BEING BLACK OR BEING WHITE.. my philosophy and discovery

B;’THE METAMORPHOSIS
By
Ernie D. Delfin
Director, Youth Services
Newport Irvine Rotary Club


“Thank you for sharing your wisdom and your discoveries Ernie. One question has always bothered me . . . When you speak of Obama as being black or of someone being white, etc., etc., really isn't it only skin?”

Jim Young, PDG



Dear Jim:

Your question seems so simple yet so difficult to respond! It is in the same class as the opening line of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s immortal poem, “How Do I love thee?” Your posing that question on Martin Luther King Holiday made me rethink my own thinking, digging deeper into the recesses of my soul. It is a timely exercise that transported me beyond my physical being into the realm of my own spirituality. Scribbling these thoughts on the eve of Barack Obama’s inauguration as the first black president in US history takes a serendipitous significance as I am forced to examine my own earthly life, my values and philosophy as a human being. I am reminded of Socrates’ admonition that an unexamined life is not worth living for.

Your uncommon question brings to mind a simple but curious inquiry from a very talented friend during our active Jaycee years a generation ago, when he asked me, “Ernie, how do you think?” cognizant of the fact that English was not my primary language, but my third language (after Ilocano, the language of my parents and then Filipino or Tagalog, the Philippines’ national language with sprinkled Spanish origins). Now I am digressing. That topic belongs to another dissertation.

Jim, when I speak of black or white, I believe that I am unconsciously just following the prevalent culture around me --- simply swimming along the river of our culture ---- in order not to exert a lot energy which in my unconscious mind is better conserved for other things that are more important. A black or white description conforms more to that physical quadrant of our being (TO LIVE), (the other quadrants being: mental (TO LEARN) , social (TO LOVE), and spiritual (TO LEAVE A LEGACY) according to Dr. Steven R. Covey) that is often supported by many colorful images since our birth.

For how can one intelligent person go against the tide of history, when books, movies and oral tradition speak of the many social injustices of the world since time immemorial? Biblical history tells us about Moses, by virtue of his Jewish birth, was made a slave to serve the Pharaohs of Egypt, when the powerful despots of the world can simply order the annihilation of “lesser” people as in the Holocaust, and the ethnic cleansing in Africa or Cambodia! And, yes, this country has also its own share in social injustices, like the trading and owning of slaves as a chattel in years past. There was even a period of our history that black people were just considered 3/5 of a human being, when a person’s black skin was the sole criteria not to be accepted into a school, hotel or even a restaurant!. And yes, these are documented facts that are made live on the giant screen by many colorful movies like Alex Haley’s Roots!

In an ideal world, Jim, I also have a dream that another 50 or l00 years from now, there will be no more black nor white nor yellow nor brown as divisions of our race, simply because there is really just one race on earth, called the HUMAN race. Why races are defined or segregated by colors is beyond me. But until that day comes, it is neither right nor wrong to be reminded of our poignant and painful history so that knowing what was blatantly wrong will always guide us to do what is right the first time and not to right what is wrong, later on, as what we as a nation is trying to do now.

As one ordinary mortal, let me attempt to answer your question in a physical sense: Please imagine that there are a dozen cups of different colors and designs filled with good coffee on this table, and there are ten of us who love to drink coffee. As our choices in life are often guided by our life’s experiences, education and cultures, you and I will pick up one cup over the other, without even thinking. And lo and behold two cups are left unchosen! WHY? Our human hands are ordered by the mind, as recommended by our eyes to pick up what is “safe and pleasing” totally oblivious that the contents of the cups are the same coffee and same quality!

So, my dearest friend Jim, when I speak of black or white, it is just another adjective probably to make my sentence more colorful than what it really is. No judgment, no mental deliberation or process that went with.

Allow me to end this soliloquy to say that one person’s color is just a skin deep. Sooner or later in the sunset of our lives, this wonderful skin covering our bodies will begin to sag and be the first part of our body to rot and eventually return to dust from where it came from. And then, and only then, the physical aspect of our being is gone forever and only the spirit lives on. I believe in all my heart that the color of our skin is really nothing in the spiritual or intellectual sense. What matter most is what happened during that short little hyphen separating the year of our birth and the year of our death etched in our tomb stone.

And if you are still reading or hearing these words, be happy and joyful as you are still capable of adding colors to your life, that should be as beautiful as the rainbow, that is not just black or white!

Thank you for your friendship and counsel, my friend!

A fellow Rotarian and a
member of the HUMAN race,

Ernie Delfin
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Email writer: ernie.delfin@gmail.com or drbannatiran@yahoo.com