I have always had deep respect for Morgan Freeman. As an actor, I think he stands out from the crowd with few equals. As a human being, he always impressed me as an intelligent, thoughtful person with a deeply held sense of personal integrity. I have never known much about his politics, and I'm sure that just as with most people. he and I wouldn't agree on everything. But he is one celebrity who I always thought it would be an honor to meet because he is a true gentleman. When I heard what he said on 60 Minutes, my respect went up even more, if that's possible. Way to go, Morgan!
Back in the late 1970s, I would watch the news with my parents on the weekends. On Saturdays, the 10:00 news on WNEW (Channel 5) was only 1/2-hour and at 10:30PM, the station presented another 1/2-hour show called "Black News." One Saturday night, I remember calling the station (I was only about 12 at the time) at about 10:35PM and asked them why they had that show? The producer said it was to highlight news in the black community. I said, "Oh, so that means the first half hour was White News?" I heard a long silence on the other end of the phonefollowed finally by "Um, no...but..." I thought it was a fair question.
The only way to end racism IS to stop talking about it. It's takes practice to look across a crowded room and not point someone out as "the white/black/oriental guy next to so and so," but it's important to try. If the our differences aren't important enough to be criteria for how we treat each other, then they aren't important enough to keep talking about! It's true that we shouldn't be as overly sensitive to labels (I AM white, after all), but it's really our similarities that are more important to brag about. I had an article published about this in a local Op-ed page two years ago. If you're interested, you can read it here.
Cheers to Morgan Freeman for so beautifully standing up for his rights as an American sans hyphen!
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