If you haven't read this article that I found on Yahoo you really should read it. It's the story of an old white gentleman who though he was notorious for hating blacks when he was younger, and even viciously beat a few in his life during the Civil Rights Movement, now is going about apologizing to everyone he can find who he wronged.
It is an interesting read and makes you think a lot about the root of hatred. One of the more interesting things I found in the piece though was the fact that even during the height of his hatred, he would bring his young wife to a "black speakeasy" to show off his dance moves to her. How odd. To hate blacks so much and yet have no problem going into a black club and dancing with them. O.k. that confuses me a bit. But I guess it is about the fact that as long as blacks are in their own place they are o.k. It is when they wanted to integrate that he had to beat them down.
As far as the apology to blacks, frankly I accept it. I understand it is sort of a death-bed apology but still the public nature of what he is doing can be a great lesson for a lot of people so I think it is a good thing.
Check out the article here.
Showing posts with label racist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racist. Show all posts
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Thursday, April 19, 2007
A Message For The White Majority
For today's post I am copying for you a story that appeared in The Daily Times, a Delaware newspaper. I came across the posting in the related news section that appears to the left on this page. But in case you miss it or it is gone by the time you read this, I wanted to make sure you read it because it is an important piece, not just for the intended audience, but for all of us.
A message for the white majority: We can overcome our racist history
By Joyce Mullins
It's sad that as we commemorate the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first game in major league baseball we must face the incontrovertible fact that America is still a racist nation. We -- and by "we" I mean the white majority of us -- can't seem to wash away the stain of our slave-holding history. It's more than skin deep, as is our fear of people of color.
We're racists not simply because Don Imus felt confident he would get laughs when he dredged Rutgers University's women's basketball team through the dirt in his own mind.
It's because it took CBS and MSNBC days -- not hours, but days -- to get Imus and his show, "Imus in the Morning" off the air.
It's that the big, white power boys of the American media thought it was OK to ignore the racist slurs in the banter Imus enjoyed with Bernard McGuirk, executive producer of the show and Sid Rosenberg, Imus' former sports announcer who was filling in that morning.
It's that the networks didn't have the backbone to act until AFTER sponsors started pulling out. Only money -- or the loss of it -- had the power to make these overgrown, overpaid playground bullies do the right thing.
Kudos to the sponsors, I guess. There's no way to be sure that they intended to take away the financial underpinnings of the show for the right reasons. Maybe they stepped up only because someone realized that the color of money is green and it doesn't work any differently coming from the wallet of a white person or a black person.
I hate to be such a skeptic, but where were the sponsors back when Rosenberg referred to tennis star Venus Williams as an "animal?"
If any closet, or for that matter any openly, racist readers feel tempted to justify the Imus exchange because of the disgusting, woman-hating language used by this or that rap star, just don't bother. As my late mother so eloquently preached, "Two wrongs don't make a right." There are no excuses for racism, not for grownups. Hating someone because they look different from us is so intellectually and emotionally lazy. We aren't born with hate in our hearts. As the song from "South Pacific" says, "You have to be carefully taught to hate all the folks your relatives hate."
So how do we stop handing down this ugly lesson?
I've always thought the public schools could do a lot more than the lick-and-a-promise kind of cultural teaching that's done. I didn't get to be the mommy in a bi-racial family without the help of my parents. It wasn't easy for southerners and I did start school in segregated Virginia. My dad anticipated that I might have some overcoming to do that first morning of my new fourth grade in integrated Pennsylvania. He said something simple and reassuring about looking for things that might be similar about the "little colored children" I was about to meet.
Before anyone leaps to the wrong conclusion -- "colored" was politically correct in 1949!
When I came home from school that day, I happily reported that the "little colored girl who sat next to me wore a dress exactly like mine!"
I wholeheartedly recommend my father's advice for us all.
A message for the white majority: We can overcome our racist history
By Joyce Mullins
It's sad that as we commemorate the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first game in major league baseball we must face the incontrovertible fact that America is still a racist nation. We -- and by "we" I mean the white majority of us -- can't seem to wash away the stain of our slave-holding history. It's more than skin deep, as is our fear of people of color.
