Black and White

Healing Racial Divide

C.L. Holley

• Publisher: Charles Holley
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781087948782
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación multicultural

In Black & White: Healing Racial Divide, the author delivers a straight-down-the-middle version of the race problem in America and around the world. A child of the south and the civil rights movement, he equally speaks to black and white hang-ups when discussing racial problems.

He explains conversation killers such as white-guilt and black-unforgiveness. He compares Supremacy, Racism, and Unconscious Bias-noting that a person who simply has a bias is not a racist. He explains European Assimilation Mentality (EAM) which is a major obstacle in racial healing.

He also shares his heart-touching family experiences from the Jim Crow era to today. He calls out a major American institution where racism has found refuge-the Church. He answers the question: How can all races reduce this modern evil that has plagued society for thousands of years? Highly recommended for all races, clergy, and counselors.

CHAPTER ONE

Supremacy, Racism, and Bias

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The 1950s were tumultuous times in America and especially in my home state of Alabama. The desegregation movement caused racial tensions to reach a boiling point across the country and in our small desegregated neighborhood. Black and white neighbors who had known each other for years, and even considered themselves friends, were at odds. The residual effects of Jim Crow segregation laws were prevalent.

One day, someone threw a brick through the front window of the small house my family lived in—smashing the glass and ruining a pot of fresh peaches on the kitchen table. My father became furious and threatened to take his gun and go after the culprit, but my mother managed to calm him down and quietly cleaned up the mess.

Within this explosive environment lived people like my parents who were the original odd couple. My mother, Pearl, was extremely quiet, shy, and reserved—seeking to avoid any conflict with whites. Her character was molded from a difficult life. Born in the 1920s, she barely survived the great depression and had experienced the harsh reality of racism and Jim Crow laws. She had seen what could happen to blacks in the south who got too far out of line—the brutality, shaming, and even death. She was so fearful of conflict that she did not look white people in the eyes when talking to them. She simply offered a “Yes, Sir” and “No, Sir.”

However, my father, John, was the complete opposite—loud, angry, and combative. The tough years of backbreaking sharecropping (farming) for little pay and daily discrimination formed a huge racial chip on his shoulder. He had no problem looking white people directly in the eyes and telling them exactly how he felt about the injustices of his day.

In fact, he was known for getting into heated arguments with his white neighbors and wielding a shotgun just inches from their face. A church deacon, he would warn them, “Get out of my yard before I send you to meet Jesus!”

My father was known among whites in the neighborhood as “that uppity crazy nigger.” I describe him as a cross between Martin Luther King, Jr. (who shared his dream of love and unity), Malcolm X (who freed himself by any means necessary), and Mahatma Gandhi (who prayed for his enemies). He was a hardworking man who kept his family fed, clothed, and sheltered. Yet he had a dark side. He could be charming and gentle one minute and extremely violent the next.

Given the times and my father’s quick temper, a major confrontation was inevitable. One day, during the early morning hours, a major clash occurred.

As Pearl rocked in her rocking chair, a loud gunshot blast interrupted the peaceful silence. Pearl jumped from her rocking chair and rushed to the window. She looked around the front yard and saw my father as he walked by with his shotgun draped over his shoulder. She also saw a wounded dog scampering down the road as it howled from the pain of a gunshot wound. She held her hands over her panicked heart and tried to decrease its rapid rhythm.

“Oh, God, no!” she exclaimed.

John cursed and complained as he came into the house. “I told that man to keep his damn dog out of my garbage cans!” He scolded. “Maybe he’ll learn to tie him up now!”

Pearl gasped for breath and asked, “Oh no, why did you do such a fool thang like that at a time like this? What’s gon happen to our kids? What they gon do to us?”

John stared at her and casually walked to the bedroom, put his gun on the dresser, and lay on the bed as if nothing happened. But Pearl was terrified and couldn’t stop pacing the floor. She continued to peek out the front window of the tiny house. Minutes later, she saw their neighbor, a large white man, marching down the road. He waved a shotgun and yelled threatening words toward the house.

“You shot my dog, you black bastard!” he screamed. “Just for that, I’m gon kill your family in front of your face, and then I’m gon take care of you!”

Pearl quickly closed the curtains and ran to the room where her kids had huddled in fear. She pulled them close.

“Now listen real good,” she said. “If that man gets past me, I want y’all to run out the back, and run as fast as you can. Run to your auntie’s house, and don’t look back!”

