On one of my neighbourhood walks last Friday I met a mother and her three year old daughter. The mother and I spoke about the problem of gophers. She told me that when she plants her shrubs she puts them in wire cages underground Apparently this keeps the gophers out, for the most part. However, her daughter loves to see the gophers, and mom feels a bit bad about what she has done. Her daughter went to a pre-school, she told me, and she is not sure what is going to happen now. Suddenly the daughter interjected and said
"before the sickness came"
Yes, of course, the sickness has changed our lives over the past few months. But the great sickness that has befallen us started very long ago. And I am talking about the sickness of racism, hatred, social injustice, economic inequality.
I grew up under apartheid and every single day of my life I was witness to, and a participant in, the regime. I grew up seeing people brutalised because of the colour of their skin. I grew up under fear of the regime, and what they did to dissidents. I chose to leave, fondly imagining that there were places that were different. That people were free to live as they pleased.
I went to Israel and discovered hatred and fear also, and I am not even talking about the hatred and fear of the Arabs. The Sephardic Jews did not like the Ashkenazi Jews, the German Jews looked down on the Russian Jews, the Sabras (native born Israelis) looked askance at the immigrants. The secular hate the religious. And the hatred and fear of the Arabs did not unite the Jews.
When I lived in England I was spat upon and called a 'foreigner.'
Granted, none of these countries had an Apartheid regime.
Then I came to America and worked in low income communities outside the cosy, politically correct, immediate bubble of the Bay Area.
Hatred, ignorance, fear I came to realise, are apparently endemic to human nature.
The opposite is true as well, and we can learn to recognise and acknowledge our prejudices, and listen to others and understand them. We can even learn to live productively together.
My hope is that with the ongoing protests of the killing of George Floyd, and against the police brutality and inequalities of our lives, that we will begin to see some change.
I saw this sign on today's walk, and hope that it is right, for every aspect of our lives.
