For me, race realism is something which has evolved by stages over fifty years. Living in New York City, I have had many opportunities to interact with people who are different: as neighbors, at work, in community groups, in Church. Coming from an idyllic, almost 19th-century, New England background when we still had our majestic elm trees, I had a lot to learn. Gradually, I have taken off the rose-colored glasses and learned to be practical about who has my best interests in mind. This is not a matter of seeing enemies everywhere, but simply being realistic about what to expect in any given situation.
During the Rockefeller years in New York, I went through a rather ambitious altruistic phase, using my training as an architect for what I thought was the “common good.” I worked for the New York State Urban Development Corporation, which built 35,000 well designed, affordable houses all across New York State between 1968 and 1974. That was a very idealistic time when we thought that a fresh, clean environment could help to solve the many pressing social (i.e. racial) problems of the day. I would travel to places which might not be safe, tempting fate in what I thought was a good cause. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech was still ever-present in my thinking. ...
Posts
