid of these divisive race questionnaires and start teaching early in preschool that we are one Human Race. If we do that Ferguson and Baltimore and many other race-motivated incidents will never happen. The USA can lead the world in this effort as we have the most diverse human rainbow! That is a wonderful thing – if we can get away from race and get to understanding we will indeed be ONE HUMAN RACE.