Stamp Out Racism

One of the comments made on the U.S. news today is that we have to stamp out racism. The person went on to say that we must all look on each other as equals. As long as we have a human brain this will never happen because we judge people constantly for a variety of reasons.

There is not an atom in my body that believes a person of another race or ethnicity is inferior to me but I am wary of any stranger until I can see for myself that they are trustworthy. It is imperative that we use all of our senses when judging a stranger and that includes considering their skin color because race and ethnicity have helped form their identity.

Years ago my husband and I were at a convention in Detroit, Michigan and became disoriented while driving to one of the functions. Our passengers happened to be 3 white, middle aged southern men. My husband spotted a gas station where he decided to stop and ask directions (a rare, rare moment) and quickly pulled in and stopped the car. There were dozens of young, black men hanging out at this gas station and our passengers had a rip roaring fit at what they considered a suicide stop. Dennis ignored them and walked up to a group of the young men and asked for his directions, was politely given them, and then returned to the car. By then our passengers had nearly had heart attacks.

He actually did the same thing one late evening when we, with our teen daughters, were travelling either to or from Florida. This time the gas station parking lot was filled with a large group of white youth. They weren't as nice. I never did hear what they said to him but they did throw beer bottles at our car as we drove away and I'm positive they jumped in their cars and chased us for a distance. It was pretty frightening. It was probably the only time that I didn't criticize my husband's driving speed.

I do agree that we must work at educating our children that all people are created equal but we must also be aware that every aspect of a person must be taken into account before complete acceptance. You don't climb into the lion's cage just because they have as much right on this earth as you do. We may be created equal but some critters grow up bad.

Racism actually means judging a person only on their race and nothing else. It means placing that person in a demeaning or threatening position based on their race alone. This is sheer stupidity on the racist's part whether they're black, white, or purple. There is so much more to us than the color of our skin.

Racists have grown to become figures of ridicule because of the absurdity of their comments or actions. The news program I watched this morning was about some government leaders in Tennessee who had sent racially insulting e-mails about the president of their country, Barach Obama. These people came off as uneducated backwoods hillbillies and made you wonder how they'd ever been elected to a position of power.

Again, racism is wrong but it makes sense to partially consider race when judging someone you've just met because it's part of their personality. Just make sure you're judging the whole package.