Prejudice!

“In our thirst for Freedom, let us not drink from the cup of bitterness and anger.”  Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

You know, not all white people hate black people. Not all black people hate white people. In this day and age, the color of one's skin is an excuse people utilize to release psychopathic tendencies of unreasonable hatred whether one is a criminal or a police officer.

If a black person killed me thinking to make a statement against prejudiced white people, a mistake would have been made for I have friends of color. I like all kinds of people. I don't look at religion, race, or ethnicity to determine my likes or dislikes. I look for honesty, respect, and intelligence. I am equally horrified at injustice no matter who the victim. Somehow it makes it worse when the crime is perpetrated by a police officer because the officer is a person of authority upon whom we should be able to trust and depend. A crime committed by a police officer or two does not excuse the shooting of random cops in another city. The shooter does not know if he is shooting decent people or not, just as a person killing me wouldn't know how I felt about others.

My son knows no boundaries when it comes to people and never meets a stranger no matter their color or beliefs. When he was about ten, he shaved his head, and I worried that he would be hurt by others because they might think he was a skinhead. Sure enough, he was cornered in the school bathroom and attacked by a black boy. Racially, the school makeup was something like 95% blacks. Should I have blamed all the black children at that school? Should I think that all, or even most, of the black children hated my son because he was white? Should he? What possible good would that accomplish? To this day, his best friend is a boy of color...rich brown color. People need to get a grip. If someone kills someone else, it shouldn't matter what the skin colors are, and the killer should be brought to justice. Killing random strangers as a 'protest' makes no sense. It is a lame excuse. Not to mention the ones who would have seen to that justice may have just been killed!

I'm a white woman and, believe it or not, I've faced prejudice. Does that define me? No. Should it? No. Have I faced prejudice as perhaps a black woman has faced it? Probably not. But how would you know? You don't know what I've experienced in my life. Should prejudice define that black woman? No. People cannot let hate define them! When we do that, it is giving the people who hate a victory.

In America, people like to think that it is the only place in the world where there is still prejudice. I have news for you, elsewhere in the world battles have been raging for thousands of years, and there appears to be no end in sight, because of race, religion, and ethnicity. It is nothing new. But in our cities we are fortunate as we do not dodge bullets daily nor fear bombs exploding in our faces. Why? Because we fight for our rights through our legal system. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. How could it be when it is run by people? And people have never been perfect. But America is better by far than other places in the world. Does it need improvement? Sure. But the only way for that to happen is to stick together no matter one's race, religion, or ethnicity. Stop playing the blame game, and blaming those not involved, and simply prosecute those who commit the crimes.