With racial strife exploding across America and many wondering whatever happened to the national healing and reconciliation that seemed so close during the '60s era of Civil Rights marches and Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, here comes a fresh and disarmingly insightful new perspective on the problem - and the solution. Hating Me Solves Nothing is a true story that takes readers on an open and very honest journey through desegregation and school integration in the 1960s and 70s, providing not just a historical look back, but a deeply penetrating look at where our nation really stands in regards to race relations. During a time when teachers and administrators seemed incapable of handling the racial tensions between black and white students that existed following desegregation, learning often took a backseat to just surviving. For a white girl growing up in the 1960s in Asheville, North Carolina, black anger that had been suppressed for centuries was suddenly unleashed.
The almost daily intimidation from black students made school seem like a prison at times, where being on high alert was essential to staying safe.
Race riots were commonplace, with most days spent wondering when the next act of violence would occur. Today, America is a divided nation. Issues between the races many thought had been resolved after the 1960s Civil Rights Movement have reemerged with a vengeance.
The headlines speak to the prevalence of racial animosities, and noble and inspirational activists like Martin Luther King, ruthlessly gunned down trying to bridge the racial divide, have been replaced by voices encouraging rage, blame, and revenge. The history of racism and all its many problems is almost always aired and debated from the viewpoint of African-Americans.
But what about the story that has almost never been told - until now - of what it was like growing up in the South as a white child during the '60s and '70s?
Can we not learn something important from the honestly and sensitively told story of white children being hated and attacked by blacks because of the white children's skin color, fueled perhaps by speculation about what the white children's ancestors may, or may not, have done? After years of suppressing the pain from her personal experiences as the victim of rampant racial intimidation and attacks, psychotherapist and radio talk show personality Susan Calloway Knowles concluded that racial hostilities will continue to plague our country as long as we avoid talking about the subject.
But we can begin to understand the past and perhaps even find healing today by listening to both sides and agreeing to finally put aside our anger. Hating Me Solves Nothing offers valuable insight into how all people can work through, and move beyond, the hatred of the past, not by forgetting its dark history, but by gaining a better understanding of each other.
We are all imperfect human beings, explains the psychotherapist-author, yet once we recognize that the biggest obstacle we face is our own bitterness and unforgiveness, we automatically move much closer to the healing all people of good will seek.
As Knowles shows, it is right within our reach.
