Recently, there was news of the kind of racism that the Civil Rights Movement highlighted and tried to end – an old Klu Klux Klan member attacked members of a Synagogue and a cattle rancher voiced his own peculiar vileness about African Americans on live TV. It was hard not to be shocked until I realized there is a common factor between the two events: ‘age.’
I believe that as we grow older and approach death, there is a tendency to want to show the world our true selves. Since the 1960’s those who are racist have been told to be quiet, to stop or be punished both by law and by society. Now, however, many of the racists of that time period are seventy, eighty or older and some have neither learned nor changed. So, as the end of their lives draw near and there is little risk in revealing their true selves, the lid comes off and the ugliness bubbles forth like scalding lava.
I’ve recently moved to Tennessee and, while there is a great deal about the State that is wonderful, a residue of racism sits just beneath the surface in many of the elderly I have met. My hope is that if they choose to let it rise up that it will be like the final gasp, the final bit of destructiveness, spewed from of a dying volcano.
Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.