.cross.wired.mind.

I just don’t get it. I go to the Reading Terminal Market for lunch about three times a week. I love Carmen’s hoagies and Dinic’s sandwiches. I shop at Metropolitan Bakery and *L*O*V*E* Termini Brothers fine confectionary delights.

Today, being a very clear-headed day, I decided to look at the patterns and flow of people. I don’t know why I hadn’t noticed this before but it jumped into view as I stood in line for some good cooking at Delilah’s Southern Cuisine. It became very clear that I was the only white person in line. Ten people - one white guy. I thought that a bit odd since the food is amazingly good. So I got my chopped chicken BBQ, black-eyed peas and rice, mac and cheese, and corn bread, and sat down to eat.

I sat in a position to watch the line. A half hour passed before one other white guy got in line. So a few dozen people passed through the line while I was watching and only 2 of them were white. How does that make sense? The food is awesome and the service was wonderful. I actually talked with people in line and had a great time.

So I got up from my table and walked around the market. Most places seemed to be racially diverse except for the southern places and the Italian places that seemed to be almost exclusively mono-racial.

I am not sure why, after all of these years of studying the issue of race, I am still amazed that racism is so strong and so ingrained in our way of life that segregation - even voluntary choice - still exists in such a stark and brazen incarnation. I felt like grabbing some of the white folk around me to evangelize the benefits of eating such amazing food. Heck, Oprah even called the mac and cheese the nation’s best.

Racism needs to die a swift death. Bias needs to be replaced with acceptance. Walls need to come down.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am not talking about color blindness. I think we must embrace our diverse cultures and appreciate the great diversity of the human race. My personal philosophy is that we should learn to love the culture of others, understand it, experience it, enjoy it, and above all respect it.

I am proud of who I am and the path my ancestors took to get me here. I am not a wannabe anything. Except I wannabe me. Here’s my thing - respecting diversity is not about tacit lines of segregation that allow others to have their culture on their side of the line while we have ours here. Diversity should be a unifier - we should all be unafraid of crossing and blurring the lines that divide us so we can all live as one human family.

Too many people are invested in defining what is white, black, Asian or Latino and then building a wall to keep people in and others out. White folk should have no fear of eating at Delilah’s. Black folk should tuck in to the occasional Italian hoagie.

Beyond food and the other physical artifacts of culture, we need to cross other lines as well. Patterns of friendship, the places we live, the organizations we belong to, the fabric of our lives needs to be open.

I will be happy when the lines are open to everyone and no one feels the need to segregate their lunchtime.

With the passing of Rosa Parks we have lost a living connection to the birth of the modern civil rights movement. Her simple act of defiance was a spark that led to a firestorm of change. But did things change enough? One need look no further than the LA riots of 1992 and the recent results of hurricane Katrina to see the outward signs that racism is an unresolved issue.

Many people would like to think that racism has gone away. They pay lip service to diversity. They eat food from different cultures, enjoy a ride through “It’s a Small World“, and might even have some [insert racial minority] friends. They think that they are not racist because they do not hate anyone because of the color of their skin. Racism is not always about hate. Racism can also be about apathy and a lack of true appreciation of our common humanity.

Yes, the civil rights movement created great progress, but mostly in a legal sense and then only at the most basic level. We now have legal equality, but that has not resulted in the systemic change required to create true justice for the victims of racism. The clear lack of government action in response to hurricane Katrina is the clearest indication that institutionalized racism continues to plague human relations.

That is the key - its all about human relations. As individuals we lack a sense of justice, a willingness to demonstrate respect, and an ability to express brotherly love when it comes to those whose skin color, accent, or social class does not match our own. Racism is a disease of the spirit. It is an attitude that lives in our subconscious. It is fed by the media and spreads like a virus in our culture of fear.

When faced with the reality of racism and the continued pain it inflicts on my fellow human beings I cannot help but mourn for all of humanity. I feel compelled to act. I try to do what I can do. I participate in diversity activities at work. I serve on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday committee for my community. None of that helps. The only thing that does help me is to act everyday to be mindful of race and the part it plays in our lives. I remember the words and deeds of the Central Figures of my faith, and I am encouraged to press on. I see the words and deeds of the people that stood up for civil rights and I see that determined acts, even very simple ones, can make a difference.

