Steemit.... an old white man's classroom for gaining wisdom in diversity. I'm at my desk... teach me.

One of the things that most excites me about steemit is it's global reach. Even in this, it is lacking, not because steemit is insufficient, but because there are people in the world who haven't the resources to access and take advantage of such a community. But it still is infinitely more diverse than my daily experience, and we can start with what we have available.

I saw a quote that I will never forget hand painted on a taxi in Liberia. "Doing the impossible with the available" It is my ongoing goal for my life.

So on steemit I can enjoy the art and recipes of many cultures. I see pictures with faces that look different than mine. I see landscapes and architecture that are outside my experience.

I hear voices through the typed word that reflect ideas and dreams and challenges and wounds that differ from my own.

I am the product of my upbringing, which was influenced by my parents and the schools I attended, the literature I read, the friends I made. I am more and more realizing that these were all influenced, primarily, by a "white" culture.

Because of the huge obstacles people of color have faced in our culture, even my awareness and opinions of them were mostly fed to me by "white" media. I had both African American and Asian friends growing up, but I realize that they were by far the minority in our school system and thus were also fit into the holes that were provided them. I have only experienced being a minority in downtown Detroit and in Senegal and Liberia.

I was blessed to grow up without any outward or overt racial prejudices (although obviously burdened by the unspoken assessments that society treated as truths) so I never hesitated to meet and talk with people of different ethnic backgrounds, but the numbers were still too few for me to claim any actual understanding.

I am raising my 12 children, 6 white, 6 black, by the words of Martin Luther King Jr.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

I hope not only that they are judged only in this way, but also that they follow this wisdom in their dealings with others.

But I fear I am not enough. Even if I believe my prejudices are not overt or intentional, I know that they are still probably present. Subtle and insidious. Not flamboyant hate as would be spouted by a white supremacist that would be laughed at because of it's pathetic ignorance if it wasn't an ongoing risk for good people. No, mine is likely masquerading as "fact" or "truth" when evaluating others. Much more dangerous because it doesn't raise alarms and is more likely to continue within our culture because it is not ferreted out and corrected.

@shawnamawna helped me to recognize a new failure in my thinking which was not to have given thought to things written or produced to the "White eye." Maybe even this post is biased and skewed because of my inherent flaws.

So, I need wisdom. I am not influential enough in the world to make a big difference, but I send forth 12 children and with them their progeny. Each of us has some influence with the people we work with and interact with each day. So I am committed to continue to pay it forward. I am not satisfied with my claims that "I am not a racist" since I am still learning that at the very least... I still really don't always get it.

I will have questions... that might seem controversial, but will be meant purely to allow me to understand some of the complex issues that surround us in a world of blessedly growing diversity... but also racial tension.

I hope you will help me and maybe all of steemit learn and benefit from the wealth of cultural and racial experience that are represented here. In the mean time, I continue to soak in the writings and images presented by people who I don't know, and might not yet understand... but trust that I want to.