Glenn Loury brilliantly outlines (below, at the 1:00 mark) the challenges we face - not as black or white or gay or straight people - but as real full human beings.
Key point from Loury:"The reason I [as a black man] can read them [a Tolstoy or a Dostoevsky] and be enriched by them is not because I see my life in their narrative but because their narrative is in the service of the existential challenge that all of us face, which is "How to grow out of where we start into the fullness of our humanity."
The fullness of our humanity is beyond our race or skin color or whatever narrow quality we have. Yes, that is part of it; and we can celebrate it. It's great that black Americans can, rightly, celebrate their accomplishments despite all of the obstacles that were put in their way. But those were human accomplishments too. Black Americans celebrate Juneteeth; but that day belongs to all Americans regardless of race. That was the freeing of human beings, not just or only black human beings. We belong to one tribe: the human tribe. This idea that
all we are , and nothing more, is a member of a smaller tribe, our race for example, is frankly dumb. We are all that, yes, but much more.
The JFK assassination forum is not the best place for this; so I apologize for harping on it. And I'll stop now.
