I was a little girl myself when I saw a photo in a magazine of a tiny black girl in a white dress on a sidewalk surrounded by men in black suits. There were crowds of people in the photo watching the girl. Their mouths were open as though they were screaming at her. Some faces were twisted in anger. There were fists raised in the air. What could this little girl have done to make these white people so angry? When I asked a grownup I was told that she was going to a school with white children and that's what the ruckus was all about. There were no black children in my school but I know that I wouldn't have minded if the cute little girl in the Sunday school dress were to attend.
While still in elementary school I read the book "To Kill A Mocking Bird" and decided that I wanted to be Atticus Finch when I grew up. Of course I was advised that little girls don't grow up to be lawyers but that's another battle to be discussed in other articles.
I was also still a child when I learned of colleges students traveling to the south to register black voters and work for civil rights. I decided I would do the same when I grew up and went to college. That's what 20 year old Andrew Goodman, 21 year old James Chaney and 24 year old Michael Schwerner decided to do as well and they were old enough to do it. I know that they were aware of the dangers. In a course they took that taught them how to register blacks to votes I'm sure it was mentioned that civil rights workers were being beaten and imprisioned. They make me think of my own son who is so anxious to right injustices.
In Neshoba County Mississippi the three were stopped by a county deputy named Cecil Price who was a member of the White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan. Deputy Price claimed the driver was speeding and he took the other two young men to jail as well for "investigation". The young men were denied phone calls. Friends looked for them but failed to find them before Price arranged to hand them over to his Klan buddies at the edge of town. It was weeks before their bodies were found buried on a farm.
I've seen some people posting articles or making comments asking "What's the big deal?' about this inauguration day. The answer is much too long to fit in a comment box and this article is only a partial answer. It may be a big deal to Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner who may be cheering from heaven today as they watch Barack Obama take the oath. They may have front row seats, sitting alongside Martin Luther King or someone who died with a noose around his neck for using a water fountain or glancing one second too long at a white woman.
This is a sad day for the Klan. Look what their hatred and violence has brought about. When evil rears its ugly head, good stands up straight. And to current members of the Klan and all other hate filled bigots I would like to leave you with this quote from a TV game show host "You are the biggest loser."
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Comments: 58
There's nothing to be gained by hate. Just makes you ugly.
Speaking, not to you, but to them.
I am hoping we can close the clinic for a few minutes here to catch the historic event on TV. My time here is an hour different. I think the Inaugaration at 11am, here it is only 10:44 am.
I would like to see it...... and it is a big deal!
Well said, Kay. Momentous times. What a joy to see this day.
Thanks for posting to my group, Anythingwriting
Today is a day for celebration.
I want to believe those who write that kind of article on Gather can't be THAT STUPID but just greedy and going for points. I not longer read the STUPID articles.
I felt so bad for those young men who were murdered down south. They didn't hurt anyone and were simply working for a social cause that is good for all of America. In fact, they were the real patriots because they read the constitution and worked toward seeing the country meet its promise. Thanks for bringing this memory to light at this time. It is a big deal that we have a person of color in the White House, today. The fact that he is competent and intelligent is even a bigger deal considering what the last eight years have been like in this nation. Thanks, again, for a great article.
Thank you so much for this article.
No one shall ever know what goes on, even here on Gather as those who smile and pretend to not be bigoted, pretend to not have hatred in their hearts, pretend to espouse love and unity, but secretly harbor these feelings, yet go about doing the very things of which you speak.
However, that of which you speak, that thing that they do in darkness, and the "face" they put on for humans to see shall someday be revealed for all to see. I've seen it, and have shared their activities with a few close friends here on Gather. Some people know, and simply do not care; their own self-interests, and selfishness are more important to them. It's also possible that they harbor those same feelings, and simply do not want to tell me. Then, there are those in whom I've confided, who are outraged by the behaviour, and shall have nothing to do with the secret/hypocritical haters.
The point is that you don't always know just WHO is WHOM.
Frankly, I have a great deal more respect for those who are openly hateful, such as the Skinheads, and the KKK, than I do for those who feel the same, exact way as the Skinheads, and the KKK, and other such people. At least with those people, they have the guts, and the courage to stand up, and SAY who they are, and what they stand for.
I think that the people who make me the most nervous are the people who KNOW, who KNOW about the devious ones, and yet they are comfortable continuing to enjoy the fellowship with these people. It's like continuing fellowship with the KKK, when you know that a person IS in the KKK; what does that say about the person who does this? Is it saying they are encouraging and nurturing this behaviour. I've reached the conclusion that it is exactly what the message is --
"I know who you are, and I accept you nonetheless."
The other ones -- the sneaky, deceitful, and the devious ones -- are the most dangerous ones of all, though. As I stated previously, they hide behind smiles, and seemingly "goodwill", but it is all a lie, for they are as vicious, and venomous as vipers, as rattlesnakes. Since it is they of which you are unaware, it takes but one turning of your back, and you are a goner.
What is just as bad
Enough said there.
There is an old song that talks about "walking a mile in my shoes."
I would never want any White person to walk a mile in my shoes. Even though I have never experienced "Jim Crow" per se, I have experienced quite enough to not want anyone to walk in my shoes were bigotry, and hatred is concerned. Yet, my African American friends have told me that it is even worse than what I have experienced in the deep South; they tell me that I do not REALLY know what bigotry is until I have been there.
Once, while under the stress of having a new employer, this new employer being headquartered out of Texas, wanting to impose their social ways on us, and my not understanding their ways, I went to see a therapist to see just what the Hell was going on. I heard this therapist -- who was a White man, born and raised in Virginia -- tell my employers,
You must realize that Nalita does not understand your ways; she is California-free.
When I asked him what he meant by that, he told me:
"You would not understand, but they understood what I meant."
Being an African American in the United States is a very complicated thing. Still, I would not trade being African American for anything in the world! I am in love with it, and in love with my culture. I simply acknowledge, and accept Institutional racism, as do most African Americans, and I move on with my happy life. If I am confronted with blatant racism, that is when I deal with it -- situation by situation, and case by case. But again, it's something I would never wish for a White person to experience, since it would probably be too traumatic, Whites not being accustomed to it.
I have known for some time that you Kay, are very sensitive to it, and I love you for this. That is about all anyone may ask, since so many are not, and see so many situations as being "no big deals".
Again, I thank you for this article, and for everything else -- you know what I mean! If only everyone were as you, Dear Kay!
:=)
I feel the same way about being gay in America. I wouldn't want it any other way.The disrespect and the second class citizenship is difficult at times, but I am so lucky that I live in the USA. In other countries, gays and lesbians are put to death. So, I continue the struggle and work for acceptance and equality under the law.
I know what you mean, William. The Native Americans were the first oppressed "nation" in this country. The European settlers were taught farming and survival by the Native Americans. Once they got those skills down pat, they killed them. What a great legacy! It is a very sad beginning.
Our country still has a long ways to go, but there is hope.