Letters to the Editor
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I had a racist friend
I'm a liberal (west) coastal elite who lived in the South and made a racist friend. There were not a lot of single people in their 20s in the town I lived in who had similar interests, like music and beer. But he did, and he introduced me to lots of really nice people. He helped me make friends
Then, one night, I went to pick him up at his apartment. Walked in and there's a big confederate flag greeting me, hung on the wall above his couch! A painting of a Civil War battle with the Rebels winning adorned another wall. And a framed snapshot of him with George Allen was on top of the TV. Uh-huh. And he was a school teacher! My superior moral outrage seethed, but I held my tongue. I thought, "well, we don't agree." Turned out this guy had black and Latino friends and never disparaged any ethnic group, at least not to me. He thought of his apartment's decor as a way of showing his southern pride.
Though we've lost touch since i've moved away, I'm still conflicted about his views. But, I'm not conflicted about the fact that I stayed friends with him. If we always hang out with people who see the world as we do, we lull ourselves into thinking that everyone believes what we believe. That's dangerous, too, I think.