If we want the respect of others, we must also give them the respect they deserve.
This is a lesson that Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa learned at a very young age.
When he was a child growing up in South Africa, Racism was still a big problem. If a black person and a white person met while walking on a footpath, the black person was expected to get off of the path and allow the white person to pass by. As they were passing by the black person was supposed to nod their head as a gesture of respect.
"One day" Tutu and his mother were walking down the street when they noticed a tall white man, dressed in a black suit, walking toward them. Before he and his mother could step off the sidewalk, this man stepped off the sidewalk and allowed Tutu and his mother to pass by. As they passed by, the man tipped his hat in a gesture of respect to Tutu’s mother Tutu was shocked and asked his mother, ‘Why the white man did that?’ His mother explained that the white man was an Anglican priest. That He was a man of God, and that’s why he did what he had done. Tutu would later say, “I decided there and then that I wanted to be an Anglican priest too. And what is more, I wanted to be a man of God."