Friday, June 19, 2020

The Illusion of "Race"

"South Pacific" premiered on Broadway in 1949. It has been revived at every level from High Schools, community theaters, summer stock, and back up to Broadway for 70 years. The central message of the show is in the song "You've Got to be Carefully Taught". 

"Race" is an illusion that we all carefully teach each other and our children as if it were real. We act out our lives as if the superiority or inferiority of this imaginary "difference" gains or loses us something. 

We participate in policies (legal and social) that assume that the racial illusion is reality. We need to change BOTH our laws AND our hearts to repair the damage that this 400-year-old hallucination has caused.