Fifty-one years after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, America still suffers from the devastating social cancer of discrimination and racism.

Recently, the news inundated us with images and stories of the Charleston, S.C., church massacre and the announced removal of the Confederate flag from the State House grounds in South Carolina.

On June 17, Dylann Roof allegedly walked into the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, where he shot and killed nine African American members and injured a 10th person who were peacefully attending a Bible study.

The church is one of the country's oldest African American churches – one with a long history of engaging in civil rights.

We recently learned Roof was a high school dropout who was perceived by some as a loner and who began exploring and sharing racists thoughts and views on the world.

After his capture by police in Shelby, N.C., photos on the Internet surfaced showing Roof clad in the Confederate flag and racist clothing.

We can't help but see and read how racism continues to both maliciously and subtly seep into every crevasse of the American landscape.

There is a segment of the American population who argues equality in the United States has improved dramatically since the 1950s and 1960s, while another part argues there are deep and systemic issues that have either been ignored or simply not addressed adequately.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

The act also prohibited the unequal application of voter registration requirements, as well racial segregation in our schools, workplaces and facilities that serve the general public.

While the act was certainly a legal and social necessity that addressed issues permeating society at that time, questions remain. How much progress has been made since the act's passage? Has this landmark piece of legislation truly stamped out overt and more subtle forms of racially motivated actions by public and private groups and private citizens?

Why does America, after five decades, continue to produce the Roofs of the world?

Racism includes both direct and institutional effects and causes.

The institutional causes of racism will not be cured until some of us first look deep into ourselves and discover and accept that our thoughts, views and actions fuel racial tension and inequality, both parochially and nationally.

Scientists generally agree children are not born with a predilection toward racist thoughts and views. Children, scientists have also shown, do not see the color of the person they come in contact with.

It is only through familial upbringing, our interactions with our peers and our exposure to the world around us we develop a potentially negative perception of those who do not look and act like us.

I firmly believe if we raise our children to look at the character traits of another person, rather than the person's skin color, our children will grow up to be far more inclusive and accepting of others.

I also believe our country must find ways to stem the countless outlets disseminating racially explosive doctrines, while still balancing core First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and expression.

As adults, we need to be more mindful of the selection of the words we use while in casual conversations with others.

Training our minds and mouths to refrain from borderline and overt offensive racial references will help us become more understanding, tolerant and compassionate.

Will any country or nation on this planet entirely eliminate racism? Absolutely not.

However, as Americans, we can put our best foot forward in beginning to embrace and love those who are not like us.

We can begin to encourage and help those who may be less fortunate and privileged, despite the color of their skin.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

Let us begin the process of curing and ridding ourselves of racism by spreading light rather than darkness and loving rather than hating one another.

We must take action, both within ourselves and through societal and governmental channels, to begin to end racism.

As President Barack Obama so eloquently said at the funeral of the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, church pastor and one of the nine killed that evening in Charleston:

"To settle for symbolic gestures without following up with the hard work of more lasting change, that's how we lose our way again. It would be a refutation of the forgiveness expressed by those families if we merely slipped into old habits whereby those who disagree with us are not merely wrong, but bad; where we shout instead of listen; where we barricade ourselves behind preconceived notions or well-practiced cynicism."

Mark Reccek

editorial assistant

Whitehall-Coplay Press

Northampton Press

Catasauqua Press