The Insidiousness of Bigotry

This is the day after Doug Jones narrowly defeated Roy Moore for the remaining term of the Senate seat of Curtis Strange. I make it a habit to switch around from CNN to FOX to MSNBC to see what these outlets are saying in reaction to the headlines. I find it to be interesting and enlightening to hear views from across the political spectrum.

But today was a day that made me shout out loud at the TV (am I turning into THAT GUY?) when I was watching FOX and Friends. They had this great little story about two runners in a marathon in Dallas over the weekend - the woman who was going to take the women's title was collapsing just yards from the finish line, and a high-school relay runner stopped and helped her get across. A great story of compassion over competition and human kindness.

Now, it wasn't that FOX and Friends were the only ones who covered the story. As you can imagine, news outlets everywhere had this as part of their shows, with interviews of the two women, and praise from whatever news commentators were covering the story. But Steve Doocy, never one to waste an opportunity to say something inappropriate, commented that it was a good thing that it happened in the South, because if it had happened "in New York City or a lot of other places" no one would have stopped to help.

And there it is. An offhand comment that implies that "big cities" (even though this happened in Dallas), and people on the two coasts (even though the runner who had been helped was a psychiatric doctor in NYC!) are not compassionate or kind. This is the kind of insidious nature of bigotry that creeps into our brains if we are not constantly vigilant to reject it. It is like the comments that folks make about "those people" or when we see posts on Facebook and other places that show blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, and others in unflattering light.

Sometimes there are outright statements and opinions that show a person's bigotry - right after this story about the marathon, FOX and Friends had a short interview with Michele Malkin (another FOX commentator) who was screaming - and I am not really exaggerating - about how we can only prevent terror actions like the one the other day in NYC if we don't let in anyone who can't prove that they will help make America great. At least with those "in your face" arguments others can respond, but the offhand comment, the wink and nod of racist jokes and "humor", the bigotry by implication and innuendo is insidious and eats at our psyche and gets stuck in our subconscious.

If we want to begin to drive out racism, to help people see "the other" with compassion and human decency, to guard ourselves against this insidious bigotry, then maybe we have to raise our own awareness of when it is happening, and reject it from our thinking - and maybe it starts with shouting at the TV.