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THEY HATE ME BUT DON’T EVEN KNOW ME With Howard Brown
Episode 5025th October 2023 • Shining Brightly • Howard Brown
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Episode Summary – You are not born to HATE. It is a learned behavior. You can choose to HATE or be KIND. In Episode 50 of the Shining Brightly Podcast show, titled “THEY HATE ME BUT DON’T EVEN KNOW ME”, I offer a solo show to talk about the explosion of hate, violence and the giant divide we have in humanity today. I share my first exposure to antisemitism / bullying in high school but much of my life I have not faced direct hate growing up and as an adult. I have chosen to get deeply involved in INTERFAITH outreach and work from the Jewish Community outward for the Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Asian, Afro-American communities and more. I share my Shining Brightly book discussion guide on INTERFAITH BRIDGE BUILDING – “WHY DO THIS WORK”. It is my hope that you will join the Shining Brightly movement to join hands and become a force multiplier for good and positive change in your home, neighborhoods, communities and this world. Please download, listen, share, and review this deeply personal episode. I hope to change the title of a new episode in the future to “THEY LOVE ME BECAUSE THEY GOT TO KNOW ME”

Mentioned Resources

Website - https://www.shiningbrightly.com/

Podcast - https://shining-brightly.captivate.fm/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/howardsbrown

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/howard.brown.36

Shining Brightly - Interfaith Bridge Building – discussion guide

https://readthespirit.com/explore/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2022/09/Howard-Brown-Shining-Brightly-Discussion-Guide-Interfaith-Bridge-Building.pdf

Southern Poverty Law Center

TEN WAYS TO FIGHT HATE: A COMMUNITY RESPONSE GUIDE

https://www.splcenter.org/20170814/ten-ways-fight-hate-community-response-guide#act

About the guest – Howard

Brown is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, best-selling author of Shining Brightly, award-winning international speaker, inspirational podcaster, interfaith bridgebuilder, survivorship coach, health technology consultant and two-time stage IV cancer patient and survivor 30 years apart. He shares the keys to leading a resilient life with hope that drives successful community leaders, business innovators and healthcare patient advocates. Be prepared to

be inspired!

Thanks for listening!

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#hate #violence #peace #interfaith #love #kindness #giving #healing #life #lovethyneighbor #welcomethestranger #values #motivation #education #inspiration #podcast #listen #download #share #shiningbrightly

Transcripts

Howard Brown:

Hello, it's Howard Brown Shining, Brightly Podcast

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show. Welcome. This is show 50. I'm really excited about it. And

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it's gonna be a solo show today. And we're going to be going a

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little deep here, a little introspection. So the title of

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the show is, they hate me. They don't even know me. There's a

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lot of a lot of stuff going on in the world. It's sort of

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imploded and exploded all at the same time. We've got, you know,

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a war in the Ukraine, we've got a war in the Middle East between

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Israel and Gaza. We had a shooting of a six year old boy

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and his mom, by a landlord in a hate crime in Chicago. It's

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awful. It is really awful. So I will tell you that, you know, I

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grew up in the suburbs of Boston in Framingham, Massachusetts,

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and we just had a lot of diversity growing up. African

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American, Puerto Rican, we had Portuguese, a little bit of

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Asian, Jews and Christians, all in the suburbs. And I will tell

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you, I was an athlete. So in sports, sometimes, you'd hear a

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derogatory name or comment. So for the for the Jews, you'd be

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called a Kike, which is a dirty Jew, or for Puerto Rican,

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they'll be called spec, and an Irish person to MC. And for

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African American, or black person, the N word.

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can't even say it. Don't want to say, once in a while, I would

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see suas stickers. But most of that was bullying. still

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unacceptable. But most of that was bullying. And so I learned

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from a young age that there were lots of differences. And on the

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athletic field we had to play together in order to succeed.

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And so sports brought a lot of competitiveness and camaraderie,

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some discipline, mental and physical toughness. And I

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learned to play sports and play basketball with lots of

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different people.

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And that was a good life lesson for learning some respect. And

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my parents obviously taught me that respect, because it starts

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in the household. And it has to be something that you want to

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do. You can choose not to hate, you can choose to learn to hate.

