I’m not going to lie to you. I always read history books about the people who opposed the Civil Rights movement, and I thought they were all just people who lived in the south, and their families had a history of being slave owners. I thought it was about family pride, and that they didn’t want to think anyone in their family was wrong. It was a different time, and it was common to say things like “colored” back then. I knew racism was a thing, and I just thought if you said things like “colored” or made fun of the way Black people talked, your parents just didn’t correct you. I thought maybe they didn’t learn it was wrong. I think that’s why a lot of my villains in my stories are so clearly evil. I don’t want people to be able to justify my villains’  actions. I thought I wanted to live during historical times. I wanted to know what I would actually do if I was actually confronted with historical human rights issues. I figured people would clearly lookout for people based on the fact that everyone is human at the end of the day. 

The last few years have taught me that I was wrong. People will justify anything at the end of the day if it makes them uncomfortable to alter their belief system. I think this will help me create more complex characters though. I genuinely don’t think anyone in this day and age think they are bigoted at all. There are arguments to justify everything in this world so who do you listen to if you can’t trust the media or your parents?

I can’t answer that for anyone but myself. I know everyone says that you can’t fully put yourself in another person’s shoes, but humor me for a minute, please. What if you sent your kid to the store right around the corner? He’s been there hundreds of times on his own. He is seventeen. He will go off to college in a year, or two. It’ll only take a few minutes, and he’ll be back home. Then you get a call. You have to come to identify your child’s body. He was shot because someone thought he was reaching in his hoodie for a gun. You’re devastated, but you expect justice will be done because someone murdered your baby. Then your child’s killer gets off with no punishment. You find out there are numerous people who agree with the court’s decision. Then you see it happen again and again with similar results to your friends. Now imagine the same situation only you get a call from the hospital where your child was taken that the doctor on call refused to treat your child because of how they identified themselves.  Are you angry yet? Would you burn a city down?  No? You are probably a saint then because I would probably roast marshmallows with the flames.  

I hope that one day I can be a better example to the younger generation, and they don’t have to say, “It was a different time.”