Last year, we had Reconcile on an episode of Community During Chaos. The conversation at the time was still surrounding the racial tension going on in America. With racism at the forefront of many important talks, Reconcile said despite all that, people are more similar than not.
With a white father and black mother, Reconcile was raised in Fort Myers, Florida. They lived in a trailer park with confederate flags scattered around. He recalled one story when his dad took him to a pool. Once they arrived, everyone in the pool got out. His father’s family shunned Reconcile and his parents.
“Essentially, I lost half of my family when I was born,” Reconcile said.
From his childhood experiences of living among poor people of both colors, he learned that both poor people of color have more in common than they realize.
“Poor blacks and poor whites; similar place, except what is being told and propaganda [is shown] that the problem is the other person.”
To help prove his point, Reconcile brought up Fred Hampton’s concept that coal miners in West Virginia and Black Panthers in Chicago had similar struggles.
“I think, right now, we are in a space in our country where we can say, ‘we aren’t for the foofoo no more. Let’s change it. We are not on that no more. We are coming together.'”
In his eyes, politicians need to monopolize racism to keep their voter bases strong. To combat that, people must unite and see their similarities. So, he is teaching these concepts to his kids: we are stronger together, and politics are trying to divide us.
“I never want my children to look at a police officer and say ‘f-you’ or ‘I hate you’. But I know that’s how our community felt, I know that’s how I grew up feeling,” Reconcile explained.
