I have heard the saying, "People fear what they don't understand." Well I don't understand racism, but I don't fear it, I just simply hate it. I have no idea what would. Well yes I do, ignorance.
All my life, I have strived to live for myself and me only, to be unconcerned with other people's opinions of me and I have accomplished exactly that. I live like I want, eat what I please, dress in my own unique way and live my life answering to no mortal as to what is wrong or right for me.
I live in a higher middle-class town where growing up you are encountered with much racism. My grandparents were my largest influence in that instance. My grandparents always told me to never date a black man. They told me not to be friends with black people. They told me that my "peers" and my "society" wouldn't approve.
I grew up being uncomfortable when I was sitting next to someone with dark skin in school or in church. I occasionaly would move myself to another spot. All because of the emotional damage my grandparents had thrust at me.
I moved to a small neighborhood in June. Directly across the street from me live a very kind African American family. Two men raising 3 teenage boys. (I sure couldn't do it.) I am always respected by them.
The other day I went out and bought two Obama signs and put them up in my yard. I was proud of them. I had always been too busy to go out and pick one up, but when I got mine, I was ecstatic. I noticed that the family across the street had two Obama signs as well. As one of the older men was leaving his driveway he leaned his head out the window and called "Good choices!" to me as he left.
This morning I woke up, and to my dismay found both older men outside of their house near tears staring down at what used to be their Obama signs. Now, it wasn't that the signs were burned per se, it was the sign that was put up in place of their old ones that had everyone disgusted. A big black sign with white letters written on it clearly stated, "N*****s for a n****r president. Go back to where your sleazy ancestors came from."
I realized this morning, that what is wrong for me is to mindlessly stand around waiting for someone else to take action. Standing like a deer in headlights waiting for someone else to go up to them and say something so I could follow behind. What is wrong for me, is that there is racism in this world. It isn't as obvious as lines being drawn in busses, or separate water fountains. However, it is so much worse, and so much more painful.
I'm tired of watching while good people get hurt. This morning, I made a big step. I wasn't the follower. I was the leader. Instead of climbing in my car and continuing on through my day, I walked across my street and opened my arms for both of them. I let them cry on my shoulders. I didn't, however, tell them it was okay. All three of us knew that this was a situation where saying, "It's okay." just wouldn't cut it.
In 1950's America, the equality of man envisioned by the Declaration of Independence was far from a reality. People of color — blacks, Hispanics, Asians — were discriminated against in many ways, both overt and covert. The 1950's were a turbulent time in America, when racial barriers began to come down due to Supreme Court decisions, like Brown v. Board of Education; and due to an increase in the activism of blacks, fighting for equal rights.
Martin Luther King, Jr., a Baptist minister, was a driving force in the push for racial equality in the 1950's and the 1960's. In 1963, King and his staff focused on Birmingham, Alabama. They marched and protested non-violently, raising the ire of local officials who sicced water cannon and police dogs on the marchers, whose ranks included teenagers and children. The bad publicity and break-down of business forced the white leaders of Birmingham to concede to some anti-segregation demands.
Thrust into the national spotlight in Birmingham, where he was arrested and jailed, King organized a massive march on Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he evoked the name of Lincoln in his "I Have a Dream" speech, which is credited with mobilizing supporters of desegregation and prompted the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The next year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The following is the an exert from the exact text of the spoken speech.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Everything we need lies in Barack Obama's hands. No, not because he is black, but because he cares. He cares more about clothes, he cares more about using excuses to cover up obvious and horrible mistakes. Barack Obama cares about what happens to us. All of us. Not just those of his race, not just those of other races, but ALL of us.
The Republican party is now resting on race. Obama is black, and they are running with that. Sadly for them, it's like running with scissors. I know when he is elected the racism might not be lessened overnight. I know it might never go away.
I know it is bad to hold anger in your heart. But, even when Obama is elected President, and changes are being made, letting go of this anger and disgust I hold in my heart towards whoever did that to those men and anyone else who has done that will be very hard.