There is a book that I read in High School called “Black Like Me.”  (Warning: It has some mature content.) Originally written in 1960, it describes an experiment conducted by a man where he colored himself black and went to the deep South, New Orleans, to be precise. This was a time when bigotry was much more prevalent than it is now, especially in the South. The result was a revealing discourse on how the man was treated by both blacks and caucasians.

Near the end of his travels, as he was beginning to travel back to the North, the dye was fading so that he could be confused as either a light colored black person or a tanned white person. He had become so adept at mimicking the manners of a Southern black that he could do so and then record how he was treated. Then he would act like a white Northerner (in the same location) and find that whites treated him with respect and blacks with distrust, the reverse from just moments before.

Having read this book in 1972, as a High School student, it really impacted me as to the bigotry of both blacks and whites in America and how not-so-subtle it can be.

The question that I asked myself at the time was “how much am I influenced by skin color or other physical aspects of a person.”  I hope that I have purged myself of any such bigotry.

The other side of the coin is how I am treated by those who don’t look like me. I have often been treated with prejudice, most recently at a Hampton Inn hotel by one of the staff there. One man was obviously being rude to me. I didn’t know why at the time. Later, he apologized to my wife admitting that he didn’t like handicap persons because they don’t ask for help when they need it. (I will have more say about this later.)

God created us to be diverse, that is, we are ALL different from each other. I believe that is part of the glory of God. Every snowflake, and every person, different yet beautiful.

For some of my other thoughts on this subject, see the following posts:
Counter-Culture Christians
Diversity Within; Diversity Without

A couple of recommended movies:
The classic “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (PG rated) with Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, and Sidney Poitier.
A made-for-TV movie “The Color of Friendship” (G rated – very clean) This one might spark a lot of good discussion in your family. (I have a copy of it that I recorded from the TV.)