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Article: Race and religion: the elixir of separation.(EDITORIALS)(Essay)
- Article from:
- CrossCurrents - The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health
- Article date:
- June 22, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Association for Religion and Intellectual Life. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Race--it is America's rawest nerve and most enduring dilemma. From
Birth to death, race is with us, defining, dividing, distorting.
--Sig Gissler, Summer 1994
I add the following comment to Gissler's observation: From birth to death, race is one of the most personal of human experiences.
As a black male, I live race. I am acutely aware that my race constitutes a master status. In the eyes of whites and other non-blacks, my skin color, my most visible characteristic, is the most important piece of data about me. This condition is inescapable.
No scholar has definitively theorized about race, at least not to my satisfaction. Fancy language cannot ...