We Can Learn Not To Hate

My family and I are Hmong. Hmong people are from the mountains of Thailand and Laos. But I was born in France and moved to Spokane five years ago.

I want to know why racists choose to hate people of color. I think it’s because some try to use religion as an excuse to hurt people who are different from themselves. My social studies teacher told me that groups such as neo-Nazi skinheads say God tells them to hate other people.

Maybe they’re just afraid of different cultures. That fear must come from the fact that they don’t understand them.

I hear about so much discrimination toward minorities in the Northwest. My sister told me about something that happened to her a few years ago. She and her friends went to the beach in Coeur d’Alene. They were approached by a man who yelled, “Go home. I don’t want your kind here!”

And once I was playing basketball alone in a park when a guy with a shaved head and wearing military clothing drove up and yelled the same thing. Sometimes, my friends and I just walk down the street and people look at us as if they don’t like us. All we can do is ignore them.

Stories like these used to make me think that most white people are racists. But I know now from my white friends that it’s really only a small portion of whites.

Ignorant people probably never will know how their angry words and glances hurt, unless they can be in the shoes of a person who has had to deal with racism. But I have some ideas about what might make these hateful people change.

One way to prevent racism from spreading would be to offer more education about other cultures. Cultural education should start in elementary school. Each week, children should learn about a different culture.

For example, my social studies teacher is part American Indian. He told my class that in his culture, young people don’t look older people straight in the eyes because it’s disrespectful - it means that the young person is challenging the older person. That’s something I never would have known, but now when I meet an American Indian, I am more respectful because I know something about that culture.

With more cultural education, maybe racists will stop hating people of color. Maybe they can learn to think about our feelings instead.

MEMO: “Your turn” is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a “Your turn” column for consideration, contact Rebecca Nappi at 459-5496 or Doug Floyd at 459-5466 or write “Your turn,” The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane 99210-1615.