Quote:
Originally Posted by yorkietalkjilly  I never had a slave either but I'll bet you and I both have ancestors that did and have still-living relatives that participated in a society of Jim Crow laws and attitudes in the 1950's onward. I have relatives that allowed blacks to have to pass up empty seats in a bus to walk to the back or take their little daughters to relieve themselves in a different restroom way to the back in a public building, then come back in a drink out of a separate water fountain with a big demeaning sign over it! I remember going on stores with Mother that had signs saying blacks were not allowed inside - just a few decades back. Many of us have families that put up with all that going on. I am aware of anti-black attitudes still rife in parts of the country and in some people's minds that still want to keep black people "in their place" and refuse to hire or even do business with them unless a big enough company the government makes them. I saw it in the medical field. Plenty wouldn't rent/lease to them to this very day if laws didn't make them. Many will never invite a black family to dinner or hang with them or date them. The attitudes of today's white society are still quite shocking at times. And though I didn't own a slave or refuse to hire a black person, I recognize that they cannot routinely get many decent jobs or have all that fair a treatment every day throughout our land and until the day that happens, it will only benefit our society to try to make their lot in life that we once trashed now better when we can for the hateful attitudes that did and still exist all over - just a small way to try to fix great wrongs until the day there really is full equality. It never hurts a people to try to make things right for something their own ancestors and recent relatives created/allowed and still exists in some people and places in some forms. |
Great post....thank you....
We have made some strides....I am now DRIVING the bus!... Racism still exists...up here in Canada it isn't as blatant, much more subtle...it is there, the profiling is there, every time one of my son's walks out the door the fear is there....I fear for my children...I have raised them to treat everyone the same as they would expect to be treated...yet the fear lives on.
Last year there was a blocko....block party. The party was on this very date last year...people on the street decided to hold a bbq. Not the greatest neighbourhood....but they had this party on a street that included two blocks of homes. Plenty of people of all ages attended....somewhere around midnight a fight broke out.
Yup you guessed it someone pulled a gun....two people where killed....one 14yr old black girl and one 21yr old Asian young man.....
That young man was my youngest sons' friend, they went to school together and played ball almost every weekend. ......My son was supposed to attend that Blocko...his friend told him to come....because I refused to give Jared my car to drive into Toronto on a Saturday night....he did not go.....I'm sorry two young people lost their lives that night....BUT God had his hand in that I still have my son....
There have been many instances where one of my boys was to attend something or other...the church party...yup at a church function a gun was pulled and yet another youth lost their life....my son decided not to go to that one as well....When will all of this end???
As the song says People are people, why should it be....you and I should get along so awfully? The Smiths....I think....