Who or what is responsible for providing the feeding grounds for hate and the type of ignorance or indignation that produces discrimination based on heritage, sex, or both? More specifically, with all the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding within the grasp of today's minds, why do societies continue to produce people who ineptly support even unintentionally and unconsciously those who poses discriminative traits bound in derogatory or ill-formed communications toward people of different heritages or sex? The answers to these questions, as you may have guessed, are very complex. They require more explanation than I could expect one to read in an HTML document. Indeed, a detailed explanation would fill a book or two. For this reason, I have decided to present you some examples in story-form that I think will serve well in describing a few of the situations in which "Silent Consent" is prevailent. If you recognize some of these as your own or as being of the type that you often hear or experience, this may indicate that you have a certain advantage. That is, there may be some patterns in your behavior or that of someone you know that you may desire to alter, which I certainly hope you do. But, if you do not recognize anything here, I hope you enjoy the reading and will suggest it to others.

See No Evil

Michael was sitting on a bank by the fence while his two children were playing on the playground that was empty, except for them. Suddenly a group of people, an adult male, female, and two children came from around a near corner. The adults were a few steps behind the two small children, who were about the same size as Michael's children, who hadn't noticed them coming.

Michael observed the two adults. A few feet away from the entrance to the playground they noticed Michael's, two children and stopped. They were too far away for Michael to see their lips, but it appeared to him as if they were speaking to one another. The children that accompanied them ran toward the huge sliding board in the middle of the playground, which no one was playing on at the time, and began shouting to one another, theirs mouths wide with smiles.

"I'm first", the little boy excitedly claimed.

"No. I am", laughed the somewhat smaller girl, tagging behind.

Michael saw them suddenly turn their heads in silence toward the man, as they abruptly stopped a few yards away from the sliding board. By this time, the man had taken a few steps into the playground, while the woman, who had already turned her back, began to walk in the direction out of which they came. The children stopped smiling and then turned slowly, looking in the direction in which the other two children were playing. The man swung himself around and left the playground following the woman. Just as the children passed the trees that marked the entrance to the playground, they then turned to look back at Michael.

What it Really Is

Marvin had just gotten off the Tram and was headed toward the hamburger restaurant on the corner not far from the station. Up near the corner, he thought he saw a face he recognized. He stepped up his pace in an attempt to catch up to the man, who he thought began to look more and more like one of his old military buddies.

"Hey Sarge, is that you?"

Slowly turning at first, the man smiled, "Well, if it ain't old Corporal, eh...wait...eh?"

"Johnson!"

"Yeah! Johnson. It's good to see someone you know when you start tryin to re-live some of those old memories. You know what I'm sayin?"

"I guess I do. I re-live old memories everyday. So what brought you back to this town, of all places?"

"Well, I come here pretty often, when ever I get a chance. You know...to see what I can get in to. Guess I never really shook off this place."

"I can see the only thing that's changed about you is the number of hairs on you head."

Both laugh.

"If you got a minute, let me treat you to a burger or somethin, Johnson."

"Sounds good, cause that's just what was on my mind, before I recognized you."

They entered the restaurant, taking a seat across from each other at a table near the door.

"Still see any of the old guys, you know, like Smitty or Franks?"

"Franks? I saw him about a month ago, I guess it was. Said he was working for some trucking company, I think. But, Smitty, I think he moved out of town or something. At least that's what Wanda told me the last time I saw her. You remember Wanda, don't you? The girl with the apartment over on, uh, Central. I think it was. Central? She's moved since then, though. We used to go to her place when the club closed? You remember?"

"I remember the club." Laughing now, "How could I forget that. Now Wanda? But, I saw Marshall last week, man. This guy was tellin me bout all the things he's supposedly into. According to him, he's doin everything from building kitchens, to fixin cars in his own shop. While he was telling me all this, he was dressed in clothes it looked like he'd slept in. You know what I'm sayin? You know I don't have nothin against a brother tellin me what it really is. You know! It's all about bein able to own up to life. I know it's hard, man. I know nothin's easy here in this town or anywhere else! And, I'm always straight up, straight up with everybody, especially a brother. You know what I'm sayin? I expect them to be that way with me too. So, what's up with you?"

"Yeah, well I finished my degree!"

"Your degree? You got a, a degree?"

"Yeah, about seven years ago. Now I'm working as a freelanced engineer for the company that was built there where the big parking lot used to be."

"Yeah? Is that right? You're designin things for them now or what?"

"Yeah. I've been freelancing for almost four years now. I'm not gettin rich, but there's something left over, after I pay the bills. You know?"

"I'll..., I'll bet there is. So you got out of the military and went to college for a degree. That sounds like a good one. Look here, man, I gotta be movin on. Man, I'm trying to get my hands on something warm and pretty tonight. You know what I'm sayin? I really don't have time for a burger, now that I think about it."

"That's OK. Of course. Like I said, the only difference is the number of hairs on that head. Hey, here's my card. The next time you plan to come back to town, give me a call or send me an e-mail. Actually, the e-mail address on the card is wrong. Wait a minute. Have you got something to write with?"

