AL CHROsNY
Les réflexions de Al sur le chapitre «COULEUR ET MENTALITÉS » sont édifiantes. Je le remercie d’avoir partagé son point de vue qui m’a permit d’éditer certains paragraphes notamment celui sur Dieu, il fait mention des intouchables (Bourakumin) du Japon et surtout ne manquez pas son exemple impeccable sur la "Black Madonna" de la Pologne.
From: al_ch
Subject: Re: Nice website
Date: May 13, 2009 1:06:04 AM EDT
To: aliou
Aliou,
I read the text on your site using the automatic translation from French to English at Yahoo Babel Fish http://babelfish.yahoo.com/. I was able to understand well your message, except the examples in the dialects from Guinea.
Your dedication of the site to the people who believe in God and the natural processes that change the color of the skin are very dear to me. I think that every generation and every nation, every people have to learn to appreciate this message again and again.
As Dr. Martin Luther King dreamed of the day when we will judge people by the content of their character rather than by the color of their skin. How difficult it is though to learn about the content of the character of the other person? There are probably many aspects of our biological nature and cultural upbringing that make us jump to conclusions too quickly. We as humans at the basic level are still tribal, but unfortunately we keep inventing new ways to define what tribe means. I was surprised to hear about the preferences for the lighter skin among your people.
In Poland, that was still under communist regime as I was growing up, the dividing lines for discrimination ran at different planes. For example, members of the communist party vs. non-members, city dwellers vs. small town or farm dwellers, there were almost no other ethnic groups - but those others were discriminated against, antisemitism was propagated by the communist party, the list can go on.
Jumping to Japan, Ainu people were discriminated against, based on different ethnicity. However, the social class of burakumin are still faced with some discrimination based on the traditions of "unclean" occupations, rather than ethnicity.
I think that examples of discrimination in ethnically uniform societies such as Japan and Poland, point to certain level of tendency of the human beings to discriminate on whatever dimension happens to present some sort of advantage for one group over another. It takes a special effort to overcome this tendency by being open to dialog and acceptance of the other person. It takes more work to get to know the content of the character of the other than jump to conclusion. Is our society with its technological resources helping to open these dialogs? I think that your website is a wonderful example of how we can all better learn about each other.
I like your analogies to the cultural differences in perceptions of color. I was very familiar with Yamato Transport and their kuroneko service and logo of the cat mother and kitten. I looked at it as another cute Japanese icon. But your perspective is wonderful, It makes sense that only in a country like Japan a black cat service would work. Now with white color being the color of mourning, the white cat service probably would not? Well we have the Hello Kitty, though ;-).
The color or race of God is another great point you are making. I believe that God does not have gender nor race and religions that avoid portraying an image of God are probably really careful about this. Being Roman Catholic I am most familiar with the religious icons from Poland. I will share with you a little story about an old painting of Mother Mary in Czestochowa shrine in Poland. This shrine and painting have a special significance to Polish people. It was the only shrine that defended itself from the Swedish invasion of Poland in 17th century. It is a place of pilgrimage to this day. The painting is known as Black Madonna. I believe that long time ago it must have been exposed to fire, and there are other legends associated with it. But what I am getting at is that this Black Madonna has been the most venerated symbol catholic faith in Poland.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Madonna_of_Cz%C4%99stochow
Now for a surprise. In Doylestown Pennsylvania there is a shrine named Polish Czestochowa and there is a copy of the Black Madonna there. When I first visited the shrine I was astonished to find Polish people and Black people at the shrine. Again only then it dawned on me the Black Madonna must have a special significance not only to Polish people, but to Black people as well..
Thank you for posting the link to my site. I think you are doing wonderful job at making people see things from a different perspective, beyond the color of the skin...
Best Regards, God Bless
and let's stay in touch.
Al Chrosny