While there is enormous energy and appetite among liberals to discuss systemic racism, the topic generates massive backlash among many conservatives.
“I do think it's a priority because I think transformation requires people changing. And I don't think most people change when they're defensive,” Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove said in an interview on “The Long Game,” a Yahoo News podcast. “Enslaving others is an act of war and you can't maintain that kind of subjugation without being willing to fight, being willing to defend against someone who would say my humanity demands that I be free,” Wilson-Hartgrove said.
“And we were loved very well there, I was raised by people who made me memorize scripture,” Wilson-Hartgrove said. “At the same time that I was … learning the way of Jesus from people who did care deeply about the Bible, I was also just assuming that to be Christian was to be Republican.” He returned home, began writing letters, and eventually procured a spot in the U.S. Senate page program, working for Sen. Strom Thurmond, a South Carolina Republican who had fought against desegregation and civil rights for African-Americans.