Red, and yellow, Black and white

As a member of BlogHer‘s Visionary panel I get sent links to partake in their weekly surveys. I am always happy to spout my opinion on life in general, so I always take part. (Now, I am always happy to do it ONLINE, not always so happy to do it in person, because sometimes my opinion doesn’t need to be aired, so if I am afraid of offending you in person, I just won’t share my opinion. But taking a faceless survey, I have no qualms at all.)

This morning’s survey was about friendships with other races. I use that term very loosely, because I believe there is only one race, and that is the human race. There are several different cultures within the human race, but only one race. If you’re human, you’re a part of it. I don’t care if your skin is pink with purple polka dots, if you’re human, you’re a member of the human race, dearly loved by my Creator, God. You’re worthy of respect, and every kindness. You are no less than anyone else.  I am related to people of a different ethnic background, I have a sister-in-law who is Chinese (full Chinese, born, raised, and lives in China), and a brother-in-law from Liberia. I have friends who are Hispanic.

I remember a few years ago bemoaning the fact that it seemed all my friends were white. We have so much we can learn from different ethnic groups, and to only befriend people who are like us, to me is at the very least wrong, and at best very narrow-minded.

One of the options on the BlogHer survey was “Yes, I have and seek out friends of other races”, that is the one I marked. Because I don’t care what color your skin is. I don’t.  I was more than a little, and a lot more than I should have been, shocked that when I viewed the results, only 10% of those polled answered this way. I was happy to see that some have friends of another ethnicity because it just happened that way. For me, it has just happened that way, BUT I live in a part of the world that is predominately white. So for me to befriend people who are different than I am, it takes a little work. But then any friendship takes work.

So I’m going to ask you, do you have friends of other ethnic backgrounds? Are you intentional about your choice to either have or not have those friendships? Why?