I was watching a Black couple the other night and felt sad.

[trumad]

I was at dinner the other night with my family and this lovely African American couple were having dinner at the table next to us. They were an older couple and they ate in quiet solitude. I couldn't help but look at them and think that these were good people, good citizens, and that they were God's children just like me and my family.

And then I got sad...I gotta tell you it's not the first time this has happened to me. My understanding of American history and the racism that this country endured and still endures leaves me with a sense of guilt and shame. AND I can't shake it.

I never understood how a human being could perpetrate such horror on another human being.

I never could understand how a Christian could go to church on Sunday and on Sunday night dress in a white robe and burn a cross and attack a Man for the color of his skin.

Is this a normal reaction? I don't know. But it's in me and my hope is that I channel it to make things better and to influence my children that racism is an evil decease.

[Kraklen]

1. Did they have a good table?

Was the wait staff treating them equally?

Thinking of the klan is easy. Noticing the modern racism- not so much.

[trumad]

4. They were treated fine...

[Iris]

14. "Noticing the modern racism. . ."

That's why the whole Oprah/Hermes episode upset me so much. I didn't want the problem of racism trivialized by what may (or may not) have been a misunderstanding.

[ewagner]

2. It took me years to understand

as well as a great College Professor who had the nerve to drag four of us students to a KKK Meeting.

What I saw at the meeting didn't sink in to me for a couple of years. You see, for the Klansmen, that meeting was just the same as church. When they had the robes and hoods on, they were doing the "work of God" that the (godless)law/courts "wouldn't let them".

The whole meeting was framed in Bible verse and morality ploys. The hood and the robes WERE Christian as far as they were concerned.

[bloom]

18. " doing the "work of God"...framed in Bible verse and morality ploys...

Reminds me of the Republicans.

[ewagner]

24. Yes. Yes it does... n/t

[MsTryska]

32. They're right.....

the hoods and robes are Christian - Catholic to be precise - In Spain and I believe Portugal - there is one Holy Day where there is a procession of people in Hoods and Robes of different colors. peaked Hoods jsut like the Klan.



They dress this way to hide their shame from God.

[FreedomAngel82]

59. That's what's scary

That's why you have to be able to think for yourself. Even in the Bible in the book of Proverbs it encourages you to think for yourself. Not to just blindly follow but check things out whether it's something with a church, politics or whatever it may be. You never know when something may look like it's holy and religious but in reality it's evil and not the work of God. Same thing with gay people.

[tallahasseedem]

3. I thought about this the other night.

I was watching a documentry on Discovery Times and they were talking about Johnson's role in desegregation. They showed a clip of Jesse Jackson being denied entry into a theater. I cried, how could this have happened?

[Tim4319]

5. As a black man,

I wish more people would sit back and think about the history. Too many people want us to forget what was done to my ancestors, and the effect it has on us to this day. Those acts should never be forgotten, they are as much as a part of history as the signing of the "Declaration of Independence".

This is just my opinion. Others may feel different, I just don't want people to forget the contributions that were made to this country by African Americans.

[faithnotgreed]

12. hi tim. i hope and trust no one here feels different than you on this

and i wish too that people would think and feel

[Iris]

16. Yes, and the implications of those acts are still felt today.

Think of all the families that were affected by the loss of father or other relative and how that sort of thing can impact a family for generations and generations.

[bobbieinok]

17. after the OJ verdict, I had a long discussion with a black woman colleague

(this was part of an ongoing discussion on race

she said that what no whites seemed to know or want to know was that blacks had an entirely different background screen going on during the trial than whites did

...blacks were seeing years of lynching

...and cops lying when blacks were on trial

...etc

and that was the context they were seeing the trial

I don't know if she was correct, but it was certainly an interesting concept that I had not previously considered

we later had a long discussion about the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921

...I said this was never mentioned in the Tulsa School System or in Tulsa white society....I had talked to and read comments from whites who grew up in Tulsa and freaked out when they heard about it

...she said that was very odd...she grew up as a black in Tulsa, and everyone in the Tulsa black community knew about this ... it was a clear part of their history

[oasis]

22. I never heard about the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 until I saw a documentary

on it 7 or 8 years ago. That was a horrible event in American history.