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So this episode's about hate and why I am for peace, for

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kindness, forgiving for resiliency and for healing and

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gratitude. So, anti semitism all time high. People don't like the

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Jews. Islamophobia. Again, all time high. People don't like

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Islam or Muslims. Asians, especially during COVID, Asian

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hate, all time high. Always been in a bias against gay, lesbian,

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transgender. And since the times of Africans coming to this

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country in slavery, there's been African American black skin

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colour hate.

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So there's all forms and all types. And I'm not going to

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solve that in this podcast. But I'm going to highlight that you

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can choose to hate, you can also choose to be kind. What's in

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your heart. So as I grew up, and I learned through my parents

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about charity, and helping others raising money for those

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in need, getting clothing for those in need, learning that

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lesson of sadaqa giving in Hebrew, we really need to teach

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that it's It begins in the home, and then it extends to our

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neighbourhoods, then it extends to our communities, then it

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extends to the globe. But the violence, the pure vitriol and

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hate is it's really it's bothersome to many including me.

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And it's just Uh How do we fix it? And I'll share some ways

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that I think we can fix it as well. And I went to school at

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Babson College 45,000 alumni in 132 different countries. It's

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like the United Nations. We had all walks of life on the campus.

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Now, some were very small minorities. But I least I didn't

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witness just outright hate on the campus. And maybe I missed

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that because there were some.

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And, you know, I don't put my head in the sand. I understand

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that. People don't exactly understand each other. But what

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I do know, from my Jewish upbringing, is that there's the

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number 18. L'chaim, we say that when we actually raise our, or

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glass of wine, look, I am and it means to life. And there is also

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what a Jewish law but the Coolock nefesh, Nisha, and that

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I probably said it wrong because I'm just my mind is going crazy

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right now. But that is we choose life. We choose to live God's

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seed becoming a human life. We choose life. We choose kindness.

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We choose giving. We choose healing this broken world.

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There's such a fissure out there. So it's funny, I was

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doing research for this podcast about hate. And one of the first

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things that came up was a gentleman named rod smart. You

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probably don't even know who he is. Rod smart, was a NFL and ex

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NFL football player. And on the back of his jersey, he put he

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hate me. And people asked him, Why did he do that? And he

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basically playfully said that when I go by a defender, he hate

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me. When I score a touchdown. He hate me. When I win a game, he

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hate me. What a brilliant marketing ploy. And he

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trademarked it. He trademarked he hate me. So when I say they

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hate me, but they don't even know me.

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They don't even know that I'm a two time stage cancer survivor.

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They don't know that. I want to become a servant leader and

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always work on serving others. They don't know me. But because

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I'm Jewish, they throw me into this big massive bucket. And

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they hate me.

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And I feel sad about that. I really do. I've worked very hard

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in moving here to Michigan for the last 18 years on interfaith

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relations. And we work from the Jewish community outward to the

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Muslim community, the Hindu community, the Asian community,

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the Mexican community, the Christian community, and way

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more any country that has a consul general here, an honoree

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console, it has to do with a car business. We meet with them, we

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talk to them about issues. And I've developed deep friendships,

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deep trusting friendships. In this interfaith world, so much

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so that I wrote a chapter on interfaith bridge building, in

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shining brightly, it's the second the last chapter. And I

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actually have some tips, and I'm gonna include this in the show

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notes and as well as on the when the podcast releases. Why do you

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want to take the time to get to know the other and these are

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just some of the reasons and hopefully you'll think of some

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from yourself.

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When we're united, and we know each other, you actually don't

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think of hate because you have some type of commonality, some

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type of connection, some type of relationship and understanding.

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Now, we also when we learn to trust our neighbours, okay,

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whatever faith they are, we build stronger bonds. It's

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healthy, to interact with others. It broadens your

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perspective. You don't have to agree But it's proven social

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determinants of health. Plus, it could be fun. When you build

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these bonds with other religions, people, other

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colours, people have other opinions. People have other

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backgrounds. In the good times, you're able to still maintain a

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level of communication and trust in the bad times. And I will

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tell you this, that I am in contact daily with my Muslim

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friends. And they are in contact with me. We are checking on each

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other. We are keeping each other in our prayers. And we're trying

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to decide when to put out a statement of your unanimity and

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support each other.

