Marking the Day

As I grew up race seemed to be often in the background lurking just close enough to have an effect and make commentary. My very first memory of noticing color and difference was playing in a bubble bath with two neighbor girls and egg beaters. They were brown and I was not. That was it. I didn't pay too much attention. Later I got smashed on the head with it( sometimes quite literally) and I did pay attention. We moved to a neighborhood in transition and I attended middle school as one of a very small minority of white children. It was difficult and I haven't forgotten the hate and division I experienced. Unfortunately it is always the difficulty and the hate that sticks the most. In spite of the difficulties I remember that time (1970's) as a time when people believed in change and believed things were going to get better. People were going to get along they just had to work harder. Yep. I stopped thinking like that. Most people stopped thinking like that. Until recently it seemed to be that we were set to lock up a nation of young black boys and race relations were in the pits. Forever. Black people were set to riot and white people just didn't want to know. They were not paying attention. Barack Obama's swearing in today is so momentous and such a milestone. I am amazed.