This past year has brought much-needed public attention to the ways in which our society remains enormously unequal. It’s not as if this was my first realization of the ways in which our nation is stratified by race. I grew up in California, raised by parents who were comfortable with diversity. They were the kind of people who encouraged hard conversations about inequality. I’ve long been aware of the privileges accorded to me because of my skin color. One of the reasons I came to New Jersey thirteen years ago was so that JT would grow up in a world that was as diverse as my own childhood had been. I wanted him to look around at the faces in his life that were slightly different from his own and know in his heart that we are all made of the same humanity.
In that respect, JT’s world is a successful example of the ways in which diversity enriches our lives. His educational environment ensures his confidence in the equality at the heart of our superficial differences. To me, this is a reminder of the way in which history and time has its own way of re-shaping our nation’s perceptions. It’s a rich irony in this world that a child named after a founding father has a default image of the president as Barack Obama.
I don’t wish to be overly-optimistic about our nation’s further ability to manage its racial divides, but my son and the children with whom I work every day ensure that Reverend King’s dream is as alive as ever. This generation has a very different set of expectations. The racism and ignorance of their elders is not just rejected; it isn’t tolerated. That reality gives my dreams of the future a powerful sense of hope.
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