I've always had a fondness for women in pearl necklaces.It probably has something to do with the mothers of friends I'd met when we moved from the hood to a better neighborhood.
The mothers of friends in the hood were nice - but a different kind of nice.
To this day, I can still walk in through the back door of many homes, unannounced, and be given a meal and an earful of advice from these strong Black (but not angry) women.
I will be retold stories of past whoopin's given at the hands of these women when I'd erred as a child.
I will be joked about and laughed at by these women and their families.
But still, these women would buy a car for me if I had none.
(Or at the least, allow me to drive theirs.)
These women would allow me to stay at their home if I was homeless.
These women have my best interest at heart.
As I stated in an earlier post - I was raised to be racist towards whites.
I'm not sure if it was done in a malicious manner so much as it was done to better ones chances of survival during that time and under those conditions.
But I learned something different during my exposure to a different culture in a country club environment.
Many of the mothers wore pearl necklaces and had liberal leanings.
Many were more than happy to help a Black kid who was willing to help himself.
Many were influenced by the rhetoric at the time and the speeches of Malcolm X, MLK and the other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.
Many of these mothers actually believed that they could initiate the change to what America was imagined to be.
I'd met mothers who believed that Blacks could be just as good (or better) than whites if they were given a fair chance to exploit the same resources.
(Oh, I met some mothers who hated that their little Thad or Biff were bettered by a Black kid - but that is a different post.)
Another blogger took issue with a relative because she asked the question, "Are they called Negroes?".
http://dalynart.blogspot.com/2010/07/are-they-called-negroes.html
But I took the question in a different light.
To me, the elderly woman was asking as not to offend her guests.
To me, the woman was trying to make an effort.
Racist people assume that other people are racist too.
Those who overreacted (One way or the other) to the recent firing of a former USDA official are probably racist themselves.
Some assumed that Shirley Sherrod should have been fired for her 'racist' comments without even knowing the full extent or context of the story.
Others assumed that Mr. Obama should have protected Ms Sherrod from the social and media maelstroms just because she is Black.
It took the incident in Ms Sherrod's story for her to learn that America is divided more by class than race.
I had to learn not to be racist.
Ms Sherrod had to learn not to be racist.
And brohammas' aunt has to learn not to be racist.
Post-Racial?
Not yet.
The title of this post intrigued me - as your titles generally do ::smile:: And although I've been MIA for awhile, I had to swoop by to read your words of wisdom. Gotta tell you that you did not disappoint me.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that America is divided by class and when you add race to that mix, well one might just find themselves in one heck of a witch's brew. Which seems to be what we've gotten ourselves into these days - one heck of a witch's brew!
Great post...but, I'm not surprised!
Nice post, UBJ. This country is a mess. We're spending so much time on crap we should have dealt with 40 years ago that it's a shame. The rest of the world is going to pass us by while we self-destruct.
ReplyDeleteOne of the big surprises for me, raised in a white world where we were all taught that the civil rights era was about us all being equal, racism is bad, color did not matter. We were taught this openly, a kid saying the N word would be met with silence and a childish, "oooooh"; then I moved to a black world an got a whole different perspective of what the movement was about, ie rights and justice.
ReplyDeleteBig eye opener and in many ways dissapointing.
We (white folk) are backsliding.
@ SjP - My fairyblogmother - where have you been?
ReplyDeleteYup, more about class than race (alone).
But that many still assume that class is defined by race is the problem.
@ Val - 40 years ago? More like 240 years ago.
@ brohammas - One of my bartenders just got out of the Navy and has traveled much of the world and country and had to learn to judge people by how they treat others and not by race alone.
He now has trouble listening to many from this area who blame EVERYTHING solely on race.
When he asked me why it is so easy for many whites to get over the past but many Blacks still seem fixated on past injustices - I had to explain it to him.
If I went to his house, church or just on the street and beat and harassed him everyday for his whole life and suddenly just stopped and then said that everything was fine - would he still be mad at me?
Of course he said, "yes".
For many the scars are too fresh to just imagine that everything is hunky-dory.
I'd love to give Salma Hayek a pearl necklace!!!
ReplyDelete