"I'm not a racist, but..."

I once had a conversation with a coworker who didn't (or wouldn't) understand why telling our black colleague to "go back to Africa" was racist.

How many times have you listened as someone started a statement with, "I'm not a racist, but...," or, "I don't have a problem with gay people, but....," ...but what? People use the qualifier to make themselves feel justified their intolerance.

Blind hatred is the most dangerous force on this planet --- all the more so if it is latent, subtle, and unquestioned, a thoroughly arrogant repudiation of difference that is woven into the fabric of a society. The seeds of what can become genocidal hatred are sown as such, and reach fruition through manipulation by those with the most to gain by fear-mongering and war-planning. Even worse, people too often use religion to veil their evil deeds, thereby corrupting what should be the world's primary tool for promoting peace.

It's easy to write off my former coworker as an isolated incident, unfortunate, but ultimately unimportant. He's far from a genocidaire, for sure. But all forms of hatred and assumed superiority are unacceptable, and endemic of a larger society problem of, essentially, tolerance of intolerance, from an uncomfortable work conversation to the denial basic human rights to the denial of the right to live.

So the next time someone starts to say, "I'm not a racist, but...," stop them mid-sentence, and walk away. Don't give audience to their unrighteous indignation.