Day Three Midday David Wall

Day three, midday.  This morning we started with a team building activity, then we heard a speech from a man that does a garden for a juvenile detention center.  He said the prison only has 19 cents per meal for those kids, growing teenage boys.  That never would have fed me, at any age, especially if I was trying to stay healthy.  After that we went on to donate some turnips to the Baptist church across the street.  As I walked in I saw rows of old tired faces lined up to get food.  And these weren’t middle aged old and tired, they were elderly.  A good fourth were on walkers of some kind.  They were worn down too, from a life of hard work.  I could look almost anyone my age in the eye, and say you need to get a job.  But with these men and women, they’ve already worked.  Their bodies have already been worked.  They are what social security is for, but it’s not enough for them, or else they wouldn’t be lined up waiting for food.  They’ve given what they had, and our system has failed them. 

I have also been thinking a little bit more on what it means to be a minority.  Today while the preacher from the Baptist church was talking to us, he, in passing, mentioned something about me being white.  I had never had this happen before.  Probably no one noticed.  But what it said to me was, “You are different.” It wasn’t too big of a deal, but I already knew that.  I look around and I see that.  It kind of shocked me awake.  But this is really only one week for me.  I don’t want to be the token white guy for the rest of my life. (Not saying I’m treated that way by the group, they’ve been wonderfully inclusive and a true blessing.)  I just want to be.  I don’t want a master status hanging over my head every time I go anywhere.  I couldn’t stand having that everywhere.  When I was on the bus, I was treated different.  Not discriminated against, it was just obvious I was different.  I wasn’t dressed weird or anything, I was wearing what your average day laborer would wear.  It’s becoming more clear to me what ethnicity and being a minority means, and it is definitely not what I thought it was.