There is No Equality in Division

While watching an excellent documentary called "Meeting David Wilson" this afternoon (and more on that later), MSNBC aired several commercials sponsored by Proctor & Gamble titled "My black is beautiful".

I understand the motivation behind these commercials. I truly understand the need to uplift the self-esteem of a culture that has been discriminated against in the past.

However, the time has come to embrace equality rather than reinforce differences. Don't get me wrong. I think it is important for everyone to appreciate and emulate their culture and history. However, we should not let that completely define us as individuals.

There will never be equality if we continue to divide. There should be no black colleges or white colleges. There was a time that was necessary, but that time is long past and the more we encourage these divisions the wider the gap will become again. It's time to let go of the past and stand on the feet of the present and the future, not hide behind the sins and trials of our forefathers.

Now, back to David Wilson. This documentary is about a young black man in New York who discovered, through researching his family history, that there is a white man in North Carolina, with ironically the same name, whose family used to own young David Wilson's family.

Young David takes a journey to meet white David. First, he stops to talk to a 97-year-old woman who knew young David's great-grandfather. He tells her about white David and asks her, "do you think he owes me anything?"

"Noooo," she says. "He don't owe you nothing, but respect and that's what you should ask of him."

"But I feel like his family profitted from the free labor of my family."

"But that's none of your business," she says. "That's in the past and it doesn't have anything to do with you."

On his way to North Carolina, David's friend asks him what he thinks white David will be like. "I think he'll be a tobacco-chewin', straw-eatin', shot-gun carryin', rockin' chair sittin', lemonade drinkin' redneck."

When young David finally meets white David, he discovers just how prejudiced, possibly even racist, he has been. White David is down-to-earth, respectful, humble, and generally pleased to meet his acquaintance.

Young David asked some hard questions of white David (who grew up in the 1940s and 50s in a segregated community). "Did it ever bother you that the young black kids you played with on your farm were not able to go to the same school?"

White David struggled to answer this question, but he answered it honestly, "It's sad to say, but I can't honestly say I thought about it that much."

White David shows young David around the now-deserted plantation where their families used to live and work. Afterwards, white David invites young David to his restaurant.

"After spending several hours with David, something unanticipated started to happen. I began to see less and less of a descendant of my family's former slave owners and more and more of a decent and kind-hearted human being."

What ultimately happens is that white David and black David discover they are more alike than different, ultimately fulfilling a well-known prophecy of one of the great Civil Right's leaders of all times, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

"I have a dream that one day...the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood."

This incredible communion of souls was not difficult, it merely required the willingness of two people from completely different backgrounds to open up a conversation. That conversation changed more than just the lives of two people, it affected the entire Wilson family - on both sides.

Think to yourself, what kind of change can you make with a conversation? Are you brave enough to take that first step? Can you forgive the past and embrace the future?

Can you start today?