Ok, so…
My title is
Provocative…
Inflammatory…
Maybe. Or maybe it’s just hiding the truth out in the open.
Let me explain.
Out of the blue, I received a phone call. And, it showed on my phone as
being from New York.
The voice was definitely Filipino, and she was actually rather
disarming.
A good thing too, because I was of course assuming that this was yet
another one of the dozens of cold calls that I (like many of you too, I’m sure)
receive every week now.
I’m never all that happy to get them but sadly I’m getting used to them
and I often play a game and turn them around on the caller… Often now I try to
prospect them as a client or recruit into my own business…
But I digress…
You see, it was a CBS News poll, calling of all things to ask me many
detailed questions on my opinions over the now complete Mueller probe regarding
President Trump and his alleged collusion with the Russians and the last
presidential election.
I won’t bore you with any of the details or my rather obvious
conservatism or right wing Evangelical Christian world view…
Oh no, some of you might actually be offended.
Please don’t be.
I’m just a man. And, I follow Jesus Christ. I’m not perfect. I’m not
infallible. And, I actually do love people. I don’t always agree with them. But
I do love them. I’m called to love them.
Again, I digress.
At the end of the poll, I was actually asked about whether my views
could be construed as Evangelical and Christian. Asked whether these views
affected the way that I vote?
That was interesting for sure.
I wondered afterward, if they ever asked if a person was an atheist, or
a luddite, or a socialist etc…?
Why was I targeted and how did they even know to ask those particular
demographic questions?
But, here is the real kicker. And, for some of you, maybe you would
have let it go or brushed it aside as if it didn’t even phase you.
Needless to say, it phased me. And, I had to call out the elephant in
the room. I wasn’t going to just ignore it. Not any longer.
The interviewer asked me, “Do you identify as any of the following
races: Blah, Blah, Blah… “White?””
I blew out a little breath and chuckled.
I said, “You know, I really don’t like that.” … awkward silence…
She says, “You don’t like what?”
“I don’t like being thrown into the, let’s face it, category of just
being white. I mean, if it’s not good to do that to anyone else, then why is it
ok for me?”
Understand, that I was chuckling as I said this. I was not attempting
to be inflammatory or disrespectful.
She got it.
I said, “Hey, is it ok if you write something in for me?”
She says, “Yes, of course sir.”
I say, “Can you write in for me, “Irish American?””
“Of course sir. She says”
Needless to say, I’m always happy to register my opinions or provide my
thoughts when the interviewer is respectful and not mechanical in their
responses to me.
She seemed amused and refreshed by my attitude and she indicated that
she was actually taking note of my request and in fact wrote in “Irish
American.”
You see, I absolutely respect the idea that many of us want to be
identified as the race that God made us. I respect that maybe you and your
family. You and your community. That, you and these others want to remain
segregated into an identifiable people group. That is a space of belonging that
sadly many of us have gradually lost here. A sense of heritage and history. A
story of our past and how we came to arrive in this place and time.
I get that.
But, how is it that these selfsame people would have me be shoved into
a mold and homogenized into nothing more than a color, not a distinct people
group? They would be and are frequently incensed and even enraged when they are
forced into a corner and given a color label.
Two wrongs don’t ever make a right.
Let’s agree to disagree on a lot of things. I’m ok with that. Hopefully
you are too.
But, let’s agree here and now that it’s not ok to place labels on each
other that disrespect our diversity and heritage, even if it’s what we often
hear from the mainstream. Just because a majority says or does something often,
does not inherently make it correct or right.
So, I’m actually not white as a race. That’s just my skin color…
I am a proud Irish American.
Let’s decide today to respect each other and to at least attempt to
understand where the other is coming from…
Small inroads like that just might get us headed in the right direction
again. As a people, and as a nation.
As a P.S., the lady I spoke with this evening asked if I was ok with an
actual reporter possibly calling me back in the next 48 hours to interview me
further…
I guess I was a little more interesting to interview than their average
cold call…
Have a blessed week,
Mike
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