Why do you touch so many lives, and hurt so many people?  If you can answer this question please reply? 

From a  
Non racist.

Some of you might not even appreciate me trying to write about something you think I know nothing about.  Since I am a white female, I have white Parents.  Maybe, I have been lucky because racism has never touched me personally, but it has touched those I love or have loved. 
 
 
 
 

I am tired of the 
race hate groups  
and hope that 
someday they  
all can be  
driven out of 
our country. 

We are all 
going to have  
to answer to  
the way we  
live our lives. 

If it's to God,  
or Allah, or whom 
ever.  But I believe 
that we all have 
to come to an 
judgment day. 

This is only my 
opinion. 
 

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I have many feelings about racism, and the racist.  I don't really know where to start to put these feelings down on this computer screen.  So let me give you a brief story about me and my history. 

I was born a daughter of an Army Officer in the mid sixties.  Both my mom and dad are from the Midwest, from towns that there were no black people.  They did have Indians living there.  My mom was born to a women in her forty's and a man in his 50's.  (Yeah, she wasn't planned).  Her father got hurt in a train accident.  He got hit by a train and survived.  So my grandmother had to feed, clothe and work to keep the family alive.  They say you are taught racism.  Well, my grandmother was a true racist.  (I have a picture of my grandmother holding my son, she's old and is dying, but it was like my final good-bye to her, ironic huh?)  My mom isn't.  She thought it was ugly and didn't want to raise her kids in the same manner.  I think it is because as she was growing up she was a type of outcast herself, she was an only child (her sister was 20 years older than her) from a family that lived across the railroad tracks, which in a town that size is straight up prejudice (to prejudge  someone just because of where they live).  The thing that got her through those early days was she is very very intelligent.  If you knew her IQ it would amaze you, like it does me.  She graduated at the top of her class and got to go to a business school.  Thank You God, for getting her out of that town.  

She met my dad, who is the kindest, and nicest man you'll ever meet.  Necessity made them get married.  In those days it was a big taboo thing to have to do.  He had to join the Army since they did help him through school.  He went to Officer Basic in Va, where they had me. 

I was raised in a normal environment.  There was lots of love.  We were taught to respect people, and given responsibility.  I think that it was my home training that causes me to say thank you when someone holds the door open for me.  And to respect someone's feelings.  I never once remember thinking that people were not equal.  I don't think it was ever an issue, until I started dating black men. 

I guess I could go on about the first black guy I had a crush on and I remember talking to my mom about it.  I never saw him as a black guy, but a nice looking boy who was a junior and played on the varsity basketball team.  I guess she had done a great job, by ending that racism that she had been taught.  My mom at that time didn't really tell me I couldn't like or date him. 

I think that they were more against my style of life then who I was living it with.  I would runaway for days at a time.  I had been caught stealing at the Shoppette. I was lying all the time. I was having sex way to early.  Their biggest fear was that I would get pregnant way before my time.  It came to past.  We dealt with it and went on. 

As I got older, I got into some really bad relationships.  The one guy that they did accept was a mixed boy that I dated about 18 months.  In fact he was my first true boyfriend that I actually spend quality time with. 

He beat me.  I started drinking even more. 

I remember her saying, if only you could find a lawyer or doctor, I don't care what color.  I do believe her when she says that.     

I got pregnant by my husband, who they had never meet.  It was more like a two way street, my husband was envious of the type of childhood I had and the relationship I had developed with my parents.  My mom hung up on me when I told her.  She only said I can't talk to you about this right now.  Needless to say they love their grandson.  My father even cried tears of joy the first time he laid eyes on him.  That's the type of unconditional love we need to have for our kids. 

Now you're probably wondering what this has to do with racism.  But it was written to show you that you can raise a child not to view people as black or white or red or yellow, but as equals. 

