A Lesson on Racism
My first lesson on racism came when I was only five or six. We lived in Jackson, Mississippi. A city work crew was repairing a water line in the street in front of our house. I looked down into what seemed to me to be a big hole in the ground. At the bottom of that pit, there was a large, strong, black man. In an innocent effort to be friendly and talk, I said “Hi, n______.”
“Boy,” he answered, “I’ll eat you alive.” Frightened enormously, I ran as fast as I could back to our house. The other men in the work party roared with laughter. In the safety of our house, I put it all together. I had called this man a bad name. I never told my parents about the incident; but I bided my time. When the opportunity came, I asked my mother “Why do we call black people n______?”
She explained it like this. Black people come from a race called Negroes. Ignorant and illiterate people say “n_____.” I understood ignorant but didn’t know what illiterate was. Still, I knew she was telling me our family does not approve of that word, and we will not use it here. She continued, “They are people just like us. They should be treated with the same kindness and respect we give other people. Jesus taught us to treat everybody just like we want to be treated.”
I’m not sure she was right about the origin of the name, but she was right with the rest of her lecture. We were not to use that word; and if someone did use it in our house, they got a “talking to” about the value and equality of all human beings, “God made them just like He made you and me.”
Growing up in the deep south, I cannot say there was never prejudice in our house. But I can say, when it did appear, it was solemnly frowned on. This one example before I conclude. Since my mother and father both worked, they hired a black lady to do some housework each week. While discussing housework at church, my mother told a friend what she paid this black helper. “Why?” the lady asked astonished. “Why do you pay so much? I pay my help only half that. “
Bluntly, my mother could be blunt, she answered “Because it is right!”
There is the answer to our racism. Everybody---red and yellow, black and white---do what is right.
