Race and racism is a touchy subject, no matter who your audience might be. It’s certainly a hot-button issue with me. I have been personally affected by it. My aunt was raped and murdered because of it. I’ve been beaten up because of it. The thing is, instead of blaming blacks and Hispanics, I realized I needed to blame the real, root cause: Racism itself.
If I see/hear/read racist behavior I will comment on it. Forcefully. To ignore is to condone, to be complicit in an evil act. But if you do not believe in evil as a force, then look at racism in the light of cause and effect.
An analogy may help to illustrate:
Think of racism as a disease, an especially tenacious, especially virulent one. Think of it as a sort of leprosy of the soul. To ignore a racist sentiment overheard in a public setting is to ignore a symptom of this dangerous disease. To say ‘that ethnic slur doesn’t affect me, since I am not the target’ is to say ‘that person with untreated leprosy coughing on the communal silverware doesn’t affect me, as I am using chopsticks.’ You know what? You’re right. It doesn’t affect you… yet.
No one is born a racist, just as no one is born a leper. Like leprosy, racism takes a long, long time to inculcate, but once it takes hold is hideously deforming. Like leprosy, racism can with great difficulty be arrested, but the damage done is irreversible.
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