I'm sick at heart

The news has been all over Don Imus' comments on the Rutger gals' basketball team and frankly, it makes me sick at heart. If you haven't read his comments, suffice it to say the gals were referred to as "nappy-headed hos" by Imus and his producer. Comments are all over the board, but here's my feelings on this. This was no joke; this is how many, many White men feel about Blacks, male or female.

My heart hurts for a country that has this deep hatred for people of color. I have spent a great deal of my career, unfortunately, working around men just like this, trying to ignore their hatred and their racism and their prejudices. Today I'm grateful I don't have to put up with it anymore.

What hurts the most, though, is that there seems to be so little I can do personally to make racism and sexism better. There are many people around me, given the state I live in (although it's not just my state) who are racist to the core and in deep denial about it.

If you don't like how people act, Black or White, hate the actions, not the skin color. It isn't about how people act based on their color; it's usually about how they were raised. This lack of upbringing affects all people, White, Black, Hispanic, or striped. When Imus makes statements like this and gets away with it because he generates big bucks, I sink further into believing that I, also a second-class American citizen due to my gender, will ever feel at home in America.

Yesterday I spent an hour-and-a-half in church being reminded of Christ's message. It was, I believe, simply love. I'm tired of hearing people hide behind their Christianity yet, to their core, despise other races.

Urban Semiotic posted some great cartoons and thoughts on this issue.

It goes back to what I can do in my core of influence and that is to practice love. By the way, I think love is a verb.