Yesterday I ranted about Black History Month and I left out what I think is an important point.  The big thing I tried to say was calling it Black History Month draws attention to a single group’s struggle for civil rights when the issues for all groups should be addressed.  Calling attention to one is, in my opinion, detrimental to civil rights as a whole because it makes it seem like (in this case) skin color is worth fighting over.

 

Something very important to keep in mind here is there is a commonality to the entire human race.  I know some bigots out there want to claim one group or another is somehow subhuman, but this is simply not a scientifically accurate point of view.  Yes, there are some subtle differences between the races and some biologists see the races diverging, slowly speciating, but that is a process which could take a hundred thousand years or more.  Even if what some people see as different races were somehow different species, that wouldn’t change much.

 

In the end, we are all human.  We laugh, we cry, we get sick, we are healthy, we’re poor, we’re every condition one can think of.  Everyone is born by one means or another.  We come into existence, we have a childhood.  Most survive childhood and become adults.  Even as children, though, we go through many things in common.  We suffer tragedies and enjoy celebrations.  The poorer parts of the world, where food and / or water are scarce, suffer more tragedies while the rich find more reasons for celebration, but we all still have the capacity for both.

 

As adults, our commonality increases.  We find and sometimes (perhaps often) lose love.  Most bring children into the world, continuing the cycle of commonality.

 

And yet, there are also differences.  No two of us are exactly alike, no matter how much it might seem to be the case for some pairs or groups of people.  There’s a pair of conjoined twins who share a body but have different points of view, right down to their tastes in food.  This is important, and our differences should be celebrated, but not to the point where our differences fuel bigotry and hatred.

 

This is the point I did not bring up yesterday.  I feel our humanity is a joyful thing, and this commonality I keep mentioning is best in a peaceful, non-ranting context.  It’s a big reason we set aside a month or even a day to celebrate one group of humans, because it emphasizes the differences between us too much.

 

My late best friend Brad was a different kind of person.  He was in a wheelchair for much of his life.  The one thing he struggled for most of all was acceptance.  He wanted people to see past the wheelchair and see the brilliant man sitting in it.  He earned four college degrees, two master’s and two bachelor’s.  And yet his own parents tried to have him declared incompetent of taking care of himself.  All he wanted was acceptance, and it was the hardest thing to achieve.

 

This is what everyone wants, what everyone needs above all else.  We should all be able to be seen equally.  We are all human.  There is much diversity, but there is also a great deal in common.  Let’s focus on that, and leave the bigotry behind.