Services 2 — Why Not Reach Out

Nobody actually talks about racism , only about the ways to fix the atrocities it has caused. But wait, before I proceed I want to say I wrote this page over and over. How do you write about racism without making one or both sides mad? I don't want to make anyone mad, so how to address racism? Racism is ugly, racism is scary, racism is unforgiving. When Blacks are forced to endure and live through racism how could they react with anything but anger? While understandable, anger solves nothing. My first drafts were indiscriminately indicting White people, I can't do that, I don't know all White people. That's when I realized I've never read any books on race, don't know any theories, the only people I ever hear talking about race are usually just yelling. The only way for me to approach racism is to just tell my story, you might not like what I say but you can't say I'm wrong because it happened. With that outlook I can only indict myself, Steve Boynton, because I'm guilty and as I said in the video maybe Robert and D.G. with me. But what makes my story relevant is I believe millions others lived the same story...

I was a racist before I ever met a Black person. In the late 1950's and early 60's we played with slingshots, but that's not what we called them. We called them N........shooters. My views did soften somewhat when schools integrated because they were just kids, but there were many fights and you weren't "allowed" to exactly be friends. I retained many racist views in my adult life. I say on my video " I thought ....I wasn't a racist" that there is no better spokesman for race than the guys on ESPN. I think it's because I was used to listening, believing, being entertained by Dominique, R.C., Swagu talking about sports, it's almost like you know them, so when they talked about race I listened. I heard Eddie Glauld jr. speak, not on ESPN, so eloquently and intelligently about race and I listened, I heard what he said but I regretfully say I don't think many of us did. Now looking back I can see the built in advantage I had in life being White, my racism was not based on actions of Blacks, but started in my community. That's hard to say and hurts to say. Maybe you're a White person who didn't grow up like me and you were never like me, then I really am glad for you. I believe that myself and White people like me started racism so only we can put an end to it. Racism is scary, racists are scary. I believe Why Not Reach Out has developed a program to meet racism head on. The program called "The Solution" is too big for WNRO by itself and we are looking for partners. I will bring you details soon, while spending time in the local community listening and learning to see how we can help. Thanks, talk to you soon.