Bigotry Would Be Solved if We Just Got to Know Each Other...

Tweet

Every time I hear or read about how bigotry would be solved if we just got to know each other, I am reminded of a lot of people I've known in my life. These are people who had nothing against a certain race, until they got to know people of that race. The line "reality breeds racism" is what I've heard them say. These people didn't hate any race, but when they were mistreated by enough of one race or another, they learned to despise everyone of that race. For me, I grew up in Whitebread, USA... Except for the Indian kids who were living with local families during the school year, and back on the reservation during the summer, everyone I knew was White. We moved to Florida when I was 16... We moved to another Whitebread neighborhood. We were bussed to a school 12 miles away though, because Tarpon Springs High School didn't have enough White Americans in it. There I got to know people of all sorts of backgrounds, and learned that there are some great people, and real jerks in all walks of life. I think that is a much better lesson than "tolerance" for each other. Why should I tolerate a jerk just because of their race anymore than I should hate someone great who happens to be different than me?