Lawrence Hill on the power of blood – Life – Macleans.ca

And for a change of pace, and a more profound look at some of the issues around identity, a wonderful excerpt from Lawrence Hill from his Massey Lecture, Blood: The Stuff of Life, to be published shortly (his Book of Negroes is wonderful, and I will have to add this one to my reading list).

Well worth reading. My favourite quotes:

If we were not so wedded to the arcane notions of blood, we would be freer to celebrate our various, complex and divergent identities relating to family and notions of talent and ability, citizenship and race. We would be more whole, self-accepting people, and less judgmental of others. In this day and age, who among us is not all mixed up?

…. Let’s drop the idea of what you are not allowed to be, or to do, because of who you are, but encourage each other to look for the good in our blood, and in our ancestry. We should let hatred and divisiveness spill from us as if it were bad blood, and search for more genuine and caring ways to imagine human identity and human relations.

Lawrence Hill on the power of blood – Life – Macleans.ca.