As an African American female, I have a question I would like addressed. Why is it that some people have a deep hatred toward black people who have never done anything to them?

As a young girl growing up in a deeply divided South, I could never understand why white people looked at me in a horrible way, and I either didn't know them and/or had never in my life caused any harm to them. I want to know what fuels this type of hatred.

I hate no one, and I can't imagine what can cause a person to hate another person on the basis of race, color, religion and sexual orientation. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke truth when he said "Our destinies are tied together."

God has a purpose for all humankind, and the purpose is not to hate one another but to love and forgive. God wants us to embrace our differences, not make us ashamed of who or what we are.

I have wondered, if the shoe was on the other foot, and white people were made to feel like being white was totally disgusting and held back from achieving things in life because of their color. What if being heterosexual was considered gross, how would we procreate? I can go on and on with the "what ifs."

The question I wish someone would answer is, why hate me as a woman of color, who in her 45 years on this wonderful planet that God has given us, hasn't done anything to anyone but live her life helping others and believing in the word of God that we are all sisters and brothers?

Ginny Russell

Carthage