People whose experience of life arises predominantly from 'White culture' would go a long way toward helping to heal the wounds between Blacks and Whites if they would understand and be mindful of Azizi's 21 Jan 08 - 08:49 AM post. Our neighborhood, prior to our moving here, had had only one other White family in its entire history, in the deep south, in a city where the only violent political coup (that overturned a democratically elected, Black government) in the history of the United States occurred.

Some wounds take a long time to heal. The wounds are real and they are legitimate. They do get reopened from time to time, because racism is still very much a fact of life for many Blacks and other people of color. We see it every day in the way our neighborhood is treated by the local government as compared to the white neighborhoods.

We have been welcomed very warmly into our neighborhood, and we are welcome to participate in and celebrate all of the important events that happen here. But we are always mindful that we are, like it or not, representatives of a people who have done a great wrong to those among whom we live, and we need to be understanding of the legitimate concerns that our neighbors have about how they are treated by people like us in the larger world.

If you approach events like MLK day with humility, kindness, and understanding, even in the face of what look like perceived slights, you will go a long way toward helping to heal those wounds.