the other day, i found an article from the washington post in apple news. the article described the experience of a young man who had come to our town, spending several days here holding up a sign that said "black lives matter." some of the time, he held the sign at the foot of a billboard near the southern border of our town. the billboard advertised "whiteprideradio.com" and "altrighttv.com," and the words "for the family" with a picture of a white family beside a flaming cross, an obvious reference to the ku klux klan, appeared in the center.
i'm always disturbed by the sign when i pass it. unfortunately, the area that includes the town in which i live has a reputation for racism of the most vile kind. at the beginning of the 20th century, the black population of the town was terrorized by a mob of angry whites to the point that the black residents fled, never to return. not far from our town and in the same county is a small hamlet, the remains of a zinc mining town, that is reputed to be the headquarters of one branch of the kkk. just before you reach this town, there is a church that espouses white supremacy as essential to the christian religion, and the pastor of the church is said to be a high officer in the kkk.
it is not uncommon to see confederate flags being flown outside homes and even a few businesses here. there used to be several other racist billboards outside town, but under pressure from some of the town leaders, those have been taken down. apparently, the owner of the one remaining billboard, pictured in this article, cannot be persuaded to remove it. the town has been struggling to erase the images of racism that have given it the reputation of being "America's most racist town." among those championing the fight against the tradition of racism here are the leaders of the church to which i belong. our church has a few black members, employs two black staff members, and has just called a black woman to be our pastor.
after reading the article and watching the accompanying video, it is quite evident that there is still much work to be done. the verbal abuse the young man suffers at the hands of several people who drive past him hurling insults, some of which are quite threatening and vulgar, demonstrate the deep-seated prejudices that are slow to disappear. one has hope that there is a generation of young people who reject this racist tradition, as a young woman comes up to the man and hands him a note that reads "ignore the haters. you’re being peaceful. what you’re doing is good." in the days following the killing of george floyd two peaceful demonstrations in support of the black lives matter movement took place on the town square. on the second day of the protests, a group of mostly young white men showed up waving confederate flags and heckling the protestors, using some of the same language that was directed against the young man in the article, but there was no physical violence directed at the blm demonstrators.
i don't know why this young man came here. i know little about him, other than what appears in the article. perhaps he was conducting an experiment to see if our town lives up to its reputation as a bastion of white supremacy. perhaps he had other motives that were less idealistic. whatever his reasons for being here with his sign, he didn't deserve the treatment he received. attempts by some in the community to defend the town by impugning his integrity or questioning the authenticity of the video miss the point. no one ought to be subjected to the insults hurled at him. the way this man was abused proves the point of the blm movement: there are forces at work, even in small town america, that thrive on hatred directed at black people and their allies. there is a deep-seated racism that infects our society that flows from the indefensible practice of enslaving other human beings, and it must be recognized for what it is and rooted out. like an insidious infection, it grows inside us if we don't take steps to stop it, and every white american, no matter how much we try to deny it, is infected by it to some degree or other.
may we see the kinship of us all, a kinship that is beyond superficial appearances, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. may we love even those who are filled with hate, those who are difficult to love. may we not believe that any of us are too good to harbor unreasonable thoughts of the "other-ness" of anyone or any group. may we recognize our own prejudices and let them go along with the emotions that cause them in us. shalom.
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