Rascism In America
Perhaps one of the most volatile subjects in the 20th Century, it appears as if Racism is not dead and is making its comeback in the 21st Century: A recent news article noted that a “white man” threatened to “shoot any and all black persons” who attended a meeting at an old church in Bangor, Maine, “the whitest state”.
Note the quotation marks above, those are mine that I added as a direct quote of what the article states. Isn’t that sad? No, not the threat; the fact that The New York Times took the time to point out that Maine is ”the whitest state”. Turns out, the threat was issued by an elderly “white man” in the neighboring city of Augusta who consequentially was and is being treated in the VA hospital there.
Thomas Harnett, the assistant attorney general for civil rights education and enforcement stated that ”his office received 250 to 300 reports of bias incidents every year from around the state, most of them racially motivated.”
I certainly do not wish to trivialize the suffering of individuals in America who are suffering from racial-biased discrimination in the form of hate crimes, however I do want to stop for a moment and ask, “When are we going to grow up?”
I actually started thinking about writing this article on Christmas Day when my wife and I attended Mass. I was looking around the sanctuary and noted that there were only two black families in attendance, while my wife and I constituted the only interracial couple I have ever seen there in nearly two years. (Perhaps I should take this moment to point out that my wife is from Africa and has only been here in the States for seven years or so.) Being sensitive to the stares and off-handed comments of elderly people in public places I was perhaps expecting a few stares when my wife and I arrived and took our usual places. To my surprise, no one seemed to give us a second glance, which immediately caught my attention. I realized suddenly that I was probably the only person in the vicinity thinking prejudicial thoughts. Me: “a white man” married to “a black woman” in America, who would have thought that I was actually prejudiced? Thinking back, I realized that I have come to expect glares from “black men” and mutterings from ”old white people” every time I and my wife go shopping or go out to eat at a restaurant.
If that isn’t prejudicial thinking, I challenge you to tell me what is! Or better yet, I challenge you to look deep into yourselves the next time you are shopping or driving down the road in your hometown. If you look around you and see ”white people” and ”black people”, then you are prejudiced and as long as this mentality is in effect our nation will suffer from “racially motivated incidents”.
So, if you want to help end Rascism in America, simply take this pledge with me: “From this point forward, when I look at a man I will not see a black man, rather I will see a man. When I see a white man, I will see a man, not a potential source of hatred. When I expect prejudice, I will purge the thoughts from my soul and renew myself, secure in the knowledge that I am making a difference.”
Because that’s where it really starts. Not at some obscure NAACP meeting, not in ”racially-sensitive” learning material in public schools, and certainly not in today’s media. No, if we want to stop racism, we can stop it in ourselves and teach our children to be different. That’s where it ends, not with a bang but with a whimper.
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