I can't believe she said or even thinks that

[deb1]

The story that I am about to tell is probably a hundred years old. My grandmother told it to me and she was born in 1919 and wasn't her parents first child.

When my grandmother's dad was a young man, he worked on the railroad. I think that it was manual labor involving fixing the rails but I am not certain. It was outdoors work though. Everyday, my great grandad would bring his lunch. One day, a young black man asked my great granddad if he could have some food. All my granddad had was leftover juice from his beans. The man was so hungry that he drank that. After that day, my great grandad would share his lunch with the other young man. OVer time, they became friends and enjoyed talking to one another.

An older man took my great granddad aside and told him that the young black man was going to get beat up for talking so much. I guess that my great granddad didn't believe him. (I think that great granddad and his friend were older adolescents)

That night, a man came to my granddad's parents home and asked for my granddad. He told my granddad that a man who lived down the road was always beating up his wife. He said that a group of men were concerned and wanted to have a conversation with the man. They wanted my granddad to go with them. I am certain that being a very young man, my great granddad felt important going with these older men.

They were on horseback and they took my great granddad to a section of the forest. All the men, except my great granddad and another young man, got off their horses. THe other men put on Klan outfits. Alarmed but afraid to leave, my grandfather-not wearing any klan clothing- had to follow the men.

They arrived at a house where his black friend lived. The men began to beat the man. My grandfather managed to slip away and get help. When help arrived, the other young man, told them that the group had killed the black man and hidden his body in some wood shavings(or a wood pile?) My great grandfather and the new group searched for his friend but couldn't find his body.

We have come a long way in a short amount of time, much further then we realize. That young man was killed only because he befriended a young, white man. And my great grandfather was forced to witness the man's brutal beating as a message to not get too friendly with other races.

 

[deb1]

Quote:
I don't think that was prejudice so much as ignorance. And I don't mean ignorance to mean that she was stupid, just that she didn't understand.

 

[ninny]

Quote:
Wow was the only word that came to mind. That is just awful.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Quote:
People seem to forget how far the elderly have came when they complain about how they are now.

Ya ever wonder if its wrong to to call people of color "black" in English or Spanish ether one if you are in Spain or Mexico. Because it somehow became taboo to use the Spanish word for black in the USA in the last 30 years.

 

[mzrea]

First, I live in Vermont. Probably one of the whitest states in the Nation. My whole family was raised here. Now, I have a BIL that is African
American. During a family gathering once my 65 year old step dad made a comment something to the effect that since we had "brought" BIL's "people" over from Africa into a more northern climate more than 200 years ago, he (my stepdad) was surprised that their pigmentation hadn't changed! BIL's response was "what, you think I should be white by now!" Step dad is no racist just ignorant.

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

I also live in Vermont, and want to say a couple things:

I believe that people should be kind to one another regardless of financial status, social status, racial status, religious status etc. I will be nice to you even if you are a raging JERK (though I may complain about you later to my DH). It seems to me that all of the racist people I know also are some denomination of Christianity, which is funny, though maybe the other religions are busy enough with religious discrimination.... anyway, My Great grandmother was very devout, but firmly believed that Jesus and God loved only white Christians like herself. I was just trying to point out that IF you believe in Jesus, you should love your brothers and sisters (EVERYONE) regardless of skin color or religion. Also, if you are NOT a believer in Jesus, I completely respect that, but you should ALSO love your fellow humans regardless of skin color or religion, as it is not just a teaching of Jesus, but a teaching of human kindness, and basic decency.

My youngest daughter happens to have gotten her skin from one of her father's relatives, and is significantly darker than the rest of us, and has coal black eyes... people often think she is adopted, since she doesn't 'match'... my other DD occasionally comments on it, calling her things like 'brown baby', and she gets in SO MUCH TROUBLE!!! I try to teach my children, that even though we only know 6 people who are not white (Which is SO SAD!!!!), it doesn't matter what color you are, disabled, scarred, old, what God you believe in or don't, or what gender you want to marry, everyone has basic human rights, and we treat them all the same: just like WE want to be treated.

 

[rainplace]

I wasn't going to post anything else... I mean I said I wasn't go to right? I had left the thread. I confess, I secretly lurked.

To hate, look down upon, degrade, humiliate, feel superior to, belittle, put down, diminish, scorn, demean, dismiss, despise, or <add similar word here>, someone or some group of people based on color, race, gender, religion, sexuality, economics, etcetera... IS NOT OKAY. To stand aside as others do so, is.. in my opinion, cowardly.

Bigotry as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary - Obstinate and unenlightened attachment to a particular creed, system, or party. Intolerant to others.

Is there an assumption in this thread that everyone posting is white?

Is bigotry okay when it is our elders that are bigots?

Is it okay that my elders disowned me because of race? Is it okay that they did so because they come from a different time? Should this lessen my pain or the pain of my childrenf? Is it okay that others in my family accepted this bigotry because "this is the way they are?" Is it okay that no one stood up and said a word?

Why is this ever okay?

 

[Terri]

sometimes old people are like, really crazy. My dad had a stroke 3 years ago and yea, it anin't with it. He accused me of stealing his money( he dosen't have any money) no insurance, no investments, he has his house, worth about 65,000. Divide that between 10 kids. I figure since i there most of the time taking care of him, i am the only one he can takes his frustrations out on. Me and my youngest sister do everything for them. I am pretty sure my mom would put him in a nursing home if we were not there to help. But some of things that comes out of his mouth..........

 

[Sammimom]

It is a curious thing how we divide people as a species. Whether by race, culture (aka the Irish) or by religion, we seem bent to notice things and "classify" them, sometimes as bad.

Fortunately, no one in my family has expressed any racist beliefs, and I have several cousins of various racial combinations and nationalities and all are welcomed. My children have never been exposed to racist individuals who they look up to. I read a study that said children first notice different skin colors at around age five, but I would argue it is earlier. We have two good family friends named Joe. When my daughter was three, we were talking about Joe coming to visit and she said "Which Joe? Brown Joe?" (he being, we assume, my husband's collage roommate whose parents were Chinese). Interesting, that she differentiated these two friends by their skin color.

If you've read "The Man who Listens to Horses" by Monty Roberts (and I doubt there is a member of this forum who wouldn't like this book) he talks about how being color blind helped him see subtleties in horse behavior that he wouldn't have noticed otherwise, because those of us who see color see it before we notice other details. I wonder if this is part of what makes us "classify" things as a species.

 

[Tala]

I don't think it's just people who classify others by color. I swear my 3 white Leghorns won't socialize with my Red sexlink, and she's all buddy buddy with the RIR roo because he's the only other Red.

I'm blessed to have a pretty weird family. They're a bunch of white rednecks and sometimes I'm surprised by the things that they say, but when it comes down to it their "adopted" son is black and their SIL is Cuban and therefore their granddaughter is "mixed" They may grouch about the way SIL handles money, or normal stuff like that, but I've never heard a bad thing about him not being white.

I think a lot has to do with how my grandparents were raised (aka how rich they were). My grandparents on mom's side are very snooty "church" people, holier than thou, all that bull and my grandma's pretty racist (or was before her stroke, now she doesn't really talk much). She also didn't work outside the home from the time she had her first kid onward. No real socialization outside of church, only around other people just like herself, etc.

My grandma on my dad's side had a pretty rough life. She was poor and rasied 5 kids, sometimes as a single mother. She has NEVER had a bad thing to say about people of different races. She explained to us grandkids one day that "we're all just people" I think maybe she had a lot more interaction with more people, including different "colored" people because she didn't live a rigid uptight life and she worked outside the home every day.