The Way the Child Sees It

Some stories have changed the world and this is one of those. Appropriate to revisit in the current world environment.First Published in September 2018.

Points to Ponder: Every adult was once a child free of prejudice. – Mother Teresa

Story Line: Sometime ago, one late weekend evening I had retired for the day in bed when I heard the cries of a young child coming from our living room. I rushed there to find the young boy crying and saying “That’s not right, That’s not right, They love each other.” His parents were trying to comfort him.

Noticing that there was a frozen screen on the TV and inquiring further I learned that the parents were watching a movie after the little guy had fallen asleep on sofa. But the little guy had woken up and the parents engrossed in the movie were not aware that he was watching the movie too. The scene where the little guy started crying was when the police stormed into the home of a married interracial couple at night and dragged them out of their beds and arrested them. In the state where they lived, interracial marriages were illegal at that time.

It was obvious that the little guy had no understanding of the race, color, religion or the existing laws at the time. He was looking at them as two people who were in love and living together.

The movie was “Loving” based on the true story. “In 1958, Richard Loving, a white man, and Mildred Jeter, a black woman, drove north from their home in Virginia to Washington, D.C., to get married. Upon returning to Virginia, they were dragged out of bed and arrested by the police. The Lovings’ marriage was not legally valid due to the state’s law barring interracial marriage. The ensuing legal battle upended the lives of the Lovings and their three children for almost a decade.*”

Some love stories can change the world and Loving is one of those. In its unanimous ruling in 1967, the Supreme Court determined that marriage is, “Fundamental to our very existence and survival.” Under the 14th Amendment, “The freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations,” Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the opinion. “Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State.”

Reflection: Loving is the story of what happened in America. However, the underlying message is universal. In every country and culture there are prejudices against color, race, religion, social class and for many other reasons. It is easier to criticize others for their views and beliefs. Its when we reflect inwards, that we realize we have a long way to go as individuals.

Reflecting on my own journey, my childhood that was filled with friends from different religions and social classes. Somewhere along the way the environment shifted thinking based on news, opinions of other people, schools and other influences. That resulted in beliefs about others based on ignorance, and not facts.

Over the years, many of my views about race, religion, social class and unjust laws have changed by intense dialogues with my children, my wider exposure to the world and meeting wonderful people. 

"It may seem like a long road ahead, but as I see generation after generation growing up and the consciousness of the parents raising them in an environment free of prejudice against insignificant things, such as the color of someone's skin. I am hopeful this is the change I will see in my lifetime" 

*Source: Huffington Post

Readers comments from previous publication are worth a look. (in comments section)

 

 

 

Comments

[Comments in 2018 publication]

I'm Mexican. My wife is Greek. I want to watch this movie with my wife. Mother Teresa view says it perfectly.

Posted by: Humble Warrior | September 21, 2018 at 01:13 PM

Levi's
I suspect that for most young Americans growing up today, the concept of “miscegenation” is incomprehensible. That this epithet could have been an accepted and common part of culture and law in many U.S. states as late as 1967 might be unbelievable. Sure, we still have cases of racism, racial profiling among authorities, even hateful neo-nazi groups, and other serious issues of social justice that do not surprise people today. These were individuals or small groups. But state-sanctioned laws prohibiting intermarriage? What planet, what century, was that? Yet, that was our planet, our country…just 50 years ago. The very concept of “race” is senseless, easily disproven by science and by logic. Biologically, we are one species, period. There is race only in the historical-cultural sense, or the ethno-cultural sense. Physical or phenotypical differences exist on a spectrum a continuum that cannot be separated any more than the water of the of Gulf of Mexico can be separated from that of the Caribbean Sea. But there is no need to argue the obvious, no need to preach to the choir. That is the point. That is progress. That just 50 years after the landmark cases in the Supreme Court, we can watch a movie about the story of the Loving family and marvel at their hardships…that truly is progress.

I grew up in a cosmopolitan area on the East coast, attending a public primary school that was mostly non-white. I watched Sesame Street on television, where diversity was as natural as it was carefully planned. I didn’t even have a way to appreciate the incredible fortune of the era in which I lived, literally just a generation beyond a time when schools had been segregated, when opportunities for minorities were so very stifled. I heard stories from my parents about Martin Luther King, about Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali. I think I didn’t appreciate or understand the struggle until I read the Autobiography of Malcolm X, a book that really helped to peel back the layers of recent U.S. hist

The 14th amendment, though ratified in 1868, shortly after the Civil War and the subsequent Emancipation Proclamation, took nearly a century to achieve ratification in some states.

Would anyone today believe that California was one of the last states in 1959? It is true. The 21st century’s model of the American melting pot was, until the 1950s, a xenophobic state… strongly anti-immigrant and anti-minority, in politics and arguably among the general population, too, except in certain pockets such as San Francisco area. The story of the Lovings highlights both how far we’ve come to realize the spirit of the U.S. Constitution, but simultaneously how hard won the progress, and how recent and fragile it is.

Interestingly, the 14th amendment is deeply intertwined with the rights of women, a legal struggle that is still very much ongoing: no ERA for women was ever ratified (i.e. there is no 28th amendment per se). Even more surprisingly, it is intertwined with the resurgence of popularity of the 2nd amendment (right to bear arms), which was not much of a controversial topic until the Black Panthers challenged its reinterpretation for their own rights to self-defense and personal protection. There is a podcast that tells this story eloquently. I leave the link here: https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/sex-appeal

Posted by: Levi's | September 22, 2018 at 01:21 AM

[MC]

Very moving. Thanks. The need to discriminate seems to be so ingrained in our psyche.