[Tim4319]

26. Check this out! Here are some articles.

http://www.tulsareparations.org/TulsaRiot.htm
http://www.assumption.edu/users/McClymer/his394/tulsaraceriot/default.html
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_2026.shtml

[martymar64]

71. Thanks for the Tulsa Riot Links!

My great-grandfather was Robert Sanford, who was elected Sheriff of Tulsa in 1922, the year after the Riot. I have some clippings from his term but nothing regarding the riots.

I've often wondered about his actions during the Riots, but because he died in 1934, I can't ask him.

If you know any good sources for some research, please let me know.

Thanks!

[Logansquare]

83. I read about it in "Lies My Teacher Told Me"

the very *first* time I had ever heard of the riot, or perhaps more appropriately, the pogrom. If you've never read the book, it's an excellent introduction to all the American history that doesn't make it into textbooks.

It's not all negative; there's a surprising chapter on Helen Keller and her fervent socialism and activism. She's been turned into some deaf/blind Madonna by the popular press, but she was a rabble-rousing lefty!

[Tim4319]

23. I did some research on the Tulsa riots and Black Wall Street.

Incidents like that always seem to be swept under some rug, and never discussed.

[La Coliniere]

36. HBO documentary: "OJ, A Study in Black and White"

opened my eyes to the way the black community perceived the whole OJ case. Not the greatest doc I've ever seen, (others have written that it avoids the notion that OJ often denied his race), but eye opening in many regards. If I were a black man, my perceptions would've probably reflected what others of my race (how I detest the idea of race!) were feeling. HBO seems to show this film every 6 months or so.

[FreedomAngel82]

61. Oh wow

Sometimes there are some people who would like to erase and change history. Remember that one republican black man who was at some republican gala who was speaking and proclaiming that blacks loved slavery and things weren't so bad? I rememeber hearing that and wanted to fall out of my chair!!!! And this is a black man saying those things! My God. Whenever I think about the OJ trial I always get a strange feeling with it. I remember being in seventh grade and in English class watching the trial since it was such a big deal. I remember thinking he didn't do it. Of course I could be wrong but for the most part my "gut" is pretty on. He was a black man with a white woman.... Can't have that now, can we?

[Mairead]

21. We not only need to remember and think about the history of racism and

slavery but think, too, about how we can compensate for it. Because it's still blighting lives today.

[noiretextatique]

25. i agree

what happened, and how it all happened is something that must never be forgotten because it was THE NORM for such a long time.
when my friends and i talk about slavery and jim crow, we all say they would have had to kill us because we wouldn't have submitted. but it's easy for us to say that because we never had to experience it. more than likely, we would have gone along with the program.

and that's the history we all need to embrace. it's easy to blame the people you see in all those images from the civil rights struggle...the bull connors and george wallaces and all the agery faces in the mobs taunting little children trying to go to school.
and of course, the crowds on the lynching postcards laughing and smilling...the men, women, and children.
it's something else again to realize that if things had not changed, because of the hard work and sacrifice of many, and in spite of the violence and brutality of many others...things would not have changed.

[Bread and Circus]

40. As a white man

I agree with you. :hug:

[Auntie Bush]

50. The Jews don't want the Holocaust forgotten either. The Christians

don't want the world to forget the crucification of Christ or the Christians being thrown to the Lions, the Inquisition or the Salem Witch Hunts. I could go on and on but you have to stop some place.
We can't learn from our mistakes if we don't face them and remember them. No one should forget slavery or the hangings and the KKK.

Now let us not forget how Hitler rose to power...least we get another.

[FreedomAngel82]

60. I agree

Nobody should ever forget. That's why things are so different to me. Black history month and the like. Same thing with Thanksgiving. It's so different and I celebrate it differently now days. Now instead of it just being time away from school and with my family it's still time with my family but I think of all the pain and murder that happened for us to get to this point. The curelty to Indians and all. The history of blacks should be the same as well. Whether it be for respect or just to remember. America is in no way a perfect country. We still aren't perfect. We can learn from our past.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JanMichael]

13. "Shrug???"

