"Where’s the Fridge?" - Commentary by Tony Seton

Where’s the Fridge?

During my campaigning in favor of the Racial Privacy Initiative last month, I encountered considerable hostility focused against my position. Opposition ranged from mild scorn -- the terms used were naive, disingenuous, reactionary, lacking common sense, illogical, and absurd-- to overt racism and demands for reparations for the descendants of slaves.

In one meeting of community college students, the vastly non-white audience, though admonished to listen on their hands, grunted and cat-called their feelings as though they were in a southern church, or British Parliament. The three peopleofcolor speaking in opposition got the huzzahs while I and mine got glares and snickers.

So I wondered what it was going to take to move us all to a unified, color-blind society. Some people, of all hues, have forgotten that that is the goal; some people haven’t forgotten, they just never embraced the idea of a melting pot. Some are hardened racists; others are exploiting the conundrum for personal gain. Most who oppose integration are mindless sheep following flawed leaders.

The transition to clear and healthy thinking -- a society free of racism -- is probably not far away. It certainly isn’t out of reach. Another terrorist attack by Muslim fundamentalists, and you would see a lot of blacks and browns and yellows and reds and whites joining arms to fight the common enemy. If the situation were dire and wide enough in scope, we could come together as one nation indivisible like never before.

If it’s a matter of intent, should people truly want to expand their consciousness to include all good people regardless of skin color, it’s merely an issue of making the proper effort. Consider that young children do not discriminate on the basis of skin color. Racism is a social disease; it’s something taught and learned. It can be unlearned.

When our kitchen floor was being redone, the refrigerator was moved out onto the deck. For most of the six days it was outside, when I wanted something cold, I found myself "instinctively" moving toward the hole in the wall where it normally resided. But finally I reprogrammed my subconscious not to be misled. Of course, that was about the time the refrigerator was moved back into its home. (Did you that appliances are often referred to as whiteware?)

The fact is that we are a programmable specie and we can change our instruction code. Whether we are suddenly inundated through circumstances with a greater truth, or we decide to seek it out ourselves, we can shift our beliefs. It’s not difficult. It doesn’t take much time. One merely has to decide to do it.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.