White caller asks black C-SPAN guest how to stop being prejudiced

A white man called into C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” on Tuesday to ask the show’s African-American guest how he could be less fearful of black people. 

{mosads}“I’m a white male, and I am prejudiced. And the reason it is is something I wasn’t taught, but it’s kind of something that I learned,” the unnamed man from North Carolina said. “When I open up the papers, I get very discouraged at what young black males are doing to each other and the crime rate. I understand that they live in an environment with a lot of drugs — you have to get money for drugs — and it is a deep issue that goes beyond that.” 

“But when, I have these different fears, and I don’t want my fears to come true. You know, so I try to avoid that, and I come off as being prejudiced, but I just have fears,” he continued. “I don’t like to be forced to like people. I like to be led to like people through example. What can I do to change? You know, to be a better American?” 

Heather McGhee, the president of Demos, a progressive public policy organization that advocates for equality, thanked the caller for being honest. 

“It is simply one of the most important [conversations] we have to have in this country,” she said, visibly moved. 

McGhee told the caller that all races and backgrounds hold prejudices against others. 

For the caller to be able to be honest about his prejudice was “one of the most powerful things that we can do right now in this moment in our history,” McGhee said. 

She then urged him to get to know black families in his community by having conversations with them, joining a black church and reading about the history of the African-American community. 

Watch the full conversation in the video above.