I remember the first time I heard a negative remark about interracial dating.  It actually made me mad.   I was in the fifth or sixth grade, and the kids from my church went to a skating party.  This really ugly white guy dressed up as the Cookie Monster asked me to couple skate.  He said you know what I can't stand?  To see a white girl with a black man.  This is way before I started dating black men.  It made an impression on me that I will never forget.  At the time we were living in Omaha of all places.  

Well, now that I have bored you with my life, let's talk about the real issue of racism.  I think a racist person has to be so insecure with themselves that they need to find something to make themselves feel better.  Thinking that you are better than a whole race is too extreme.  I know as a human being, I am very insecure with myself.  I have been known to prejudge someone by the way they look, or talk, or act.  I usually regret it after I get to know them.  (I never said skin color). 

Why does the media play such an important part in ours lives?  I blame the media for a big part in  why racism is still alive today.  They only show us what they want us to see.  I remember the Rodney King beating.  It was cruel.  I also remember watching a talk show dealing with the media and this incident in particular.  They showed videos on all types of police not acting as our protectors, but taking the law into their own hands and beating all types of people.  The media only played the Rodney King tape to upset the world.  When instead they should have made the real issue of police brutality.  Police can do alot of things before they have to pull out their weapons and physically beat someone.  I know I could get alot of replies  to that one. 

Now, to talk about the dragging of a man's body two miles down a country road.  Confessed racists.  That's the kind of things that we need to know as a country.  Hopefully, it will cause people to wake up and realize that this is not a problem of the 40's or 50's or 60's but a true problem of the 90's.  It isn't just going to go  away if we ignore it long enough.   

As a species, humans have come so far in so many areas, why are we still living in a world that has racism?  We seem to think more about the things that are going on around us.  It seems so basic to know that all were created equal. 

Do you think that when we go to stand before our Maker that He's going to let us in because of the color of our skin?  I tend to believe not.  I hope that He looks at our hearts and sees how much we love Him and all the creations that He made in His image.  If you think that only white or black people are going to go to heaven then you are a true sick and need to develop a better relationship with God.  I always wonder how a racist's life is spiritually? 

Will racism ever end?  Probably not.  Can it get better?  I think it can.  But it starts with the individual.  We first can take a more active part in raising our children.  Don't let the TV raise them, or their friends, because you never know what they are teaching them.  Don't let them hear you say negative things about people outside your race.  You have to set the example. 

I bet your wondering is this woman ever going to stop writing.  Probably not, as long as freedom of speech is around. 
 
When I was in college I had a "friend" that wanted to join the KKK.  She said she was tired of the "Black History Month" and the "Black Music Month" and not being able to have a group of people that celebrated the white anything month.  I tend to agree with her about not having a Norwegian month or a German month, etc.  But obviously there aren't enough months in the year.  The KKK is not that sort of group.  The Sons of Norway are.  Yes, there is such a group of old people eating lefse and telling jokes (not racial ones) and remembering the Old Country.  Not all gatherings of all white people are race hate rallies.  There is nothing wrong in being proud of who you are and where you come from.  It's when you begin to take it to an extreme. 

Another thing I am tired of is the separation of the races.  It still is here.  Yeah, we opened up the schools and some neighborhoods are more colorful.  But white people blame crime on blacks  and blacks blame drugs and guns in their lives on  white people.  Blacks are standing out on Black on Black crime.  Why can't we as a village fight drugs, gangs, crime, and guns together.  Stop blaming each other and stand as one.  We can't all go out and start being the police force of the world, but start taking a private inventory of our own houses.  Again this comes to raising our children.  The values that we show our children that we have, are the values they will be most familiar with when they become adults.   The value of human life...for example. 

I want you to stop and think.     Are you a person that gets mad when they see an interracial couple? Wish that your neighbor was the same color as you.  Do you want your child to go to an "all white school" or an "all black school?"  When you heard about that man that was dragged, did you cheer or become mad at the whole white race?  Or did you say a prayer and asked God to stop the madness.  Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?