Since we're opening a new round of discussion of race relations in this country, perhaps it's worth it to reiterate that horrendous crimes - torture, murder, extortion, rape, and other outright racist acts - were perpetrated by white folks in the past century in this nation. Many white folks alive today were either present, witnessed, heard about, or read news reports about these events and those white folks are now grandparents, great-grandparents, and even great-great-grandparents.
And it's time for these grown white folks to own up to their role in how we got to this point.
Grown white folks, please take your progeny aside and tell them how you witnessed fire hoses emptied onto black folk, young and old. Then tell them about the church bombings. Tell them about the poll taxes and the literacy tests. Tell them how folks really treated Jackie Robinson in 1947. Tell them of the reactions of some of your friends and relatives upon hearing the news of Dr. King's assassination. Or tell them about the family who was forced out of the neighborhood or the exclusive covenants that never allowed them to enter in the first place. Maybe you threw a brick at a school bus during the integration of your city's schools. Tell them why you did it.
Yes, tell them about your role in allowing all of these atrocities to occur. Tell them that because you sat silently by or joined in and personally participated, misery and havoc reigned upon our nation for millions upon millions of our most precious resource: our own people.
Most importantly, tell those grandchildren of yours how you evolved, came to see these actions as wrong and and then tell them why. Tell them of the weight you carried by harboring all you witnessed in your lifetime within you all these years. Tell them how our society has changed but it still has a long way to go. Let them know that you contributed to the explicit and covert racism of the time through your own ugly racist thoughts or by the commission of such acts or by simply doing nothing.
Finally, tell them how you see now that it was all wrong and that you now see we are a better country when we allow all of our citizens to contribute their talents and aspirations.
Go, now, tell them everything.