Author confronts his racial bias against neighbor after seeing small act of kindness

[Quixote1818]

Video at link


NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A Nashville author shared a beautiful example of confronting racial bias.

Carlos Whittaker says he formed a bias against his neighbor who has a large American flag draped on his front door and two white bunny statues in his front yard.

In the four years the two have been neighbors, Whittaker says the neighbor in his 70s never acknowledged him, even when he waved, smiled or shouted “morning.”

"My racial bias thought this old, white man who ignored me, with an American flag hanging in front of his door, in the Deep South, didn't like brown people," said Whittaker. "That's a bias that I had. We all have biases, right."

On Monday, Whittaker says he spotted the man walk out his front door with a can of paint and he proceeded to paint one of his white bunnies black. The sight brought Whittaker to tears.

“For the next 12 hours I was trying to come up with 1,000 other reasons why he painted that bunny black,” wrote Whittaker on Instagram. “Besides the reason my gut was telling me.”

More including video: https://www.wtvr.com/news/national/author-confronts-his-racial-bias-against-neighbor-after-seeing-small-act-of-kindness?fbclid=IwAR3rw6ma6YlJ2KkHeqGp5eW9mkId9MNg9h3LGU_K8ohDXNxNg8k-PBZlVJQ

[MagickMuffin]

1. And that's how we come together

One small gesture can start a dialogue about who we are!

[Dustlawyer]

7. Also, as the man pointed out, he got know know and understand someone from another race early on

and knew that people from other races are still people just like him.

The biggest racists tend to be people that never really got to know someone from another race. This does not always hold true of course, but generally it is common to believe in stereotypes if you do not know the people from that group very well.

[mopinko]

2. who's cuttin onions in here?

i cant even watch the video. i have work to do in my garden. these tears are all i have time for now.
shared it on fb, tho.

[frazzled]

3. What a touching story

And yes, we all need to check our biases. You can't judge a book by its cover; picking it up and reading it is the only way to discover what it's about.

And each book is different, subtle in its meanings and intentions. That's why when we talk about black people, as if they were one thing, or white people, as if they were one thing ... or any other grouping or labeling (Christians, cops, teachers) ... we need to check ourselves and open up to becoming familiar with individual instances. Once we begin to label or assume or generalize, we are guilty of bias.

[SharonClark]

4. Great story!

I couldn't get the video in your link to unmute. Here's another version: https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/a-painted-lawn-bunny-brings-two-nashville-neighbors-together/

[democrank]

5. Simply beautiful

[IronLionZion]

6. We can all be prejudiced

and make assumptions about someone before getting to know them. And everyone can become woke to different degrees and at different stages in life. I've seen it after growing up as a brown American in Appalachia. 20 years later some of my classmates turned out to be predictably deplorable but some are woke liberal hippies and there is everything in between depending on the issue.

[Lucinda]

8. KNR

[Marcuse]

9. Maybe these neighbors will at least acknowledge each other going forward.

[TlalocW]

10. As a future curmudgeon

One shouldn't assume our apparent dislike of a person is race-based. It could just be people-based.

TlalocW

[List left]

11. A good example of not judging a book by its color. Let's be sure not to turn into them. nt