This week we have seen chaos in our country. I have been accused of all sorts of things and called ugly names because I dared to believe the best of people and our country. People are terrified right now. Opportunistic idiots on both sides have been taking advantage of the situation.
As a white, straight, Christian male you might think I have never experienced prejudice and discrimination. My suspicion is that I have experienced more than most that fit my description and probably less than most that don't. When I was 10 I was pushed, knocked to the ground and threatened with getting beat up by older boys because I was white. They were not. I was terrified. In the end, nothing happened. At the time I was terrified and felt I had no options. I would just have to take what came.
Later in life I was set up on two different occasions to be called racist. One occasion was a joke. One was not.
I was once interviewed for a job and taken all the way through aptitude testing and drug screening. I was told in a very hushed voice by the HR representative of that specific branch of one of the world's largest companies that I would not get the job even though I was the best candidate he had seen in the many months the job had been posted. The reason? He had to fill the position with specifically an African American.
In the grand scheme, these are all pretty petty. And none of them are really part of the story I want to tell you. Let's go back 30 years. I was a teenager in Sweden. I always thought of Sweden as a peaceful and safe place for all. For the most part, I still do.
I was in Stockholm with a friend and we came upon a protest. A Chilean family had come to Sweden to seek asylum. One of the sons in the family turned 18 during the year they were allowed to stay in the country while their case was decided. The mother was granted asylum. Her underage son was allowed to stay with her. But the other son was now an adult and didn't have the same reasons to expect asylum that his mother did. The adult son was due to be sent back. Other Chileans turned out to protest the decision.
As my friend was explaining the situation to me we heard a racket from a group in the distance. My friend threw me into a doorway and was very clear no matter what happened, I was not to speak. A group of armed skinheads ran past the doorway toward the protesters. As they passed, their noise quieted. Then, as the group of maybe 20 reached the dozen or so protesters, I could hear the Chileans call out in fear. But in very short order, the skinheads ran past the doorway headed the other way. Next ran the protesters. After them came seemingly every Swede in the busy public transportation hub where this all went down. The vast majority of the Swedes protected the protesters. That day I learned what the graffiti I had been seeing meant. I would see BSS which was the abbreviation for the skinhead motto of Keep Sweden Swedish (translated). My friend had shoved me into that doorway because he knew that although I might be dressed like a Swede, if I spoke a word, I would be identified as a foreigner. The response from many Swedes to the BSS graffiti is to paint over the last letter making it BSB for Keep Sweden Mixed (translated).
Within a couple weeks after that, I arrived at school and my classmates were crowded around my locker. When I finally got to my locker I saw the letters BSB in permanent marker on my locker. They had already changed the last S to a B. They decided right then and there I would not be going anywhere alone for some time. If I went to the bathroom from class I had a bodyguard. I went home with company each day and when I came out the door in the morning, someone was waiting. One friend distributed pins amongst a number of them. The pin showed the palm of a hand in a "Stop" gesture. They were in a variety of colors and bore the slogan "Don't hurt my friend." This continued for at least a couple of weeks.
There is a trend today that I want to encourage. I want to encourage the wearing of a safety pin. This is something that began in Australia and was seen in Britain. This is NOT for the white college students who are fussing and protesting. No, this is for the minorities that you come across every day. This is for the groups that believe rightly or wrongly that harm might come their way. They need to know that if they are being hassled that you are not going to be part of the problem and will stick up for them. That's what the safety pin is all about. It's not about kids crying over the election results, it's about standing together with minorities who might need someone to sit next to in public or someone to walk them home because there is a threat to their safety.
I started writing this several days before I finished it. In that time some of the insanity has calmed and there have been charges and counter charges about the reported violence and threats of violence. I don't care who is at fault and who is continuing the nonsense. First and foremost, we need to stand up to the bullies who use race, sex, politics, or anything else as an excuse to abuse. We need to let the people who feel marginalized because of one of these know they are not alone.
Who will lead next and why they were voted in does not change what is right and wrong. Whether we are a minority or not does not change what is right and wrong. Please just stop the nonsense and consider quietly wearing a safety pin to let folks know you are a safe place to be.