Sitting in the cafeteria of an inner city hospital in Newark
the four of us were talking about our commute to work. I
voiced my awareness of the deep breath I took as I entered the
on-ramp for the interstate highway and headed home.
The streets of Newark were dangerous. People sitting in cars
at stop lights were robbed. People unloading groceries in
their driveways were mugged. Drivers raced through lights
changing from yellow to red rather than
stopping and waiting.
I shared my resistance to locking my car doors. They looked
at me dumbfounded. I explained my memory of riding in the
family car to Chicago and when we entered the south side my
mother turned to us in the backseat and said, “Kids. Lock your
doors. Even the police are colored.” Now, forty years later,
to prove I was not a racist I resisted locking my car doors.
One of my African American colleagues gasped. “Richard, you
fool. We all lock our doors.” She went on to inform me that
I should use a different route to get to the interstate, one
that had two lanes in both directions rather than one, which
allowed for more options to escape if someone tried to enter
your car.
I expressed some relief that locking my doors may not be a sign
of racism until another colleague suggested that it sounded like
I was more comfortable being a classist than being a racist.
He was correct and I was caught once again in my prejudices.
Richard Bennink -- Random Reflections 
Your mother’s comments caught my attention, because my mother, born and raised in an all-white enclave of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, held the same views; when we lived in Milwaukee, she was petrified of “blacks.” From whence cometh this irrational fear? Part of it, I think, is the culture of Europe brought over here by our white ancestors. By the Christian faith, and the colonial experience, they were already conditioned to see themselves as superior, and people of color as a danger. In other words, they were already plagued by racism, and it fit perfectly into the racial temperament of Amerikkka. Thanks for sharing so candidly.
Tom,
I always appreciate your comments.
Richard