It was 1943, and on my way home from the first grade I was attacked by three other kids from my class. I was a newcomer as we had moved closer to my parents’ work because of the gas rationing. I had been in a one-room school with three grades and now was in a city school with a room and teacher for each grade. I was an outsider, and some of my new classmates were not about to welcome me as part of their group. I was being bullied. This was new to me at six years old and coming from a small town proud of being part of the Underground Railroad with a third of the community being Black. My schoolmates were all considered friends. I was bullied again, in 1989, when l received a new project at work involving changing to a new computer system and software. The people who had been in charge of the IT system asked me out to lunch and proceeded to ask me to tell my boss that I was not capable of handling the new task, and it should be returned to them. I declined their offer and went on to complete the task on time and under budget. Their interference and refusal to aid in the project caused a lot of extra work and cost, but my team worked through it and provided the company with its first MRP system.
I mention the above because most everyone has been the recipient of bullying or bias against them. In my case I never thought of it other than normal behavior of some people whom you deal with every day. I was never deterred from completing school or the projects that I was assigned. Prejudice is felt by most at one time or another and is simply the act of trying to put someone down to make the bully appear to be above or better than the victim. Most of us have our likes and dislikes, but some carry it to a personal level that affects those being targeted. Hatred of others due to jealousy, sexual orientation, skin color, religion or politics and many other reasons is just stupid. The hater is not feeling very good about themselves, and the hated is being slowed in their quest to achieve freedom and equality. Bias has always been with us with the extreme being the extermination of Jews by Hitler. It will always be with us because, after four thousand years of recorded history, we have been unable to reduce it or stop it. We have to live with it and try to reduce the effect of the bias on individuals or groups of persons.
One of the most significant happenings was the election of a Black man as president of the United States of America. This took more than half of the voters in this country to accomplish. Because of this event it became apparent that race no longer could be the reason that a person couldn’t succeed. It removed the reason to not try because there was no chance of getting ahead. Many have fought this fact and still are trying to use racism as a cause of failure for many. Thus, they use the term as one of their favorite names when dealing in politics. In fact name calling has replaced the political discussion that sometimes resulted in compromise or better legislation. There is no discussion between the two major political parties, and political power is more important than performing their jobs that they were elected to do. The border crisis could be solved in less than a month if Congress would address the problem with protection to the US and a worker program for those wishing to better themselves. The trade dilemma could be accomplished if both parties worked for the US citizen instead of for themselves.
My mother told me, after hearing me use some colorful language, that swearing and name calling was the sign of a lack of vocabulary or low brain power. When a person resorts to name calling, they have already lost the argument. Names are not facts to counter other facts in an argument. The thought of losing an election or failing at everything a person does is not the fault of someone else. We don’t win every time, and most of the fault lies with ourselves and not someone else. Blaming the opposition for your failure is not the answer but an excuse for poor performance. Calling someone a racist to try to reduce their stature is the result of their lost argument. They have nothing to counter the thing they are against or the fact that they were not the reason something worked. The name caller cannot take credit for a positive action, so belittling the person responsible for the action is their way of trying to make themselves relevant. The name calling just reduced them to irrelevancy.
Hatred of any person accomplishes nothing. It reduces the hater and hurts the hated. The result is bad for both, and progress on anything stops. Those who feel they are being targeted by others due to race or jealously or any other reason should just move forward and realize that the hater is the loser. Who is the racist? They are the hater who uses name calling and abasing as their chief discussion and reporting tactic. We have to start ignoring those who can only hate and not bring good ideas to the table and be willing to work with others for the betterment of mankind. Love your neighbor as yourself is still one of the greatest commandments.
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