Racism, sexism, and other prejudices
Each Person Must Think Deeply About Racism to Change It
Cursory speech, thoughts and slogans won’t work to change the momentum
I grew up in an all-white town in Indiana. I still am embarrassed by a racist remark I made 51 years ago. It was part of the language and I didn’t even realize what I said until later.
For me, it was a wake-up call!
Racism, sexism, and other prejudices are built into the language and culture. From that time on, I looked for such prospects.
It takes years, decades and centuries to change a culture significantly. Unless a person is open to change and has thought about it, change will not happen. Probably every individual needs their own kind of wake-up call.
I doubt that Mrs. Martignon, an old lady referenced in the attached article, was capable of changing. She may have even thought about it, but was unable to get past decades of training. Others may be too entrenched to even think.
I started thinking about the problem after another incident, positive instead of negative, in 1964 and have many examples of non-racist behavior, but cannot guarantee that something isn’t deeply buried that could still rear its ugly head.
The Rebecca Stevens A article below shows that it is a global problem and not just in the US as we are taught.
Like the space aliens said while looking down from their spaceship,
“We’ll come back later.” “They still don’t realize that they are all the same race.”
