Not mine; this stupid town's! I've known racists my whole life, but they've never been "proud" about it; or even realized they were. They'd start sentences with, "I'm not racist, but...." Now I live in a place that brags about their all-white population, is proud that the town was essentially created because of White-Flight when all that "desegregation nonsense" happened in Little Rock (exact words from a pastor I spoke with last week), has an active KKK chapter, and cross burnings 18 months ago. We routinely have customers comment on how they're so happy we haven't hired any "coloreds." (Only because none have applied. DH is inclined to hire every decent black applicant just to "stick it" to the community. ha!) My heart is so broken over this and I don't know how to handle it. And to top it all off, my contemporary theatre class has spent the last three weeks reading Soyinka, Fugard, and Parks (the first two wrote about African apartheid, the second about the civil rights movement in the US). It seems like everywhere I turn I am smacked between the eyes with racism and the implications there-of. I'm so glad that I homeschool so my children won't hear all the hate from their peers. This is just a generic prayer request, I guess: Please pray for the people affected by such idiocy and hate. Please pray that children of racists will buck their parents thinking and reject this garbage. And please pray for the non-racists who are trying to raise well-rounded children who don't base their respect on melanin.
Praying for everything you asked. I always grew up thinking racism was a thing of the past, but when my sister moved to Georgia and told me the things that people said my jaw dropped. She only lived there for a short while while her dh was finishing his army training, but she was so glad to leave because the racism was so bad. It make me sad to know that it is still alive and well. Race doesn't matter, we are all God's children.
Wow, I guess I didn't realize places like that still exist. I mean, the older generation in our small town might still hold those opinions, but even they don't vocalize it in public. Incredible.
I have a funny story to lighten this a little bit, an explaination, and then a prayer. Ok here I go: A week or so ago our family went to Target in Liberty, MO. DH was walking with Paddy in front of us and I had the baby and Beau. There was a Black man that looked very "Ganged out" as we say, and paddy walked by him and said, "LOOK, a BLACK MAN!!" Since there was a trashcan behind the man, DH pointed and said, "Yea, Paddy, that's a trash can!" and walked away. When we got into the store we spoke about how people are different colors and that doesn't mean they are less, but we just don't want to point it out all the time. We were just too close to Kansas City for comfort and I didn't want to incite a riot by stopping pat and saying, "Hello Mr. Black Man. You seem busy, but I was wondering if you would let my 3 year old autistic son touch your ebony skin?" No. lol Am I racist? No. Am I stereotypical? Yes. Is it the same? No. My dad knew the first black fierman in St. Joseph! I have a ton to write about this, but I don't have time. My rolls are done in the oven, however, I will pray for the people who allow cross burnings, and racial slurrs. Amen.
I know where you are. I grew up in the same environment. My grandmother is still extremely racist (as was my grandfather, but he died in '90) and refuses to watch sports because "they only let them blacks play now-a-days. They don't give them white boys a chance anymore." When I was in high school, our football team was #1 in the state. I was in the band, so of course we had to travel to all the games. One in particular was memorable. Our director was black, several of our members were, and one of our two drum majors (female) was. Our other drum major was an openly gay white guy (which was very weird back then and in rural AR.) We were warned from the director and administration to be careful at this game, because it was an all white school with an active KKK group in the city. Looking back, it was stupid, but at the time, we thought it was hilarious that the gay white guy and the black girl who were our drum majors pretended to be together the whole game. They'd even steal a kiss from each other when the director wasn't looking. We were all poking fun at their extreme racism in that town.
What is it with rural Arkansas!???? Keep in mind, too, that I'm not even from Missouri! I'm a Yankee through and through. Pittsburgh has it's share of racists, of course, but it's more likely that they'd be lynched than their target. ha!
I think it if funny, how with kids this isn't an issue UNLESS they are taught that it is an issue. I once called a black soldier "Daddy", probable because my dad was in the service and at that time I didn't distinguish the word "Daddy" as separate from "man". My son once told me he wished he had black skin like a neighbor. I thought that was so cute. He didn't see it is a different "race", but just simply a skin color (that he wanted).
I once worked in a restaurant where the clientele was probably basically a 50-50 mix of black and white. I didn't think anything of it. Here is the other side of the coin. I should be more understanding of this attitude, but I have never experienced prejudice, so I didn't sympathize as much: I was a hostess and we were supposed to seat people in a rotation, so that every server had an equal number of tables and so that none of them would get too many at one time. Well, I did just that. I didn't think, "these people are black, I need to sit them back there." It just so happened that in one section towards the back, were all black people. There were other black people in other sections, but this one section just happened that way. Someone told me that people were complaining of racism. Actually it was just the opposite. I simply seated people in a rotation without any thought to their race. Fortunately the situation did not accelerate. These type of scenarios happened a few times. I think the best thing to do to help racism stop is to stop distinguishing people as black or white or red or yellow. I mean, we know that people have different skin colors, but we are all human.
Oh Amie, I feel for you! I can't stand racism and it's not just because of my husband either, I never had a tolerance for it. I know how hard it can be living surrounded by people who don't share your view, or rather who commonly share a view that is so hurtful to others. I actually have to deal with it in my own family with my mother, but that's another story. I will pray for your family, and for your town. Now I grew up just outside of Pittsburgh in a smallish town with a mostly white population, however it was not a racist town just a small town. I was raised to not care about color or race, so imagine my surprise when all of a sudden it mattered because I was marrying him.
We have a very colorful family and I love it. My nephew is part Filipino, Puerto Rician (spelling?) and African American. So, one day, my son who was 7 at the time, was drawing a picture of our whole family and yells MOM! Did you know I need a brown crayon to color A????? He had never realized that his cousin (and his Aunt and Uncle) were different colors. And that was that, he finished coloring his picture and thought nothing more of it. Kids don't see things as a big deal unless we make them a big deal. Racism sucks, no matter what color it's against.
Oh - with our 4 new hispanic kids we see it more than we did before. Funniest comment I heard lately from someone whose sister has adopted from multiple countries - when she was asked if they were all hers (she has 9 total children) she answered straight-faced and said, "Yes, but they all have different fathers." LOL I'm saving something like that up.... I'm not even IN a "racist" area - but there are still PEOPLE who are - especially because of illegals in the area (there is a high number).... I was asked if I was a "cheap teen age slut" at the grocery store once when I had the kids with me! I was shocked but completely laughed it off BECAUSE my kids were with me - but seriously?? What does that do to people?? The best part of my story is the cashier asked the person to leave.
