Letter: Great race example out of Beaufort

David Lauderdale’ July 20 column, “Race relations: It’s up to you” is an outstanding testimonial on how to improve race relations, and it deserves to be featured in every major newspaper in America. Perhaps it should even go “viral” on social media … that ubiquitous, overtired phrase so popular today.

What better way to demonstrate the path to beating bigotry than to show how an Etta Mann and the members of an otherwise predominantly white Episcopal congregation achieved not just respect for one another — their differences and their similarities — but also affection?

Lauderdale’s tire-changing friend was right … “You can’t talk about it in terms of an entire race ... there are too many divisions … to generalize.”

Etta Mann was one person, working at it one day at a time. Those who knew her, and admired and respected her, also worked at it … one day at a time. Amazing how any differences and preconceptions faded away, because indeed, “we’re not all that different.”

Perhaps the only irony here is that the “formula” came out of Beaufort, rather than New York City, or Los Angeles, or any one of a hundred cities that must deal with their own sets of prejudice.

This story was originally published July 25, 2016 at 1:17 PM with the headline "Letter: Great race example out of Beaufort."