A Tragic Mess -Why?

Why is the history and experience of humanity characterized by hatred, animosity, conflict and man’s destruction of man? Is it possible for one to read history and be proud that he is a member of this human order of being?

Great progress is evidenced in man’s conquest and utilization of the earth to enhance his life. Yet there is little evidence of progress in man’s conquest of his basic nature which seems to view other people as part of the “stuff” of the earth to be used and not respected. History is the recounting of war, the dissolution of empires, injustice and the search for an elusive utopian realm and condition of life.

We have been given the earth and each other, yet each generation has made a tragic mess of the affairs of human life. There seems to be little change in man since he first expressed himself in Cain a long time ago; he is still capable of murder, if not in fact, then in attitude of mind. Still we ask the question, “Why?”

One of the specific manifestations of this “tragic mess” is the problem of racism. Many are possessed of a cast of mind which convinces them that they are inherently better than people of another race. The origin of white-Negro racism can, in large measure, be laid at the door of those who presumed the right to use other people rather than respect them.

Given the existing situation in our land, arising out of an era of Negro slavery, we find now that racism is not a one-sided attitude. Whatever the inner feelings of superiority or inferiority, there exists mutual disdain in many quarters. Many, though not all, in the Negro community see little problem with holding the entire white community responsible for its social and economic plight. This is done with the ease and satisfaction that always accompanies the conviction that fault lies beyond oneself.

Tragically, there are yet many of the white race who still see the Negro as a lesser human being. In it all there is a writ large that racism is the result of man’s sense of his own centrality, individually and corporately, in the universe and his inordinately high view of his own importance.

The thought comes that we are all most adept at describing the racial problem; but what can be done to solve it? At this point we come face to face with a typical American approach to averting imminent tragedy – the crash program.

History has seen us sit about as the clouds of war have rolled overhead and then respond, from an ill-prepared position, with all our might in a concerted effort to survive, and in God’s providence we have so survived.

So the racial conflict has been blowing in the wind for 350 years. It exists not in overt situations or in the presence or lack of property. It exists in the hearts and minds of men in the form of an attitude; an attitude of animosity.

The ingenuous idea that is problem, which arises out of a human malady, lends itself to solution in a crash-program of money spending is absurd. No matter how the concentration of wealth is shifted, the problem will not vanish until the attitudes of human beings change toward an acceptance of persons of another race.

To do only is never enough. To do for the right reason out of a proper (God-intended) attitude is the required approach. If we build an ostensibly beautiful society through legislation, forced integration, coerced job opportunity, etc. with no sweeping change of heart, then the problem smolders in the seething discontent of a people who are patronized on the one hand and a people whose honest self-expression becomes law violation on the other.

A change of human heart and attitude is here set forth as the only solution to the racial problem. This involves rejection of the preposterous notion that an entire race is guilty of injustices of the few. It requires the recognition that we are individuals dealing with individuals.

We, of whatever race, cannot placate our conscience by immersing ourselves in the group position in which we find a vehicle to express our prejudices while maintaining our anonymity. Black men deal with white men; white individuals deal with black individuals. The “dealing” will be determined by a man’s basic view of the worth, dignity and value of another man, black or white.

There is only one “view” that is right. It is God’s view and we know it well. We must adopt it. Money cannot buy it, law cannot superimpose it. God can, however, give this attitude of non-prejudice when man stops gazing into a mirror in enthralled self-satisfaction long enough to listen to what God is saying.

The Rev. Mr. Smith is minister of South Congregational Church.