As February draws to a close, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that, at least in the U.S., February is Black History Month.  In truth, one finds it rather odd that we must set aside a month to celebrate a history of a people whose lineage is considerably longer than that of the more dominant race in the world today, that is, white people.  In fact, as Nell Irvin Painter points out in her 2011 The History of White People, it is the white skin color that, from a genetic standpoint, is the more "aberrant" of human skin colors.  Moreover, whether we believe that humanity began in southern Iraq vis a vis the Garden of Eden, the savannah and gorges of central and southern Africa, or some combination of the two, we must admit that our earliest ancestors were anything but lily white.
     Be this as it may, we do well to remember our black brethren and not just in the U.S.   Due to hegemonic behavior on the part of other races and ethnicities in the course of human history, the virtues of black culture have often been ignored, suppressed or,worse, abused and destroyed.  This has been at our peril.  We can only enjoy and appreciate humanity when we experience all of its manifestations.  And this experience should include not just literary or historical insight, but in physical encounter.  How wonderful it would be if we could realize that over and above us all is a God who loves all of us equally and wishes for all of us, again, equally, to become everything that he has created us to be on the world he has made for all us, and to, equally and together, experience.
     As I reflect on the lengthy journey I have made with the African Americans among us, from my days of civil rights activism in California to working in anti-poverty programs in East Texas to participating in political and religious events in Chicago, Washington, and beyond, I realize that I have far to go.  I'll always be white, I'll always be a part of a traditionally Western "elite."  Yet I also realize that, as the apostle Paul wrote many centuries ago, that there is, "neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).  Immense diversity yet enormously one.
     So did God make us:  differently, yet destined to be one.  We therefore celebrate the beauty of the black experience, this month, and every month to come:  it's all part of being one.