“Tank Man” temporarily stops
the advance of a column of tanks
on June 5, 1989, in Beijing,
in what is widely considered one
of the iconic images of the 20th
century.

Today it the anniversary of Timmerman Square revolt in China in 1989. The Chinese government not only suppressed the revolt of the people but have successfully deleted it from history in China. The famous symbol of the revolt, the picture of single man stopping a row of Tanks, the Tank Man, is not even recognized by the majority of Chinese students in leading Universities. The Chinese government has filtered out this embarrassing event form Chinese history.

I believe we all see reality though filter lenses. Some filter out things they do not want to hear about, even though they might have some truth to them; some filter out poor, people with mental illnesses or people with crime records; some filter out individuals of racial groups, just seeing them as part of stereotype of group. Why do we filter what we see and hear? Sometimes it is just too depressing or sad to see and hear with wide open hearts and minds.

Watching an interview that Travis Smiley had done in the past with recently deceased Maya Angelou I heard some words of wisdom that I have learned the hard way. She mentioned that when she is in a group of people, be it white or black, and hears some racial demeaning comments she just gets up and walks out of the room. I tended to react to person making racial slurs, which only made the situation worst. Finally the other day when I attended the ‘open house’ for the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift store the wealthy whites want to create in the suburbs to help the poor blacks in the central city, a member of the society started to talk negatively about the people he serves. I just said “excuse me, I cannot hear this any longer” and walked away. Arguing with someone who sees and hears with racial filter is useless.

As Mara Angelou and Jesus said when people cannot see or hear it is better just to walk away. If they do not have “ears to hear or eyes to see” arguing with them will not make them change their minds or attitudes.

I was talking with a retired priest friend of mine about this incident of just walking away rather than arguing with person who makes, what we hear, as racial slurs. He said he had to do this all the time brother religious in his retirement home making racial comments that he finds offensive.

It is now easy to understand how to walk away when we hear or see overt racial slurs or unjust comments about persons. However, what do we do when we see or hear covert racial slurs or unjust comments about a person or group? Walking away does not seem right when they do not even know of what they are saying that offends you. Arguing with them will not matter much. What do we do? Perhaps all we can do is to expose the racial slurs or code words as what they are and then walk away. It seems to me that when we hear or see convert racism, we, like the Tank Man, should put our body in the way to stop the injustice and after exposing it, walk away without holding resentment or anger.

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