Lots of really great comments all. Thank you for your thoughts and perspectives. A lot to ponder.
A couple of questions. I don’t really know, and probably will come across more as I begin reading and learning more, but is the proper term Negro an offensive word or how is it viewed in the black community?
Second, I'm a bit embarrassed to say, but my wife, even though she's Asian, is actually quite prejudiced. It actually bothers me, and even bothers my kids. But, I'd like to educate her on the suffering blacks endured during and after slavery. Are there any good documentaries on Netflix or Amazon Prime that I can watch with her?
We recently watched The Wire, and seeing a little bit of how poor blacks live in the inner cities shook her, and she actually started to come around in the sense that she started to feel empathy for those in really difficult day to day living. And it humanized her view enough that it made her genuinely sad.
She literally has no education about slavery and and the true impact it's had on our country. Gone with the Wind doesn't count. Heh. I think if she understood better how our country got here from there, she'd understand why black have been behind the 8 ball from the outset of our country. I think this will give me a chance to work with her in letting go of our prejudices and truly embracing blacks as our brothers and sisters. It's going to be a bit of a paradigm shift for her. She's deaf, so she understands being oppressed and being taken advantage of, and i think if i can illustrate the black experience in a way that makes sense to her, I think she'll embrace it.
One other quick comment, I really do appreciate that we have a forum for this discussion. I wouldn’t call this a safe space, because our old notions should be challenged and hopefully changed such that we give up the fear of losing our identity, and embrace a different reality, the red/blue choice given to Neo. See you on the other side. :9: