Who you hate is not the problem (hate) 4.16.02

The great philosopher and mid-'80s stand-up comedian Emo Phillips once said, "Why hate other people because of their race when there are so many GOOD reasons to hate others?"
Like most good comedy, there is something profound about this statement that gives one pause. This was about the only great thing Emo Phillips ever said before he disappeared, but one really good thought per career or lifetime is better than most people manage.
I've had reason of late to consider those words and the subject of hate. I will not go into great detail about who I've met who said what about whom when I was at the grocery store, the mall, the gas station, the drive-thru, the bookstore, the university, et cetera, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
Hate is common, pervasive, casual and always justified by something.
If it isn't some clerk commenting out of the side of his mouth about "a member of our town's Hispanic community" who can't find the ketchup, it's a cop blithely using the term "Counciltucky" (a firing offense in my opinion) to describe all the "white trash" in his district or it could be an otherwise upstanding member of our city's professional "class" ranting about how unlike "us" Arabs are.
I call B.S. on all of that.
You can dress it up however you want. You can make it a joke, call it your opinion or claim it is the well-considered fruit of your greater geopolitical knowledge, but hate is hate. The problem is not WHO you hate, it is THAT you hate. Don't believe me? Ask God.
I am not a very religious man. I make no apologies for remaining unaffiliated although I did dabble briefly in Catholicism around the false millennium of 2000.
I have always believed religion and spirituality were two issues that intersected. Combine the fact that I would be afraid to pick the "wrong" religion, denomination, sect or cult with the fact that I am more or less agnostic and you get a pretty clear picture of where I stand on religion and why.
But the vast majority of mankind is affiliated with one religion or another. at least they claim to believe in God. Not just A God, but THE God, the SAME God - granted with slightly different prophets, messages, powers inclinations and chosen people, but basically the same God.
I've seen very few religions outside of "Conan" novels that did not promote love and peace as virtues. Likewise, I've seen very few religions escape the inevitable twisting of God's words to justify hate.
Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. It's pretty straight forward and universal.
Yet, I've seen few religions that did not have those hangers-on who could take decent philosophies and twist them for their own agendas.
This should just help illustrate how universal much of the human experience is.
Most people know enough to be ashamed of their hate, which is why they dress it up or hide it.
There is something to be said in favor of blatant racists. At least they aren't hiding anything. When a guy is shouting epithets and slandering entire groups of people loudly and proudly, he shows the world how ugly and ignorant he is allowing them the opportunity to avoid him.
In my experience, the best cure for racism is exposure. As much as students and faculty complained about Iowa State being so terribly, terribly white (another subtle form of "legitimized" racism I call "OK to hate white folks"), it was a great place to meet people from all over the world and I'm glad I did.
Really getting to know people from different countries makes two things obvious to you. One is that the vast majority of mankind is made up of absolute sweethearts.
It's true.
I can go through an entire list of the people I've met from different countries of different races who subscribed to different religions who were so kind, considerate and all-around good they made me weep thinking about what a bad person I am.
Koreans, Malaysians, Africans, Arabs, Jews, Indians, Guatemalans, Mexicans, Colombians, Pakistanis, Chinese, Japanese, Irishmen, Belgians, English, Germans, Hungarians, Australians, Canadians and even Frenchmen have all crossed my path and impressed me with something they should never have needed to prove to me - their humanity.
People are good and the only way to know that is to go out and meet them because it is harder than hell to hate a whole group of people once you get to few of them.
With that said, you cannot teach diversity in the schools. Diversity cannot be learned, it has to be experienced and trying to teach people how they should feel and act toward others is futile and ultimately does more harm than good.
Meet people, learn about them, hang out, do whatever it takes to really get to know them and you will find it impossible to hate them just for their race.
Like Emo said, race is ultimately one of the lamest reasons to hate others.
- Greg Jerrett is a Nonpareil staff writer. His column runs on Wednesdays and Saturdays. He may be contacted at 328-1811, Ext. 279, or by e-mail at gjerrett@nonpareilonline.com.