December 02, 2003

AMEN!!! To you Acidman. Good going!

I lived in Albany, Georgia, between 1959 and 1963. Coming from Kansas City, Missouri, until the first day of school, 5th grade, 1959, I had only the vaguest idea that there had been the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the War Between the States. Boy, oh, boy!! I learned the differences, immediately! I also learned never to call "The War Between the States" the Civil War.

I still remember the White Only signs and the Black Entrance signs, I also remember Martin L. King sponsored a march in Albany. If I remember right, it was a smaller march, kind of like a practice march, leading up to the bigger Birmingham, Alabama, march. The march in Albany, GA, isn't listed among the MLK marches, that I have seen.

What happened in Albany because of the MLK march? The "black slum areas" that we had to drive through to go downtown, were cleaned up, sparkling clean. The rows of shotgun houses were painted, the yards full of junk were cleaned of debris, chain link fences were put up around the yards. Within just a few months, the chain link fences were in tatters and junk was back in the yards, and the "stink" had returned to the areas. The residents didn't take care of nor had any pride in maintaining their new standard of living.

Besides the excellant education I received in the Daughtery County School system, that's what I remember when I think of Albany, Georgia.

It is a shame that parents, in general, no longer teach their children self-discipline and responsibility for their own actions.

A friend of mine the other day told a story that illustrates how far we've come. He was a young reporter in eastern NC in the early '70s and there was a radio show each day where folks could advertise goods and services for sale. One day a guy called up and said, "I need a nigger to do some yard work." The show's host could be heard in the background, as if writing it down, "...nigger...to...do...yardwork." Don't tell me we haven't made progress.

Right on Mr. A! Even Bill O'Reilly couldn't have said it better!

My daughter, at the age of 11, reported an indicident on her school bus in which the kids were having the normal reparte for children on a school bus. The black kid decided to defend herself by saying that my daughter was saying whatever she was saying because the black kid was black. My daughter retorted that the black child was just saying that because she was black, which about sums it up. Except that I am still tempted to conclude that I must actually be black due to some poor restaurant service, people looking at me strangely, cutting me off in traffic, and the like. This makes it real easy to understand the world.

You know, we come from two entirely different worlds, but there are two things I can always count on here:

1. Good writing
2. straight from the heart honesty

Just so you know, this Yankee respects the hell out of you.

P.S. I've met racists in my time. Ugly, hateful, kill-on-sight types. You are definitely not one of them.

"I wouldn't expect a person such as yourself to begin to understand 500 years of oppression."

Looking for a place wher the government incites and invites racism? Well, look no further than the State of Victoria in the good ol' peaceful country of Australia.

Here the current State Government has enacted a law which is now being used by racists (and nutters of course) to bring trumped-up charges against people who have done nothing but speak their mind in the most innocent and NON-racist way, in fact in ways that promote peace, goodwill and understanding amogst all.

This evil Law can even be used against bloggers, journalists, private citizens having a beer in a bar with a friend - anyone.

I hope to God no-one in the US is so stupid and racist as to introduce a similar law over there. (There's a link to the Law from my blog Archive).

Three comments:

(1) Jack Kerouac (a fine American author I’ve yet to see mentioned on this site) once commented that the writer’s task is to discover that one immortal line. Rob, my friend, you have found yours thus:

People who use that word as a trump-card every time things don't go their way are shitting on a lot of people who made great sacrifices on their behalf.

(2)Elaborating on James Riley’s post above, as an American living in Australia what I’ve noticed is that race relations tend to be just fine here until Govt gets into it. Your average Aussie will use labels like Jap, Chinaman, Blackfella, Seppo, etc… but it is extremely rare that I hear these used with negative connotation or to indicate inferiority. They’re just words, pure and simple. What I have also seen among the true-blue dinkum Aussies I know is that they will give a 100% fair go to *anyone* who is willing to work their ass off to get a job done. What I mean by “fair go” is no hindrance, but no favouritism either: you can either do the job or you can’t. This has not always been the case, even in recent history, but it certainly is now. Where things start to go all screwy is when government tries to level the playing field. It’s like using a backhoe in an herb garden – you might look like you’re getting more work done faster, but in fact you’re ruining the top soil and ripping up the reticulation. The infrastructure that would have allowed genuine growth and opportunity within the national character is replaced with something cold and artificial.

