At the heart of racism is the religious assertion that God made a creative mistake when He brought some people into being.

- Friedrich Otto Hertz -

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There I was standing at the bus stop waiting for my bus when I passed a tree. Carved on the trunk of this tree were the words "Kill All N*gg*rs." It shocked me to no end. I stood there staring at this tree, looking around as if I could spot the perpetrator, even though the carvings were already browned with age. There was in me a mixture of simmering outrage, disbelief, and sadness. I myself, in many ways, was also a victim of this overt racism. People often think that simply because they are not the "target" or the "victim" of such an attack that they are safe, they are wrong.

One would think that in this day and age, things like would be put behind us, like the foolish mistakes of our ancestors who knew no better. As I thought about it more, I was less and less surprised. Why would people learn to think differently when people are taught (whether discreetly or overtly) within our society's infrastructure that such kinds of hatred are acceptable? It seems that there will always be an underdog, whether they be women, homosexuals, the elderly, minorities, and so on and so forth. Maybe, some day, enough years will have passed that we will hopefully only hear about these kinds of things in our history text books and shudder at the thought of the foolishness and ignorance that some of our predecessors carried with them and shake our heads in disbelief how the culture and the society could have withstood and sanctioned such stupidity and hatred. But until then, until the powers that be (whether it be the government or religious institutions or cultures) stop perpetuating such righteous ignorance, I suppose none of us should be at all surprised that such things still occur.