Accusations of racism will chill a person

They’re words that sting as badly as a hit from an aluminum bat to the funny bone: “You’re a racist.”
They’re words I’ve heard twice in my life. And they’re words that change your outlook on everything.
To clarify, each time I’ve heard those words it was because I told someone over the phone that I wouldn’t put something in the newspaper. In each case, it was something that wasn’t as newsworthy as my standards required.
I don’t know if the people on the other end of the phone line intended the line to be so brutal. That’s not the point. It still hurt.
“You’re a racist” is the death knell to the conscience of a good-hearted man with compassion for others, regardless of race or religion. It makes you question if perhaps you’ve veiled yourself to how your mind truly works.
This phrase perpetuates true racism. It generates anger. It generates self-defense. It generates a certain degree of loathing.
You start thinking about all the friends you’ve had of other ethnicities, wondering if they felt the same way.
“I’m not a racist” is a statement that, when you hear it out loud, sounds more like an admission than a defense.
Racism is treating one race differently than another. Racism is using your language differently around one group than another. Racism is thinking differently about another group.
It inevitably sounds idealistic, but there is only one race here, human. If we treat one another as such, regardless of the hues of our skins, we’ll be fine.
Black History Month ends Wednesday. I won’t debate the need for this daily reminder of how African-Americans contributed to our history, although there are issues with the month’s moniker.
The key to that phrase, though, is “our history.” It’s not black history. It’s not white history. It’s a history we share, regardless of where our ancestors were born.
Throughout this month, we’ve seen leaders talk about the “black community” here. This type of separation doesn’t benefit anyone. It pushes an us versus them mentality that is, frankly, 30 years out of date.
As the comic-strip philosopher Walt Kelly once had Pogo say, “We’ve met the enemy, and he is us.”
As long as there is a black community, a white community, a Hispanic community, an Asian community or a left-handed flautist community here, we’ll never see eye to eye. We’re one community, facing and solving our common problems together.
Sure, you must value diversity. It’s what makes America such an interesting melting pot. That’s not the same as creating division among us by accenting our differences, though. True diversity is recognizing the good in everyone.
I hope I’ll never hear those chilling words of “you’re a racist” again, but I know I will some day. It’s the nature of a job where you have to say no to people sometimes. As long as I stay true to my principles of fairness and truth, I know I won’t fall victim to actually becoming one.
I can only hope everyone else fights it too.