I’m Listening to “Title and Registration” by Death Cab for Cutie

You really can’t separate diversity from democracy, especially in a country like the United States.  But equality and harmony are often only ideals when you take a closer look.  I think an important first step in moving forward on racial and community relations is to acknowledge and honestly come to terms with past injustices.

Last month I visited Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia and discovered a program called “Coming to the Table,” which promotes dialog between the descendants of former slaves and former slaveholders.  I couldn’t help but think of my own family’s past as slaveholders in Maryland and Virginia and wonder what became of the families of those whom one of my great-great grandmothers euphemistically described as “servants” after slavery was formally ended in 1865.  I also wonder if my family was kinder or crueler to their slaves than their neighbors were.

Photo of Stephen's family c. 1913, taken in Shawsville, VirginiaIt is an issue never discussed in my family, even behind closed doors.  Even though I have often thought about it, I never had the courage to bring it up with older relatives, mainly because their own attitudes toward race seemed to be worlds apart from mine.  I grew up in a much more diverse world than they did.  Interracial relationships and friendships that were once socially forbidden are now perfectly normal.

I think slavery and its legacies, such as sharecropping and segregation, are still highly sensitive topics because so many on both sides have simply wanted to sweep them under the carpet and pretend it has now either all been resolved or it doesn’t exist.  But for some white Americans, it is a source of guilt, and for some black Americans, it is a source of shame.  And because it has never been addressed on the personal level all of these years, the legacy has only grown more complex.

During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama, himself the descendant of white slaveholders, said Americans still haven’t worked through these complexities.  But it is inevitable, he said.  “In fact, we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.”