In heavy Friday-night traffic on Carrollton Avenue in New Orleans, Teresa, a white women, was in the middle lane when her car suddenly stalled and died. With traffic swirling around her on both sides, she sat in fear, "an accident waiting to happen." Finally she decided she had to try to cross the road to get to a phone. But as she was getting out of her car an African-American man with a tow truck came from behind, blocked the outside lane of traffic, and pushed her car by hand to safety.

"Thank you very, very much," she said as the man approached, his job completed. "I can't tell you how grateful I am. Please tell me what I owe you?"

"You don't owe me anything," the man said. "Your bumper sticker says it all."

– A true story by Teresa Torkanowsky

If you drive around the streets of New Orleans for just a day, you will quickly become aware of the word Eracism on the bumpers of hundreds of cars around the city.

But what does Eracism mean?