[TalnSG]

Whether you call it racism, prejudice, bigotry, classism, or discrimination its all essentially the same mechanism at work. It is isolating a trait that clearly differentiates one person from another and using it to subordinate them. Its done for various reasons, most based on an internal fear of change and/or potential to also be deprived. It is inherent in humans, but civilization is supposed to give us the skills to overcome it. Some people have used those skills; some have not. Those who haven't, to my way of thinking, do not deserve to be treated as civilized human beings. And I say this with family members who are clearly in that latter category.

I have been publicly shunned for supporting civil rights, both by strangers and family; and even by those who rights I was defending - because I was not one of them. Whites definitely do not have a lock on bigotry.

I do not know a person who has not experienced both sides of some form of discrimination, at least to some degree. Several times in my life I have been the only white, the only female, the only American, or some other distinction that was considered unacceptable to a larger group. But I learned to build bridges across our differences where far too many others only work to fuel their hatred.

You do not have to be part of public actions, but you do have to acknowledge what is right and what is wrong when you are involved. Silence doesn't protect anyone for very long.