The real roots of racism in America

I learned as a young child that everyone should be treated equally. That good behavior, respect for others, and honesty were paramount moral principles. The Ten Commandments represented the simple guidelines for living. As a sophomore in high school, I witnessed the forced integration of blacks into white schools in Little Rock, Ark. I was shocked by a newscast that showed a white Christian woman slapping a 7-year-old black girl walking through a white neighborhood on the way to a white school. I knew it was wrong then, and it would be wrong now.

I never understood why there were two drinking fountains — one for “colored” and one for “white.” Or why “coloreds” had to ride in the back of the bus. Blacks have had a long and hard struggle to be accepted as equals in America. And finally, in the mid ‘60s justice began to find its way and slapped down the bigoted leaders and misguided citizens of the South. People like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King were the tip of the spear.

Fast-forward 50 years. I thought the hard-earned race war had been won. We had a black president. There were black CEOs of major companies. One of the wealthiest women, Oprah Winfrey, was black. We had hundreds of thousands of successful blacks in all walks of life, proving that with hard work and determination, race was not a hindrance to the American dream. But I was wrong. The self-appointed black leaders were stirring the racial pot. Instead of guiding young families out of poverty, and encouraging the value of education and self-reliance, they began blaming the white man for the plight of inner-city ghettos. As a result, racism is on the rise — not because of skin color, but because of bad behavior. Bad behavior caused not by personal actions, but supposedly by evil white privilege. Regardless of statistics showing that systemic racism is false, that the only race that burns and loots their own communities when they’re upset are blacks. Regardless of the billions of dollars pumped into black inner-city schools; regardless of staggering out of wedlock births and fatherless families, it is still the white man’s fault. And I am sick of it! The likes of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Sheila Jackson Lee, and all black leaders who stir the race pot should be housed in the ghettos they created until they come up with solutions that will help those communities dig themselves out of poverty.

I was born, and spent part of my early years growing up in Oklahoma and Texas where racism was thriving. Fortunately my brother and I had a mother who never taught us racism. One of our moves was to Southern California when I was eight years old. Although the schools in Oklahoma and Texas were segregated, in California they were not. I met a young black boy named Alfred, and we soon became best friends. I took him home with me one day after school to meet my mom. She never said anything about him, but years later she admitted that she was shocked that a little black boy was my best friend.

Throughout my life I’ve had acquaintances and close friends from many cultures and colors, and have never experienced any racial tensions or bad behavior from any of them.

In 2003 I traveled to Kenya with a group called Reach the Children, whose purpose was to build boarding schools for young African girls. The reason was that AIDS was spreading fast, and there was a myth that having sex with a virgin cured AIDS. As a result, young girls 9, 10, and 11 years old were being raped on their way to school, becoming pregnant and developing AIDS.

The boarding schools would take the young girls out of harm’s way for 11 months out of the year, and allowed them to spend a month at home. The boarding schools later began including young boys as part of an educational process to help prevent AIDS. I taught a sex education class for the boys on subjects that included respect for women, and abstinence as a way to help eradicate AIDS.

I traveled to small villages and towns across Kenya and Tanzania, and everywhere I went people had a smile on their face, and would give you the shirt off their back even if they had only one shirt. Regardless of their poverty, they were happy people. We here in America have no idea what abject poverty really is.

After returning to the United States, it occurred to me that every American should experience spending some time in Africa in order to appreciate how good we really have it. And every black person with a chip on their shoulder should spend some time in Africa for an attitude adjustment.

The only racial problem we have here is not about color, it’s about bad behavior, encouraged and promoted by race baiters. I don’t care if you’re black, yellow, red or brown or white, if your behavior is bad, I will reject you. I will not apologize for being white. I will not accept the term racist when it is directed towards me. And I will not be silent about the reverse racism that is being ignored by a guilt-ridden, gutless white America. When will new black leaders condemn the Reverend Wrights, the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons, and begin to heal the racial divide that is beginning to boil out of control?

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Bob McAdams is a Coeur d’Alene resident.