I still can't get over my girl Whitney going out like that. I tried writing about it this morning and posted it with another publication. I didn't feel like hearing it from my resident racist trolls who like to hang in the fields, so if you want to read it you will have to go over there. (From the bad to worse department; her daughter was just rushed to the hospital.)
So anyway, this is Black History Month, and we are indeed living in an interesting time in our nation's history. In a lot of ways, we are even more segregated now than we were during the darkest days of Jim Crow. (h/t to Daniel for that article)
The rights of women are being trampled on by a few powerful people in Washington, and white scholars are openly wondering how the white working class and white bourgeoisie can unite as they were back in the days when they were clearly the the ruling class.
I guess, for Charles Murray (yes, the "Bell Curve" guy) and others like him, white power is slipping away at an alarming rate.
But all is not lost. I wonderful woman from the majority population sent me an e-mail after reading the story I posted about that basketball team from Pistolvania. It's a letter she penned to that school official who sat by and laughed while this incident was taking place. She has given me permission to share it:
"Dear Sir,
I read with interest of your failure to intervene in the recent "banana suit" incident at the basketball game.
I'm sure you meant well, and thought this was an innocuous form of trash talk from high spirited young people.
Allow me to tell you something about myself.
I am a 60 year old white woman who was born and raised in the deep South, where I still live.
During the civil rights era of the 1960s, my parents never marched or shouted, but they supported equal rights with their own quiet dignity.
Our church in Georgia split because some in the congregation voted to bar the doors to the church if black people attempted to worship with them.
My parents voted against this, and spoke up in church about what a profound ignorance of Christ was being evinced there.
After that, the KKK weekly newspaper published by J.B. Stoner (who killed the 4 little girls in Birmingham)
appeared regularly in our driveway. It was thrown there at night by someone who wanted to convince my parents of the error of their ways.
A regular feature of this paper was caricatures of ape-like black people holding bananas. It had photos of Africans with terrible diseases,
and claimed this was their normal appearance. It had pseudo-science claiming that Africans were not wholly human, but were descended from
matings between humans and monkeys. My parents didn't just throw these papers away---they burned them, but I still remember the images,
the ignorance and the hatred displayed there.
When I read of the taunting at the Brentwood ball game, I was reminded of the KKK newspaper and I was disgusted and angry at you,
the teenagers, and the entire Brentwood administration. I have since calmed down, and reminded myself that you people didn't grow up where and how I did,
so you don't know any better. However, it is now time for you to correct your embarrassing ignorance and your breach of good manners.
You and the student body need to apologize, sincerely, to the opposing team, and take measures that such a disgusting display never happens again.
Brentwood is a school? Educate yourselves!!!
Sincerely,
Dena..... "
Thank you Dena. Unfortunately, I am afraid that your wonderful letter will not do much good. But we can hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment