人兽性交

Asma Jama, a Muslim woman who was hit in the face with a beer mug by a white woman who told her to speak English, forgave her assailant during sentencing. Jama, who wears a hijab and speaks English as well as Swahili, told her attacker that she didn鈥檛 harbor 鈥渁ny ill feelings鈥� for the 2015 attack that left her scarred.

Courtroom of Jama鈥檚 statement was soon shared on the internet as an example of the power of forgiveness. Jama, who emigrated from Kenya, also shared a simple truth that shouldn鈥檛 be forgotten at a time when the racial fissures in this country seem so great.

鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 matter what鈥檚 on my head,鈥� she said, referencing her hijab. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 matter the color of my skin. We are all the same human beings. 鈥� I hope at the end of all this that you learn we are all the same. There is no difference between me and you at all, whatsoever.鈥�

Jama鈥檚 message is at the heart of today鈥檚 National Day of Healing.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation鈥檚 Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation project and a coalition of more than 130 groups designated the day as a time for communities to launch yearlong efforts to help people better understand each other and 鈥渉eal the wounds created by racial, ethnic and religious bias鈥� 鈥� steps necessary to build a more equitable society.

After a divisive presidential election in which people were maligned because of their race, religion, gender or ethnicity, it鈥檚 fitting that the National Day of Healing falls between Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Inauguration Day.

The event is desperately needed. In the month following the election, my colleagues at the Southern Poverty Law Center documented more than 1,000 incidents of bias-related harassment and intimidation across the country.

In a separate, online survey of more than 10,000 educators 鈥� conducted by the 人兽性交 in the two weeks after the election 鈥� 90 percent of the respondents reported that their school鈥檚 climate had been negatively affected. They noted an increase in the use of slurs and derogatory language, as well as incidents involving swastikas, Confederate flags and Nazi salutes. More than 2,500 educators said they knew of fights, threats, assaults and other incidents that could be traced directly to election rhetoric.

The National Day of Healing provides communities across the country with an opportunity to do something about it. When people make connections across racial, religious and ethnic lines, rhetoric suggesting that members of particular groups are inferior, that they cannot be trusted or that they are somehow less 鈥淎merican鈥� loses its hold. People begin to see the rhetoric for what it is 鈥� a lie.

But it鈥檚 not enough to recognize the lies.

The National Day of Healing is also about dismantling the policies and practices built on them. Our nation鈥檚 prisons are overflowing in part because of policies that needlessly criminalize young black men because they are wrongly seen as inherently more criminal. Muslims are often treated as second-class citizens because of hysterical rhetoric that has branded them as potential terrorists. And immigrants, particularly Latinos, have been exploited and denied their legal rights in the wake of relentless rhetoric that has denigrated and vilified them. We must end these policies and practices, along with many others, to ensure our nation is one that embraces our common humanity rather than a nation that perpetuates a racial hierarchy.

More than 50 years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. warned, 鈥淲e must all learn to live together as brothers 鈥� or we will all perish together as fools. 鈥�We are tied together.鈥�

King鈥檚 words remain relevant today. There will certainly be much more work after the National Day of Healing, but as Asma Jama demonstrated in a courtroom late last year, we must begin with healing and understanding.