Faith Matters

Glimpses of the beloved community

They were black, Latino, and white. They were whispering and laughing together.

My wife, Dawne, and I attended a fantastic men’s basketball game between Princeton and Yale. The game was close, the players were acrobatic in their ability to drive to the basket, and I should have been riveted by the court action. But I kept looking around at the dozen students who were sitting near us.

They were black, Latino, and white. They were constantly nudging and hugging each other, whispering in each other’s ears, laughing, and stealing French fries from the interracial couple in their midst. They were just being friends at a Saturday night basketball game.

I thought about how inconceivable this scene would have been to my grandparents, how bothered my parents would have been, and how often my own generation has dropped the ball in trying to create a society where such a scene is unremarkable.