I don't understand your reply to this thoughtful post. Maybe you could explain yourself.

[Name removed]

28. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JanMichael]

30. Well we don't know the poster is down yonder.

He/she could be a Yanqui or a Cowboy or a coffee drinking NW tree hugger.

No telling.

[WillyT]

33. Or... You Could Check the Profile...

:shrug:

[JanMichael]

38. I don't really trust what people put in online profiles.

Case in point our old friend LiberalCuban.

Edit: Oh and my real name is Trixie and I live in Madagascar:-)

[WillyT]

43. I Hear Ya !!!

And BTW - My name is now Cindy... but it's a long story, LOL!!!

:hi:

[Kraklen]

44. What the?

:smoke:

Sounds like I missed a doozy.

[fudge stripe cookays]

34. Unless he's lying...

about the "Gulfport, MS" in his profile, I'd take him at his word.

FSC

[WillyT]

37. Just LOVE That Button !!!

:yourock:

[Yupster]

70. Good one

unless he's lying, I'd take him at his word.

Well - those are the two options. Either he's lying or he's not.

[noiretextatique]

27. if things hadn't changed...

it wouldn't be hard to imagine that you might be a racist, since racism was considered perfectly acceptable for quite a long time, and still is in some circles. guilt is truly self-serving, however there is nothing inexplicable about the way racism fuctioned (s) in american society.

[WillyT]

35. You Know I Love You... Don't You ???

:woohoo:

:bounce::loveya::bounce:

:toast::hippie::toast:

:hi:

[noiretextatique]

48. but of course

:loveya: right back at ya! when is the july event...adn where? are you coming?

[WillyT]

49. Here... And Yes !!!

Link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=141x9585

Can't wait!

:bounce:

[noiretextatique]

51. i'll put in on my calendar

and i'll be there...if i am in town. rumor has it that tinoire is going too. :7

[Kraklen]

31. LOL.

Oh, I don't think it's inexplicable.

I think it's guilt by association with white people who are racist in this life and pretend that racism isn't a problem.

:crazy:

[linazelle]

54. "Guilt by by association"...

I have thought a lot about racism too. Discussed it in multiracial classes and gatherings as well.

Do you believe that you would have acted very differently, as a white person, from other whites if you had lived during that era?

I think social pressures push people to go either way. The author of the post earlier in this thread said he would have gone along more than likely, with everybody else--he would not have rebelled.

I think a lot of white people went along for the same reasons. It's a lot easier to go along when you gain privilege and even esteem by being thought of as "better than" others simply because of the color of your skin. Had those whites not gone along, they would have been labeled. Social diversity is more acceptable now, for the most part so it's easy to go along with that today.

I also think that subtle racism persists because people gravitate toward their own kind. People seek to affiliate and assimilate, and race is an easy way to begin doing that. It takes a lot of personal awareness to step outside of this comfort zone.

I live in an area where there are few blacks--and I'm black. I find most people to be very friendly. But...I often feel a sense of apprehension about how whites will respond to me. I sometimes feel that I will be resented because I'm simply in "their" area. I have spoken to people in my neighborhood in passing and gotten no response (not many, but it's happened). I won't say that's totally because of race--these people could be crazy or deaf for all I know--but it's easy to jump to the conclusion that racism is the reason.

I would like to add that racism is not just a black/white issue. I went to a store owned by orientals once. I was prepared to buy several items. After I tried on a few items, the oriental woman who assisted me (watched my every move actually) told me that I had to leave, I could not try on anything else. That's when I saw a sign that said you could only try on three items. I was floored--and happy as hell I hadn't bought anything before finding out I would be put out. These people, doing business in a black neighborhood, often want blacks to come in, drop their money and get out. They have zero respect for the people they make a living off of. My only regret is that I didn't organize a picket of their store to run them out of the neighborhood.

