No Trivial Pride when Racism, Bigotry, and Hatred Rear Their Ugly Heads
August 15, 2017 – Well, heck. I saw a Facebook post about how well William and Mary scored in the latest Princeton Review – garnering a #5 for Happiest Students and #5 for Their Students Love These Colleges (congrats to VT for #1 on that one!). So I built a little FB entry crowing about my school and my friends’ schools that did well on these lists. And deleted my prideful entry less than 24 hours later. I did so because one of our “local” schools happened to NOT show up on either one of those Top 20 lists and under the current circumstances now was not the time to be self-serving and cocky. They need our support. I felt horrible that a bunch of small-minded, fearful, ignorant, cowards showed up in Charlottesville (the home of UVA) and displayed open, murderous hatred, the likes of which we haven’t seen in public in many years (but seems to be okay with some folks these days). Well, it’s not only not okay with me but it’s repugnant, shameful, and a little embarrassing – it’s easy to be white, isn’t it? Is it bad to say that?
Anyway, I took down my boast about W&M. Maybe next week.
Americans are allowed to have and voice their opinions – but I can’t imagine what the WWII vets are feeling right now who fought in Europe against Nazis. In Charlottesville there were clueless bums espousing racism and anti-semitism only seven decades later.
It occurs to me that saying, “Hello” and shaking hands with someone who doesn’t look like you can be really helpful in teaching sad, sheltered morons that skin color isn’t the measure of a person, no matter what that skin color might be, but to paraphrase MLK Jr, the measure of a person is the content of their character. I’m silly and naive that all it takes is a greeting and handshake, but I’m afraid some of these haters don’t even know what they’re hating. I go back to my words “ignorant and fearful.” It’s easy to be afraid of new things and things that we don’t understand. But master the fear! It should never come to hate.
I, myself, am torn about Confederate statues. Condoleeza Rice in May 2017 said, “When you start wiping out your history, sanitizing your history to make you feel better, it’s a bad thing,” Rice said. “I’m a firm believer in ‘keep your history before you.’ And so I don’t actually want to rename things that were named for slave owners. I want us to have to look at the names and recognize what they did, and be able to tell our kids what they did and for them to have a sense of their own history.”
The Civil War is the deadliest war in American history. And the impact of the Civil War cannot be underestimated. I was called a “Yankee” by my southern relatives for many years and so badly wanted to be a southerner. How do we balance pride in southern culture with respect for those who are sensitive to what looks like a celebration of slavery and racism? How do we achieve that balance without insisting that we erase Civil War history lessons? I want to celebrate the “southern culture” NOT of slave-owning, indenture and servitude but of sweltering climate, an agriculture-based economy, genteel courtesy, and food and drink that is unequaled!
I guess today’s post is really just a sad rant.
