*My father used to talk negative about people so much that I grew up disliking most of them for what I was taught to be true even though they did nothing wrong to me personally. I was under his influence only to later learn for myself that many of those people were not as bad as he said. What child doesn’t want to believe his parents?
I once had an employee who was a mediocre performer, but I was forced to place her in a leadership role according of our Facilities Management contractual obligations. I had a mixed staff – black and white. It was in a Midwest town before diversity became a big workplace initiative, and where whites were lukewarm to blacks in authority. As a matter of fact there were at least two whites who quit rather than adjust to my management style. The blacks got it and we worked together well. The person that I selected for leadership needed polishing, so in working to help her develop she took it that I was being harder on her than the others. She called our main office to complain that I “favored all the ‘coloreds’.” When I was told about it I was amazed that this young woman, in the 1990’s, was using a word that was so outdated socially. She wasn’t even born when they’d stopped using that word. We’d transitioned to negro, then black, then African American, and she went all the way back! Where did she get it? No doubt from her parents – her environment.
Law enforcement believes he acted alone, but where did young 21 year old Dylann Roof who is the primary suspect in the church massacre in Charleston, S.C., get the notion that [quote] “You rape our women and you’re taking over our country…and you have to go.”? From his environment – from being within earshot of those negative, ill-intended words spoken in the dark, behind closed doors that his parents and others (we assume) never thought would come to light. Well they did and they’ve come back to haunt them.
The Bible tells of life and death being in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21), and that the tongue, a small member of the body is like a small fire that can set a great forest ablaze (James 3:5). Think your words don’t matter? Think again!
How many times have you heard your child repeat something you said when you thought they weren’t even listening? What are you filling their head with? This goes for us all. We should get to a place where how we conduct ourselves in public, in the workplace, we do the same at home behind closed doors. They say the true character of a man is how he conducts himself when no one else is around. To all the blacks who get offended if a white person uses the ‘N’ word, why do YOU use it? It is NOT a term of endearment. Why does each race seemingly have its own derogatory slang towards another race? It’s just a satanic ploy to keep us at odds against one another.
So if we’re serious about improving race relations let’s watch what we say especially around young impressionable children who may be within earshot, and who may put your words into action just as young Dylann Roof did.
Let us pray and work towards something good to come out of the unfathomable tragedy that took place at the historic “Mother Emanuel” Church.
Larry Buford is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer. Author of “Things Are Gettin’ Outta Hand” (Steuben Pub) www.amazon.com. E-mail: [email protected] Visit the author at www.larrybuford.com. (213) 220-8101
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