C
Cat
Guest
Not sure if this is the best place for this thread, but I’ll start it here.
In another section of the CAF, there is a thread about a walk-out in a school that started because of a speech about racism.
I am white (German-Irish American). In fact, I am very white–blonde, blue-eyed, fair skinned.
My mom was raised in the rural South, and spent her childhood living among blacks, picking cotton, wading creeks, eating, playing. Her father was a ne’er do well wife beater, and once late at night, he received a visit from the local Ku Klux Klan, who told him to stop beating his wife and children. My mother remembered their white hoods and torches, and how scared her father was.
She didn’t know the meaning of the word prejudice. To her, black people were just people with black skins, no different than her.
My dad was raised in the rural Midwest. His parents were German farmers, German Reformed, and they taught him that all men were created equal.
My parents raised me and my brother to believe that people are people. They used the “n” word because everyone did back then. My father was the first man in our city to rent an east-side apartment to a black family. He got death threats.
That’s my background.
I think that we’ve come a long way in the U.S. since the days of Jim Crow, lynchings, and “boy” and “gal.”
I know there is still racism out there, just like there’s still anti-Semitism out there. Even the horrific crimes of the Holocaust didn’t stop that.
So what’s the best way to eliminate racism?
What DOES it mean?
In another section of the CAF, there is a thread about a walk-out in a school that started because of a speech about racism.
I am white (German-Irish American). In fact, I am very white–blonde, blue-eyed, fair skinned.
My mom was raised in the rural South, and spent her childhood living among blacks, picking cotton, wading creeks, eating, playing. Her father was a ne’er do well wife beater, and once late at night, he received a visit from the local Ku Klux Klan, who told him to stop beating his wife and children. My mother remembered their white hoods and torches, and how scared her father was.
She didn’t know the meaning of the word prejudice. To her, black people were just people with black skins, no different than her.
My dad was raised in the rural Midwest. His parents were German farmers, German Reformed, and they taught him that all men were created equal.
My parents raised me and my brother to believe that people are people. They used the “n” word because everyone did back then. My father was the first man in our city to rent an east-side apartment to a black family. He got death threats.
That’s my background.
I think that we’ve come a long way in the U.S. since the days of Jim Crow, lynchings, and “boy” and “gal.”
I know there is still racism out there, just like there’s still anti-Semitism out there. Even the horrific crimes of the Holocaust didn’t stop that.
So what’s the best way to eliminate racism?
- Be colorblind. That’s my personal belief. I think we should stop any characterization of people as “black” "white,"etc. Of course we’re going to notice a person’s skin color, just like we notice if they’re fat, thin, bald, blonde, or whatever. But it doesn’t factor into our evaluation of the person as a “good” person or as a “person to be avoided in the future.”
- Be color proud. That seems to be the belief of a lot of people. We talk about our “blackness” and what it means to “black.” I don’t get this at all. I think it contributes to racism.
- Be proud of our national heritage. Now I can see a little of this. I’m proud of certain aspects of my German and Irish ancestors. I don’t go to Oktoberfest, but I probably should. I put up St. Patrick’s Day decorations. But on the other hand, isn’t too much of this racist?
- Celebrate diversity. Well, biologically, the only way to maintain diversity is to maintain separateness. IOW, no interracial marriage/breeding. I certainly don’t agree with that. To me, that’s blatant racism. So should we eliminate all these school and workplace ventures that emphasize “diversity,” knowing that it’s a code word for “separateness,” which is really Racism?
- Celebrate unity. I tend to go along with this. I think that the best thing that could happen would be for all the races to marry and interbreed, and then we would have one homogenous “race.” Is that racist on my part?
- There are times I feel–and please forgive me–that there are some people who really don’t want “equality” or “the end of racism.” What they seem to really want is unlimited money given to them for no work, free health care, free housing, free food, free college, exemption from illegal drug laws, exemption from the requirement to attend school, and for everyone else in the world to be their slaves. Again, please forgive me, but a lot of the letters and columns in our local paper seem to be cries for utter license to do what they please at others’ expense. They really don’t have any ideas for “laws” or “ordinances”, just vague complaints about “racism” and demands for extreme retribution from those who oppress them. Why do I get this feeling? Am I incorrect? Am I racist for not seeing what they are really asking? What ARE they really asking?
What DOES it mean?
… I am female, not wealthy, etc.).
). Sorry, but nazi-ism has not gone away…
.)…
. the Catholic Church helped Blacks when other White “christians” would NOT…
- as to what all it means to be black in the U.S…
