An Ohio man who used to believe in white supremacy is saying he’s sorry and is covers his offensive tattoo with a rose.
Former White Supremacist
The dad-of-three and former white supremacist, Dickie Marcum is now adopting a new way of thinking, to love all irrespective of their skin color. He had a negative experience at the age of 15, at the hands of fellow black students and that turned into racism.
Again in 2007, a black man attacked and kidnapped his girlfriend which furthered the hatred towards the black community. He attributed his bad experiences to the whole black community instead of those specific individuals. It resulted in him getting a tattoo on his chest of a swastika which is a Nazi symbol of hatred towards the non-white races.
Change of heart
God was working behind the scenes to dispel the hatred from his heart. Dickie worked 34 years as a steelworker alongside coworkers of different ethnicities. And with time, he began to soften and change his racist ideas. But the tattoo still stayed on him, as a reminder of the hatred he once felt.
He was afraid of being publically humiliated if his shirt was off in public and people saw his tattoo. That made him ask a friend to draw an ‘x’ over the symbol in red ink, but in time the ink faded.
In June, he took a more drastic approach and got another tattoo, to cover up the swastika- a rose. “The people who knew what I had on my body, who knew how much I couldn’t stand them, pulled me in, they embraced me and showed me that my mentality was wrong,” Dickie said.
Story of hope
Dickie decided to share his story on facebook in a bid to change the mind of people, a move which was supported by his wife and daughter who were proud of him for removing the tattoo and replacing his former hate with newfound love.