Color Blind

Years ago I read Daniel Defoe's The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe but I did not really appreciate it until today when I watched the movie staring Pierce Brosnan from 1993. The subtle themes in the book and movie were totally lost on me as a fourteen-year-old boy when I first read it. All I got out of the book was how cool it would be to live on an island and how much better it would be to not have a little brother around getting in the way. That being said I do not think I would have gotten a whole lot more out of it until very recently.

Through the years I experienced personal growth from a small town boy in west Texas where I was raised with a conflicting series of values to a man with my own set of priorities, values and vision for the future of my family. My dearly departed daddy was an enigma for me at times. He was extremely gifted in the areas of mechanics, electronics and the ability to see the world of roses among the dung heaps of the day. But in other areas he was obtuse to the point of blindness to the obvious. He had the worst taste in friends of anyone I have ever met. Even as a five-year-old I knew his "friend" Ed was less than savory to the point of savagery. Yet until his dying day he was convinced that he was a great judge of character. Perhaps he was a great judge of people who were characters but I do not believe that is what he meant. One of his greatest flaws was his eyesight. He made many decisions about people based on the color of their skin. Not being one to be publicly bigoted I did get to hear a lot about his views in private. Many times his rants were just to me while working out in the shop.

That is one area where I rebelled. Some of my friends in high school were Hispanic. I was not friends with the one black student in my school but that was because he didn't like me for some reason. Living in west Texas there were three black families in the whole town of 7,000 people. But now I have had the chance to get to know people of different races, ethnicity, religions and origins. Want to know what I have learned from Defoe and from my experiences? It is the color of the soul and not the skin that matters. 

Meeting so many different people with an open mind has taught me that people are just that: people. My friend, Francis has taught me about Kenya. I even learned how to say hello in Swahili. My friend Jamie taught me that Nigeria is not what you see on the news or read about in the papers and that not all Africans speak Swahili. Blond-haired, blue-eyed Roseane from Brazil helped me learn that just because you are from South America that does not mean you look like you are from Mexico.

Defoe's statement about the evils of slavery still ring true today. For me it was a slavery to my own stupidity. It really doesn't matter to me what you look like as much as what you act like. Some of the most closed-minded bigots I have ever met did not have my skin color. Yet some of the most loving, caring and accepting people also looked like some people that also hated me for being a white-boy. Funny thing is that not all white people who live in the south are prejudiced and not all minorities are not prejudiced. Defoe's statement about friendship that crosses boundaries of race, religion, culture and origin are something that we all need today.

The decision to like someone or not like them for me has nothing to do with skin tone and everything to do with who they are. But I will confess to one bigotry that I just cannot seem to shake. I am prejudiced against bigots. Does that make me a hypocrite?