Racism

Man, I am running out of society's problems to solve. Today I tackle racism. Maybe if you are a minority race, you think about race issues a lot. I'm not, so I don't. You also tend to have a slanted view of race issues. You see something as being racially motivated when it isn't. Just like when there is a call against the home team and everyone boos the ref. You could hack an opponent's arm off in the game and the ref calls a foul and the home crowd will still boo. That's the only way I can figure how things like the O.J. not guilty verdict can happen. Or when someone said The Lion King was a racist movie. It's home team bias. You can have it and not even realize it.

Solving the racism issue is a little tougher than other problems. First of all, I don't really see it. When I was in NYC, there was every people group imaginable. You can be on a subway and hear French, Spanish, Chinese,.... But everyone seemed polite and seemed to be getting along fine. I see examples of racism in the news, but I don't see it in my life. Then again, I'm part of the majority race.

I don't think there are a lot of laws left to enact. We've done away with slavery, segregation, Jim Crow laws, ... We've just about covered things legislatively. So people just need to change their attitudes. So, I can't come up with a lot of new laws. All I can do is offer my pearls of wisdom.

1. Get rid of your home team bias. Don't root for your race. When something bad happens in the news, don't say you want justice, when what you really want is for things to be resolved in favor of your particular race.

2. Realize most people are good. Anyone at times can have some bad thoughts, but most people when they realize that, they change their thinking. Things on the news are newsworthy because they don't happen very often. I think examples of blatant racism are pretty rare.

3. Realize there are a few haters out there, but just ignore them. They're not the majority and they probably aren't going to change. I read about Bismark, the German Chancellor. He once said he just stayed awake at night hating people. Wow. I read yesterday there is a website where you can pay five dollars and they will send an e-mail you provide to a person letting them know someone hates them. Again, wow.

4. There really isn't racism. It's the same as being biased regarding a person's age, gender, weight, etc. The solution is to treat people with respect even if they aren't what you want them to be.

So, let's all do that and another problem solved.