So much that I am still figuring out

March 1, 2019
It feels sometimes  like a slap across the face how much I really don't know about a lot of things, especially involving race and racism. I am a white woman in a society that values whiteness over diversity. Yes, things have changed significantly, but racism still is a challenge faced by many, many fellow Americans. I have spent a great deal of time over my sabbatical this year reading with one of my goals being to read more about experiences of non-white people. The latest book I've read is Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This book was on my list of reads for a really long time. The author is descriptive and at times with heart wrenching detail challenges facing Africans who live in America. It is also a tender story of love along with race and of course identity as well.  I agree with the author when she speaks about whites who say racism is over.  On page 429 there is an excerpt from a "blog" that is targeted to whites: "race is it really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don't have that choice."  Racism is not over in fact I don't know really if it ever will be. I felt so white and privileged when I read this book and so out of touch with so many people who face difficulties every day. 

A couple of more reads

I read two new books in the last few weeks:
Up From Slavery by Booker T Washington: One of the most powerful and poignant books I have read. His ability to compassionately and eloquently bring differing people together to build Tuskegee University is aspiring for our current times. He understood the importance of education, including vocational education, for everyone, including African-Americans. It is an uplifting and important read. Made me understood how little I know.

Here are a few quotes I found particularly relevant and moving:
That any man, regardless of color, will be recognized and rewarded just in proportion as he learns to do something well-learns to do it better than anyone else-however humble the thing might be. p. 280

When I can leave my office in time so that I can spend 30 or 40 minutes in spading the ground, in planting seeds, in digging about the plants, I feel that I am contact with something that is giving me strength for the many duties and hard places that await me out in the big world. p. 265

Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work. p. 188

I learned the lesson that great men cultivate love, and that only little men cherish a spirit of hatred. p. 165

Time and again he said to me [his mentor General Armstrong]hat it was not only the duty of the country to assist in elevating the Negro, but the poor white man as well. p. 294

Camino Island by John Grisham is another quick romp. More detective plot than the usual law or court that he writes about.