In the 1994 film: Forrest Gump, the lead character Forrest Gump (played by Tom Hanks) says: “My momma always said life was like a box of chocolate. You never know what you’re going to get.” Well, that may very well be true, but have you ever thought about the fact that the issues of race and skin color are like a bag of M & M’s?

I grew up, eating M & M’s and even today, I will occasionally indulge myself with a small bag. Now, the interesting thing about M & M’s is that they come in all different colors and two main types. You can get the ones with peanuts on the inside (my favorite) or the ones that are just chocolate on the inside. But whether they are just plain chocolate or peanuts, they come with a candy coating of reds, blues, greens, yellows, and other different colors. But here is the real interesting thing about M & M’s: No matter what color they are on the outside, they are all the same on the inside! In fact, even with the different coloring of the outside, they all taste the same! You can’t taste the difference between the reds and the blues or the greens and the browns! In fact, you could have a bag of M & M’s, all the same color and if you were blind-folded, you couldn’t taste the difference between that bag and a bag with assorted colors! Why? Because there is no difference! All M & M’s are exactly the same! The chocolate on the inside taste exactly the same and the candy-coating on the outside taste exactly the same! The only difference in M & M’s is the color on the outside, which, as far as taste, makes no difference at all!

Well, differences between the various races of people are like the differences between the M & M’s! We come in various different colors on the outside, but we all are exactly the same on the inside! We live in an age of advance medical technology. Organ transplants occur on a daily basis! Medical technology has demonstrated, too many times to deny that there is no structural or any other type of difference between the heart of a Black person and the heart of a White, Latino, Asian or person of any other ethnic group! All of our internal organs are the same! All of our blood-types are the same! The only difference is the color of our skin, the texture of our hair, the slant of our eyes, the structure of our cheek-bones, and some other minute details that really don’t matter.

So, what’s the big deal? Why is race and skin-color such an issue? When we boil it down to the essence and peel away all of the artificial excuses and fallacies, the real issue is fear. As humans, we naturally tend to fear what we perceive to be different and is unknown to us. But, the fear can be alleviated by knowledge.

When it is all said and done, we all are just like a bag of M & M’s! We have different coloring on the outside, but we are exactly the same on the inside! We have different skin-coloring, but we all have red blood! Our internal organs are the exactly the same! That’s why doctors can transplant the heart or lungs of a Black person into a White person or the liver and kidneys of a White person into a Black person! We are all the same physically, mentally and spiritually! When we all are ready to acknowledge that, the racial issues in this country will dissipate to a great degree. Most of the racial problems in America today are fueled by ignorance and fear. There is a connection between the two; ignorance breeds fear and fear impedes the acquisition of the knowledge which would eliminate the fear.

There is also a lot of historical baggage that we must sort out! But that’s another post for another day! I just wanted us, for this post, to look at a bag of M & M’s and learn from them! Can you imagine what it would be like to go to the store and all the M & M’s were bagged according to their colors? All the greens in one bag, all the reds in one bag and all the yellows in one bag. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t like that! I like all those different colors bunch together in one bag! I know it’s just psychological because, like I said earlier, they all taste the same! Even in the candy coating on the outside, there is no difference in the taste between the red coating and the yellow coating! But it’s just more pleasing to the eyes to have that variety of colors! A bag of all green M & M’s or all red M & M’s would be a boring bag! Perhaps that is what our Creator was thinking when the various races and ethnic groups were created. Variety is the spice of life! Just like a bag of all red M & M’s or all green M & M’s, life would be boring and dull if we all were exactly the same on the outside!