“Lukewarm acceptance is more bewildering than outright rejection.”
Martin Luther King Jr.

I remember many cases of racism enacted towards me just because of the color of my skin, yet one instance I distinctly recall came from an actual church member in the small town of Rockwall, Texas. At the time I was in high school and we were to have a substitute teacher in history class for the day, a woman who happened to be the mother of one of my peers and one of the youth leaders at the church I was attending at the time. For whatever reason she did not remember me at that given moment and merely proceeded to do her duties by giving out the class assignment, letting us know there was not to be any talking. As expected when a substitute arrives, there was plenty of talking and giggling, but this time it was different. You see the group I had sat beside in class composed of various “races” ranging from ‘Hawaiian’ to ‘Caucasian’ to ‘Mexican’ to ‘African American’, which was no more than a group of 5 or 6 in a class 20+ majority ‘Caucasian’.

Now the group of ‘Caucasian’ students sitting right next to the substitute’s desk was audaciously loud and spoke over the substitute throughout the whole class, yet not once did she reprimand them. However, in my little ‘United Nations’ corner the chastising was definite and consistent, every giggle, every word the substitute hung onto and continuously got on the given group. As a student whispered a joke, in a moment of childish weakness I burst into laughter and the substitute felt she had enough, “I am writing your name down Priscylla and you will have to answer to the principal for your disruption!” I sat there in shock… and that is when my eyes began to narrow in anger, I looked her straight in the eyes and calmly stated, “Yes, please write my name down, that way I can march to the principal’s office right this instant and tell him of your racial profiling,” the entire class became silent in shock of my accusation and I pointed saying, “This entire time all the students including those who have been sitting right next to your desk have been laughing and talking but not ONCE did you tell them to be quiet! You have only gotten onto my group, the ONLY group consisting of students of another ‘race’ and THAT is what I call racism… so Please do me the favor, that way I can let Dr. LeMaster [the principal] know what you have been doing.” She sat in dismay and quickly grumbled, “Well if this is going to be an issue I can just erase your name from the book.. there see? I erased your name.. are you happy??” I merely nodded, knowing I had only begun to slaughter the beast called racism… imagine to her surprise who she saw walking through those church doors the next Sunday morning, interacting with her very daughter and church youth! Her ‘Christian’ racist head merely hung in shame as I looked her in the eyes, politely greeting her, stating “God Bless you.”

You see, many times we must challenge those who put us down for all the wrong reasons.. yet it is never our duty to humiliate them, rather it is our duty to stand for what is right and after what is wrong has been corrected, merely douse our previous enemies with love. I do not hold ill will towards that woman, who clearly displayed racial discriminatory actions towards me; rather I hope that her heart was transformed from the experience.

Sadly, this experience of racism is one of many I would go on to experience in my life. However, Pure Lunacy is to love even those who cast rocks upon us.