Trust Me, You Don't Want to Know HATE.

All these posts about racial hate currently taking place in the USA has me wondering if people that are being hateful to others really know what they are doing. Do they know what hate can lead to? Are they really ready to face the ugly truth about hate? The consequences of hate? The unforgiveness of hate? This thing is not a joke. It starts as one hate crime here and there and then it spreads like a mad disease....because that's what it really is, a disease. It becomes so deadly to the point where neighbors turn to neighbors and kill them just for being different from them. But it starts with a few hate crimes in a few cities. Trust me, I have seen hate.

Hate is what made me and my fellow Rwandans refugees. Hate is what killed almost a million people in a period of 3 months in Rwanda. Unlike those doing the hating, hate doesn't discriminate. Whether you are the one doing the hating or the one being hated on, there is a point where the hater will also be touched. The hater's family will also be hated on. No one is immune to it. Your coworkers, friends, families, pets...they will all be affected for decades.

Have you ever heard of the genocide museum in Rwanda? There are hundreds of skulls displayed in this museum. These are the remains of what came from hate. People that work in the museums are not there because they love being there. They are there so they can be closer to their loved ones. These loved ones were taken by hate. The funny thing is, these skulls all look alike. There is no way of differentiating which skull belongs to a hutu, a tutsi, a white, a black, an asian, no....they are all identical. This is why I tell you that hate does not descriminate. We are all in it together. It will affect every single one of us, whether we are doing the hating or being hate on. So why would we want to leave this kind of legacy for our children? Is this what they deserve? Or do we think what happened in Rwanda would never happen in the USA? Well, we are very wrong....because this is how it all began in Rwanda.

Once upon a time, a few extremist hutus and tutsis started hate crimes againts one another, then neighbors were turning against neighbors, then 800,000 Rwandans were killed in 3 months, then we all left the country and became refugees for many years and finally, some of us got citizenships in the USA....and then a few hate crimes started happening in the USA, and then the rest was history....which repeats itself.

So, I ask the question again, are we ready to deal with the true nature of hate? I didn't think so.

Clementine Bihiga