Month: February 2021

I just finished reading Caste by Isabel Wilkerson, and I highly recommend it. She lays bare the truth of how our country has been shaped by a caste system, the lowest caste being Black in this country. She doesn’t shy away from illustrating the violence and daily indignities suffered by Blacks, stretching from the early days of enslavement through today.

One of the most tragic pieces of information I learned, which Ibram Kendi also writes about in Stamped, is that in the early days of the Virginia colony, many Africans and poor Whites stood on the same ground, being equally punished for perceived transgressions and violations of their contracts. Once Blacks and Whites became fed up enough with their miserable conditions to band together to create change, those in power realized they had to divide and conquer. They began passing laws elevating Whites over Blacks and then refraining from enslaving anyone who wasn’t Black, condemning those of African descent and marking them as “less than” for centuries to come.

What if Whites and Blacks were able to join forces as early as the early 1700’s? What would our country look like today?

As I drew near to the end of the book this morning, I read about the friendship Albert Einstein and Marian Anderson shared. Einstein and his wife, both German Jews, managed to escape the Nazis just in time and were dismayed to find a similar caste system in place here.

While he was a professor at Princeton, Marian Anderson, the famous Black contralto, performed in town. Despite rave reviews, the local inn refused to rent her a room, so the Einsteins invited her to stay with them. From then on, every time she came to town, she stayed with them.

Einstein was disgusted by the way Blacks were treated and decided to take action. He co-chaired a committee on ending lynching and joined the NAACP. When he spoke at a commencement ceremony at Lincoln University, an historically Black college, he told the graduates, “The separation of the races is not a disease of the colored people, but a disease of the white people.”

How true. White people have torn this country into a thousand pieces and have ruined so many opportunities for healing. Wilkerson makes a point that Whites have hurt themselves, in addition to those in the lower caste. How long does it take to rub the sleep out of our eyes?

Edwin keeps asking when we’re going to work.

“Not tomorrow,” I said Monday evening. “It’s too icy, and the schools are closed, anyway.”

He didn’t look pleased.

He breezed by my work area this afternoon and asked, “So, you going in tomorrow?”

“Nah. The roads are still not so great. I’m not in any hurry to deal with that.”

Sigh.

“What’s up, Edwin? You trying to get rid of me?”

It turns out he had big plans to spread out all over the main floor: lap top on the dining room table for class, some cookies baking in the kitchen as he stays safely off camera, perhaps a little dip into his favorite episode “The Expanse” between classes (or, dare I say, during asynchronous time?).

Poor Edwin. He will have to remain holed up in his bedroom for the time being. However, his day will come. He and his sister will remain virtual learners through the end of the school year, and Chris and I will most likely be getting out of their hair within a month or so.