You know, I was reading the life story of one of the members of the governing body of Jehovah's Witnesses yesterday, Samuel Herd.
https://www.jw.org/en/library/magazines/watchtower-study-may-2018/poor-start-rich-ending/
I bring him up because he was born during the era of racial segregation in Liberty, Indiana, and served in areas of the south where deep-rooted prejudices and racism ran rampant. In his life story he relates: "
There were laws in place to make it illegal for the races to mix, and there was also the very real threat of violence. In many places, the brothers had good reason to fear that if the two races met together for worship, their Kingdom Hall would be destroyed. Such things did happen. If black Witnesses preached from door to door in a white neighborhood, they would be arrested—and likely beaten up. So in order to get the preaching work done, we obeyed the laws, hoping that things would change for the better."
He goes on to relate more of the racial tensions he lived through and the brushes he had with the KKK. One was:
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Racism ran high in those days. One time, the KKK held a march in a town we were visiting in Tennessee. I remember another time when the service group stopped for a break at a fast-food restaurant. I went to use the men’s restroom, and I noticed that a very rough-looking character, tattooed like a white supremacist, got up and followed me. But a white brother, far larger than either me or the rough-looking customer, came in after us. “Is everything all right, Brother Herd?” he asked me. The other customer left quickly without using the facilities."
What I really appreciated though, were the thoughts of brother Herd about why racism exists:
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Over the years, I have seen that prejudice is not really about a person’s skin; it is about sin—the Adamic sin that infects us all. And I have learned that a brother is a brother regardless of skin color, and he will die for you if need be."
Racism is a sin that is deeply rooted in some people, from birth. It is not something you are born with, but if you are born into a society where hatred is taught, then it can be deeply embedded in a person at a tender age. And at a young age, it unfortunately will affect the rest of that person's life. Even if later on in life, they realize they were wrong, it can be a very slow and hard process to break free from. And possibly it can continue to creep up in a person.
In some people, even among Jehovah's Witnesses, who were once part of the KKK and were taught racial hatred, who later rejected it after learning the truth about God and that he does not reject anyone based on their skin or race or ethnicity this old personality trait can still surface and perhaps may never fully be rooted out until God's new world and they are perfected.
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At this Peter began to speak, and he said: “Now I truly understand that God is not partial, but in every nation the man who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him."-Acts 10:34, 35.
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Strip off the old personality with its practices, 10 and clothe yourselves with the new personality."-Colossians 3:9, 10.