The lessons to learn in Charleston go beyond just removing the Confederate Flag from the Capital!
Is it important that South Carolina take down the Confederate Flag from their capital? Yes, of course it is! Even more so in the aftermath of such a hateful and disastrous killing at the Church of Emanuel this symbol of the past, of slavery, of segregation and hate must come down.
At the same time, we should not let this be how we manifest
a healing from this incident I am sorry to say.
We first must recognize that this was a crime of hate, of bias, of
racism, from a young man that was taught or learned to believe on his own that
he was superior to others. Not because
of the deeds he did to help others. Not
because he was bright and graduated to become a researcher. Not because he went to that church to learn
from others and experience a worshiping congregation that is warm and
loving. No, it is because the color of
his skin is white. On top of that, he
was taught to believe other colors of skin, most notably black, are inferior to
his own.
If we walk away pulling down the Confederate Flag and don't
start out looking inside of ourselves we will miss the first lesson. We all have a potential to have racists
thoughts. We all have the potential to
believe in our personal superiority over others, and most notably we have the
ability to transfer those feeling of hate and divisiveness to the next
generation. We must see this as a moment
to pass on the learning that came from this church when those most afflicted by
this killing stood up and forgave the killer, and came together this week to
worship again.
If we walk away from pulling down the Confederate Flag, and
don't learn that we cannot just take down history and slavery's impact on
society, again we have failed to learn.
Slavery, and most notably its impact on society over a 100 years later
is still not over. The history of
slavery, the belief in the ownership of another human, is not something that
goes away by just the turn of time. The
statistics of incarceration, of poverty, of opportunity for black Americans is
not on par with other races. We must
realize these challenges are not just racism as it exists in the 21st century
but continue as a society that has not totally healed or repented for the sins
of slavery in the first place.
If we walk away from pulling down the Confederate Flag in
South Carolina, and say the lessons learned from this heinous act of hate is a
"Southern" lesson then once again we have failed to learn. Racism, feelings of superiority by race, are
not and were not limited by the Mason Dixon line. The act of superiority, the determination
that a black man was less of a citizen than a white man was an agreed to law
within our own constitution of the United States. Not dare to mention the treatment of our
early country to the Native Americans that were already here. If we don't again look into each of ourselves
for that seed of racism whether we live in Georgia, South Carolina, or Rhode
Island and realize our potential to hate then we have not learned the right
lesson here.
The lesson to me is clear.
We must all realize that either through direct teaching, or through just
living our lives, we have grown to have some feelings of racism at times. If you go to a party and look around and
there is not a rainbow of colors around you is that because of chance or
because we grew to be closer to those that look like us. Yes, we have a long way to go to not see the
colors of skin but see each of us human.
It is hard to teach those that have passed a certain age, but we can
learn that as the next generation grows we need to teach them that the color of
our skin is nothing more than the color of the walls of our house. The heritage of our past, the heritage of
generations of those that share that color are necessary to learn and document,
but, the color alone does not determine the value of an individual. It is their actions, their heart, and the
deeds as they are with others that matters.
Comments