Young People Ask . . .
How Can I Cope With Racial Prejudice?
The museum was just a few miles from their home, and since the two 11-year-old boys had only enough money for the admission fee, they had elected to walk.
To reach their destination, they had to cross a large street that served as the town’s barrier between blacks and whites. As they ventured across that divider without incident, they began to relax and enjoy the summer sun. But seemingly out of nowhere came a large group of white youths. Brandishing sticks and hurling racial slurs, the mob began to chase them, yelling, “Get them! Get them!”
RACIAL prejudice. News reports show it to be a worldwide problem. Discrimination in housing, employment, and medical treatment are thus common complaints.
Sooner or later, then, you may stand face-to-face with racial prejudice. Some youths, for example, are victims of bias in school—subjected to unending racial slurs, treated condescendingly by teachers. “My teacher will ridicule me in class,” says one Jewish youth. “He will bring up old prejudices and beliefs. He will also totally ignore me in class.” Says a teenage girl named Pamela: “Prejudice in our school is an epidemic because every time we have an assembly program blacks sit on one side and whites sit on the other side of the auditorium.”
Fifteen-year-old Trena, the child of an interracial marriage, often feels caught in a virtual vise of prejudice. She says: “If I associate with blacks, then the white students feel I don’t want to be with them. However, if I associate with the white students, the blacks feel that I think I am better than they are.”
How Victims of Prejudice Feel
Perhaps you too have experienced being passed over for a job, denied entrance to a school you wanted to attend, treated impolitely in a store or a restaurant, or harassed by peers. If so, you know that prejudice hurts. Says 17-year-old Lucy: “Prejudice really angers me.” Being of Spanish background, Lucy well knows how frustrating prejudice can be. “Even though I do my work and get good grades in school, I never get recognition. If a white person does well, my teacher praises him. But no matter how hard you work, if you are not white, it is not good enough.”
Other youths react to prejudice with quiet resignation. Says one teenage girl who is black: “In my school, most are white, and I get along with the kids pretty well. They do call me names, but I don’t really mind because I’m used to it now.”
Yet, some allow the cutting remarks and condescending attitudes of others to crush their self-esteem. Says one young man: “My mother and father were of two different races. As I grew up, I was looked down on by both sides. As a result, I have suffered much mental and emotional damage. I can remember at times being ashamed of my color.”
Coping With Prejudice
Understandably, then, racial prejudice can ignite feelings of rage, a desire to retaliate, to get even, to rise up in rebellion! “Mere oppression may make a wise one act crazy,” says Ecclesiastes 7:7. But while violent revolutionary movements may call attention to injustices—in some cases even provide a measure of relief—history shows that the results of such movements are, at best, temporary. Besides, “hatred is what stirs up contentions.” (Proverbs 10:12) So responding to hate with hate inevitably makes a bad situation worse!
The Bible says: “That which is made crooked cannot be made straight.” (Ecclesiastes 1:15) Human rulership is bent beyond hope. (Jeremiah 10:23) The most sweeping governmental reform cannot erase the basic causes of prejudice: selfishness, greed, and a desire for self-exaltation. (Compare James 3:13-16; 4:1-3.) And as a proverb puts it: “Even if you should pound the foolish one . . . , his foolishness will not depart from him.” (Proverbs 27:22) Rising up against the establishment thus changes little.
How, then, should a youth react when confronted with prejudice? Here are some suggestions:
Avoid overreacting. Sensitized by past experiences, you may naturally tend to react to anything that smacks of bias. However, the Bible cautions: “Do not hurry yourself in your spirit to become offended, for the taking of offense is what rests in the bosom of the stupid ones.” (Ecclesiastes 7:9) So give others the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps race is not really at issue.
Understand the nature of prejudice. Says Proverbs 19:11: “The insight of a man certainly slows down his anger.” Try to understand that bigotry is bred into some individuals from childhood. (See “How Can I Overcome Feelings of Racial Prejudice?” appearing in the November 8, 1988, issue of Awake!) It may also help to talk matters over with an understanding adult, perhaps your parents.
Remember, too, that “the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one” and that Satan has “blinded the minds of the unbelievers” so as to divide mankind. (1 John 5:19; 2 Corinthians 4:4) Realizing that the minds of people are enslaved, you can even feel compassion for those who act out of dense ignorance.
Do not “return evil for evil.” Being the victim of a racial slur or being subjected to a tasteless dose of racial “humor” can arouse strong feelings. Recalls a 16-year-old girl named Tara: “I went to a school that was predominantly white. The kids would whisper to one another—but loud enough so I could hear—all kinds of racial slurs.” It may be most tempting to lash back. But remember: Those inflicting the hurtful comments often want you to get angry and retaliate, giving excuse to inflict physical harm or further verbal abuse upon you. Well does Proverbs 14:17 say: “He that is quick to anger will commit foolishness.”
So try to keep cool in spirit. Keep in mind the words of an ancient wise counselor: “Don’t pay attention to everything people say.” (Ecclesiastes 7:21, Today’s English Version) “If I had really listened to them,” recalls Tara, “they would have driven me crazy. But I did not let it get to me.” So squelch the impulse to “return evil for evil.” (Romans 12:17) “Do not answer anyone stupid according to his foolishness, that you yourself also may not become equal to him,” advises the Bible. (Proverbs 26:4) ‘Turning the other cheek’ by ignoring the abuse is not cowardly but is, in the long run, the most practical thing to do. (Matthew 5:39) In time your tormentors may tire of their childish game. And “where there is no wood the fire goes out.”—Proverbs 26:20.
Know when to speak up. Not all injustice must be quietly endured. There is “a time to keep quiet and a time to speak.” (Ecclesiastes 3:7) And it may be wise for you to take steps to protect yourself. Tara thus informed her parents of the abuse she was receiving. In time she was able to attend another school. Another situation may involve someone who constantly irks you with clumsy attempts at racial humor. Perhaps that individual really does not appreciate how obnoxious such speech is. Talking matters over in a kind and calm way with the offender just may set him straight.
Do not lose your self-esteem. If others hold you in low esteem, never forget that God has ‘numbered the very hairs of your head’ and that you are considered as valuable in his eyes. (Matthew 10:30) Build your self-esteem, not upon the opinions of godless youths, but upon having a solid friendship with God. (Compare 1 Corinthians 1:31.) Your racial features, which may be a target of ridicule by your peers, are a manifestation of the enormous creativity of the God who “made out of one man every nation of men.”—Acts 17:26.
Of course, only Jehovah God can bring about a “color-blind” society, which he will soon do by means of his heavenly government. (Daniel 2:44) In the meantime, apply Bible principles as best you can and try to cope with the situation. Enjoy the association at congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses, where you can be with individuals who are working hard to rid themselves of racial bias. Do not hesitate to implore your heavenly Father for help when the going gets rough. Says young Lucy: “I have to pray and pray hard to cope with prejudice. But when I have to endure it, I say my prayer, and I know Jehovah is with me.”
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Some youths feel they are overlooked in school because of racial prejudice