Is it the character or characteristics we should fight.
If hate is this monstrous feeling that repels people from one another then why does it exist? If everything in this world serves a purpose, what could the purpose of hate be? Does God hate us so much that He created such an abhorrent emotion that divides and torments a society? Just like fire, hate can burn down houses, neighborhoods and even cities in all of its severely devastating rage; it would be of no use to hate a racist.
People assume that the right thing to do is to hate a racist. Hate is not meant to be towards characters, rather it’s meant to be towards characteristics. A racist is the perceived character of a particular person; however racism is the characteristic that you are using to define this person as a racist. The ‘racist’ is a person even without the characteristic of racism that is associated with him or her. So what we have to hate is this characteristic of racism.
Is this going over your head? What does it mean to hate a characteristic? How would it be possible to hate something not tangible? You can see a racist; therefore you can hate him or her. But how can you hate racism?
To hate a characteristic means to do anything you can to change it. So in our case, if we hate racism and not the racist, we would help change these people. We need the world to understand that racism is inhumane in order to overcome the horror of segregation. We need to teach people not to see the color of a person’s skin when they try to interact with them. The world needs to love a person for his or her kindness or sincerity or honesty or diligence.
Gandhi said that “An eye for an eye would make the whole world blind.”The opposite of the aforementioned sort of ‘peaceful hate’ would be to hate the racist; causing him to hate you back and stay away. This wouldn’t change anything now, would it?
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