NPR Morning Musings

This morning as I drove into work, I was listening to NPR. They always have a number of stories that seem to pique my interest, even on the days where I’m hesitant to let anything penetrate or percolate in my mind before a reasonable hour of 9am or at least one cup of coffee. Today was no exception, so now matter how hard I tried to think I was leaving my world of CD music this morning for a brief update on the news, weather and traffic, I ended up flipping to NPR and staying for my duration of my ride into the office listening to the morning edition.

I was initially sucked in by the story about the history of Motown in comparison to the fictionalized, multi Oscar nominated film Dreamgirls. Where a debate ensued about whether the film was really doing a disservice to the History and Evolution of Motown Sound.

The other story focused on how the U.S. is still very conflicted over many issues that divide us (i.e. class, gender, religion, etc.) in our society, but how Race still seems to out pace all the other characteristics. The story invoked images of Katrina…And even utilized the first stanza of an Emily Dickinson poem to draw comparison:

I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us—don’t tell!
They ’d banish us, you know.

It’s interesting to me that in the days, weeks and years following numerous celebrations of freedom from many things that we still just keep gravitating toward the same issues of racism. We pretty all start out as nobodies and end up as nobodies, I guess it’s just the filler in between that defines who we used to be…Just a little something to digest and mull over.