I'm not racist but...

There is an attitude in the air like a sticky hot summer day and you can't escape from it. No matter where I go or what I do it follows me. It wounds my heart it ways I can't define and some days it is so powerful and overwhelming I literally weep in the dark until I am spent.

The blatant ugliness of racism or racial prejudice is like murky black water that swallows me. My family is biracial and my oldest children even more so. It is strange how people assume from your skin that you are going to agree with their opinions and biases. The other day a woman ranted at length to me about not wanting to go into a local business because of the "Indians" in said establishment. I promise you dear reader that I did not act upon the feelings this conversation gave me, for the most part because I was working and I needed to maintain decorum. I did however vibrate with frustration and indignation as I thought of all the beautiful and loving Native people I know including family members and my sweet beautiful boys.

Over time I have become calloused to the statements that elderly people make about hating this nationality or that , what ever particular group is in vogue to hate and this is wrong. No one is old enough to hate with out consequence. When I hear people in their youth regurgitating this horrible poison it infuriates me beyond reason. Why do the elderly get a free hate pass? How can we stop the hate?

Hate isn't limited to any particular race, social group, class or type of person.

What if we made diversity part of education? What if we taught history from both sides of the conflict and did away the the antagonist? What if instead of heroes and villains in human history we had people who did their best with the information they had?