My tone is a bit didactic. It’s why strangers assume I’m in a position of authority. It’s why I make a great tour guide. It also seems to be why people don’t like being around me. I can sound like a lecture when I’m just expressing my thoughts. This is confusing for me because my worldview is based on the assumption I don’t matter. That’s not a fish hatchery for compliments – I just accept in the greater scheme of things most of us are fairly insignificant. I feel like I’m the person that is mentioned in history books as an early influence of someone that really makes a difference. And that’s good enough for me. I don’t think the world can completely change in my lifetime. I do think my existence proves change is coming. I probably would’ve been a civil rights activist in an earlier life.
I hope to tell my story. I have enough perspective to know I was around to experience the dying gasps of true racism. The blind assumptions that dominate social culture in America don’t go away without a certain amount of upheaval. The disparity I see in our society now is stark enough to be the dying gasps of prejudice I’ve been waiting for. Optimistically, I see racism becoming a nationwide faux-pas by the end of this decade. In Seattle, it’s already taboo but I know there are places yet to convert. Until the children in Oxford, MS correct their fathers’ casual use of the N-word on a regular basis I won’t consider the plague eradicated.
That’s just the litmus test I use. I’m sure there are plenty of valid ones out there.