[FreedomAngel82]

63. How sad

How sad for the oriential woman. As an oriential they should be able to understand better since they go through that nonsense as well. Ugh. While I can easily say I would act differently the truth is I don't know how I would act if I was a live back then. I would like to think I would do the right thing. Of course nobody would ever know.

[trumad]

39. Actually I was a caterpillar who turned into a butterfly

It was a short life.

[thereismore]

7. I hear you.

Sometimes I have a feeling like I ought to tell them that I think I understand that they had it rough in life, but then I realize that my thinking was triggered by their skin color and that it may be racist to even think it. Besides, they would probably just tell that I think I understand but I don't understand anything, so I just go on like none of this ever happened in my head. Anyone else shares my thoughts?

[nikraye]

8. And yet, some have learned nothing...

It still amazes, infuriates and saddens me to see Blacks, Jews, Asians, and Hispanics--minorities who have themselves been discriminated against--on the front lines of the hate campaign against Gays and Lesbians.

Have they learned nothing?

[Zenlitened]

29. Exactly. That's so sickening.

People who should know better using the language of the Master Class, saying "those people" don't deserve the same rights as "the rest of us."

Ugh.

[noiretextatique]

56. that is truly and equal-opportunity hate

i might add that racism is not exactly absent from the gay and lesbian community.

[nikraye]

57. A big difference...

...between some individual members of the gay community harboring racist feelings, and having large, organized factions of the community leading a very PUBLIC campaign of hate against a given racial minority group. When was the last time you saw a national convention of gays meeting with the express purpose of preaching hate and lobbying DC to amend the US constitution to prevent Blacks, for example, from marrying? When was the last time you saw a "gang" of gays beating up a Latino, because of his skin color? When was the last time you saw a zealous queen running among parade goers at a Chinese New Year celebration, stabbing Asians because they're, well, Asian?

I've been a card-carrying member of both the straight and gay communities at different times in my life, and I must say honestly, there is far more racial acceptance and coexistence, as well as interracial relationships within the gay community than there is among the general heterosexual populous.

[noiretextatique]

58. surface acceptance, perhaps

i say that a black woman, who has spent time in both communities. i say that as someone who lives in the gay, and sitll fairly segregated mecca of the bay area...sf and oakland. in general though, i do think the gay community is more advanced on the issue. but you do have a point, i would qualify it thusly: what the organized gay-haters seem to have in common: professed religion. i haven't seen this group, for example: "black bankers against gays."

[nikraye]

62. Yes...religion is the common thread.

And I lived in Oakland from 1995-2000, in a predominantly Black middle class neighborhood -- 90% Black, handful of Asians, and a handful of whites. Not too surprisingly, nearly ALL the whites who lived in our neighborhood were either Gay or Lesbian. All the straight whites I knew at the time lived in more exclusively white neighborhoods. I doubt it's changed much since then, sadly.

[noiretextatique]

81. oakland is very diverse

and with housing prices being what they are, more white people have been moving east....more people period are moving east. areas like the laurel district attracted lesbians, in particular, because they could still afford to buy there when housing prices skyrocketed. the rising cost of housing is forcing people out of the exclusively white enclaves. of course its also making it hard for people to buy at all.

btw, badlands in the castro was recently picketed because of their habit of searching black and latino men. the white horse in oakland doesn't play certain music because the regulars there get pissy when it gets too "dark" in there. they aren't particularly fond of females either. most white gay folks would never set foot in cables, the gay club in downtown oakland.

having said all that, oakland is the most diverse and integrated city i've ever lived in, and certainly the most gay-friendly.

[FreedomAngel82]

66. Obviously not

It's easy for them now days to hate LGBT people because now it's them and not the blacks, Jews, Asians etc. They're trying to "fit in with society" it seems like. So instead of showing sympathy they're going along with the crap of hating gay people.

[noiretextatique]

82. they are simply anti-gay bigots

they come in all colors, both genders, and from several religious backgrounds, and some are atheists. and some gay people are racists and sexists, so some gay people are bigots too.
there is this MYTH that gay people are so open and accepting of each other and everyone else, and while the are elements of truth to that myth, in reality: people are just people.

