Editorial January 12, 1987 Issue

Of shoofly pie and pizza ... and man's unprejudiced perfection

Carolyn B. Swan

It is encouraging to hear of someone who has been faced with discrimination and yet has lived to smile at the shortsightedness of the discriminators. Lee Iacocca recalls in his autobiography an occasion when as a youngster he was ridiculed by other kids in eastern Pennsylvania because he enjoyed pizza pie, a dish which was then virtually unknown in this country but which his mother excelled in preparing because of her old-country roots. Writes Mr. Iacocca, "Those guys grew up on shoofly pie, but I never once laughed at them for eating molasses pie for breakfast. ... You don't see shoofly pie huts all over America today. But," he adds, "to think that someday you'll be a trendsetter is no comfort for a nine-year-old kid." Iacocca: An Autobiography (New York: Bantam Books, Inc., 1984), p. 14 .

There is little comic relief for anyone who suffers from prejudice. And when whole races suffer, progress may seem minute and moments of comfort seldom. On the other hand, heroism may become practically commonplace. A few months ago, in Soweto, a woman was asked if she was in despair because her husband and son had been imprisoned when they openly opposed discriminatory oppression. She answered, "That is what we live for, to struggle for freedom. ... I'm happy that my children understand why we are struggling." The New York Times, July 2, 1986.

There are millions of people around the globe in such straits. The attainment of common human rights seems so remote to them that their struggle to achieve these rights supplies their only immediate sense of purpose and hope. Such a piteous condition should inspire us to pray daily for the liberation of mankind from discrimination, prejudice, and bigotry, and also from the basic misconceptions that underlie and perpetuate these errors. Heroics alone, however stirring, will not accomplish the task, for victory involves much more than mere human vindication, sweet as that might seem. Christian discipleship is the demand of today. Christian discipleship is the way of salvation from racism and cultural prejudice because it is the way of salvation from materiality

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January 12, 1987
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