I was thrown aback and — yes, I’ll admit it — very afraid when I read this report about the sharp rise of racist incidents following Barack Obama’s White House victory.
See how this strikes you: a bus full of young schoolchildren chanting “Assassinate Obama”; black figures hanging on nooses from trees; people being beat up on the street for being black. These are all things that sound like a page from old American history, history that this country has fought hard to forget. The election of the country’s first black president has reignited the shameful flame of racism that has festered in this nation for years, and unfortunately it has come back stronger than ever.As a Hispanic woman, I have experienced first-hand the pain and humilliation that comes with racial hatred. I have lost “friends” who thought that I was white until they heard me speak Spanish, and I have met people that have said the most heinous things about people of other races and religions. It is so sad that, after so many years of that hateful, shameful past, something that was supposed to bring everyone together seems to simultaneously tear them apart.
In the article from Yahoo, a 46 year-old white man says something about how the real change would come if all of the members of Obama’s church were deported. This is an adult spewing venom. How unfortunate; no wonder there are kids running around in their schools chanting death and wishing for hate. Racism in children starts at the home. What are these parents brewing in these children? Are there parents not seeing what damage they are causing to their own offspring by teaching them a message of hatred instead of tolerance?
And what of the adults that are engaging in these horrible crimes? They need to be held accountable for their actions. There is a difference between freedom of speech and hate crimes. What a terrible shame, that there are people out there that haven’t understood the terrible heartache and pain that racism causes and that they are using the freedoms that our country provides to spew their ignorance on their fellow citizens.
For a nation to experience true change and move forward, there needs to be unity. Dissention will only cause the gap between us and that change to grow further and further apart.
{ 0 comments… add one now }