Skin Color Is A Learned Difference by Robert Socha

“Neither law, learning, nor religion, is addressed to any man’s color or race. Science, education, the Word of God, and all the virtues known among men, are recommended to us, not as races, but as men. We are not recommended to love or hate any particular variety of the human family more than any other. Not as Ethiopeans; not as Caucasians; not as Mongolians; not as Afro-Americans, or Anglo-Americans, are we addressed, but as men. God and nature speak to our manhood, and to our manhood alone. Here all ideas of duty and moral obligation are predicated.” (1)

A great man made this statement during a speech at Hillsdale College on January 21, 1863. He was a staunch abolitionist, having escaped the chains of slavery and begun his life’s work in 1838. He knew of the moral failings of our Founding Fathers, but also their moral courage in creating the documents he exhorted all American’s to emulate.

I do not excuse apartheid’s implementation in South Africa. On the contrary, I believe it to have been a gross injustice and aberration to the Christian Faith, the men who ran the country espoused to follow. I pity the men who suffered under its enforcement and the enforcers themselves. This stain on human history is a terrible reminder of the depths of depravity man will fall to control another. However, the history of its beginnings is more complicated than the simplistic view that inherently racist white men viciously conquered the nation and implemented the scourge upon its native populations. Unfortunately, this view matriculated across the pond castigating all those of European heritage as such. One of the most perplexing anomalies is the self-deprecating language of the leadership in the West.

Where are the men courageous enough to speak to the things that unify us as human beings? Presently, they are shunned from the public forum, castigated as misanthropists. I remember when President Trump was criticized as a disingenuous hack when he dared to say, “we all bleed the same red blood of patriots…” In a dark stain on our nation’s character, we have devolved to post “Brown vs. Board” (2) segregation (3). In this there is no honor.

The idea that systemic racism exists and is inherent in lighter skin tones is anathema toward our founding charter and the character of most Americans of any heritage. Furthermore, the constant churn maligning the majority population within our borders as intrinsically racist should offend the moral compass of every American as it does mine. American companies engaging practices against whites (4), movie producers stating (5) they would not cast a white person for a role, and politicians saying (6) whites cannot interview them for a particular issue, reeks of discrimination that men bled and died to overturn.

This continual drumbeat perpetuating a color-based divide in the United States is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The animosity exists because the culture bombards its existence. However, suppose the language reflects our similarities and the fact that we all descended from one man. In that case, it will usher in healing and restoring the unity we should all embrace as Americans; one race.

“From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth…” Acts 17:26a

We are all “sons of Adam, daughters of Eve.” (C.S. Lewis) We are all created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). We should embrace our similarities: life in the blood, necessary nourishment, water, breath, one heart, two lungs, eyes, hands, feet, etcetera, and a brain that will unlock the mysteries of the peanut if we will simply put it to good use.

“Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also – if you love them enough.”

― George Washington Carver

Let us endeavor to embrace this greater love that does not seek to divide between ethnic lines but looks to lay down its life for the other. We will all be held to account for our actions in this life one day. It is my constant endeavor to breed e pluribus unim, “and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes” (from Revelation 7:9).

The man who declared the opening statement is Frederick Douglas, and his inspirational life is  immortalized in bronze at Hillsdale College’s Liberty Walk (7). His life inspires me. And the beauty of the statue is its ethnic ambiguity.

1. https://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/blessings-of-liberty-and-education/
2. https://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/educational-activities/history-brown-v-board-education-re-enactment
3. https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/american-colleges-segregated-housing-graduation-ceremonies/
4. https://greatamericanpolitics.com/2021/02/coca-cola-forcing-employees-to-denounce-white-people-or-be-fired/
5. https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/07/12/insiders-warn-wave-of-anti-white-reverse-racism-is-toxic-in-hollywood-everyones-paralyzed-with-fear-945779/
6. https://nypost.com/2021/05/19/chicagos-mayor-refuses-to-give-interviews-to-white-reporters/
7. https://www.hillsdale.edu/frederick-douglass/