Color of Skin - Content of Character

When my next door neighbor first moved in several months ago, someone called the dog pound on his dogs. He immediately assumed that it was me. I asked him why? He said it was because I was new to the neighborhood and no one else in the neighborhood would have done that. I wondered inside if it had to do with being one of the only "white" folks in the neighborhood. Something felt wrong about it.

Then I realized what discrimination was like. The way many people African American, Jew or Muslim are discriminated against by the European Americans. Sometimes in the depths of our hearts its the color of their skin that influences our perceptions of the content of their character. Perhaps it was good for once to feel what that is like. To be judged for something that I didn't do simply because of some external factor (either being new in the neighborhood or perhaps the color of my skin).

Maybe the dream still waits to be realized!