I Hear Them Calling My Name: A Journey Through the New South

The Fear of People

People fear not succeeding, negative activities in their environment, death, terrorism, etc, but from a multicultural standpoint, we as a whole fear change. Our human race is also fearful of difference. We fear the difference of our religions, color, race, and sexual preferences. We are afraid of things not in our norm and things that stick out in the world. The issue of change and difference is very prevalent in the book I Hear Them Calling My Name: A Journey Through the New South. This book was well written by Chester Fuller. You can really see this multicultural issue by the way fear controls the characters' emotions directed towards other people with difference.

In the book, Fuller journeys through the South just after the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. He is assigned to travel and find any difference or enbetterment in the treatment of blacks since the Civil Rights Movement. His first experience comes when his car breaks down on a highway in deep southern part of North Carolina. He walks to a gas station to get his car towed and the only mechanics/tow men are white. At first he gets the feeling he's going to be abused by these men. In his mind, Fuller is plotting where he's going to strike the men when they attack him. Fuller is so scared and set in his ways that he doesn't look past the man's race, but is rather intimidated and brainwashed. They arrive back at the station with car and the mechanic asks what seems to be the problem. Fuller thought maybe the fuel pump or something really expensive. The mechanic proceeds back to the car and tinkers with a few things and the car is done is minutes. The mechanic could have possibly put in a new fuel pump among other things and cost Fuller a lot of money, but instead charged a whopping eight dollars. The thing with all this is Fuller's views of the mechanic the whole time and his emotions of being ready to fight. This amazes me.

Fuller missed this man's kindness and respect, because of his fear of difference. This fear still occurs today. The only problem is that it exists in many other things than race or color of skin. Socially we have had a major problem with violence in schools. This all occurs because of difference. The differences in schools aren't mainly races or cultures, but rather social statuses and appearance. People get the measureless fear of people and social groups. A high school may be divided by economic status, religion, colors of clothes, athletics/activities and other things. This occurs as result of difference and people, such as teenagers, placing a large emphasis on people's appearance, social rank, and popularity. This is not good for our world. There is major carryover with this and it is a growing problem with our world of major difference. This all goes back to our deep roots of prejudice with blacks as slaves, Nazis, and ancient Rome. People, especially at an early age, need to learn and begin to look inside someone, rather than their outside appearance and past stereotypes. As a future teacher I see this will be very important, especially with me planning to teach in a diverse and heavily populated area. For example, I the teacher come the first day of school and a student