I was raised in the deep south of Louisiana and I remember the racial tensions up until the seventies and eighties and I know it is still somewhat there today. Recently, the noose incident and racial violence was the story in Jena, Louisiana. I remember my good friend Calvin who was an italian from New Jersey being picked on and called “wetback” because they thought he looked like a mexican or the racist slang term “Wop” for Italian.
Maybe this has changed some and I’m in “Liberal” Austin where there is not much open racism but I get flooded with e-mails from relatives about Obama which has a “racist” slant to them. Racism has always bother me and I don’t understand people that think because they did not paticipate in it that it is not their problem. It is like saying in the time of the Halocaust that because you did not participate in the killing of the jews then why bother or speak out against it.
This is what I don’t understand and this is coming from my family geneaology:
1. Why was my Father and Mother silent during the heydey of the Civil Right struggles of the 50s and 60s when it was obvious that blacks were being treated as inferior and less human?
2. Were my grandparents and great grandparents involve in aiding this racism?
I hear the cries of others why am I responsible for what my forefathers did or what my relatives think? Maybe you are not responsible but you should be damn mad about it.
Because we don’t question the way we were raised and we don’t want to rock the boat. Boat rockers often fall or are pushed into the waves or land on the rocks and we instinctively know this.
Thanks for the responses Proclaim!
Keep me in your prayers I will be voted on next week for a possible call. It looks good!
I remember watching the civil rights marches on TV as my parents ranted about ‘niggers’ in the background.
I did confront it. I did refuse to take part in it. I did forbid them to speak this way in front of my children. It didn’t matter. My father delighted in telling the kids that he bought his Lincoln because it had a big trunk on it, and he could fill it ‘when he went coon hunting in Pittsburgh’. He delighted in the fact that it made me mad. My mother was quite sharp in her criticism that I needed to have a sense of humor, because the only person he offended was me.
Guess what? I don’t have a family any more. I can’t say that I wish I kept my mouth shut. It’s simply not in my nature to do so, but my stand hasn’t made a difference. At all.
Good luck on your call.
Debby,Thanks for your story and your courage to stand up against racism.