I’m currently reading a book on Benedictine hospitality and found this passage regarding our fear of strangers (and 9/11 in particular) rather provocative:
We comfort ourselves by thinking, “But it isn’t an unreasonable fear. Some awful things have happened and they have been done by men who look a certain way.” Contrary to the comforting lies we tell each other, this kind of fear is unreasonable. Every person of Middle Eastern descent [which in itself is not an entirely accurate statement in context] is not responsible for the big, awful thing that happened. Timothy McVeigh did not cause people to fear every white male, not unless you already thought white guys were dangerous [emphasis added].
The horror of September 11, 2001, did not create bigotry against Muslims; it incited existing bigotry. It fed a silently held bigotry already alive in a dark corner of our hearts. It uncapped a quietly seething suspicion (p. 8).
As I process these assertions I am tempted to find ways in which 9/11 did create bigotry; that the hate some exhibited in response may not have been latent. But inside me I feel a check that suggests it often was.
In the best possible circumstances, we needn’t always condemn ourselves when we discover an unknown ugliness that had previously hidden itself within us. What is important is that we refuse to act upon those latent feelings, choosing instead to find ways of correcting them.
great post.
in any case, in light of the Gospel, we shouldn’t be surprised at any measure of bigotry, latent or explicit. it is there in all of us.