[jonnyblitz]

85. they are told we choose to be this way...they didn't choose

to be a certain race. that is what they will tell you. :shrug:

[knowbody0]

9. when i was a kid

my family headed over the mountains to buy fruit in bulk for canning.the first fruit stand we reached said "no dogs or Indians allowed" i asked my dad why. he said "because dogs and Indians are dirty" to proove his point he drove us through the tiny little reservation. i saw houses unpainted and old cars. no people. i asked where the Indians were and he told me they'd gotten rid of them.i was six at the time and i knew my father was wrong. my heart told me this.
i did not know until i was 16 that my father was half Indian. i share this story with you because your story tells me that you were responding from your heart sounds.
peace and love

[expatriate]

72. This is so common!

"i did not know until i was 16 that my father was half Indian."

I've had such similar experiences! My father's parents were both part Indian - Eastern Cherokee. Yet they denied it vehemently whenever it was suggested by one of the grandchildren when we grew up enough to begin to realize that our features showed this heritage - and when we began to look through old photographs and see that many of the great-grandparents and great-greats were definitely of Indian heritage.

When asked, both grandparents would become furious and insist that everyone in the family was "pure Anglo-Saxon". Grandkids even were hit when they asked if there had been Indian heritage in the family. My grandfather in particular would become nearly hysterical and talk about "dirty" Indians and how they should all be killed off.

It wasn't until I did a lot of homework, had some DNA testing done, and developed health conditions common in people of Indian heritage who eat a "white man's diet" (insulin resistance) that I found out why I have an extra ridge of bone in my feet, epicanthal folds on my eyes, and ovaries that don't work because of insulin resistance that went undiagnosed and untreated for so very long - all because people were so determined to hide this "dirty" heritage.

They hated the very thing that made up part of themselves - no wonder they were such unhappy, miserable people. They have all died from complications of illnesses that could have been easily controlled if they had only told a doctor that there was a strong Indian ancestry in our family.

[knowbody0]

73. maybe you are my cousin?

[expatriate]

76. Could be!

The family names involved were Foss, Graves and Green - in Georgia and Florida. Ring any bells?

[TahitiNut]

10. Why not feel happy and proud?

Why not look at people you believe have experienced hardship and have overcome that hardship with courage and dignity and be happy for them? Why not be proud to be a member of the same species? Why not be thankful for the lesson? We need to heal.

It is a kind of racism to think that the color of our skin confers upon us some kind of racial guilt or racial victimhood. (This is NOT to ignore the inheritance of disadvantage or advantage!) When I look at other human beings, I see kin. We treat us like shit! It's what humans do to humans and until we all feel both the shame and the pain, we'll never stop doing it.

[trumad]

42. Oh I do...

And I was proud that I could sit there next to this couple and that they were shown the respect they deserved. But still...it doesn't erase how I feel about the history of their ancestors.

[FreedomAngel82]

68. Good points

Very good points. My family has a friend who's black who attends our church. She and her family are the only black people who attend our church. Everybody else is white. I feel happy that they're in there with us and we're doing the same thing. Everybody treats them with respect and dignity. The family friend's nephews fit in perfectly fine and are friends with a lot of the kids/college kids at my church. No more seperations. No more white only churches and black only churches. People can worship whereever they want now days. Same with restaurants and bathrooms and waterfountains. While it may be sad and they still go through some troubles it is a bit better now days. There's still a long road to go though before we can clearly be free of all the hate in this country. Some people simply aren't ready to let go of their hatered whether it be black people, gay people, immigrants, Jews.

[One_Life_To_Give]

11. When people find difficulty in their lives, it's easy

to light the fires of hate. To outline all of the worlds problems as the fault of "Those" people. "They" are the ones responsible for all of it. Hitler used it, the Klan used it, the skinhead movement is using it.

[indepat]

15. Maybe some self-professing Christians don't practice Christian principles,

use their "Christianity" to further agendas not at all "Christian."