We're racists not simply because Don Imus felt confident he would get laughs when he dredged Rutgers University's women's basketball team through the dirt in his own mind.
It's because it took CBS and MSNBC days -- not hours, but days -- to get Imus and his show, "Imus in the Morning" off the air.
It's that the big, white power boys of the American media thought it was OK to ignore the racist slurs in the banter Imus enjoyed with Bernard McGuirk, executive producer of the show and Sid Rosenberg, Imus' former sports announcer who was filling in that morning.
It's that the networks didn't have the backbone to act until AFTER sponsors started pulling out. Only money -- or the loss of it -- had the power to make these overgrown, overpaid playground bullies do the right thing.
Kudos to the sponsors, I guess. There's no way to be sure that they intended to take away the financial underpinnings of the show for the right reasons. Maybe they stepped up only because someone realized that the color of money is green and it doesn't work any differently coming from the wallet of a white person or a black person.
I hate to be such a skeptic, but where were the sponsors back when Rosenberg referred to tennis star Venus Williams as an "animal?"
If any closet, or for that matter any openly, racist readers feel tempted to justify the Imus exchange because of the disgusting, woman-hating language used by this or that rap star, just don't bother. As my late mother so eloquently preached, "Two wrongs don't make a right." There are no excuses for racism, not for grownups. Hating someone because they look different from us is so intellectually and emotionally lazy. We aren't born with hate in our hearts. As the song from "South Pacific" says, "You have to be carefully taught to hate all the folks your relatives hate."
So how do we stop handing down this ugly lesson?
I've always thought the public schools could do a lot more than the lick-and-a-promise kind of cultural teaching that's done. I didn't get to be the mommy in a bi-racial family without the help of my parents. It wasn't easy for southerners and I did start school in segregated Virginia. My dad anticipated that I might have some overcoming to do that first morning of my new fourth grade in integrated Pennsylvania. He said something simple and reassuring about looking for things that might be similar about the "little colored children" I was about to meet.
Before anyone leaps to the wrong conclusion -- "colored" was politically correct in 1949!
When I came home from school that day, I happily reported that the "little colored girl who sat next to me wore a dress exactly like mine!"
I wholeheartedly recommend my father's advice for us all.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Who's More Racist?
I just thought about something I have heard on at least two occasions that I find to be incredibly ridiculous. It was said, by different people on different occasions, that black people cannot be racist since we have no power.
What an incredibly silly, and erroneous, concept. I was reminded of this idea, harbored by not a few people, because of someone I saw on a talk show who clearly held a similar viewpoint. While the technical definition of racism may well include the notion of power coupled with bigotry, the common idea, and therefore the practical definition of a racist is simply someone who bases their perception of other people, and therefore their actions toward them, on their racial or ethnic make-up. And under that concept, believe me, I have met quite a few black racists. Indeed, I would put some of the black racists I have met on level footing with some of the white ones I have encountered or heard of.
Bigotry and stupidity are not owned by whites. While they have certainly been in a better position to enact hardships on those who they perceive as less than, it is unfortunate but true that many minorities have adopted mirrored beliefs and behaviors, and for those that have, I have no doubt they would act no differently if given the power and opportunity to demonstrate their biases.
What an incredibly silly, and erroneous, concept. I was reminded of this idea, harbored by not a few people, because of someone I saw on a talk show who clearly held a similar viewpoint. While the technical definition of racism may well include the notion of power coupled with bigotry, the common idea, and therefore the practical definition of a racist is simply someone who bases their perception of other people, and therefore their actions toward them, on their racial or ethnic make-up. And under that concept, believe me, I have met quite a few black racists. Indeed, I would put some of the black racists I have met on level footing with some of the white ones I have encountered or heard of.
Bigotry and stupidity are not owned by whites. While they have certainly been in a better position to enact hardships on those who they perceive as less than, it is unfortunate but true that many minorities have adopted mirrored beliefs and behaviors, and for those that have, I have no doubt they would act no differently if given the power and opportunity to demonstrate their biases.
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