09/10/04  How I was cured of "Race Baiting".

Let me tell you the story of how I was cured of "race baiting".  Back in 1972 at A&M, I tried this tactic as my "ace in the hole".  It worked on my entire class except for one guy. 

As it turned out, he was the nicest, kindest, most open-hearted person I knew, and he was White.  He walked up to me in front of everybody, looked me in the eyes, and said very sincerely, "I used to like Black people until you did this".

Coming from someone I really admired, this cut my legs completely out from under me.  I had to rethink how I dealt with people -- especially in tricky situations.  As a result of this incident, that is a card that is not even in my deck any more. 

My feeling is this.  Even if someone is being a racist to me, I don't have to be one back to them.

For me (and I think for any other person of color), when I choose to take this factor out of the equation and just stick to the issue at hand (and NOT let this make me emotional), I usually prevail -- but on the merits of the issue and not race (theirs or mine). 

Today, my feeling about racism is that it is like any other "-ism".  SO WHAT!  When it all boils down, you still have to make a decision and act on it.  The "ism" only has the power we allow it to have.

Sadly, it seems, Dallas still gives far too much power to racism -- power that it does not deserve!

While I usually hate sports metaphors, this one seems appropriate for ALL of our elected officials.  Just like in a race -- you win, not by being the fastest -- you win by crossing the finish line ahead of everyone else in the race. 

As citizens and voters, we all deserve better behavior from our council members than we get.  The race baiters should have done better but the rest of the council should have known better!