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Neither I nor my siblings had any "race consciousness." It wasn't an issue, because our community was all white. It just was. Back in those days. My brother moved to South Africa. The "blacks" working in the factory where he was a skilled fitter and turner were horrified that he should clear up his swarf and waste. They faced losing their jobs if a white man had to clear up. My bro also refused to employ a "maid" to clean his apartment. He was used to cleaning up his flat. But that "just wasn't done." Eventually, he employed a maid (she didn't do anything worthwhile.) He hated the patronising aspect of it. I moved to another area and met a black guy. Just friends, walking home together after night classes to improve our lot in life. Was invited to a party. When I entered the room, all eyes turned to look at me. Not hostile, just - curious. Then, they all carried on dancing or whatever they were doing. I was the only white person there. Abject lesson to me. How hard it must be for a non-white to engage in "white" communities. I was 18 years old and have never forgotten that odd feeling, half a century on. Even so, it's easy to get caught up in cultural bias. I don't want to live in a world where people are more valued for the colour of their skin than for the quality of their lives. I will like, or dislike, people according to who they are, not according to their skin, eye, or hair colour, or their ethnic background.

A Sociology teacher of mine liked to mention the lyrics of a song, when speaking about bias. He pointed out that people LEARN their values, and are TAUGHT their values. https://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/r/rodgers_and_hammerstein/youve_got_to_be_carefully_taught.html "You've got to be taught To hate and fear, You've got to be taught From year to year, It's got to be drummed In your dear little ear You've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught to be afraid Of people whose eyes are oddly made, And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade, You've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught before it's too late, Before you are six or seven or eight, To hate all the people your relatives hate, You've got to be carefully taught!" =================================== For high school, I went to the Bronx HS of Science. I found that a good place to address racism. When everyone in your class is above-average, and you have a variety of ethnicities represented in every classroom, the idea of some "race" being better or worse is easy to discard. BTW, it's not that Asians are automatically better at math, it's that many are "carefully taught" to push for higher and perfect grades in math and hard sciences, so that a kid making a normal mistake may freak out about it because the family's pushed for a perfect score. So, when you're shoulder-to-shoulder with a roomful of skllled people, their skin color can quickly become the least valuable piece of information.

A few months back I covered a story about a six guys who hijacked a plane from Cuba to Key West. The six men were arrested and charged in federal court. When they were being led away from the courthouse and into the bus taking them back to jail, one of the reporters called out, "Why did you do it!?!" One of the men yelled back "FREEDOM!" as he was led away, his hands cuffed and his legs shackled. That's what the Way is like. Bondage in the name of freedom.