Race War

I just watched the movie blood diamond. I wasn’t crazy about it, but it was okay. It just didn’t hold my attention very well, and I cant tell why. It makes me feel insensitive to say that, like if I was a good person I would have been more drawn in and troubled by it. But anyway, at one point Leo says something like “I’m a white man, you need me.” and I thought, how awful that even in Africa whiteness is a currency. Even when we are the minority, we are the majority. How awful that must feel. K and I both know that my race is an asset and his is liability. We know that is reality, we accept it, and we even joke about it. But the truth is, it’s horrible. And I will never know how he really feels. I know that I am aware of when I can use my race to my advantage. I know it gives me a higher credit rating, I know it makes it less likely that I will be pulled over by a cop. Sometimes I think I should feel bad about taking those advantages, but he says it’s the game and we have to play it. And I think that we should all take whatever we can get – especially from the rich and powerful. But still, the absurdity of this ranking by color is so horrible. I know that if we have children society will see them as black, and they will suffer the same prejudices. And even though they will be as privileged and well-educated as I was growing up, they will have to work harder to prove themselves than I did, and they will have to be more careful with the choices they make. And there is no place in the world where it would be any different.