Take Personal Offense

“You can’t tell Jewish jokes around Amy.  She won’t allow it.”

Good advice, coming from a friend who finally got the message. Joe was a good buddy of mine, who used to love telling jokes demeaning the Jews.  “I don’t want to hear it,” I’d say to him. “If you’ll tell Jewish jokes to me, you’ll tell Black jokes behind my back.”

Years later, I was touring South Africa, when a fellow traveler, who, admittedly, had never socialized with a Black person, approached me distraught. “After seeing all of the horrors of Apartheid, I need to do something for Black people back home. I want to go into the ghetto and help but I don’t know what to do.  Tell me, Amy, what can I do for your people back home?!?

She was sincere, in earnest, but oh, so naïve.  I didn’t have the heart to tell her that setting foot in the ghetto was the last thing she needed to do.  So I advised her to do what I had done with Joe. 

“You needn’t be a crusader or an activist,” I told her. “The best thing you can do to reduce bigotry can be done right in your own neighborhood with your friends. Each time you hear a racial epithet, each time you hear an anti-Semitic joke, each time you hear a terminology that bashes gays, stand firm before your friends and take personal offense.  Be insulted, as if the remark had been directed at you.  Let it be known, that such talk in not acceptable in your presence.”

Those of you who are familiar with my writing, know that unity within diversity is a major theme of mine.  I am encouraged by the increasing number of enlightened people who are fostering oneness and are coming together in this country. There are some who, through dramatic action, have made a widely visible impact in this arena.  But each one of us, in our own small circle, can make an equally meaningful impact, in this simple way. 

So the next time you hear disparaging remarks about some one different from you, I encourage you to take personal offence. Be courageous and speak up for them in a rational, peaceful manner.

Remember … when you insult any of God’s creations, you insult the Creator.