This is why Rosa Parks was so important. She was a person who simply stood her ground when the forces of hate and separation tried to force all people of color into a place of second class citizenry. She was an example of a human being who placed justice above all else. I am glad that she has become the first woman to ever lie in state in our nation’s capitol. Her life and her courage are an example for all of us. Let’s hope that this, her final act of defiance, can be another spark.

Willam Bennett has once again proven that racism is alive and kicking.

Just when I was hopeful that some progress had been made. In a speech on 09/15 President Bush actually said:

As all of us saw on television, there is also some deep, persistent poverty in this region as well. And that poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality.

I, for one, could not believe what I had just heard. This was the key phrase “poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America”. I can still hardly believe it. Institutionalized racism has cut off generations of African Americans from true economic and social equality. Do the powers that be finally get it?

No.

Any illusion that the political establishment has begun to understand the effects of racism in America took a big hit with William Bennett’s little exercise in old-school racist banter, and the Administration’s comment that his remarks were “not appropriate”. Not appropriate? How about morally bankrupt? Or let’s try born out of complete ignorance? Or at least unconscionable?

When will America wake up and tackle this issue and jettison the baggage of bigotry that has held us back for far too long?

I am in the process of reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book blink. In chapter three he talks about the “Warren Harding error” where we make a subconscious snap judgment and then stop thinking about it. We allow the subconscious to make a value judgment and never revisit our decision. The reason it is called the “Warren Harding error” is because of the process that got him elected President of the United States.

Warren Harding was a strikingly handsome man. People would see him and they would assume that he was a true leader and an insightful politician. Turns out he was arguably the worst President we have ever elected. The evidence was there to suggest he was going to be a horrible President.

He talks about and provides samples of the IAT (Implicit Association Test). The IAT uses a technique that measures the time it takes to sort a list of terms into columns. Each column is give a pair of values. So for instance one column is “Male or Career” and the other “Female or Family”. The terms are names like John or Holly and terms like capitalist or laundry. The test measures the time it takes to sort the terms into the columns. The test is then taken again with the column pairings switched so that one column is “Male or Family” and the other “Female or Career”. The terms and names become harder to sort. The reason is that our culture has built into us a subconscious implicit association between “Male and Career” and “Female and Family”.

The test is also run on the term pairs “European American or Good” and “African American or Bad” and the opposite pairing “European America or Bad” and “African American and Good”. Te results of this test are staggering to consider. People who say that the are in no way shape or form racist still hold a closer association between European American and Good and African American and Bad. This was true regardless of the conscious opinion of race held by the participant. Of the 50,000 participants who were African American about 50% of them held a strong association between European American and Good and African American and Bad. This speaks volumes about the cultural climate and the value our society places on race.

As it turns out there is a way to shift the opinions uncovered by the IAT. The best way to avoid the “Warren Harding error” is to expose ourselves to positive associations. For example, by studying the lives of Martin Luther King Jr. or Nelson Mandela we can prime ourselves to make a stronger association between African American and Good. By exposing ourselves to the best of other cultures we can actually effect our subconscious bias.

After reading this chapter of blink I recalled one of my favorite quotes from the writings of my faith (its the Baha’i Faith for those that do not know). The quote is from Baha’u'llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith.

He wrote :

O CHILDREN OF MEN!

Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest. Such is My counsel to you, O concourse of light! Heed ye this counsel that ye may obtain the fruit of holiness from the tree of wondrous glory.

The key phrase in that quote is “Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created.” The Writings of Baha’u'llah are filled with reminders to think about or meditate upon a connection or condition or action that will be helpful, or that will eliminate a prejudice, or that will increase the capacity ogf the individual to serve humanity.

Faith can focus our minds on positive connections, on the elimination of bias. The trick is that we must be ever mindful to fight the messages that bombard us on a daily basis. We must overcome the negative with a mindful thought of the positive. Abdu’l-Baha, the son of Baha’u'llah and a central figure in the Baha’i Faith said:

I charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity. When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love. Thoughts of war bring destruction to all harmony, well-being, restfulness and content.

Thoughts of love are constructive of brotherhood, peace, friendship, and happiness.

Regardless of a person’s Faith or their belief (or non-belief) in God, I think that there is a truth in this that cognitive science is beginning to see. Our thoughts and our experiences create deep subconscious reactions that we cannot control or alter except through a mindful effort to foster positive perceptions.

I think I am going to read about MLK or maybe Saladin to wash away some of the negativity building up in my subconscious.