The Tech Curve

Am I alone in this or is anyone out there also flabbergasted, flummoxed and frustrated in your efforts to negotiate the technology learning curve?  I don't mean the simple stuff like cell phone use, email communication and digital downloads. I’ve managed those. I’m talking about huge tech tasks. Like creating a web page.

Now I’m no idiot. I know my tech limits, so I hired an experienced group to do the creative work and give me legible and understandable instructions on how to maintain the site. Three months later, I still cannot navigate the admin functions, and the experts can’t tell me what to do about it. They’re as flummoxed (I like that word) as I am. After three months I’ve made no updates to my website. No updates means no marketing. No marketing means no sales. No sales means...well, you get the picture.  

Personally, I am about ready to kick the computer to the curb, crawl under a blanket and stick a thumb in my mouth. But I’m a grownup and those behaviors would likely result in a short stay in a mental institution and some lifelong psychotropic medications. So I restrain my impulsive behavior, down another pack of Oreos, and try to write away my frustrations. Sheesh.

 

In pursuit of The Dream

     Seated in the second row of the beautiful, refurbished church, I listened and watched enthralled as the speakers compared the Children of Israel’s enslavement with that of the American Negro and their struggles for freedom from bondage.  The speakers and guests represented every religious denomination in the town: Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Society of Friends (Quaker), Jewish Synagogue, Episcopalian, AME (African Methodist Episcopalian) and Lutheran. They presented a truly beautiful picture of people of varying backgrounds coming together with a common, unifying purpose. As each speech ended, an individual or group from that speaker’s congregation presented a musical number. It was Sunday evening. The occasion was in celebration of the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  

     From my vantage point I marveled at the warmth in the room and the sense of one-ness. There were no overt signs or perception of aloofness or division. No “us” and “them”. The music – from old hymns to newer praise songs - was familiar to most. The congregation sang along with the performers, standing, clapping, and celebrating. This is the way it should be, I thought. This is how we’ll worship in heaven.

     Later, I re-examined what I had witnessed...and realized that of all the choirs, worship teams, and musical groups present, only one group was truly integrated.  Only one group had singers of more than one race, leading me to conclude that only one church could claim to be ethnically diverse. America, it seems, is still segregated on Sunday mornings. I left with conflicting emotions.

    We've made progress. Our neighborhoods, schools and colleges boast equal opportunity for people of all ethnicities; there is more diversity at the corporate management level than at any other time in our history; and there seems to be acceptance – or at least tolerance - towards marriage between people of different races; but on Sunday mornings we still worship at white churches or black churches. 

 

     But there is hope. Just recently a woman shared with me that her daughter had left their home church to worship at a face of America church. It was a moment before I realized that face of America was not a new-age denomination, but a description of the racial makeup of that congregation. Face of America. I like the description. It speaks of the hope that Dr. King had for America, a nation living and worshiping together in peace. It speaks of a heavenly worship experience where we will sing and speak with one voice. We’re not there yet...but we’re close.

 

MaxineThomas

Another commentary on race

Yesterday (September 24^th) while flipping through TV channels I came across The Jeff Probst Show. The discussion topic was, Things you can’t say on TV. I was hooked when a member of the studio audience, a youngish, white male, said he didn’t know if he was being offensive when he used the terms black or African-American or people of color and he wasn’t sure if either was correct. I don’t think he received a complete answer; this is how I would have responded:   

Anthropologists historically categorize people as belonging to five main races. Described by color (note: I refrained from saying skin color), these races are Red, referring to North American Indians; Yellow, people of Asian ancestry; Black, people of African ancestry; White, those of European and Scandinavian ancestry; and Brown, people of Latin ancestry including South Americans, and some Caribbean countries. The 21^st century politically correct racial terms are Native American, Asian, Black, Caucasian and Latino or Hispanic. So it is not offensive to speak of a “black” person when discussing race.

The problem arises when we assume race and culture are interchangeable. What I call a “hyphenated-American” descriptor speaks of culture, not race. African-American, Italian-American, Cuban-American, German-American are cultural terms. Culture speaks of a person’s lifestyle, religious beliefs, dress, food, activities, music, speech patterns, and more. Cultures evolve as people move from country to country and within various societies, bring their own cultural practices to that new environment, and assume that society’s practices and norms as their own. So a black Frenchman who moves to America cannot rightly be described as African-American based solely on his skin color. The cultural practices he brings with him from France which he continues to identify with in America make him French-American.

Cultural identification is primarily a choice. It is an indicator of how one chooses to live, and is related to the social practices, morals, traditions and mores with which one identifies. Since culture groups include people of various ethnicities, the “hyphenated-American” as a cultural descriptor may be applied to people of different skin colors. A biracial person of Korean and African ancestry who lives in America might consider himself African-American or Korean-American. It is his choice. Most people from the English-speaking Caribbean countries identify themselves as Caribbean-American (or Jamaican-American, or Trinidadian-American), in spite of varying degrees of skin color and wide diversity of ethnic origins.  So black and African-American are not interchangeable.

                The term people of color is correctly used to describe groups of people who are not Caucasian (white). Colored person is inappropriate and considered an insult.

                One final point: The Bible teaches that all people descended from one man, Adam. [See Genesis 1 through Genesis 5 for the creation account]. In fact, every time race is mentioned in the Bible, it refers to the human race, never a sub-set of people. One common ancestor, then, means there is only one race. There is no racial divide.

Contrary to conclusions drawn through ignorance and still held in some places today, scientific research confirms that there is no biological difference between the races. It is the reason why blood, organs, and bone marrow can be successfully transplanted between people of different ethnic origins. In recognition of this, anthropologists around the world are modifying their verbal and written language, replacing the word “race” with “people groups.

I am eager to hear your comments.

Max