Can't Ignore "Casual" Bigotry
Dear editor:
No matter how much race relations have improved in this country in the last fifty to sixty years, bigotry never really goes away.
The other night my wife and I joined friends for dinner at a very nice restaurant. This was a diverse group originally from different parts of the country, both North and South, all college educated, financially comfortable and with different religious faiths.
Somehow the conversation turned to the controversy of the past in the use of the Confederate Battle Flag as a part of the Georgia State Flag (which was changed in 2003) and the Stars and Bars atop the South Carolina capitol (which was also done away with.) It was explained to me that the flags were not an insult to African-Americans but rather just a recognition and reminder of the past and the proud heritage that went with it. I told my friend that he could make that statement because he was white and that if he were black it would instead be a reminder of slavery, degradation, death, back-breaking work, destruction of the family unit and being counted as 2/5 of a human being for census purposes. It’s all a matter of which side of the fence you are on.
Then another friend made the statement “No matter how much we do for them, they always want more.” THEY? There it was out in the open, the dreaded pronoun of bigotry: THEY. “After all,” I was told, “look how much we have done for them.” How much we have done for them? Oh yes. We let them vote, we let them go to our white schools, we let them eat in our white restaurants, we let them shop in our white stores, we let them ride in our white buses, and we even let them fight and die in our wars. How white of us.
How can educated, comfortable, religious people think like this? Don’t they realize what they are perpetuating? These aren’t Nazi Skin Head out and out bigots, but rather basically good people who foolishly feel the need to be better than their fellow man and for no personal reason or experience spout their hatred when they feel safe to do so. And we let them?
In the 1947 movie Gentlemen’s Agreement there is a line that speaks directly to this problem. It goes ”It isn’t the out and out bigots that worry us, but rather the good people that let them get away with it.” That was true in 1947 and is true today. We have to stand up and call down those that make snide remarks such as this and let them know that the world says they are wrong. If you just sit there hating what is being said and are afraid to speak up and ruin an evening of friendship, you are part of the problem and just as responsible for the bigotry. No matter how small the remark you have to stand up and call it for what it is….hatred.
No matter how much race relations have improved in this country in the last fifty to sixty years, bigotry never really goes away.
The other night my wife and I joined friends for dinner at a very nice restaurant. This was a diverse group originally from different parts of the country, both North and South, all college educated, financially comfortable and with different religious faiths.
Somehow the conversation turned to the controversy of the past in the use of the Confederate Battle Flag as a part of the Georgia State Flag (which was changed in 2003) and the Stars and Bars atop the South Carolina capitol (which was also done away with.) It was explained to me that the flags were not an insult to African-Americans but rather just a recognition and reminder of the past and the proud heritage that went with it. I told my friend that he could make that statement because he was white and that if he were black it would instead be a reminder of slavery, degradation, death, back-breaking work, destruction of the family unit and being counted as 2/5 of a human being for census purposes. It’s all a matter of which side of the fence you are on.
Then another friend made the statement “No matter how much we do for them, they always want more.” THEY? There it was out in the open, the dreaded pronoun of bigotry: THEY. “After all,” I was told, “look how much we have done for them.” How much we have done for them? Oh yes. We let them vote, we let them go to our white schools, we let them eat in our white restaurants, we let them shop in our white stores, we let them ride in our white buses, and we even let them fight and die in our wars. How white of us.
How can educated, comfortable, religious people think like this? Don’t they realize what they are perpetuating? These aren’t Nazi Skin Head out and out bigots, but rather basically good people who foolishly feel the need to be better than their fellow man and for no personal reason or experience spout their hatred when they feel safe to do so. And we let them?
In the 1947 movie Gentlemen’s Agreement there is a line that speaks directly to this problem. It goes ”It isn’t the out and out bigots that worry us, but rather the good people that let them get away with it.” That was true in 1947 and is true today. We have to stand up and call down those that make snide remarks such as this and let them know that the world says they are wrong. If you just sit there hating what is being said and are afraid to speak up and ruin an evening of friendship, you are part of the problem and just as responsible for the bigotry. No matter how small the remark you have to stand up and call it for what it is….hatred.
posted by Sam Schoolsky | 4:48 PM
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