Popular wisdom has it that once you are an alcoholic, you are an alcoholic forever. Even if you haven't had a drink in 50 years.
I think that once you are a racist, you are a racist forever. You can't flip the switch.
Ferguson, Missouri is about a mile from where I grew up. The racism that is on display today in the media is the racism that surrounded me in my formative years. Only it was worse then.
So, yeah, I'm a racist. I don't say racist things or do racist things anymore, but the crap that got ground into me in the 1950s is still in there. I lacquer over it the best I can, as most educated people of my generation do. That makes us "recovering racists," I guess.
If I could flip the switch, I would.
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