Showing posts with label Society. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Society. Show all posts

June 19, 2015

In reaction to the Charleston shooting...

In reaction to the shooting in Charleston, my 7 year old son, Jackson said, "I thought racism was over, Dad."

He thought racism ended with desegregation. I told him I wish that was true. He couldn't understand how anyone could believe that a person could hate someone based on the color of their skin.

Jackson is not colorblind. He doesn't want to be. He sees the beauty in color and values people based on their actions and attitudes.

I felt good that my son thought racism was stupid, but I realized today that we need to teach our children that it is still all too prevalent in our society. We need to teach them to rage against racism and bigotry of any kind.

We need to teach them that the best thing is to live a life of love and that the second best thing is to expect that of others and to help those who do not to learn to do so.

The kind of racial hatred perpetrated by Dylann Roof was not born in a vacuum. Love and activism also are not and we need to teach and live them with vigilance.

We prayed for the people of Charleston and for our country tonight. But before we did, I sat my family down on the couch to watch a couple episodes of Diff'rent Strokes. I wanted the kids to see it because of scenes like this.