Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;
to understand, than to be understood;
to love, than to be loved.
Saint Francis of Assisi
The topic of diversity is both puzzling and complex for me…
I am a Mexican and have lived most of my life in Mexico. Although I lived one year in England and a few months in India, before CIIS I did not have many opportunities to relate to people from other cultures. In fact in Mexico the topic of racism has only been started to been discussed a few years ago. I am fully aware of classism and segregation of the indigenous people (in Mexico they would not be called “native Americans” although I guess that term could and maybe should be used to refer to them). I have been even able to spot a few of my own prejudices, when (for example) I briefly questioned what was a poor indigenous woman doing in the same church where my family was celebrating a big party (I think a wedding, but can’t remember). For an split second I felt that she was not supposed to be there, she was dirty and poor and we were all dressing our best garments, immediately I felt ashamed of such thought, but it was (and it is there).
Last spring in school, there was a big discussion concerning racism (regarding certain article in the Psy.D. Program). I honestly could not understand the big deal. Ok the professor had written an article that could be interpreted as racist (I never read it) but is had been 20 years ago! Surely in this day and age there are not racist people at CIIS (I thought to myself) and could not understand the sense of enragement expressed by many. Isn’t it time to turn the page and stop the belligerent discourse? What good does it make to anybody to insist talking about racism. Wouldn’t that help to preserve the division? Shouldn’t we develop a different language, one not focused in “us” and “them” in “black” and “white” but in similarities, in our humanness?
I truly believed that I did not have any racist views, and even if I do sometimes joke about the stupid Spanish (in Mexican jokes, the dumb are always from Galicia, Spain), the greedy Jews, the rigid Germans, the pompous British, the highly anatomically gifted Blacks, etc., I never meant to hurt nobody (such jokes are very common in Mexico and all Latin America). But, now I question myself, what are hidden beliefs lurking in those jokes and stereotypes?
There is very, very much that I don’t know and don’t understand about racism, historical racism in the US, my own unconscious beliefs about race and skin-color. Even if not overt, I have been able to recognize it, always tinted with socio-economical elements).
Part of me still believes that focusing on our differences is not the best way to go. I know that trying to force everybody to conform with a “white” standard is not the solution, but deep within I still believe that beyond the color of our skin, beyond our culture, beyond our material self, we are all luminous beings, wearing our skins as costumes, and I truly believe that that is not spiritual by-passing. Obviously, I am missing something that many others can see.
I read not long ago that many times our ego envelops in our spiritual endeavors, so we have to work on our psychological issues simultaneously to our spiritual work (you can’t get to Buddha without going through Freud), perhaps is something similar; maybe one cannot get to Jesus without going through Luther King Jr.
But then again, what do I know…
