If you grow up in America it is hard not to incorporate some racist attitudes into your being. Sadly, it is just part of the DNA of an American. When I could just barely read I remember seeing signs that read, “Whites Only”, and being perplexed by it. While I could read, I had not assimilated the cultural norm that some people are better than others based solely on the color of their skin. I believe that as a nation we have been working very hard to move away from this paradigm. I believe Dr. King’s dream will be fully actualized someday.
Prejudice and bigotry is something I have thought about a bit over the last few years for a couple personal reasons. One being that when I lived in Jackson, Mississippi I became good friends with a black man a few years older than myself. We remain the best of friends to this day despite the change in my geographical location. He grew up in an area of town not too far from the street now named Medgar Evers Blvd. He has told me stories of the Civil Rights era in that town that left me less than proud to be white. When we first started hanging around together we had a series of discussions about race. It is just something that has to happen in this society in a “mixed” relationship.
The other reason is that a few years ago I started dating a Jewish woman, and eventually married her. Continue reading “I Saw Racism Received Like a Body Blow Today”