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As a risk to that, but I'm willing to take that risk, in

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the name of peace, in the name of kindness, in the name of

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human relations and humanity. We all have different roots. We all

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come from somewhere different. And the ancient patriarch of

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many religions is Abraham. Abraham was the father of

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Judaism, and also gave offspring to Christianity. And Moses and

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Abraham are in the Koran. Abraham had two sons, Isaac, and

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Ishmael, Muslim, and a Jew. And one of the things that Abraham

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and Sarah did was they welcomed the stranger into their tent.

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This is in Scripture. We are taught this as Muslims, Jews,

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Christians, to welcome the stranger into our tent into our

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home, into our place of business into our social settings.

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Now, in Judaism, we teach something called tikkun olam and

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to QUnit LOM is repairing and healing a broken world. How

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genuine, how beautiful. The Muslims teach us in the Quran,

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that God made us all different so that we could learn from each

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other. Christians teach us that we are to protect vulnerable

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minorities. And when one minority is threatened, all

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minorities are threatened. Buddhists, Hindus, all the other

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great religions teach the word harmony and karma and peace.

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Hospitality toward others is an opportunity to live out our core

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values in our own faith. They all intersect they're similar.

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love thy neighbour it's one of the 10 commandments. Be my

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brother and I'll add sister's keeper take care of each other.

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Now, I can tell you this that this interfaith work builds the

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bridges. And we can re discover this unique value that each

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brings to the table including our own. As we learn about other

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faiths, it actually can reinforce our own faith. We're

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supposed to be godlike, and walk in the image of God. Hate is not

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godlike. When we open ourselves, to meet people of other faiths,

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and colours, and geographies and points of view, we really get to

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actually learn and share our own traditions with them and it

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broadens you Brian's your worldview, and your perspective.

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And this is not just for adults, this is for the kids. Kids

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should know that we're growing up in a diverse world, not

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everybody looks like you. Diversity. We're working on it.

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But we got to get better for our kids. What type of world do we

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want to create for our kids? I will tell you this, that the

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beauty of at least my interfaith work and why I do this is this

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trusted friendships. learning about other cultures is cool.

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Learning about new foods is delicious. And building deep and

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long lasting friendships, gives you a well rounded life.

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COVID made us live in a box. People are craving, the ability

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to interact, to hug to shake hands to be together. We were

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deprived of that over three years. And now we come out. And

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we are on opposite sides of the field. And we don't even know

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who we're playing. We know nothing about them. We've not

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even taken the time to get to know them or walk five steps in

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their shoes. Well way, I think about this, that you know how

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really similar we are. How our holidays are all about

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celebrating life. Diwali, the Festival of Lights, Annika the

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Festival of Lights, the Festival of the harvest, the festival of

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fasting, to ask for forgiveness, and atonement. The Festival of

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freedom to slavery. There's so much learning and opportunity in

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front of us. And I'm not trying to be preachy. I'm just saying

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from what's in my heart right now.

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I'm hurting, many people are hurting. shining brightly. The

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book was written to show people. And it starts with kindness and

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giving and healing. And all through the stories in my book

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are all about ways to live a resilient life. Build happiness,

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build strength. Find your happy place with others. Second last

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chapters are interfaith relations. And the last chapter

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is hope. Because we've all taken a bit of a backseat on hope for

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this world. And I really do think we need to bring it back.

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We need to join hands and become a force multiplier for good and

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positive change. We can change do you want to change? I do. Not

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an easy solution. But as I took you through my discussion guide,

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you might think of other ideas. I'm making a call to action to

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share those with me. And I'll share them with others. And

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that's how we do our part each day. So episode 50 They hate me

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yet don't even know me.

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I hope you'll take the opportunity to get to know me

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and learn that I am carrying I'm loving. I'm a good person. And

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I'm open to learning about you and your customs and your

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culture and your history and see where it goes. So join me and

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let's let's pray together that this world can be a better

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place. I end every show by saying that if you shine

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brightly A little bit each day for yourself and for others and

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our communities.

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The world will be a better place. Thank you and amen.

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