As others have said, there are a bunch of threads about this on the site here. It has been discussed a lot. Not saying a new one isn't worthwhile, but you might be surprised to find that a pretty massive majority of folks who frequent this site are pretty strongly for strong relations, ending divides and so on and so forth. So you're sort of preaching to the choir, in a way.
Most of us younger fellas (lets say under 40) grew up in a world where color of skin is meaningless. Lots of us who are Masons, whether PHA or "mainstream" (hate that term but it is what it is), served in the military - and anyone who has done that has learned that race is just not a barrier to brotherhood in any way. The whole issue is so yesterday.
But right, you look at group photos of PHA lodges - almost entirely African American folks. Look at "mainstream" lodges photos, almost entirely Anglo American folks. Just is what it is.
How to change it? What to do?
First thing to recognize is that we have five main living generations in the world right now:
1. The GI Generation - 90+ or so right now, served in WWII or were of the right age to
2. The "Silent Generation" (the term was coined by a writer, not me)....about half the size of the generation before. Lots of em served in Korea or were the right age. Around 70-85 or so right now.
3. The Boomers. About twice the size of the previous generation. 55-70 or so. Vietnam vets and so forth.
4. Gen X. 35-50ish. Half the size of the previous generation. Atari 2600, Reagan as a kiddo, etc. No major wars, latch key kids and whatnot. No Internet as a kid, but were early adopters.
5. Gen Y. 20-35 or so. Twice the size of Gen X. Grew up with the 'net. Lots of em who have made their way into the Fraternity are vets of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now, the first one on the list are dying off. Just is what it is. They are rare birds.
The second one will over the next couple of decades. Right now though they are, in lodges all over the world, still very, very influential. They were the elder adults during the time of the civil rights movement - lots of times, the conservatives. They are passing the torch over the next 15 years to younger men.
The third one never really joined the Fraternity in anywhere near the numbers that the preceding generations did. A lot of them have joined in the last decade or so. Quite a number of them now, but and will be more as they are retiring - but a load of em are just as new to the craft as Gen X and Y are. They lived through the Woodstock years as kids. Lots of them are conservative, sure - because thats what happens when you're 401k is starting to matter a lot, and Masonry attracts some conservative sorts of folks. But they are a lot more interested in diversity as a whole than the two preceding generations because they admired Martin Luther King Jr., the Kennedys and what have you, no matter what their skin color is.
Now we come to Gen X. I imagine thats the majority of members here. Lots of us are in progressive lines of our lodges. We grew up knowing only we could prevent forest fires and in diverse classrooms. We're joining the fraternity at about the same rate the boomers are, lots of times because we are just not all that thrilled as a whole about being deacons in our church, but we want to be involved in the community and so on. We're generally tech saavy, more so than the preceding generations. And we don't dig racism, at all.
Gen Y are the younger folks who we see knocking on our door, including here. College students and whatnot. Folks returning from the wars overseas. Racism is inexplicable to them, entirely so. They haven't began joining the fraternity en masse yet. But, like the boomers, there is a whole lot of em. And they are more "joiners" than the boomers were - and so it is likely they will come to us in numbers a whole lot sooner than the boomers did.
Now I ramble about all of this to sort of point out that gravity is going to work in our favor. We who are Boomers and Gen X have a responsibility to pave the way for Gen Y. In a lot of situations, to pick our battles. We aren't going to change the minds of the GI Generation or the Silent Generation, not really. Not in most cases, anyway. What we have to do is lay the groundwork for change. And in a lot of cases, recognize that Gen X is going to be in leadership positions a lot sooner than the Boomers were, on the whole - simply because we are joining in numbers similar to them despite their much larger size.
In Texas, we need visitation between PHA and the Grand Lodge of Texas. Its the next step. As more of us become Past Masters, in both jurisdictions, we'll have the vote and the platform to speak out on that issue.
And then we need to get off our asses and visit each others lodges. Build real friendships and lines of communication.
And take it from there.
The future is bright.