Written by a white woman:

Our spiritual community was receiving some training in the practice of Council - each person listening and speaking from the heart. One of the exercises involved remembering a person in our childhood who was a strong spiritual influence. I immediately thought of Lena, a black woman who lived with our family for many years as our maid and cook. We lived in an all-white suburb of New York City, where there was (and probably still is) an unspoken and unwritten rule that you were never to sell your house to a Jew or a black person. However, you could employ one as a live-in servant in your home.And so I spoke affectionately of Lena, who was part Cherokee, divorced, and mother of a daughter who lived in New York City with relatives. Lena prayed unabashedly and sang hymns as she worked. She comforted me, my sister, and my mother whenever there was a family upset. She was a rock in a storm and I loved her fiercely. I knew she loved me as her "baby."

After sharing my memories of Lena I was shocked at the response of an African American woman in the group. Crying and shaking, she told me how disturbed and disappointed she was to hear what I had said. I had no idea why she was upset.

            Commentary to African American Vignette #1

The white woman continues:

"I asked her to please tell me. This is what she said: 'Although you clearly spoke about Lena with love and respect, you didn’t indicate in any way that you understood the conditions of her life which had made it necessary for her to work in a white family’s home as a servant, while her own daughter was farmed out to relatives.' "

"I had to admit that this part of the reality of Lena’s life was only dimly present in my consciousness. Even as an adult looking back on the situation, I had not fully comprehended or acknowledged the conditions of her life or the privilege of my own. This was a turning point for me. I thanked the woman for turning on a light in my conscious."

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