Myth: Interracial friendships can't exist

Unfortunately, Thomas Hudner and Ekow Yankah will never meet – the former having passed away earlier this month. But the meeting would have been worthwhile for Yankah.

Recently, Yankah obtained 15 minutes of fame penning a New York Times op-ed entitled "Can My Children Be Friends With White People?" A father and law professor, he outrageously claims Donald Trump's election means he now has to teach his sons racism will continue to be a deep part of the American character. Writing he will teach them to not trust whites, Yankah fails to take the best approach for them to understand racial equality.

While no society, Western or otherwise, can claim universal racial equality among members, Yankah ignores numerous modern-day examples undermining his theory.

During the 1960s – one of the most turbulent times in the U.S. civil rights movement – two events occurred underscoring existence of a strong black/white friendship bond.

Yankah's op-ed disrespects the one shared among Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney. In 1964, the three young civil rights activists marched into the heart of racial unrest in Mississippi to fight it. As Schwerner and Goodman were white and Chaney black, they immediately drew the Ku Klux Klan's attention and ire. The trio disappeared that June, their bodies discovered a month and a half later in an earthen dam.

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Schwerner and Goodman believed so strongly in racial equality they ultimately died for it by choosing to befriend Chaney. These three racial-equality crusaders joined together to fight for human dignity, ultimately losing their battle, but helping to win the war with their sacrifice.

Yankah also seemingly dismisses a bond existing among Australian Peter Norman and Americans John Carlos and Tommie Smith. While their names are long forgotten, their famous photograph is not. Taken at the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympics, the three stood on the awards platform after competing in the 200-meters race. Black athletes Carlos and Smith, who placed first and third respectively, defiantly thrust their black-gloved fists into the air as the national anthem played. Bare foot with heads bowed, the two sent a symbolic gesture for civil rights that resonated around the world.

While Norman appeared only to be a bystander, he was not. He donated his glove to the effort and asked to participate. It was a courageous request on his part as apartheid was still in force in his native Australia. In the photo, Norman also wore an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge representative of athletes supporting equality.

Carlos later acknowledged Norman told them, "I'll stand with you." Carlos said he expected to see fear in Norman's eyes, but instead saw love.

While all three athletes' careers suffered for their courageous act, their friendship never wavered. Carlos and Smith were both pallbearers at Norman's funeral in 2006. Smith said of Norman's decision 38 years earlier, "He paid the price with his choice. It wasn't just a simple gesture to help us, it was HIS fight. He was a white man, a white Australian man among two men of color, standing up in the moment of victory, all in the name of the same thing."

Finally, Thomas Hudner would have challenged Yankah's claim blacks and whites could not be friends. The Navy pilot and Korea War veteran died Nov. 13 at age 93. Almost 67 years earlier, during the Korean War, his actions earned him the Medal of Honor.

In December 1950, Lt. Hudner and five other pilots were flying their planes over enemy territory. He observed the plane piloted by Ens. Jesse Brown – the Navy's first black aviator – take a hit and lose altitude. By radio, Hudner guided Brown to a mountainside clearing. Crash landing his plane, an injured Brown pulled back his canopy, waiving to signal he had survived. However, with flames erupting from his aircraft and his leg trapped, Brown was unable to get out. Seeing Brown's struggle and flames creeping towards him, Hudner crash-landed his own plane alongside Brown's. Rushing to Brown's aid, he desperately tried to set him free.

With a rescue helicopter en route, Hudner began throwing snow on the flames to retard them. But, between the freezing temperatures and Brown's injuries, Brown eventually succumbed to both. With night closing in and the helicopter unable to fly in darkness, Brown's body had to be abandoned.

At no time during his effort to save Brown was race an issue in Hudner's mind. He simply fought to save the life of a fellow human being. Hudner never forgot Brown, eventually returning to North Korea in 2013 in an unsuccessful effort to locate his friend's remains.

The bond between the Brown and Hudner families continued long after the war. In 1973, the Navy commissioned a ship named after Brown. There, Hudner spoke of Brown's courage. In 2013, Brown's daughter attended a ceremony commemorating the beginning of construction on a ship named for Hudner.

Yankah also fails to note that the president he claims is racist acted quickly to obtain the release of three black UCLA basketball players arrested on shoplifting charges in China.

Yes, Mr. Yankah, racists do exist in this world. But you fail to recognize they come in all colors. Such racism is a disease that afflicts the few, not the many, which is why a majority white population elected a black president. Do you really believe Trump's election changed a majority's belief in racial equality overnight? Such a belief rejects the notion, regardless of color, the American character is good and fair-minded, allowing interracial friendships to flourish.

What should concern you more, Mr. Yankah, is telling your children to be suspicious of all whites. Doing so only plants the seed for a future generation's few to harbor a racist mindset against the many.

In turning a blind eye to history and denying the inherent good embedded within the American character, Yankah fails to see interracial friendships have been, and will always continue to be, a deep part of it.