Racism is the fear of an unknown, as I’ve learned to see it

As we all know, racism is not a born trait. It is learned, usually from those closest to the racist, such as his or her family and friends. And racism itself blocks from the racist the very solution that could bring the person back into a more rational state of mind. Racism blocks interaction between the racist and the people who suffer from their racist beliefs and behavior.

I was born in the late 50s. I grew up in a racist area of a racist state. I was fortunate, however, that while in the first grade, I was given the opportunity to have experiences with members of different ethnicities and backgrounds. In the second grade, new students with different skin colors arrived at our school in yellow buses.

I felt excited about the possibility of new friends. I distinctly remember a classmate named Eddie Roe; another boy had the first name Richard. We played with the other students on the playground day after day.

Unfortunately, our new friends were suddenly gone one day. Because we were so young, I and the other children had no idea what had happened.

I’ve thought about Eddie, Mary, Richard and other students who arrived in school buses. Today, I think about them, not only because they were my friends, but because they changed my life.

A couple of years ago, I came across a black-and-white photo that, by most appearances, looked like a celebration on the town plaza. Women, children and men were gathered together in apparent happiness; a look of joy permeates most of the image. The photo was taken in Texas in a suburb of Houston named Conroe. As it happened, and perhaps the reason that I felt so engaged in reading the article with the photo, was that an uncle and aunt lived in Conroe in the early 60s and, perhaps understandably, left for another part of the Houston metro area.

I realized after looking carefully at the photograph that, to the very right-hand side was a charred tree trunk with just a couple of blackened branches remaining on it. Tied to the tree was the figure of most of a man, hardly recognizable, because what was left of the body was disfigured and burned beyond belief.

I say beyond belief, in part, because I had and have no parameters in my mind that could understand such horror. And what can be said for all of the hundreds of other people who gathered to celebrate the act, the people who didn’t participate in the monstrous murder. As a survivor of one of many white rampages against black people across the country said, “...they (the onlookers) didn’t get to do the violence, but they approved of it.”

I must return to my youngest days... getting to experience people of other races and ethnicities.

This priceless experience, together with my parents’ desire that we help our neighbor, and that all people — whatever race, religion, country of origin or sexual orientation — are equal and deserving of equal treatment and that the Golden Rule encompasses all of human interaction.

I can see large groups of scheduled gatherings, block parties through the seasons, and spontaneous gatherings of different... everything. Every skin color, language, ethnicity, sexual identity and orientation; you get the idea. How are we going to get over the insanity of racism if we don’t do big things to get us closer to the same page?

Thank you, thank you for letting me rant over an issue that permeates a good part of my belief system. I would love for us to come to be like those mixedrace alien villages from Star Trek and Stargate. Peaceful, mixed and uncomplicated.