Let’s make America a nation of integrated neighborhoods

Over the years, I have lived among many people and diverse communities, and now, I have chosen to live in an all-black community. It is a new experience, and I am cherishing it.

Knowing each other does not have to be a noble idea, or a God-pleasing act, it is the right thing to do; to live freely without fears. When we learn to respect the otherness of the other and accept the God-given uniqueness of each other, conflicts fade and solutions emerge.  It brings freedom back to us. Those of you who are Muslims, will understand the concept well as articulated in the Quran 49:13.

We keep piling myths upon myths about the other deepening the chasm between each other. The only way to dissipate fears is to know each other first-hand. Knowledge leads to understanding, and understanding to acceptance of each other. How do we learn about each other and bust the myths if we don’t live as neighbors?

There was a time in the eighties in Dallas, Texas, my hometown when white folks were running away from their neighborhoods to escape from the African-American ‘invasion’ of their communities. My question to them was, and remains, how far and how long will you keep running?

Each one of us seeks freedom and wants to live without fear, but what do we do instead? We double down on our neuroses. White folks run away from neighborhoods when blacks make the entry, and the black people give up on living with all others and go back to their flock where they are comfortable. The apprehensions never end.

Imagine a child raised with ill will towards Blacks, Whites, Latinos, Arabs, Chinese or Asians. I have closely monitored the results with Indian kids raised to hate Pakistani kids and vice-versa. Such parents poison their kids.

When that child grows up to be an adult and has to work with the other who is not to be trusted, you can guess the anguish that person endures. There is an unwanted battle he/she encounters causing him non-stop distress.

As an owner of the business, do you welcome these inner battles between employees, don’t they cut down the productiveness of your firm?

You would want an employee who gets along with all and focuses on delivering quality products and services to your customers.  You also want him to go home with no baggage from work and give 100% of himself or herself to the family. A happy person is productive for his/her family, your community and the nation.

Besides the individuals, even the City Governments are struggling with the issue of discrimination. They need to see the goodness that comes to all with integrated societies.

Way back around 2005, I was on the government relations committee at the board of greater Dallas Home Builder’s Association. We were appalled with the attitude of some Planning and Zoning Committees members of the City of Plano; they were opposed to zoning-in apartments in the town as they wanted to keep the people with low income out of the city. Our question was where should the people who work at 7/11 live? Near their workplace or way out someplace in Garland and further draining their income on transportation?  Finally, they listened, and affordable apartments were zoned into the cityscape.

Grand Homes flagship community at Bent Tree hills in North Dallas took over an abandoned neighborhood due to protests by the rich folks for building low-income (meaning Black) housing next door. I was assigned to turn things around and appealed to the humble beginnings of each one of us, and it worked, most of them realized that everyone needs to start at some point.

In 1985, I faced the wrath of homeowners, hitherto my friends but became foes overnight because we contracted to build a new Ryland home to a gay couple in Rowlett, Texas. Eventually, the acceptance came through education, and it always works, and they all came back again.

Now, I am enjoying my life with the Black community. There is not a single non-Black person on the buses I have been riding. I walk in into the Senior living centers; I am the only one. I shop at Giants, again, I am the only one.  Each one of my neighbors has made me feel one of them, and I feel home with them.

Now, Muslims are treading on a dangerous path of building ’luxury ghettos’ around the mosques. It’s happening in Texas in the cities of Irving, Murphy, and Richardson; it needs to go. There is safety in integrated living.

 

Take a look at the Jewish, Hindu, Muslim and other community’s full-time day schools, what are we doing to our children? How are they going to learn about each other, how comfortable are they with different children? Public Schools offer the necessary interactions with different people. I hope private schools recruit children from different faiths, races, ethnicities, and cultures, so our children would be comfortable when they go to work with different people.

Integrated living produces secure societies, and you don’t have to run from place to place in search of security. Would you raise your children free from prejudices? Your children have at least 70 years to live, why do you want to poison them?  Let them be free from your racial, ethnic, religious, economic and cultural prejudices, let them live without fear.

How do you raise your child to run for the President of the United States, Senate or Congress? I have written a full chapter in my new book American Muslim Agenda on this topic.

The Center for Pluralism conducts workshops to turn your employees to give 100% of their heart, mind, and soul not only to the place of work but to their family as well making them productive employees.

Views expressed by contributors in the opinion pieces and blogs are entirely their own and they do not necessarily represent editorial policy of the magazine.