An Observation

As part of our anniversary weekend extravaganza, Jordan and I went to see a play at the Delaware Theatre company last night called 10 Months: The Wilmington Voices Project. The play was about Wilmington, DE and it answered a lot of questions that we have about the city. The topic of the play centered around Wilmington’s history of racial segregation and the 10 months of National Guard occupancy following the 1968 riots.

One of the unspoken insights occurred with the recitation of the Lenape Indian creation myth. The myth goes as follows:

‘When god created the world he made humans out of clay and he baked them in an oven. The first human he created was not cooked long enough and it came out pale. God threw it down and said “this is not right”. This human became the white race. The second human god made spent too much time in the oven and came out too dark. Again, he threw it down and said “it is still not right”. This human became the African race. On the third attempt the human was cooked just right and god held it up and was pleased. This was the perfect human. This human became the Lenape Indian.’

Picture this myth being told to a predominantly middle aged white audience. The story of the first human produced a chuckle, the second story a stone cold silence, and the third a timid laugh.

But, of course, there were no Lenape Indians in the audience to validate the authenticity of this myth.