We Can Stop Hatred From Happening
Inside each of us, no matter what our age, is the child we once were. Our inner child’s mind was a sponge, absorbing everything around us. We are born with no filter in our brains. Whatever was happening around us seeped in and became our beliefs.
As a child, I don’t recall anyone speaking negatively about people who looked different from us. My family traveled a bit, and when I was eight, I believe, my father took the entire family to Alabama for a summer while he attended school on a military base. I befriended a sweet girl in the neighborhood where we rented a house near the military base. I thought she was the coolest, and we hung out as much as we could.
She was Korean, and I found her more fascinating than threatening. I took in the decor in her home and the food they shared with me as something interesting, even though it was different from what I was used to. We wrote to each other for years after.
The point I’m making is that when I was a kid, I didn’t learn that people different from us were to be feared or hated. I was accepting of everyone.
As I grew up, though, I witnessed people around me openly sharing their dislike (or possibly hatred) of those who were different from them, using derogatory names, laughing at them, and I didn’t understand why people had to behave that way towards those they didn’t even know. Since I was void of prejudice, bigotry, and hate for people different than me, I developed an empathy for the people who were mocked and hated.
Having compassion for others shifts our focus from what’s wrong with them to embracing them as human beings just as we are. If more of us did that, we’d be more tolerate of others, be willing to learn rather than fear, and have less hatred in our hearts.
Feeling compassion is easy for me because of the way I was treated. I could never understand how people could treat others with disrespect and cruelty.
With that being said, I’m currently reading the book, My Effin’ Life, the autobiography of Geddy Lee, the bass player from the rock band Rush. My husband read it first and shared some things about the book with me, so I knew there would be his family’s recollections about the Holocaust and how they survived to find sanctuary in Canada.
But before Geddy Lee got to that part in his book about the Holocaust, he shared how he and other Jewish children were bullied, tormented, and abused just because of their religion. My eyes swelled with tears (with compassion) for what Geddy Lee went through as a child and teenager.
Today, I reached the Holocaust section, and I put the book down to write this blog post.
Sadly, many of us were exposed to negativity about Jewish people with nicknames that flew around like it was no big deal. Why? I personally heard talk about how Jewish people are shrewd business people and have money, and there was a jealousy that oozed out of the mouths of those talking about them. They had money because they worked for it! Gosh! It felt like they learned the Jewish people were the chosen ones, so everyone else was bound to a life of lack and less than.
I didn’t understand that way of thinking. We all have the power to control our own lives and how we choose to live them.
As an adult, I experienced bigotry and prejudice toward others. It bothered me. I believe that we all have a choice in how we view and treat people, just as they have a choice in how they treat us. If a person who looks different than me is kind and respectful, I will be kind and respectful back. The same is true if a white person is rude to me; they don’t get a pass to do that just because we have the same skin color.
Reading about the Holocaust made me feel so much empathy for the Jewish people then and now (with the awful shootings at synagogues), and how I know that the Holocaust was all because of one evil, sick, twisted man who understood the method to brainwash weak-minded masses would be to use fear, propaganda, and lies.
Hatred for people of different races, ethnicities, and even social standings runs rampant in America, too. Much of that is passed down from one generation to the next. The Jews never did anything to the Germans and Nazis other than exist. The African American people of our country did not deserve to have their ancestors taken from their native lands to become slaves to white American men. What is with white males who think they are better and more worthy than another human being?
One evil man, as well as others who shared his beliefs and followed his orders without question (regardless of whether they were wrong and inhumane because it went along with their upbringing with prejudices), brought about the Jewish people’s horrible fate for what? Really, for what?
Starved prisoners, nearly dead from hunger, pose in a concentration camp in Ebensee, Austria. The camp was reputedly used for “scientific” experiments. It was liberated by the 80th Division. May 7, 1945. Lt. A. E. Samuelson. (Army) NARA FILE #: 111-SC-204480 WAR & CONFLICT BOOK #: 1103
I had hoped that, as a human race, we had learned a lesson from WWII and Hitler. Sadly, the resurgence of anger and hatred is still breeding, not only against people of color and Jewish folks, but now, against those who have different sexual preferences and birthplaces.
I don’t think the hatred (for others not like us) ever left, but was somewhat controlled by religion, preaching to love thy neighbor and all. And since religion is losing its grip on humanity, it’s once again becoming a free-for-all of values, morals, and compassion for others.
Arthur C. Clarke once said, “One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion. So now people assume that religion and morality have a necessary connection. But the basis of morality is really very simple and doesn’t require religion at all.”
Morality, integrity, and intelligence don’t come from religion. We can cultivate those qualities within us simply by being a good human being and caring about others.
The most important thing a person could do in his or her lifetime is to be tolerant of others and put love above hatred, bigotry, racism, homophobia, and the like.
We can rise above the lies and propaganda and see things for what they truly are by taking the time to search for the truth – that we are all in this life together, regardless of our color, creed, religion, or sexual preference. Following a mass of misinformation and lies does no one any good, except the person who created the lies for their own gain.
We can choose not to hate. Let’s learn the facts instead of the fiction that drives a wedge through our communities. Why not teach children to be accepting instead of rejecting?
Think about this. If there were a disaster, wouldn’t we all work together to help one another to save ourselves? I think we would.
Thank you for reading this.
To ending hate,
Francesca
Written by a human for humans.
© 2025 FrancescaME | All rights reserved.
NO AI TRAINING: Any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.
That wax beautifully written Francesca. Unfortunately growing up in the South I was certainly aware of the hatred. Black people primarily were treated worse than livestock and I remember signs on restaurant doors and bathrooms that said “Whites Only.” There was a Jewish synagogue right around the corner from my house and I always respected them as good neighbors. But the thing I will never forget is when I was about 10 years old, my father opened his first restaurant after serving in the Navy in WWll, then a term in the US Coast Guard, and the 14 years in… Read more »
Thank you for reading this and for your comment. I am so sorry your father, you and your family had to experience that horrible racism, bigotry and ignorance. It truly is ignorance and laziness to be better than your ancestors.