Horrid Hatred

Eyes Right

Washington, D.C. – My wife and I heard the loud diatribe long before we could distinguish the actual words. The sounds hit us far underground as we were disembarking from a Metro subway car at the Chinatown stop at 7th and H Streets in northwest D.C. As we rode the two escalators upward to street level, we could catch only an occasional word or two, but an angry rant over a loudspeaker was obviously in progress.

We often take this route to the Capital One Arena where the Washington Wizards professional basketball team plays their home games. We are accustomed to loud noises once we reach the top of the second escalator because the SE corner of this intersection at 7th and H is a favorite location for various groups and individuals to promote a cause or to perform for tips as musicians. Think of it as something of an informal speaker’s corner where anyone can do essentially anything to gain attention – all on a first come, first shouting basis.

As soon as I stepped off the escalator I immediately began to make out most of the words being boomed over the portable loudspeaker. I cringed as I almost certainly heard, “Kill all white people.” This caught my attention, and certainly that of all lot of us who had just exited the Metro station.

As I walked, now warily, toward the cross walk next to where the speaker was holding court, I saw that he was standing on top of a foot high portable wooden platform and had a microphone in his hand. He was intensely yelling into the microphone with streams of profanity laced diatribes against national politicians, “white people,” and several other entities I could not understand. The speaker, a black male apparently in his late 30’s, was flanked by four other black males, two on each side of him on the platform. Their arms were folded menacingly to match the scowl on their faces. They were obviously bodyguards, and certainly seemed primed to spring at the slightest provocation, verbal or physical, toward the speaker. Each of the five on the platform seemed to have the body build of a NFL linebacker. (For those of you not familiar with football, please translate as tall and muscular).

We were headed to a pre-game dinner in a restaurant across the street, but I stopped briefly to consider approaching the platform to say directly to the speaker, “How can you want to kill me when you do not know me?” Taking another look at the bodyguards standing close to me, I opted to avoid a confrontation and/or suicide and walked to the other side of the street.

Just as I reached the west side of 7th Street, I heard the speaker boom, “We are teaching our women and children to kill the white devils!” I literally stopped in my tracks. What had I just heard? “Is this legal?” I wondered.

As we entered the restaurant I was still in shock. I understand the First Amendment rights of free speech, but are we not far across the line when a speaker, protected by menacing bodyguards, preaches not only hatred of an entire race of fellow humans, but is also encouraging others to commit murder?

When I discussed this incident at a recent breakfast with a small group of men in our Lutheran congregation, one fellow (a white man in his early 70’s) opined that the actions of the D.C. speaker were justified “due to the ongoing climate of hate generated by the President and his support of the KKK.” Because his views were in a minority at that breakfast, I chose not to challenge him on what I felt to be an unfounded assertion, but later I returned to thinking of the D.C. incident. This open hatred, this apparent willingness to kill others simply because of their color…..and we are teaching this to children??

I do not presume to know the answer to defuse this devastating trend in our nation. But I do know that I can do more in my own daily personal life to extend friendship and camaraderie to everyone I meet. It’s my own small start, but I worry that it may be too little, too late. I hope that my worries are wrong.

I thought you might like to know.

E-R