Burning and the literary journal

[speckledhen]

Some seem to forget that the first race riots for busing were in the north, not the south. History, folks. Read your actual history, don't just perpetuate stereotypes. That doesn't help anyone and keeps hate alive. I see so much hate for southerners just because of history of a few of our ancestors. Northern ancestors were not squeaky clean. Research, folks, research.

 

[KristyHall]

As I said before we all have our prejudices, and we struggle with them. The best thing to do is when our prejudices are pointed out to us, we acknowledge them and work to end it.

Some prejudice can be good. I would never allow a convicted child abuser near my children. That is an act of prejudice, but many others are not acceptable IMO. I do not think we should be ashamed of who we are, our race, or where we came from. We can be ashamed of our peers behavior as fellow human beings, but as a southerner, and part white, I acknowledge the ill done but I refuse to be defined by it.

I Celebrate all of my heritage, and it can be hard. I am not fully accepted by many groups because of this. Please please don't take this thread for any more than it was, pivotal moment in my life and the realization that we all struggle with our demons, and we all have our bad days, and as human beings I feel it is our duties to try and understand not only our own evil, but the evil of others. Understanding does not equal acceptance, but by discussing and understanding the root of such beliefs we can work to make things better for everyone.

We are all related. We are all human beings.

In the words of a Lakota friend "Mitakuye Oyasin" It means all my relations. It is in reference to all of humanity.

 

[HHandbasket]

I'm not talking about historically. I'm talking about what goes on now. I did not mean to offend anyone from the south by painting "with a broad brush" but merely expressed what I observed first-hand while living there. My kids are half Mexican, and THEY were treated differently when we lived there, as well.

I am sure that prejudice goes on everywhere. We are human, and we all say/do things out of habit. We had a landlord who lived near us for the first year we were out there, and one day my son brought a friend home from school with him, a really smart kid who was going to help him with his homework because my son was having a particular difficulty with math. The kids came in, got something to eat, and went into Drew's room and were digging their books out of their backpacks when the phone rang. It was my landlord, telling me, "I don't allow them things on my property." "What things?" I asked. He said, "That monkey your kid brought home with him. Get him out NOW."

We moved out of there the following month.

 

[speckledhen]

Individual idiots do not define "the South". I am not ashamed to be Caucasian or Southern or anything else that is beyond my control and neither should anyone else be ashamed of what they are. To talk about the South like the entire region is a bastion of prejudice and has exclusive rights to it is irresponsible and misleading. If I was on the outside looking in, that is exactly the message I'd get from some of the posts, whether or not that was the intention.

 

[easttxchick]

Quote:
Thank you for putting into words far more eloquently what I wanted to say...it kept me from getting points, I'm sure!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm a white hillybilly raised in the south. I wear shoes. I do not wear a straw hat or bib overalls, although I have worn coveralls on many of my jobs. I did not marry my cousin. It might surprise some people what wrong assumptions people make about me when they hear my accent. Stereotypes

I have worked and lived in various places in this country and overseas. I have seen bigotry and prejudice everywhere. One example. You should see how some Danes treat the Greenlanders. Yes those liberal progressive Danes! Not all Danes, but a surprising number. There are people in the South that show bigotry and prejudice, especially if you look hard for it to match your preconceived notions. But look around you. What is going on in your neighborhood about the Amish, the Mormons, the Middle Easterners? What are you hearing about those illegal Mexicans? Don't you see prejudice and bigotry behind a lot of what our national politicians are saying? National, not just from the South.

I'm not ashamed of what I am. I'm responsible for what I do, not what others say and do. To me, anyone that judges me because of my birthplace or accent is exhibiting bigotry and prejudice, exactly the type of thing they are preaching against. Sometimes an honest look in the mirror can be frightening or maybe enlightening.

 

[Imp]

Quote:

x3

Don't forget about the Aryan Nation in the NW. It exists everywhere, thankfully it seems to be diminishing.
I can verify that similar behavior & stories happens all the way to the arctic circle.

Imp

 

[HHandbasket]

Quote:
You are right. I apologize again if my generalization offended anyone. Let's just say I experienced more blatant prejudice in the 3 years I lived in Louisiana than in the 46 years I have lived out west. It was just my experience. Maybe it was just where we lived, I don't know. But it seemed that everyone I met, worked with, talked to in the grocery stores, talked to on the New Roads/St. Francisville ferry before they built the bridge was fine with the segregation and that the prejudice we experienced there was the accepted norm where we were. It was very disconcerting for me, and I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Such a shame... I have seen few places in my life more beautiful than the south.

So let me rephrase, that was what we experienced in Baton Rouge and the surrounding area and that everyone we knew out there told us "That's just how it is down here, and you just learn to live with it," or some paraphrased version thereof.

Sorry again to my southern friends that I offended with my comments regarding my first-hand observations from living there.

 

[gritsar]

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[EmtheFishLady]

That is the exact reason I'm so dang sensitive about my accent. I've actually had people from the north mock me about it. People tend to assume that this little southern gal with the twang has no idea what she's talking about...but I can bust out the latin with the best of 'em. Don't judge a book by it's cover.