"No. I'm..."

"Wait, I'll ask the waiter."

Marvin leaves the table walking towards the waiter at the bar. While the waiter is searching his pockets for a pen, Marvin turns toward the table where his old friend is sitting. He catches Sarge's glance, as he quickly turns his head to look in another direction. Marvin takes the pen from the waiter and corrects the e-mail address on his business card by the time he reaches the table.

"Here. This time it's correct. Somehow I managed to leave out one of the digits in the..."

As the Sarge takes the card, he's smiling at a waitress coming toward their table.

"Hey! Well, if I ever get back here again soon, I'll give you a ring. OK? Now take care, and tell any of the old fellas I said hello, if you see any of em. Take care, Marvin."

"You too, Sarge."

Money Isn't Really the Issue

"Hey, you don't even have to worry! I told you, I know the owner. Believe me, there won't be any trouble. I'll give him a call. I'm moving out on the 15^th of the month. I suppose the earliest you could move in would be the 30^th then, right?"

"The 30^th is OK. Like I've already told you, we need an apartment, now. So, if we have to wait until the end of the month, and at the same time, know we can move into a bigger apartment, that won't be a problem."

"Like I said, I know the owner pretty good. We've lived in that place ourselves for almost four years now. I don't think he's found anyone else to rent it as yet, so he'll give it to you, if I ask him. I'm sure." George paused for a moment. "You don't plan on having parties or listening to loud soul music every night do you?"

"If you knew how difficult it is to find a decent, reasonably priced place to live that's not the size of a match box in a cellar... My office at the insurance company is bigger than the place the three of us are living in right now! Once you climb higher on the career totem, you realize that money isn't really the issue."

"Oh yes, I do know how difficult it can be. We were searching for a long time, almost a year, before we found our new apartment. There were so many places that were OK, but just didn't fit to us. Either the heating was old or the grass in the garden was too patchy. This one couple tried to rent us a place that didn't even have a balcony."

"Well, how soon do you think you'll be able to let me know?"

"Hey! As soon as I hear something, I'll give you a call."

"OK. When?"

"I should know something by tonight, at the latest tomorrow. OK?"

"All right. Take care, and say hello at home for me."

"You do the same for me. Bye."

Later on that night, Stanley's phone rings.

"Hello?"

"Hey listen. Uh. Uh, I didn't expect this to happen and I really can't explain it..."

"Did the owner say no?"

"You know, I had to tell him you were black, because he asked me. I didn't want to lie about that, although I didn't think that was an issue for him. I mean, who cares about that nowadays? I think he suspected something else! I told him I've known you for a long time and that I could vouch for you, that we went to college together. But, he, he just said no! When I asked him why, he said, something about you getting the apartment, and then having all of your friends living there. He was scared that the other tenants would be so afraid of you that they'd move out. There was nothing I could do to change his mind. Now, I realize something, and when I think about it...I realize I shouldn't have lied! I told him that you weren't a professional musician. But, I did tell him your wife has a regular cleaning job and that she works regular hours! Right? I didn't lie about that, did I?"

The truth is that all of these stories and those like these are trivial, but not insignificant! Whether or not you have had similar or comparative experinces is irrelevant. What is truly important is the implications that are derived from these types of communications: The beliefs and the truths the realities of experiences like these are based on and built around. Moreover, it is also important to realize that where we are and however we fit into the global picture, the "real" picture, we share spiritual commonalties. And with them, we share not only the achievements, but also the tragedies, ie. those that are claimed by such negative human characteristics as discrimination and ignorance. It's not only deceitful to believe the contrary, it's naive and insulting. To give you an example, consider the following anecdote.

An experiment was conducted once in an attempt to describe a kind of phenomenal "human communication" some scientists were claiming exists, that transcend all barriers. In the experiment, the participants, a random group of people possesing no specific qualifications, were given an insignificant task to complete as a team. The particular task the group was to accomplished was devised in such a way as to ensure that it had never been performed by any one until this time. The amount of time needed to accomplish the task was documented and used as a reference. After the task was completed, it was conducted in the same room with a different group of people having the same characteristics. Surprisingly, the second group was able to perform the same task in considerably less time than the first. In fact, after the test was administered to a number of groups, it became obvious that each performed them in less time than the group that preceeded. This seemed to confirm the belief that the information needed to perform the task was somehow "made perceptable" or "communicated" to others. How this occurs was and still is difficult to explain. But, in order to determine if the information was only confined to the test rooms, they then expanded the tests to conducting them in other cities. In all cases, the results were the same. Consequently, the scientists concluded that we posses the ability to "communicate" information of all types using these unexplainable methods! Assert this idea to, for example, a discriminatory experience, and you may have found an explaination for the negative treatment people of color can experience throughout the world.

The concept above my seem far fetched to you, but consider this: people in this world die of hunger, thirst, or curable disease every day and we, who live in the countries where food is produced in surplus, where water is readily available, where medication is easily produced and administerable, accept their occurance without complaint. We see no connection to their suffering and our own dissatisfaction and unhappiness.