I Remember growing up in Pennsylvania being told
that people of colour were different.
I was told to be afraid of them.
The trash can collection guy was very black.
I remember being afraid of him.
This little reflection stayed with me.
It was secretly ingrained in me,
and it came out one day in the break room of a part time job I had.
I was eating lunch with a girl who was black.
I never thought of her as being black.
She was a friend that I was having lunch with.
As I was eating my sandwich ,
and I took a chip out of the bag
and It was burnt and singed in a way.
Without thinking I reacted and
referred to the chip as a NIGGA chip...
A deadly silence ensued.
It was deadly silence that has stayed with me my
entire life.
I was stunned as I thought to my self that this type of
think was almost automatic when growing up in Pennsylvania.
It made me sick and changed my out look as how I looked at
race.
It was that moment of silence that has haunted me
for much of my adult life.
I watched the primaries in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and everywhere
else and that moment of silence bubbles up in my conscience.
In exit polls, 20% of voters ADMITTED that race was a factor in their
decision to vote for Hillary. That means that a whopping 20% admitted to racism.
How many more racially motivated votes were cast without admission?
How many people are voting like this without really thinking?
On the bright side we are raising a generation of kids who have allot less
racial motivation as witnessed by the young people flocking to the campaigns.
Unfortunately I do not have a solution here, but rather a a hope that people take
a few minutes to listen to the candidates. Listen to what they have to say regardless
of race or gender. We are a better country than a place where 20 percent of the
population votes because of race.