In the meantime, John rose from the bed and began searching for shotgun shells as the raging voice of the man grew louder and closer. Pearl positioned herself behind the front door and offered up a quick prayer before facing her enraged neighbor.

When he came within a few yards of the house, Pearl opened the front door and ran toward him. She fell on her knees, stretched out her arms, and begged him not to harm her kids.

He cocked the shotgun and pointed it at her.

“Please, Sir,” she pleaded. “Pease don’t do this! I’m awful sorry ‘bout your dog, but please don’t kill my kids over it!”

She crawled toward him, grabbed his ankles, and continued to beg for mercy.

“Who does that nigger think he is anyway to shoot my dog?” he yelled. “I aim to teach him a lesson he ain’t gon never forget! Now, let me go!”

He tried to shake Pearl from his ankles as he continued to force his way toward the front door. He dragged her along the ground with every forceful step, but she held on with all her tiny might, and continued to beg with each yard he gained. She began to pray out loud. “Lord Jesus, please help me! Lord. Please don’t let him do this! Lord, I’m begging you, Jesus! Touch his heart Lord! Please touch his heart!”

Seconds later, the strangest thing happened. He stopped and looked down at her—a poor black woman wrapped around his ankles, begging not for her life, but for the lives of her children. He looked at the front window of the tiny house and saw the terrified eyes of several small children.

Seconds later he lowered the shotgun and said, “I’m gon do what you asked. But I’m not doing it for him. I’m doing it for you and for your kids. Now let me go.”

Pearl slowly loosened her grip on his ankles and raised up on her knees as she continued to look down, and said, “Thank you kindly, Sir. Thank you kindly.”

He placed the shotgun on his shoulder, turned, and walked back down the road.

Pearl didn’t get up after he left. Instead, she stayed on the ground and released tears of gratitude for the terror that was averted. She continued to pray and thank God for sparing their lives. When she recounted the story to us, she always referred to the incident as a miracle from God.

***

Supremacy, Racism, and Bias

Words mean different things to different people. Before racial unity can take place, there must be agreement on the meaning of three words: Supremacy, Racism, and Unconscious Bias.

Racial Supremacy

The state or condition of being superior to all others in authority, power, or status. (Dictionary)

Racial supremacy is a flawed philosophy that promotes the regarding one’s race as superior. This involves embracing the notion that people of one particular race should control the power structure and enjoy certain privileges of society that are unavailable to others.

Supremacists tend to have a strong belief that different races cannot live together in harmony, respect, and love. After all, that would require equality between races. Instead, they only believe in dominance—that one race will always dominate the other. That is why they focus on ruling the power structure and have a constant fear of other races securing freedom, wealth, and political capital. Their motto is usually, “Dominate or be dominated.”

A person with a supremacist mindset may use words or phrases such as:

“Go back where you came from!” (This is my country.)

“They should serve us.” (Others are inferior servants.)

“He or she is just that Negro ...”

(Maximize race and minimize accomplishments)

For example, during the early stages of the civil rights movement, several white leaders in high places often privately referred to Martin Luther King, Jr. as “that Negro Preacher.” The supremacist mindset tends to refer to race first because this is how they determine value and worth.

Years ago, I worked with a white man who believed in white supremacy. This person did not keep his beliefs a secret and constantly made racially insensitive comments about black issues. One day, I was having a casual conversation with a group of coworkers about an upcoming Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebration. He butted into the conversation and retorted, “Why would I want to celebrate Martin Luther King Day? I’d rather celebrate the man who shot him.”

He was eventually fired for verbally attacking his black manager’s white wife. The supremacist hated interracial relationships and occasionally made derogatory statements about his manager’s blended marriage.

Adolf Hitler, the German Nazi responsible for the Jewish Holocaust and killing of around six million Jews during World War II, believed in this same flawed philosophy. Unfortunately, supremacy is embraced by some people and groups in America today and is not limited to the Caucasian race.

The supremacy philosophy is condemned by the Christian faith and is not supported by any credible scientific findings.

“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,..” (Acts 17:26)

“For God shows no partiality.” (Romans 2:11)

Racism

Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people based on their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized. The belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another. (Dictionary)

Racism is a belief that may not necessarily subscribe to supremacy but advocates racial separation due to the “purity” of each race. This line of thinking opposes interracial marriag...