[lynch03]

19. I was just thinking about something like that

There were these two african american women we hired from a care giver service to take care of my althiezmer, and parkinson ridden grandparents. They did such a good job trying to rehabilitate them and brought as much joy into their usually boring and dull lives as possible. They were with my grandparents until the very moment they died. They cried, and attended the funeral, I truly felt as if they were part of the family, it seemed as though they had as many stories about my grandparents as my mom. It just then dawned on me how people could be such fucking assholes and treat people so cruely because of color, when you know someone who's so nice and compassionate and figure they'd be treated like garbage if they lived during the wrong time, it's really depressing.

[devinsgram]

20. Last night while listing to Mike Malloy tell of what

is going on with the children taken prisoner and what was done to them in those places, as young as 7 or 8 years old,and look at the pictures of small children with their limbs blown off, I could not help but wonder the same thing. Just like you asked,"how could a human being perpetrate such horror on another human being?"

[bobbieinok]

46. Martin Niemoeller on the failure of the churches to protest Nazi crimes

http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/niem.htm

(introduction to the webpage)

Martin Niemöller's
famous quotation:
"First they came for the Communists"
What did Niemoeller really say?
Which groups did he name?
In what order?
a page by Harold Marcuse, UC Santa Barbara
created Sept. 12, 2000, last updated March 25, 2005

I still haven't been able to come up with a definitive answer to the first question, but do have some preliminary answers to the other two

.....

later Niemoeller statement on the page (translation of the original German)

In a 6 January 1946 speech delivered for representatives of the Confessing Church in Frankfurt (published in Die deutsche Schuld, Not und Hoffnung, Zurich: Evangelischer Verlag, 1946, pp. 1-19, quotation on pp. 5ff),

....

...Can we say, we aren't guilty/responsible? The persecution of the Jews, the way we treated the occupied countries, or the things in Greece, in Poland, in Czechoslovakia or in Holland, that were written in the newspapers. … I believe, we Confessing-Church-Christians have every reason to say: mea culpa, mea culpa! We can talk ourselves out of it with the excuse that it would have cost me my head if I had spoken out.
…
We preferred to keep silent. We are certainly not without guilt/fault, and I ask myself again and again, what would have happened, if in the year 1933 or 1934 - there must have been a possibility - 14,000 Protestant pastors and all Protestant communities in Germany had defended the truth until their deaths? If we had said back then, it is not right when Hermann Göring simply puts 100,000 Communists in the concentration camps, in order to let them die. I can imagine that perhaps 30,000 to 40,000 Protestant Christians would have had their heads cut off, but I can also imagine that we would have rescued 30-40,000 million people, because that is what it is costing us now.

[CatWoman]

41. That;'s mighty white of you, Tru

:D

:hi:

[WillyT]

47. Another Black Goddess !!!

Man... we just gotta have a national get together, ya know???

Or you could come drink with us NorCal DUers in Berkeley in July!!!

:bounce::loveya::bounce:

[TahitiNut]

55. (tsk, tsk)

That's part of what I LOVE about you! :evilgrin:

[goclark]

45. Thank you! Maybe someday

MLK's words will come true.

[Name removed]

52. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[leftofthedial]

53. same way a "human" can praise jeebiz on sunday

and then vote for a repuke on tuesday. ''

same EXACT frigging way

[progressivebydesign]

64. I think it's normal to feel that way... I know I do.

I tell my stepdaughters, to their amazement, that African Americans did not have equal rights until several years after I was born (ANd I'm not very old). It floors them to think that America lived that way in my lifetime.. I have empathy, if that's what it's called, for what you describe.. and wonder how people can be so hateful and still consider themselves to be religious. That's what turns me off of organized religion.. I'd rather be in hell with ghandi, than in heaven with that type of Christian.

[Ikonoklast]

65. My grandmother died a few years back at the age of 93

and a tall, distinguished looking black man came to the wake to pay his respects. I was standing with my father and his two brothers, my uncles, and asked them who that man might be; I thought it was someone that had worked with Dad that I had never had met. My father said, "I don't know, but he looks familiar."

He came over to shake my fathers' hand, calling him by his first name. My father said that he was at a disadvantage, as he didn't remember the gentlemans' name.

