Racism is Flat Out Wrong

It was the early 1970s and the Civil Rights Movement had just created great change for the better in our country. My parents took us on a vacation to Florida in '74, which, for a fisherman like me, was a dream come true. Entire days were spent fishing in the Golf of Mexico. There was no dead zone in those days. It took less than a minute to catch a fish off the pier. One after the other.


My best friend Ronnie and I had a pocket book on Florida fish because these fish were so strange to us Michiganders, we didn't know which ones were good to eat and which weren't. In those days, you could eat the fish you caught without worry of liver failure.

By the time the vacation was done, my tan was darker than dark! I was brown, deep, deep brown. The darkest tan I'd every gotten. I knew I had the best tan. After all, few if any of my class mates had gone to a sunny state like Florida for Christmas vacation. Heck, it was the first (and last) time my family had every done so.

When I returned to my home town, I wasn't greeted with "Wow! Nice tan!" -- I was greeted with something I wasn't used to, something I'd never encountered before. "Hey Nigger!" "You must have a nigger in the wood pile!" Being smaller than average didn't stop me from getting into fights (or from getting beat up).

Racism is painful.

Years later, driving down the main street of a small town in Utah with my cousin Tiny, the police pulled out right behind us. Tiny kept looking in his mirror. "What's wrong, Tiny?" I asked. "It's the police again. They follow me every time I come into town because I'm Indian." Tiny had no record, nor had he ever been in trouble with the law. I wasn't sure if he was spot on or paranoid about things.

We stopped at the store, made our purchase and pulled out of the lot. Within 1 block, the police were again behind us, following us. We were going the speed limit. When we switched lanes, the police officer also switched lanes. White drivers were speeding past us yet the police continued to follow us.

Racism kills the American Dream. It's flat out wrong.

Years later, while working in the prison system in a program for parole violators who'd violated parole with substance abuse issues, I was confronted by some white inmates. "Some people don't know if their black or white." they said. They weren't happy with how I acknowledged the relationship between poverty and drugs and how racism played a part in much of it. I told them that I believed them because some men went through life angry all the time because they were men and not women. In addition, the remainder of my days working there were ones spent looking over my shoulder, being hyper-aware of my surroundings, wondering if I was safe for speaking truth.

Racism causes people to live in fear.

In the summer of 1969 and I was seven. I went out into the back yard to play. In the sky, I saw a plume of black smoke. I ran into the house to tell my mother that there was a house on fire the next street or two over from where we lived. She said "No, son, that is Detroit. It is on fire. The people are rioting and burning the city." I was terrified. My grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins lived on the east side of Detroit. My mother assured me they were okay. When I asked her why they were rioting and burning the city, all she said was people were tired of how they were being treated. She never mentioned race.

Sunday came and off to grandma's house we went. We passed convoys of national guardsmen on the expressway. When we got to grandma's house, I heard my aunt say we needed some milk and bread for supper. I volunteered to go down to the A&P to buy them, as was my habit. "NO!" my aunt yelled, "You can't go out there. The A&P is gone, burned down. You stay in the yard."

Out into the yard I went. When I was sure no one was watching I jumped the fence into the alley. I went two blocks down to 7 mile road, hit the sidewalk and stopped short. There was the A&P, dark, empty, the entire roof was one huge, burned out hole. I turned around after a minute to head back to Grandma's house. Two hundred feet in front of me on the side walk was a national guardsman with an M-16 rifle, walking toward me. I took off down the alley and didn't stop until I was inside Grandma's house again.

At any time, in any place, by any one, for any reason, racism is flat out wrong.

Most recently and most disturbing of all, there was a hate crime in the home town I grew up in. A good family, having lived in their home for twelve years, active in the community and in their neighborhood awoke one night to find a burning cross in their front yard. A first in a community well over 150 years old. They are scared and their children are terrified.

Racism robs children of their childhood.

If certain elements of our media and certain politicians continue agitating the fearful and the discontents, we will again arrive at the place where the progressives in our society are assassinated. We will again arrive at a time when there are riots in our cities. We will again see large plumes of smoke in the distance or in our own neighborhoods. Except this time, the national guardsmen are over seas. Continuing to agitate the fearful and the discontent amounts to nothing less than an attempt to overthrown a dully elected President. It is seditious.

I am fortunate to have had these experiences that I might understand the reality of racism better than I otherwise would have been able.

Racism is scary. It's flat out wrong. At any time, in any place, by any one, for any reason, just flat out wrong.

Join me on Facebook in making a statement about Racism by joining the group "Racism Is Flat Out Wrong" and by inviting your friends to join.

Thanks in advance.


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