I was raised on the narcotizing and stupefying cool-aid of racism, broader ethnocentrism, religion, and conservatism of the Bible belt deep south. My father tried to be a good man, but he was poorly educated and made bad decisions throughout his life which left us on the edge of poverty. But, I was lucky to have some intelligence and some financial aid that led me to college. I had always had some questions, and my undergraduate education laid the basis for some openness to change.
While serving in the U.S. Army at the hot spot in the Cold War (West Berlin) I was exposed to concepts and the actual performance of democratic socialism in Germany, to broader philosophical and social questions and issues, and to many questions about racism in the south. I saw that democratic social programs of universal healthcare, universal retirement systems, and other programs really worked and left almost no one in poverty.
Later graduate study including political science, philosophy, sociology, and intellectual history, combined with my more revealing experience, finally broke the limiting shackles of the culture in which I grew up. As a consequence, I am A political and social liberal, but much more patriotic and moral than I ever was as a young men.
I look back at the people still in the culture in which I grew up. Their beliefs are the same as 60 years ago. Many more of them live in poverty or on the edge of poverty. Under Republican state and federal administrations, programs helping them have been decimated. Yet, they still drink the cool-aid. It is sad. They simply refuse to see that they are being controlled and damaged by those who want to preserve existing privilege, power, and profit at their expense.
Let us not attack them, but do everything we can to get them to see the vision,, the promise, and the results of a more progressive future. It is the only way that we will reach them. It is time for us to evangelize on behalf of a bold image of the future.
6
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Our stories could be the same other than it was the USMC instead of the Army.
Our family owned the country store where every sharecropper, white or black, shopped on credit all year till the harvest. Without that store they could not make their crops. At this point in time there was little industry in the South so it was pretty much farm or starve.
My family has been the acceptable mixed race since the French Jew great, great grandfather came down the Mississippi River to escape the French-Indian war. His son married a Cherokee and their oldest daughter married a Spanish/Black lawyer.
Someway, we were always considered white, I never was sure how that worked.
Flash forward to 1961, my grandfather and uncle refused to join the KKK in attacking the Freedom Riders so the Klan turned on us. On night they rallied in the field across from the Store and burnt a big cross. My grandfather, uncle and I sat in the store with our rifles hoping the cross burners did not try to drag us out the way they had with a black store owner from the next town over.
These were the same people who depended on the store selling them seed, feed and food on credit for a year before the next crop came in.
The mentality has not changed. When I moved back to the US in 2009, I bought an old hunting lodge in a National Forrest just North of Baton Rouge. The first year here I noticed there was not a single black or brown voter at the Polls. We started a voter registration drive and carried many people into the courthouse to register to vote. I got death threats for a year after that.
It would be nice if they could see the vision but my fear is that they have been forever blinded.
Igeaux
Level 4
Jan 1, 2020
1
Sorry for any typos, down to one hand, had the wrist/thumb rebuilt. Not too good with one hand and the pain meds blur the few neurons I have left.
W.E.B. Dubious stated : The pattern of racism is woven into the fabric of America “. The false beliefs, religious doctrine, science; numerous essays biologically, as well as other other aspects of the European intellectuals to rationalize the colonialism of the Americas was established long before Europeans hit these shores , history has shown this even though it is only taught at the collegiate level or there for those who seek it . However your statement rings of truth and compassion.
Outsideit67
Level 7
Dec 31, 2019
0
Thank you. DuBois was right, and his statement is still rue today.
let me share this. Five incidents occurred during my childhood and youth that left me with questions and doubt. First, my father was an avid hunter and took me along with him (when I was a small boy). We stopped by the rural house of an old Black man. He gave me some peanuts from his field, and I thanked him -- addressing him as "sir." When we left the man's house, my father told me that I should not address a Black man as sir. I responded, "But, you have always told me that I should address an adult male as sir." He had no good answer and it left me deeply puzzled. I never forgot that.
