I never thought about it

The other morning my wife had her blood tested. This required that she eat nothing before the test. So we decided to eat breakfast out. I suggested we eat at Sambo’s. That is the name I call Sam’s Tacos. I suddenly dawned upon me why I call that restaurant Sambo’s.

Many, many moons ago, when I was in elementary school, we had a story in our reading books about a little black boy named Little Black Sambo. I never gave it a thought that this story was racist. I doubt if our teacher did. My guess is that neither the author nor the publisher did either. That is just the way it was back in those days. I enjoyed the story because it was about a little black boy who had a huge appetite and consumed sixteen pancakes because he was so hungry. Be that as it may, it has been in my memory for lo these many years. Was it racist? I believe it was. Just as I believe many other sayings and thoughts I acquired in my youth were. Was it racist that words, besides the N word, used for the black race, I learned to explain bargaining to get a lower price for something, you would "Jew" them down, or being stingy as a Scotsman, greasy as an Italian, stubborn as a German, sneaky as an Indian, and on and on.

Probably the worst part of this habit is that we do not give it a second thought. It becomes a part of our vocabulary and we say harmful things about those who are different from us. Perhaps, just perhaps it may not be so much racism as it is mean and deplorable to point out real and imagined differences in folks. It is also a way of attributing superiority of ourselves.

This is a difficult habit to break.

Be that as it may, it behooves us all not to make the perfect the enemy of the good. We should try to find the balance between what the world is and what we want it to be!

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