Why Racism Is My "Dealbreaker". Written One Year Ago Today

 I wrote this piece one year ago because I was in a personal crisis. I had long time friends and family members who were arguing in favor of the racist policies of Trump and MAGA, and I felt that both they and I had some decisions to make about our relationship. 

I have a red line, which when crossed means that tolerance and "respect for opinion" are off the table. The statement below is not a "political view". It is who I am.



I can accept that people have diverse backgrounds and beliefs. Everyone is different, but most of us are the same in terms of hopes and dreams for the future, for ourselves and our children, and their children. I cherish the differences in my friends, who each in their own way brings joy to my life. Nobody has to agree with what I believe in to be my friend, and vice versa. 


But, racism is a deal breaker. If someone has religious, political or personal views that are racist or bigoted, then that person has to change to be my friend. 


If a person votes for racists, supports racist policies, goes to racist churches, joins racist groups, threatens or commits violence over race, then why would I want to be their friend?


Racism is not an arbitrary label that you stick on people to judge them. The history of our Nation and the millions who were racism's victims stand in judgment of all of us from their place in eternity. The millions who fought in our Revolution to become free of the racist British Empire, the Civil War to end Slavery, and those who fought in WW II to defeat Nazism, sit at the right hand of the Creator, watching over us, and it is them we must answer to for our beliefs and actions, not someone writing on Facebook or running for office. The many more millions who came to America to flee from oppression and make lives for their children are our consciences, and yearn for us as a Nation to heal ourselves. 


Division is not what we want, but if it takes a great rendering in half to heal our National sickness, like in 1860, so be it. Otherwise, we will lose the respect of our children, our moral authority to act among other Nations, and will represent a living, festering wound of hypocrisy with respect to the principles upon which our Nation was founded. Our professions of faith and love of God and love of neighbor will be a hollow and ugly contradiction, in which we lie to ourselves, and judge ourselves unworthy of our membership in any church which worships a God of Universal Love. 


Yes, racism is a sickness. It is something that eats away at the core of a person's soul, and undermines the good works we believe we are doing. It is infectious, destructive in every way, and the attempts to ignore it or not confront it insure the progression of the disease. 


If a person you care about is presenting symptoms of a lethal, infectious, debilitating disease, are you really being their friend by choosing to not intervene to help them get treated? Are you showing them friendship when they refuse treatment, and you do and say nothing? Do you watch while they spread it? I'm not speaking of covid19, once again I speak of racism. 


If a person is expressing racism, I will not remain silent. I will slam them with every bit of passion, love, and righteous anger I have, and give them a chance to change. If they don't, then we are no longer friends. In that case, I haven't "lost" a friend, they've lost me.

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