The forest for the trees.

We’ve had hate groups and Americans who have sown the seeds of hate and prejudice since pre-Civil War times. This is nothing new.

Many Americans deny racism for several reasons. One is that they don’t want others to find out who they are. They feel safe in their hate if they are stealth. The second is that they honestly don’t believe they are, and in total honesty, are more afraid of repercussions from other white folks than admitting their prejudice and working to eradicate it. That’s because this “wedge” in America was started by the well-to-do who wanted free and cheap labor – from both slavery and from free whites who resided below them on the wealth scale.

But, don’t take my word for it. Read all about it. It is a topic that is not covered very well in our history books (until recently at least), but scholars have documented this history and written eloquently about our nation’s role and shame in home-grown hate. You can get a good, honest and thorough understanding from these two books: The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein, and The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.

Once you have finished them, if you want more information, go to your local bookstore and ask for anything they have on slavery, prejudice, racism, and African American history. The last topic could also be labeled Ugly White American history.

For many Americans, the racial divide was a thing of the past following some forward strides in the 1960s, and certainly after the election of our first black president, Barack Obama.

Yet, racism never went away. In fact, while most Americans were celebrating Obama’s election, others were seething. We know this because of the rise of the Tea Party Republicans who worked for eight years to obstruct any progress and achievement by Obama.

We also saw a meteoric rise in racism, white nationalism, hate crimes, and use of additional political wedge issues with the election of Donald Trump as president.

Hate has manifested itself directly out of the mouth of Trump, his minions, and other politicians at all levels. Along with prejudice against African Americans, we also see people from Latin America, Muslims, Jews, women, gays, American Indians and the very poor. Add to that list the Chinese, Irish, Italians, Germans and Poles who were willing and sometimes unwilling immigrants who also faced hatred and discrimination at the hands of powerful Americans. All these people have been victims of violence; discrimination in employment, education, immigration and in other ways like how much they are paid compared to white males. Many right-wing groups are aggressively working to restrict or eliminate voting rights through the use of loopholes such as poll taxes, stringent voter ID laws, reducing polling places, gerrymandering, and other tricks or bending of laws. Do you see a pattern here?

And since we have the highest percentage (per capita) of incarcerated Americans, it is worth a look at the racial/ethnic makeup of that population. It is overwhelmingly people of color – and not only are many being punished excessively for minor crimes, all inmates lose their right to vote. We hope. This will change in the future.

This follows the old adage, if you can’t win by playing the rules, change the rules or disregard the rules. That is not the American way.

But, let’s get back to the real issue. Why are so many white Americans so disinclined to give up their bigotry and hate towards others not exactly like them in skin color, religion, national origin, or some other difference?

Look, we know the rich have privilege that others do not. They get it because they can afford (buy) it and also because they can demand it. But, they also do this while denying any privilege for others below them.

The first American settlers from Europe sought a new life here to escape and avoid the ruthless domination of the royals and the landed gentry. Ironically, after a short period of time and following the birth of our nation founded on equality, fraternity, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we soon reverted back to a hierarchy that put most men and women under the thumb of those who could wield that power and garner most of the wealth in one way or another.

In the books cited above, it is well documented how the rich used fear to divide others. Divide and conquer has been known method of domination for centuries and longer. They told poor whites to fear the black man and the Native American. They demonized them both, criminalizing them, and denying many of the principles found in our Constitution that protected well-to-do white Americans, but not others.

Today we find a growing population of haters and they no longer hide in the shadows of our society as they once did. Encouraged by politicians at the highest levels of our government and society, white supremacy, racism, nationalism – all make it possible to create chaos, and in turn, make it easier to circumvent the ideals of America. They do this under the guise of patriotism and religion. And many are fooled by the lies and slight of hand being thrown at them.

But, there are many Americans who truly believe in love thy neighbor, kindness, charity, helping others with a hand up, kindness, fairness, and equality in every respect. But, they often do not stand up for their beliefs in the face of their peers, and certainly when the “masters” are watching. It is that fear thing all over again.

The irony is that it is so much easier, better and good to love each other, and help each other, and respect each other instead of all of this hate and fear we are seeing. While many white people mistakingly believe that helping a black or brown person by lifting them up socially and financially will have a negative impact on their own lives, this is a misconception. It is a lie propagated by the rich to stoke fear. In fact, as poor people of any color rise financially and socially, it is like a boat in the harbor. When the tide comes in, all boats rise. And, with poverty receding, so will crime, disease, and a lot other maladies of society.

One just has to have faith in our ability to live together without harming each other or keeping a large segment of our population down. We need to learn to not heed these "stories" of fear and go with our gut instincts that all men and women should be respected and helped when help is needed. Pay it forward instead of backward.

We see these calls of fear on social media all the time. We see it in the news as mass shootings continue to kill people (and children) in houses of worship, at schools, and shopping centers. Reject them. The discord happening in America today is manufactured to help the rich become richer and keep you and me from a better life – under their thumb.

Recently on the popular social media platform, Nextdoor , I saw this posting:

"Random knock on my door

Looking to mow lawns, no lawn equipment, not dressed for yard work, drove away didn’t stop at other neighbors. Person 1 Hair: Flat bill 2-tone baseball hat Top: Jacket Bottom: Dark denim Age: 20’s Sex: Male Race: African American Physical Build: Med Other: Gold tooth front top Vehicle 1 Color: Goldish tan Make: Chevy Model: Minivan Year: 06 Type: Van License Plate: Louisiana I have reported this information to the police."

The person who posted this made a lot of assumptions. Just because of them, they deemed a person “suspicious” and called the police. It wasn’t that long ago that African American slaves here in America had to carry a pass from their owner or else slave patrols (police) could shoot them on sight or lynch them. I’m not saying one should not be careful when a stranger shows up at your door, but one should not automatically criminalize them either. This is implicit bias. If you don’t know what that is, Google it and read and try to understand how it applies to us.

We have a lot of work to do to become the Americans described in our Declaration of Independence and our U.S. Constitution. And, we cannot do that by not changing our attitudes towards others or hiding behind the flag. We have to learn to accept those who are different from us – and even love them as our neighbors as all major religions preach. Now is the time to recognize the lies and the methods used by others to divide us, control us, and manipulate us so they can maintain the wealth and power that, in most cases, they earned on the backs of the rest of us.

Take a hard look and you’ll see the forest among the trees