Rant Postponed

I decided to delete the rant I just wrote about all the stuff I have to get done before Monday and write about an experience I had this week instead. So, here goes. The library here in Columbia has a program called One Read. Hundreds of people in the community sign up to read a book that they voted for, then meet at intervals during the month of September to discuss it. This is their 10th year, and the book they chose was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The book is about a black woman in the 50s whose cancer cells were harvested without her consent or knowledge by doctors while she was a patient at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Those cells went on to become the foundation for some pretty big scientific breakthroughs, but the Lacks family was never told about it (or the millions of dollars that were made as a result of using her cells for research). Apparently, the book raises all kinds of questions - about medical ethics, the definition of a cell, racial taboos, repayment for injustice, and issues of race, class, and poverty during the time of segregation. And no one wants to go on the record to talk about it. I found myself wondering if, what was described to me as "the undercurrent of racism" in Columbia, has anything to do with why no one wants to talk with me on the record. To my ears, their comments about the book sound honest and deep. For someone with a set of filters that are colored by the history of discrimination against blacks in America, it could sound like something else. Since my skin is as brown as the next guy's, they can't know that I don't view the world through those filters because my family's history can't be traced through this land. So, I'm stuck. I have a story for deadline on Tuesday (my busiest day of the week) and only one voice willing to share with the city what her thoughts were. Amazingly enough, that one voice is a black woman who grew up in the time of Henrietta Lacks who felt like reading the book was a walk down memory lane. I guess I'll have to wait and see how God works this one out.