[Choir] my comment this morning

[Richard Riley]

I could tell that my comment about how "white supremacy" does NOT resonate
with me made some of you uneasy. I'd like to explain why. I object to
labels that are supposed to apply to all.

I went to a Friends (Quaker) School in Baltimore from kindergarten through
12th grade. Three black girls were in my class for most of those years; I
don't remember exactly which year they started, but it was somewhere in the
1st-6th grades.

As fate would have it, all three were extremely intelligent and high
achievers both academically and in a bunch of extra-curricular activities.
I had quite a lot of contact with them, though it wasn't on the level of
academic achievemnet. With that regular interaction I grew up thinking,
narrow-mindedly, that blacks were 1) way smarter than I was, and 2) had a
level discernment of what was worth spending time on that I really admired.

Not all whites are as fortunate as I was, but I really object to labeling
the entire white race as white supremacists. I was lucky to know three
blacks (three blacks especially - I had contact with others) who were
actually "supreme" to me in all things academic and in social refinement in
the adolescent sense.

But if all whites were not as fortunate as I was, there are some who are,
and the self-flagellation "white supremacist" label really annoys me, as it
RESTRICTS the possibility of the  authentic relationships that could exist
between blacks and whites based on frequent contact.

The truth is that something on the order of 95% of Unitarians are white.
That's a fact. But it's not a fact that all are white supremacists, and I
don't find that applying and assigning labels, whether negative or
positive, is much help in understanding others.

Dick
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