Reflections
On Prejudice
by casey r. boguslaw
I am now aware that I love all people; they are a part of my family, all people, all over the world. My stomach now hurts and I feel sick when I see and hear about children starving in Africa. But I will not deny, I will not fool myself. I AM PREJUDICE. I CAN’T HELP IT. I have been brainwashed. As I child I was subjected to a new modern invention. I was made to sit and stare at it for hours a day.
Innocently it portrayed the world as it was. In this world there was only white people, for the most part. Oh you would see a black man once in a while. They were all butlers. When you glimpse a black woman, she was fat, in the kitchen, with a rag wrapped around her head. Come to think of it, I once had seen a Chinaman, working in a laundry. And a drunk Mexican sitting on a curb with a giant sombrero covering his head and face. But that was it. The world was lily white. And outside of this 'machine' the world wasn’t much different.
As I had mentioned before I remember when Mexicans began to appear in the neighborhood, but I never seen Blacks there. I later discovered Blacks lived far away, across the tracks, in giant building apartments with broken windows and broken screens fluttering in the wind. This area always had the sounds of sirens screaming in the distance.
Then this TV, this mesmerizing machine continued its process of brainwashing. Black men began to be seen little by little. They were now being called Colored. (Maybe it was a pre-advertising gimmick because color TV was about to be invented.) These Black men were funny. Actually they were made out to be fools. But the Black women were still fat, in the kitchen, with rags wrapped around their heads. Then rumors began that Black men would be seen on television in the proximity of white woman! This got adults very upset. “What is this world coming to?” The adults would say.
Then came this handsome white, young truck driver from Memphis. He sang and performed like no one ever seen before. They said he was going to ruin the world because his music was evil black music. (Actually, they called it by the N-word, which they used a lot those days. And I did too, I couldn’t help it. I didn’t know better.) This brainwashing machine said that this “colored” music was going to brainwash us into thinking it was OK to do such things. (Clever, diabolical machine!)Well Elvis just went on doing what he did. In his own way he was saying “BULLSHIT”.
Years later Cassius Clay changed his name to Mohammed Ali. He told the world he was proud of being Black, he was the greatest, and he could kick anyone’s ass. He did. The white adults didn’t like that. The Government messed with Ali. They stripped him of his title because he refused to fight and kill poor people across the ocean. But he prevailed. I told my son to read Ali’s story, see his movie. Ali was one of the greatest men that lived in my lifetime. A real hero.
But I’m here to tell you that in my heart and soul, I am not prejudice. But in my bones lurks the hidden remnants of the disease that we were subject to in the past that brainwashed some to believe they were better than others. We all need to apologize for that so the residue of the prejudice disease could begin to be cleansed and we all can begin to be healed from this mind sickness.
