Benjamin Watson > Quotes

“completely different lenses. The racial divide is about the reality each side sees. Each side believes its view is the true reality, and we can’t understand why the other side doesn’t see the same thing and understand our reality.”
― Benjamin Watson, Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race. Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us.

“The problem of race is deep and wide and requires seismic change. But if we look to government to solve it, we might as well feel hopeless. If we look corporate America to solve it, we’ll be waiting a long, long time. And if we agree with Ta-Nehisi Coates, who tentatively suggests that “the only work that will matter, will be the work done by us," then we will truly despair, for we know how well that has worked. If we follow that track, we'll quickly add in disbelief, as he did, “Or perhaps not."

As I've said, the problem of race is not “out there." It's “in here,” in the human heart. And though there is no task in heaven or on earth more difficult than changing the human heart,I believe in the one who can do it. It requires a supernatural solution.

Yes, I believe in God. You see, I know how God can change a person’s heart.”
― Benjamin Watson

“Deep in their hearts, millions of ordinary people like you and me—seemingly good people who consider themselves fair and unbiased, who have black and white friends—hold certain opinions, assumptions, and prejudices toward the other race. That’s the problem.”
― Benjamin Watson, Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race. Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us.

“And we tend to adopt the attitudes and prejudices of the groups we’re in. In short, at some point in life, perhaps as early as grade school, we find ourselves “taking a side” in the racial debate. We become aware that the differences matter.”
― Benjamin Watson, Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race. Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us.

“Racism is based on an elevation of our own talents, physical characteristics, and DNA—which we inherited by no choice or merit of our own—over someone else’s. It’s an assumption that the other person is different and thus we are better. It’s an attitude that says, “I represent the norm, and you are the variation, the outlier, the odd one.”
― Benjamin Watson, Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race. Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us.

“Here’s what’s really bad about those shows: They reduce every issue or event to a debate. And this approach spills out of the TV studios and into our lives. We become all about “taking a side” and arguing it fiercely. We then look for facts to fit our assumptions. And we learn to distrust everything that doesn’t fit our version of reality. And all of this simply divides us.”
― Benjamin Watson, Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race. Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us.

“The solution to the problem of race in America will be found only by ordinary people, “good” people, looking inside themselves, being honest about the assumptions and biases that have formed, and beginning to change what’s in their hearts.”
― Benjamin Watson, Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race. Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us.

“This was the United States justice system supplying forced black labor to corporate America long after slavery had been abolished. So how can we trust the power structure of white politics and white law enforcement to have our best interests in mind?”
― Benjamin Watson, Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race. Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us.

“Among the many memorials and observances for the victims, one thing became clear: There is a unique power within the human heart to overcome hate and racism.”
― Benjamin Watson, Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race. Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us.

“Here’s what’s really bad about those shows: They reduce every issue or event to a debate. And this approach spills out of the TV studios and into our lives. We become all about “taking a side” and arguing it fiercely. We then look for facts to fit our assumptions. And we learn to distrust everything that doesn’t fit our version of reality.”
― Benjamin Watson, Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race. Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us.

“Much is made of black-on-black crime—the common assertion that a high percentage of black people commit crimes against other blacks. But what is often left out are statistics about white-on-white crime, which is equally high. The fact is, we are largely a segregated society, and thus crimes committed in our segregated communities will more likely be committed against members of our own race.”
― Benjamin Watson, Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race. Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us.