However, sitting in the coffee shoppe in Wellington NZ, looking through these articles that represented the most extreme of cognitive dissonance that I could conceive, I was able finally smile.
Because I remembered.
I remembered the story of a beautiful juxtaposition of racial connection.
When I was running a Tae Kwon Do school for inner city kids, part of the role included getting them into tournaments, which required a lot of volunteer work for coaching, chaperoning, and pick-up / drop-off. My parents were among these volunteers and were delivering a very happy little boy with his rather large second prize sparring trophy sitting on his lap the whole way home.
So when the very white guy (my dad) ordered an ice-cream at the local McDonald's (black neighborhood), nothing was unusual.
But when he pulled up with a black kid in the back seat with a huge trophy on his lap, dad noticed the McDonald's worker peek at Roscoe. He then watched the happy smiles of the McDonald's workers.
Despite the smiles, dad expected the typical anemic McDonal's ice cream. However, this was not delivered. Rather, an absurdly oversized ice cream that was taller than dad had ever thought possible with soft serve was served with rather large smiles, completing an already lovely day for Roscoe.
Would this have occurred if one of our black volunteers had pulled Roscoe up for an ice cream? Possibly the oversized ice cream. Possibly not.
Would this have occurred if one of our white volunteers had pulled up with a white kid for an ice cream? Possibly the oversized ice cream. Possibly not.
However, I have a feeling that normal transactions happen, but then we get happy surprises. The unexpected. When the order was taken at the McDonald's box from a white guy, they simply had no anticipation that it was going to a little black kid who had clearly earned a martial arts trophy. So when they saw Roscoe's shining eyes, it was a happy and beautiful juxtaposition.
These unexpected happy surprises should not be easily forgotten, and during these difficult times, they especially need celebrated.