(3) I lived several years as a whitefella in Japan. During my first year there, I remember being outright shocked by the in-your-face racism toward anyone non-Japanese. I have been refused entry into certain restaurants and bars, ignored by cab drivers, and told politely that “I don’t speak English” though I was speaking near-perfect Japanese. There still exist signs on places of business stating “Japanese Only” or “No Foreigners”. I remember one travel program on TV in particular warning young Japanese women to stay away from foreign guys (played on the TV by sinister-looking whitefellas in need of a shave) because they all have AIDS. I once went into a real estate office, accompanied by my Japanese colleague that had “for rent” ads plastered all over the front window. The guy behind the desk, when he saw me, actually had the balls to smile and say, “Sorry, fresh out.”

The Japanese like to regulate their foreigners to a certain status and a certain end of town (actually, this has changed a bit over the last 10 years, but still holds some truth). They’ll propagate the myths of mysterious ways and mysterious language that no outsider will ever understand (in fact, the Japanese word for foreigner translates directly to “outsider”). Most foreigners there buy into this and choose to regulate themselves to second-class status. I know Americans who have lived in Tokyo for 20 years and can’t read a frickin’ menu or a train schedule and spend there time exclusively in "foreigner" areas! There is simply no excuse for it.

Anyway, my point is this: I learned the damned language and have managed to keep myself fed over the past decade with this skill. No “diversity program” did that for me. It was a lot of work and a lot of kicks in the teeth along the way (I even once had a professor tell me that I was a “stupid white boy” who would never learn his language. I could have used that as an excuse to quit. Actually, it was the best possible motivation he could have given me. I think he knew it, too). I find it hard to believe that *anyone* with the luck to be born in the United States (or Australia) in this day and age with their full mental capacity and/or of sound body has *any* excuse to not make something out of their life. There may be rare exception, but mostly it’s just laziness or lack of character, regardless of one’s ethnic or economic background.

You know what really pisses me off? The anti-semitism of blacks. There were a lot of Jews who came down South and got the shit kicked out of them helping the blacks during the 60's. Now we have Rev. Al causing riots in places like Crown Heights preaching his anti-semitic bullshit. Asshole!

I grew up on a marine base. So I was always exposed to people from different countries and cultures. I also think that since my mom grew up in Scotland and lived in various places in Europe also helped give me the perspective I have today when it comes to people from different backgrounds.

I remember clearly the first time I heard the N word used. It was an elderly gentlemen that was our neighbor. It must be an armed forces thing, but when my dady retired...we moved to a small country town to a house on an acre of land. My sister and I were shocked. We came to realize that that was how he talked, based on how he was raised. His wife didn't share the same sentiment, but beyond that he could play an mean banjo and cook the best steak I've ever had.

The racism that still exists is learned in my opinion, and with how readily you can get information and educate yourself, there's really no excuse to see the other side of the coin...you just have to choose to.

Unfortunately people like to use cruches. People that can't accept they failed in trying to accomplish something will point the blame to someone else. They'll cry discrimination, sexual harassment, racism and what have you, doing as Acidman said, trampling on the hard work people did for people today to have the opportunities to have. Hell my mom didn't go to university because the sentiment of the time was that she'd work as a secretary or the likes and marry herself off and have kids. Thank god her response to that was to hell with that. And at 40 she got a degree. At 40, with two kids who had after school activities and such.

I'm grateful, I truly am. I can only imagine what the world would be like for me, if others hadn't fought for the equality we have. And it sickens me when I hear people abusing it to get off easy. It points back to laziness and lack of discipline.

If you've ruffled any feathers Acidman, it's the ones belonging to people that don't take well to hearing the truth.

Well I'll just be damned. I charged into this site figuring it was chucked full of straight forward, former marines. After posting my brief, I then decided to browse the comments written by others, and boom, out of the woodwork comes the racist recollections.
I feel very fortunate to have been trained by a Platoon Sgt. named Gunny Gooch. He was White and from Georgia. Because he was superb at handling racist, I would have followed him to hell and back. He was a Marines, Marine and a Mans Man and would have bitch, slapped some of the other writers in this forum that suggest racism is a thing of the past. I am black and recall Gunny Gooch asking me to promise I would always speak up and fight for my rights if I think I'm correct on given issues. It's the American Way. The reason, racism is alive.
Continue the march Leathernecks.
dhb

Hi...I´m just surfed in and want to say hello!
Regards George

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