how deep is our prejudice?

My first wife's mother, and many in her family, would see a Black man
coming down the sidewalk, and they would cross the street out of fear.
My neighbor had tried to sell his house for some months.  Finally he
listed with a realtor who showed properties to Blacks as well as to
the White folk.  My sweet neighbor on the other side of the house for
sale, came knocking at my door one early morning.
"Last night Dick and Jane(yup, that's their real names) showed their
house to some Colored folks.  "Dick and Jane are asking far too much
for any sensible folks to buy it", I told her.
Sure enough, the house set empty for months, finally selling to a
White single mother with 3 young children.  But my inlaws, who lived
three blocks from our house, got wind of this "invasion".  "What would
you do if some big Black man jumped out in the alley and grabbed
Judy?" my mother-in-law asked me.
"Well," I said after some consideration, "I'd do the same thing as if
a Big Green Man jumped out in the alley and grabbed Judy.  I'd call
for help!"
There was an unspoken fear in that neighborhood that we would be
invaded by Colored Folk.  My father-in-law told me with a straight
face, "If one moves in, they come like a plague, and our property will
devalue by half.
And yet, two blocks on the other side of me lived a young couple and
their two young daughters.  These folks were both school teachers.
They dressed well and kept an immaculate home and yard.  Shortly after
they moved in, their two daughters passed by our house on their way to
our church, for Sunday School.  They went back the next week.  They
never went again.  Our church family did not want Blacks included.
A middle aged Mexican fellow came into church one day and sat in the
pew at the back.  No one sat next to him.  The next Sunday he was
there again.  Following church service, I went to him and asked if he
lived close by.  He said he was in a small apartment in the
neighborhood, and was saving his money doing yard work so he could
bring his wife and two children here.  I told him I could use some
yard work, and invited him to Thanksgiving dinner.
The next Sunday several concerned folks came up to me following
church.  "Did you really invite that man to Thanksgiving Dinner?
Weren't you afraid he might rob you?  Didn't you think about Judy and
your little daughter?"  The next Spring I called on this man again,
and for the next two summers he did our lawn and flower beds.  Then
one day he came by with a couple of children, and in his truck was his
wife.  "You helped me bring my family together, and I just wanted you
to meet them, and to thank you for your kindness."
And all the while, my Holy neighbors tucked their Bibles under their
arms and walked piously to Church, to Praise the Lord!
How deeply ingrained is our prejudices?  Just go out and walk around
for a while.

Carl Jarvis