When I was six years old, I was playing with several Black boys one afternoon. The next day at school, a girl named Barbara Pitzing (who was sweet on me) chewed me out, saying that she and her father had seen me playing with the Black boys. That made me angry and she was off my list: No one was going to tell me who I could play with. T
Third, a couple of years later, I was playing with some Black boys again, when the father of one of them came over and chewed out the boys and told them to go home, saying, "If he (me) got hurt, they are gonna blame it on you, no matter it happened. It made me sad, but somehow, even as a boy I knew that he was probably right.
As a young teenager, I fished often on the Withlacoochee River with an old Black man named Johnny Robinson. He usually palled the boat and I did the fishing, but we split the catch 50 - 50.I truly that companionship with Johnny and respected him. But, Johnny got old and his health was declining, so he and his wife moved to the county seat of Madison, with or near his son. For a long time I had not seen Johnny. Then one day I was in Madison with my rather, and I saw Johnny on the courthouse square. I went over to him and stuck out my hand for a handshake. Johnny looked almost hurt and hesitated. At first, I was puzzled, then I suddenly understood. In effect, I was asking Johnny to shake the hand of a white boy in public, in effect saying that we were equals. That could make him a possible victim of violence if some bigot saw it and felt he had to deal with an "uppity" Black. I was so sad and hurt, feeling that something is terribly wrong with a culture when two former friends could not greet each other with cordiality in public. I actually cried when I got back to our car.
The last incident occurred when I was 16 or 17. The area was a poor rural region, there were few opportunities for teenagers to earn money, except as farm labor. In the summer I worked in tobacco fields from dawn to dusk for $4.00 a day. It was exhausting, hot, and really dirty work. One day, I was working in a field crew of "cro\ppers" which included several Black boys. During the morning, I reached the end of my row, and turned around the tried to strike up a conversation with one of the Black boys. He ignored me. At the end of the next row I tried again. That time, he turned around and said, Don't try to make friends with me. IN a year or two, you are going to be outta here, but I got nothing to look forward to but a lifetime of the same. You can go down to the quarters (the Black section of town) and diddle around with any girl you want to and nobody is going to say anything. But, let me even look at a a white girl and they'll cut my nuts out.. Don't try to make friends with me. " That stung, because it was true.
All of those incidents have stuck with my entire life, and they created openings for me to reject the culture of racism.
You need a progressive leadership, inquiring media, good education and a culture that looks for solutions instead of blaming others for the problems. You only get these things through public debate & activism.
afrogonalog
Level 5
Dec 31, 2019
1
i appreciate your sentiment and wish i could believe in it, but many (not all) of these folks are buying the whole "if a democrat wins, shoot every liberal you see" thing. how do you get close enough to reach them without being killed?
g
genessa
Level 8
Dec 31, 2019
0
Every one whom we can peel away makes it harder for the rest to maintain their stances.
I agree with your every word and it took a while for me to see the errors of my youth. So many today still want to drink the cool-aid. They do not think we deserve better or that we should do better. The solution for so many is to deny anything that would help us all so they only want to help the few. Deny anything to do with a women's movement. Deny anything to do with LGBTQ people. Deny any program that would help us all as a society and make things better for all. Let's give all the benefits to the top 1 percent and just be happy.
That's not for me and it should not be for you. The problem is that you have to attack them or they will never see the vision.
DenoPenno
Level 9
Dec 31, 2019
0
Good luck with that. I appreciate your passion to do so.....
Bigwavedave
Level 8
Dec 31, 2019
1
And wish you complete success.
One has to be willing to learn, listen, educate and help oneself. If one refuses to open one's mind and attempt to learn, and think logically, no other person will be able to help that one. I understand what you are saying, but not everyone is intelligent enough as you and others are to seek knowledge and to learn and to think differently. We cannot help those who are unwilling to listen, or to help themselves.
noworry28
Level 8
Dec 31, 2019
1
Sad, but true.
I have the utmost respect for you and your perspectives.
Thank you for sharing your experiences and positions on different issues.
We may not always agree, but I truly appreciate your take on things.
Please never stop sharing your thoughts.
KKGator
Level 9
Dec 31, 2019
1
Many thanks. The feeling is mutual.
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