Hate Spans Generations: From Trump, to Putin, to George Wallace
From the perspective of a trans woman in the crosshairs
Hate is one of the ugliest sides of humanity. Putin and Trump are just the latest versions.
We read about hate every day. It feels like that’s all we have. Thankfully, it’s not but that doesn’t make the pain that hate generates go away. It is particularly painful when you are the object of that hate and people use God and country to attack you.
This was taken from the inaugural Address of Governor George C. Wallace in January 14, 1963*:
Today I have stood, where once Jefferson Davis stood, and took an oath to my people. It is very appropriate that from this Cradle of the Confederacy, this very Heart of the Great Anglo-Saxon Southland, that today we sound the drum for freedom as have our generations of forebears before us done, time and again through history. Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South. In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny…and I say…segregation now…segregation tomorrow…segregation forever.
It is particularly repugnant that he used the metaphor of clanking chains to defend segregation and spirit of the slave-owning Confederacy to rally citizens to his cause. His spirit is still alive but we can’t let his political spawn succeed.
Adlai Stevenson said:
“Ignorance is stubborn and prejudice is hard.”
George Wallace's racism failed because people chose not to hide and be afraid any longer. They refused to allow ignorance and it evil spawn, prejudice, to win. Rosa Parks and so many other courageous people stood up and refused to allow his type hateful bigotry to steal their freedom and their rights.
Wallace’s political hate is reborn with every generation, but every time we take away their ignorance, we eliminate the fertile ground that grows and spreads that hate. Fighting ignorance erodes hate and leaves only the truly dedicated bigot behind. We will never win the dedicated haters over but we can prevent them from infecting others.
As Martin Luther King said:
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
If each of us can educate just one person a day or at least one a week, we begin to eliminate some of the fertile ground that allows ignorance to grow and stop others from being dismissively stupid.
“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” Desmond Tutu
Emma Holiday
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