Racism is Hatred
No one is born a racist. It is a learned behavior. It is acquired through the conscious and unconscious lessons provided by parents, family, teachers, friends and the society we grow up in.
In researching my book, Jack in the Box, I came across the story of a black blues musician named Daryl Davis.
Growing up in the 1950s, Davis’ parents worked overseas in the foreign service. He and his family lived in different countries, moving every two years. His classmates were always extremely diverse, from Italy, Nigeria, Japan, Russia, and elsewhere. Their families also worked in the embassies of the country they were in at the time and had varied but similar past experiences of different places.
The year Davis turned 10, his family moved to a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. Like most kids at the time, he joined the Cub Scouts and became involved in local events. One day, while marching in a parade with his troop, a group of white kids and adults began throwing bottles, soda pop cans, rocks, and debris at his head and face. He thought these people really did not like the Scouts. What he didn’t realize at the time, until his Scout leader huddled over him, was he was the only Scout getting hit. Hearing their angry words, Davis became conscious he was the only black Scout in the parade. When he arrived home, his parents asked him about what happened, and that was the first time he learned about racism. His parents had to explain it to him. He had never heard of it before this incident.
Because of his experiences overseas, Davis was 15 years ahead of the narrow-minded racism found throughout 1950s America. By living abroad, he was exposed to a broad spectrum of people, languages, customs, and traditions that opened his mind and freed him from ignorance. Instead of seeing obstacles, he simply followed his interests, just like any kid would do. He hadn’t had to fight to join his Cub Scout troop; he just joined it. Presumably other kids of color could have, too, had they thought to apply. Because he hadn’t heard of racism and didn’t realize it was designed to keep him out of such groups, he hadn’t allowed it to limit his activities or opportunities.
In an attempt to understand this concept, Davis has spent the past 30 years befriending members of the Ku Klux Klan. “I could not get my head around the idea that someone who had never seen me, spoke to me, or knew anything about me could want to inflict pain on me just because the color of my skin!”
The sincerity of his quest led him to reveal just how misguided hate and ignorance can be, at the same time he uncovered a deeper sense of love and connection among human beings. What the Klansmen thought when Davis asked them why they hated him: “Initially, they feel that if you’re not white, you are inferior. [They believe] that black people have smaller brains, we’re incapable of higher achievement. I’ll give you an example of one. This guy was an Exalted Cyclops sitting in my car in my passenger seat. He made the statement, which I’d heard before, ‘Well we all know that all black people have within them a gene that makes them violent.’ I turned to him and I’m driving and I said, ‘Wait a minute. I’m as black as anybody you’ve ever seen. I have never done a carjacking or a drive by, how do you explain that?’ He didn't even pause to think about it. He said, ‘Your gene is latent. It hasn’t come out yet.’
“So how do you argue with somebody who is that far out in left field? I was dumbfounded. I’m just driving along. He's sitting over here all smug and secure, like ‘See you have no response?’ And I thought about it for a minute. Then I used his point of reference. I said, ‘Well, we all know that all white people have a gene within them that makes them a serial killer.’ He says, ‘What do you mean?’ And I said, ‘Well, name me three black serial killers.’ He thought about it — he could not do it. I said, ‘Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy. All whites.’ I said, ‘Son, you are a serial killer.’ He says, ‘Daryl, I’ve never killed anybody.’ I said, ‘Your gene is latent. It hasn’t come out yet.’ He goes, ‘Well, that’s stupid!’ I said, ‘Well, duh. Yes, but you know what, you’re right. What I said was stupid, but no more stupid than what you said to me.’ Then he got very, very quiet and changed the subject. Five months later, based on that conversation he left the Klan. His robe was the first robe I ever got.”
After forming a relationship with Davis, more than 45 Klan members have sent him their robes, T-shirts, and belt buckles after deciding to change their ideology and leave their klan groups. Davis is still friends with many of them and is even godfather to one of their children. Over the years, he has convinced 200 Klan members to give up their robes. “I didn’t convert anybody. They saw the light and converted themselves,” he said.
You cannot be a spiritual, loving person or consider yourself a person of faith and simultaneously be a racist. If we rationalize and tolerate any form of racism, especially through our religion, we are basically labeling God a racist! If you are confused and think there is no conflict between these positions (faith and racism), you would not be the first. But you would be a hypocrite, no matter what you believe.
And though it’s constitutionally illegal to discriminate, how long is it going to take before we accept and respect people of all colors, creeds, and nationalities as equal and stop discriminating? It has been nearly 400 years to this day, and we are still dealing with the issue of racism in this country. A sad fact, but true.
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall said, “When you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on.”