My 19 year-old and his friend decided to do an overnight kayaking trip along the Potomac River. I thought this was an insane idea. My husband said, “that sounds cool.” Now aside from the ordinary Mars/Venus differences a friend pointed out to me that my son was utilizing the “white side” of his brain.

She’s convinced that a 100% black child would not think it was “cool” to go out on the water in a small craft at night. To prove it she asked, “Have you ever heard of Ray Ray and June Bug and ‘em going kayaking?” I laughed. It’s okay if you laughed (sometimes we’re way to serious about this stuff). And yes, my husband laughed when I relayed the conversation to him. And my 19-year-old laughed too. Okay, done laughing. But, of course, this got me thinking.

Pondering what exactly that means white brain/black brain. This conversation with my friend occurred soon after reading and communicating with Richard Morris, the white novelist who wrote his book from a black man’s perspective. Read that post here.

Just as my husband’s left handed brain sees things differently, does my “black brain” have the same proclivity? Well, yes. Besides the kayaking, here’s another example.

Several weeks ago two police cars parked outside of our house. The officers remained seated in their vehicles. I thought, “What is going on? What are they doing outside my house?” With no conscious thought, I experienced feelings of nervousness, uneasiness, and I couldn’t think of a positive reason they might be there. I knew I wasn’t breaking the law but I wasn’t convinced that they knew. I even considered they’d made a mistake and had the wrong house, thought they might be planning a raid on my residence.

In contrast, Marc felt safe, secure, even comfortable with two officers parked outside. He didn’t wonder why they were there and didn’t assume they were looking for him. He went out and said hello to them. Turns out they did have the wrong house – looking for a former neighbor.

We reacted with our stereotypical black brain/white brain biases towards law enforcement.

Another example of this white brain/black brain involves a community organization I belonged to. We are a racially diverse group and have honest conversations about race as well as other issues. When discussing what punishment a convicted murderer (a young black man killed another young black man) might warrant, I noticed a racial divide in the responses. All of the white people expressed a strong sense of tough justice – they should lock him up and throw away the key; they each identified more with the victim. Every minority felt the murderer (eighteen years old) deserved a second chance, a lighter sentence, could be rehabilitated. Interesting.

I wonder if our goal should be to try to convince someone of another brain to think the way we do. Maybe instead, we should try to see the world through their eyes. Try to go through a day left handed, living on Mars or looking through a different colored filter. I wonder. Let’s talk…

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