The Red and Black

Issue date: 12/3/08 Section: Opinions

MARC McAFEE

It started outside Sanford Stadium after the Georgia Tech letdown.

A black Tech fan bumped into a white Georgia fan.

"Watch your step," the Bulldog snarled.

The Yellow Jacket responded, "Oh, are you upset? You should be!"

Then, something a whole lot nastier than the idea of Willie Martinez sticking around for another year occurred.

The Georgia fan breathed Klansman fire:

"That's alright, you're gonna get shot just like our president is!"

The Yellow Jacket lunged at him, only to land in the arms of a security guard.

The Georgia fan walked away with a satisfied smile on his face.

I thought, surely this man belongs to a disgusting and endangered species. Would confronting him do any good?

I decided it would. I had to let him know he can't spew such garbage and expect others to sidestep the pile.

Now, he was a pretty big guy. Had I not felt emboldened and protected by hundreds of fans surrounding me, I probably would have walked away with my tail between my legs.

Hey, I'm all about fighting the good fight - unless it would leave me spitting my teeth out like sunflower seeds.

But I thought I was pretty safe, so I walked over to him and shook his hand. His face lit up with pride. I returned the smile and asked where he was from.

When he answered, I explained I was curious to know what kind of a backward hometown still produced disgusting people like him.

I said a few more things not fit to print. But you get the idea.

His smile turned to red-faced rage.

He followed me with a few words of his own, inviting me to meet him in the parking lot, "at my truck," before heading back to his home sweet racist home.

Quite an experience. It made me think about what I - all of us, really - should do when faced with such hideous thinking.

I can't claim I never laughed at a racist joke, although I'm not proud of it. I enjoyed the funny stereotypes on Dave Chappelle's show along with all the other mostly white teenage viewers.

But there has to be a boundary, a point where letting somebody hiss hatred unchecked is almost as bad as shouting it yourself.

Malcolm X once wrote that whites should not try to fight racism by marching with blacks or joining the NAACP.

He said those were ways we tried to feel better about ourselves without ever really accomplishing anything, like the white kid blaring Tupac's "Changes" out of the windows of his Cadillac.

Malcolm X knew the real fight is in ourselves, in our own surroundings, our own homes.

He said the "battle lines of racism" were around our very own dinner tables, or when your best friend says something in private you know would never fly in public.

If it happens, what do you do?

Will you risk ridicule, even a fist fight, to take a stand, or will you let it go?

It's a choice we'll all eventually have to make.

I hope you, too, have a few hundred Georgia fans backing you up when your test comes.

- Marc McAfee is a senior from Kennesaw majoring in broadcast news.

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