The man then said, "I wouldn't expect you to remember me, but I worked with your father. When I saw your mothers' name in the obituaries, I had to come and pay my last respects. The last time that you saw me was at your fathers' funeral"


Now my grandfather had died almost forty years earlier, and my father was astounded that the man remembered him, and said so.

The black gentleman said, "After World War II, I came back home to a wife and a baby with no job. No one would hire a black man, as it was hard for even the white soldiers to get a job after de-mobilization. I went everywhere looking, but had no luck and was getting desperate . When I went to the factory where your father was the foreman to see if I could get a job, any job. Your father asked me if I was a vet, and I said yes. He hired me, and for that I will be eternally grateful. I could finally feed my family as a working man"


That was the third time in my life that I ever saw my father cry.


I later learned that the gentleman had retired from that same company after doing just about every job in it, and retired as a manager.

That man showed more decency of the human spirit than a million of these so-called Christians. The color of a mans' skin has so little to do with the largeness of his soul.

[geckosfeet]

75. Thats a GREAT story. Thanks.

[WillyT]

77. *sobbing* - Thank You For That !!!

Wonderful...simply inspiring.

:hug:

[BMG]

67. I am racist towards racists.

[porphyrian]

69. I had a similar thought the other day...

In Chicago, where it's been in the 90s for the last week or two, I saw a taxi completely ignore a black man who was walking into the street to hail it. His wife, who was visibly pregnant, was sitting nearby, though she was white. I was right behind the taxi and I got a good look at his frustration since the light turned red as we approached the intersection. Neither of the couple were dressed suspiciously, nor did they seem criminal in any way. They just wanted a ride in that heat.

I'm no saint - I didn't give them a ride, but then I'm not driving a taxi, either. The guy's expression really stuck with me, though.

[WillyT]

74. NOTICE, THAT NOT ONE PERSON, INCLUDING ME, VOTED THIS UP !!!

'til right now!!!

I'm pretty sure that says a whole bunch about how lousy we all are at dealing with this history\reality.

It's like we're more afraid of the uncomfortable cure, than the absolute corruption of the disease.

So... I vote for greater exposure, and therefore...light.

And hopefully, enlightenment.

:kick:

[Schema Thing]

84. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I was trying to keep the black man down

er... I mean thread. :dunce:

[mmonk]

78. There's alot of dark history

the average American ignores (such as slavery, racism, and the near genocide of the native Americans), especially in this new time of regressive politics and self exhaultation.

[RagingInMiami]

79. I know you live in Miami where blacks have never had it easy

And still don't.

Back in the early days of the city, blacks were only allowed to live in an area called "colored town" which later became overtown. The KKK marched through the streets of downtown Miami as people cheered during the 1920s. Miami's southern style police department regularly killed and abused black citizens.

Things didn't change during the 1960s civil rights movements because the arrival of Cuban refugees meant that blacks were losing the low-paying jobs that blacks in other cities throughout the south took for granted.

In 1980, when cops killed Arthur McDuffie, an unarmed ex-marine for a traffic violation, an all-white jury acquitted the four white officers, sparking one of the worst riots this country has ever seen. Eighteen people were killed. I will never forget the black plume of smoke hanging over Miami for three days.

The white community was shocked and surprised by the riot. The black community said it had been building up for decades. As you probably know, two more riots broke out in Miami during the 1980s after white or hispanic cops killed black men.

In the 1990s, 13 Miami police officers (11 were Hispanic, two were non-Hispanic whites) were arrested for planting guns after shooting unarmed black men.

Now that Miami is going through a development boom, blacks are facing the possibility of being forced out of their homes to make way for condos.

Our city leaders have learned nothing from the past. If another riot breaks out, they will have only themselves to blame.

[NMMNG]

80. I think it's a normal reaction

For a person who has empathy.

I react the same way when I read or view accounts of the heinous crimes perpetrated on blacks, American Indians, gays and lesbians, disabled people and other individuals currently or previously deemed "inferior" in some way to others. I dream of a future where "racism" and "bigotry" are nothing more than archaic terms in a dictionary. Unfortunately I don't anticipate it in my lifetime ;(