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Racism

By Carolyn Lonergan of Allbiz4me

I have recently read several articles on racism and seen many more on television. The hatred of a person's race is as old as time itself, almost. Pharoah hated the Israelites because they were farmers and sheep herders! And on and on until today. It is unfortunate because there truly is only one race, the HUMAN RACE. We all have a lot to learn from one another and could be helping each other instead of destroying each other.

The children of the world deserve better. We as adults should be setting an example of how to treat each other instead of trying to find ways to hate one another. These children, like it or not, are going to be the leaders of the world. We will know soon enough if they have learned hatred because they will exact hatred on others without a second thought.

I grew up during a time of racial unrest and saw, living in Georgia, the way we treated each other first hand. It made me sick then and still makes me sick today. I tried as a middle school age child to stand up for those who were being atttacked and was attacked myself, but I know those people will have to answer to a higher power for the life of hatred that they lived.

Please take the time during this the "Season of Peace" to really look deep within yourselves and question your reactions to others. Did you react badly because of their race or because you were just having a bad day? It does make a difference. Do you listen to others tell jokes about race? I don't and don't have a problem telling them not to talk that way around me.

We are only on this earth for a short time, why not make it a better place? It only takes one person to make a difference and I hope you will join me.

Have a blessed holiday season, I will be praying for all of you.

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Ms. Carolyn M. Lonergan
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At age 73 I realize how many days have passed, in this short time that we have.You are right and we must be the best that we can be each day. Thank you for your nice thoughts.
Frederick

frederick Dec 12, 2009 09:43

Mother was animated about protecting four of her six children from racism. My elder siblings were stuck in Georgia because her mother did not want her to take them to Pennsylvania (PA), after becoming a widow. Mom's first husband died in a car accident while on leave from the military in the early 50s.

I am the eldest in Mom's second marraige, she met my father in PA and followed him to Ohio. They separated before my 11th birthday. Mom moved back to Georgia in the mid 60s. I remember the culture shock. The four of us grew up, generally isolated from the general community because Mom did not want us exposed to the effects of southern racism.

Mom was very selective as to the people we associated with, church folks, school teachers and community organizations.

My youngest sibling is over 40 and my eldest is in her late 50s. The only sibling that experienced hostile racism is my brother; he's a year and 9 month younger than myself, and that was when he joined the military in the early 80s. I was the first family member to join the military and all three younger siblings followed.

The racism my brother was subjected to included a plane ride and was threatened to be pushed out. His superiors turned on him, immediately after awarding him "Outstanding Soilder" ~ he was an Airborne Ranger at Fort Bragg.

To date he and his wife is doing well and proud of their only daughter who is persuing a medical career.

Thank you for sharing this with me. My father taught me to treat everyone equally and going into the legal field I saw others that were not treated fairly. I just pray that one day we will all be able to look past the color of a person's skin and love each other. May God bless you and yours throughout the holiday season and in the New Year.

I like your positive thoughts during this season. I grew up in a family where a fair amount of racism was evident. Even as a small child I knew it was, well, simply horrible. Even then it was almost impossible for me to listen to some of the hateful stuff that was said. Even if nothing else, you would think people would wake up and realize that such hateful thoughts and actions have a terribly destructive influence on themselves.

I just pray that one day people will look at each other with love instead of hatred and we will finally have peace among us. Thank you for your comment.

Thank you for expressing this so well. I remember being raised in the 1950s -- Yankee racism had its own bitter style of shutting out anyone who wasn't white. I grew up so isolated that I never saw anyone who wasn't from my ethnic background or their church. Thankfully the television brought me the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. and I started to see how narrow and fragile that apartheid-world was, to have hope of a richer, more diverse country.

I think back to some of the things people said at cocktail parties then, much of which would be illegal harassment now. The idiocy of people saying that someone who wanted to vote was demanding "special privileges."

It's possible to unlearn it. To get past the reflexive avoidance and assumptions about people from different backgrounds. "Race" is a spurious category anyway, another word for ethnic -- it only makes sense to racists. There is no biological basis for it at all -- yet even today when we have a "mutt" President that I'm so proud of, so happy with, I hear people go on about this tripe as if it were science.

One of the uglier things about it is the way that people wind up shunted into different groups on the basis of their ancestry -- when as individuals that may not be who they are. People want to oversimplify life, find ways to instantly peg any stranger as ally or rival, there's some of the roots of racism. When I learned to look at each human being I met as an individual, life became a lot richer and I found many more good friends.

Thank you so much for your comment. I hope to see the end of "racism" in my lifetime. It may not happen but I can still hope that the ignorance of a few will not stop the rest of us from caring about each other as individuals.

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