(Photo – Around UDC-DCSL)
Watching current affairs, I believe that we are at a tipping point.
By Joan Riback
I have played a part in forming today’s reality and now must play my part in co-creating a new path for to the future. During a recent quiet time of reflection, my eyes pooled with tears of remorse for the inhumane contributions I have made to systemic racism due to reinforced cultural norms.
Although my parents were leaders for fair housing and espoused strong prejudice against prejudiced people, the people with black skin in Missouri in the 50s and 60s primarily worked in our warehouses, as housekeepers, and school janitors. Most lived in poorer houses and housing projects. They were not us. ‘We’ were white, ‘they’ were different. I did have friends who were black, but they were not my close friends. At that time, it never occurred to me that the reason people with dark skin didn’t have good jobs or nicer homes was because white people wouldn’t allow it. It created a delusion that ‘they’ weren’t as good as ‘us’. That subtle, intellectually denied, and unexamined truth lived within me for most of my life. It wasn’t challenged until I moved away from primarily white communities and finally began to see it. I was horrified and ashamed while observing my auto responses to people of color. Intellectually I believed in equal rights, but the cultural conditioning of my mind told a different story. Recently, the tragedy of that reality hit home and the pain of that truth is the foundation of what is happening in the world at this moment.
It is an inherent truth that people diminish others in an effort to feel good about themselves, sometimes resulting in crimes against humanity. As a Buddhist, I have spent years working with my mind. Through meditation and conscious work, my auto-response prejudices have subsided and transformation has unfolded over time. Today I honor skin color and cultural differences as the wrappings of our unique shared human experience. But, my work has just begun.
I have come to recognize that ‘reality’ is comprised of social constructs. Our thoughts, words, and actions determine the world we live in and we must take responsibility for the activity of our mind. Every moment is defined by our choices, either habituated or consciously chosen. We always have a choice. When we change our minds, we can open our hearts, and change the world. The only hope that we have for systemic transformation must come from within. For the survival of humanity, we must stop hurting each other.
I am committed to continue to work on myself, and to seize every opportunity to work towards the mental and physical transformation of all prejudices. It is essential for my own well being and the well being of humanity… Or how could I live with myself?
Joan Riback, an Altadena resident, holds an MA in Psychology and has been a Buddhist practitioner for 19 years, including 2 years of solitary meditation retreat under the guidance of her Tibetan teacher, Khentrul Lodro Thaye Rinpoche.
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