In the wake of the shooting in Charleston, S.C., there is a great deal of talk online and in the “real” world about race and racism.  The shooting was a result of racist ideology.

Where does that come from?  Why is there racism?

In the end, it comes from fear.  That’s not my invention.  Smarter people than me figured that out long ago — that racism is based on fear of the other, fear of the unknown, fear of those who seem different.  Racists live in fear, and they use fear to catalyze and energize others to believe as they do.

Ironically, when you think about the traits for which America is lauded and about which Americans are most proud — freedom, indomitable spirit, a “can-do” attitude, entrepreneurship, concern for the downtrodden, a love of the underdog — you quickly realize that fear is a very un-American attitude.  We are, as the National Anthem proclaims, the home of the brave, not the home of the craven and fearful.  Indeed, American has been at its greatest when it has not succumbed to fear, but has pushed forward in the face of what seem to be insuperable forces and obstacles.  Pick your moment: the Revolutionary War, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, the soldiers storming Normandy Beach, the protesters sitting in at lunch counters and marching across the Pettus Bridge, the astronauts going to the moon, the firefighters who raced into the Twin Towers. On and on and on and on.  The best of moments of our collective experience are when we move past fear.

I was reminded of this as I listened to President Obama interviewed by Marc Maron on the WTF podcast.  Toward the end of the interview, the President said he’d be a better candidate and was a better President now than before because of experience of course but also because that experience led him to a place where he had no fear.  And, without fear, there was nothing to prevent him from fully realizing his potential and capabilities.

So, now to Charleston, a city that has just been victimized by racism, a force that feeds on fear and fear-mongering.  The good news is that rather than succumbing to that fear, we see just the opposite. People are fighting back.  They’re mobilizing against continued display of a flag that has been used to symbolize exclusion and hate.  And, they’ve come out to show solidarity across racial and religious lines to demonstrate that the Emanuel Church will not be broken.  Because people have realized that racism is about using fear of those who seem to be the “other” but who are, in actuality, the “us” to drive wedges between people.  And, recognizing this, they are rejecting it.  They are rejecting fear.

It is beautiful.  Because we are at our best when we don’t succumb to fear.