Donald Sterling and the DNA of Hate
by Dr. Samori Swygert
I have another angle and final thought about Donald Sterling that America should really consider.
This is how racism is transmitted from generation to generation to generation:
Donald Sterling imposed this racist practice on his female trophy acquaintance. What do you think he would instill and indoctrinate in his offspring — someone he has a genuine vested interest in, someone that bares his last name and bloodline? If he was concerned about how his friends and colleagues viewed his “glamour girl,” I’m speculating he would be even more concerned about how they view his children.
This is what cripples any hope about fixing racism. Babies are born and children of various ethnic backgrounds will play together in fun and pleasantries, but the ideologies on race are encoded into the psyche of a young impressionable, and vulnerable mind.
Eventually this conditioning leads to habit, then to belief, and finally manifestation. I remember growing up and going to summer camps in different states and cities. I made good friends with children of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds; we shared lunches, played dodgeball, bowling, roller skating, baseball, basketball, had arts and crafts, went on biking trips and numerous field trips. The irony was that we all got along, we were ignorant to the dynamic of racism. Our concern was having fun and how we could make the next moment better.
However, we grow older, and centuries of indoctrination gets placed on a fragile mind. We get fed disinformation about humanity, superiority, inferiority, and our innocence becomes corrupted. That’s what’s so dangerous about Donald Sterling’s comments. Children look to their parents for guidance, direction, support, and instruction. As a child you are more liable to accept what your parent says because you have no true knowledge of the world and how it works. Kids will believe their parents primarily because these are the individuals that were routinely involved in their feeding, cleaning, clothing, education, spiritual development, and etc. So although racism is taught, it’s people like Sterling who are responsible for the transfer of racism like a bad chromosome or a contagion.
You then have to ask yourself: Where did he learn this, and who taught him this? Who are these friends that he caters to about race relations? What do these friends teach their kids about how to interact with African Americans and other ethnic groups? No, I don’t know his children at all, thus I can’t make a statement about their beliefs. However, you have to wonder what it would be like to be a fly on the wall in Donald Sterling’s household during conversations on race.
You have to think about the young fledgling recruits in the KKK, Neo Nazis, Skinheads, and other hate groups. Think about these public acts of violence. Many of these may be attributed to psychosis, but how many are racially motivated?
Donald Sterling is not an anomaly, I’m certain there’s lot more people that concur with his sentiments. Sadly, there’s probably another young generation that probably supports him because they were taught this hate speech. This fosters what I call, blind hate. This is the type of hate you have for someone you never even met, and are willing to exact hateful ACTIONS or IN-ACTIONS……..just because.
