How Do We Overcome Racism?

No matter how we look at it, racism hurts us all. In this country, racism stems from slavery and its aftermath. While slavery has been abolished here for many years, the pain, the shame, and the blame of it haven’t. The feelings linger, and we don’t know what to do with them, except inflict them on each other and ourselves—at times.

People of both races—black and white—have tried talking about these feelings among themselves and with people of another race, but these discussions too often still lead to even more unresolved feelings and increased frustration and hostility.

The fact of the matter is there are no intellectual words that can express the pain of slavery, and there is no apology that can take that pain away. As awful as it was, nothing can change the fact that slavery is a part of our history. The question now is what do we do today?

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Love Is the Dream Come True

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream that is coming to pass, not in the world at large--yet, but in smaller, more intimate ways--in our individual lives. Dr. King dreamed that we would learn to see and love each other beyond the color of our skin and form relationships based on the content of our character. We each have the power to do that, and in our day-to-day lives, many of us are using it.

More and more, we're discovering that we may not be able to change the world, but we can change how we are in the world--with each other.

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The Evolution of My Peace

(How my quest for racial harmony led to personal conviction, inner-healing and ultimately to peace.)

It was 1991, and I was tired—tired of race being such a factor in our lives. For as long as I could remember, I had looked around me and wondered why people of different races could not get along and yearned for the day in which we would.

I was angry—angry because it seemed as though the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. In fact, race relations were getting worse instead of better. I wanted so much to make a positive difference, but felt so powerless to change anything.

Then, an answer came from what I know now was the voice of God. It said: “Peace, be still.” It told me that if I wanted to help bring about racial harmony in this world, I had to first be at peace within myself. 

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