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Danmel

(4,892 posts)
Sat Jun 6, 2020, 08:53 PM Jun 2020

I'd like to share a story about racism

When I was 14 years old, I was fortunate enough to spend a summer on a teen tour across the United States. I will preface this by noting it was in 1974. I was an upper middle class Jewish kid from Brooklyn, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. There were about 35 kids on the tour, most from the suburbs, more insular and more affluent than I was.
We were crossing Texas by bus. We went from El Paso to Houston before finishing up in New Orleans.
We stopped in a small town called Menard, somewhere between El Paso and San Antonio. We were buying some snacks and the woman at the cash register asked me where we were from, as we quite obviously were not locals. I said New York. And then she said something that is seared in my memory. She said. "You have a lot of n*ggers in New York."
We had a n*gger in Menard. He raped a woman and we took that n*gger and we chopped him up and boiled him for oil. Right over there. She pointed across the street, that's where it happened with. I was oi f course speechless. Then she said, cheerfully,.well you have a nice day and hurry on back to Menard!"
I was completely shaken
And when I think back on it, which I do when we are once again confronted by our profound national disgrace with race issues, I think about what kind of person would tell a story like that, whether true or not, to a CHILD? I was a 14 year old kid who looked 12. It was so traumatic to me as a young girl whose father survived a death camp, who grew up in NYC, with friends of all backgrounds and races, that people like this were not only out there, but proud to say something like that to a child they knew was a "yankee." I can't even imagine what she would have said had she known it was a busload of Jewish kids.
That was 46 years ago and it still is painful. And it wasn't actually directed at me. I cannot feel the pain African Americans feel but I know it is real and legitimate. And as a Jewish woman who lost my grandparents and Aunt and cousins to hate, I know the logical extension of hate. It corrodes our humanity. We must resist hate with every fiber of our being or we will be consumed by it.
With love and a profound wish for a day when we can live together in peace.

9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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I'd like to share a story about racism (Original Post) Danmel Jun 2020 OP
What a terrible person. 3catwoman3 Jun 2020 #1
Good effin' grief malaise Jun 2020 #2
Thanks for sharing the anecdote GeorgiaPeanut Jun 2020 #3
Oh I know there are many worse stories out there Danmel Jun 2020 #4
I understand your feelings - my uncle did the same thing to me when I was about 12 csziggy Jun 2020 #5
It is horrifying that people feel free to spew hatred Danmel Jun 2020 #6
Thank you for posting this. LastDemocratInSC Jun 2020 #7
Don't go to those places anymore, but there are parts of South where Hoyt Jun 2020 #8
Horrific. Menard is 34 miles from me. Karadeniz Jun 2020 #9
 

GeorgiaPeanut

(360 posts)
3. Thanks for sharing the anecdote
Sat Jun 6, 2020, 09:17 PM
Jun 2020

and not only that it rings 100% true, there are probably worse experiences out there.

csziggy

(34,120 posts)
5. I understand your feelings - my uncle did the same thing to me when I was about 12
Sat Jun 6, 2020, 09:33 PM
Jun 2020

I didn't know that uncle very well - he'd written off my Mom, his sister, when she converted from Baptist to Presbyterian when she married my Dad. He was a Southern Baptist preacher, just like his grandfather and a number of his other ancestors. He had a church in Arkansas, so was a little farther away than we usually traveled.

One year, my Dad had some business in Arkansas so combined his trip with a family vacation to see our uncle and his family. At first it was fun - they took us to a local lake where we swam and my uncle borrowed a boat from one of his congregation so we could ride around the lake.

But one evening he decided to show his true colors - he told a "joke" that was horrifically racist. I was apalled and disgusted. I will never repeat that "joke" since it made such a horrific impression on me. Here was a "man of Gawd" who was supposed to teach Jesus' ways and said such hateful things as if they were amusing!

I don't think I ever had a conversation after that. Fortunately, we did not live close enough it was obvious to my parents that I avoided him. When I got married, he and his wife stopped sending me letters (they sent those horrible Christmas letters out every year) since we were not married in a church by a minister. No big loss.

His comments made me look long and hard at religion. I left the Presbyterian Church while in college, and explored other denominations of Christianity as well as other religions. I now consider myself an apathetic agnostic - to quote the Universal Church Triumphant of the Apathetic Agnostic, “I don't know and I don't care.”

And that is how my Southern Baptist preacher uncle and his repellent racism got me to not believe in any deity!

Danmel

(4,892 posts)
6. It is horrifying that people feel free to spew hatred
Sat Jun 6, 2020, 10:20 PM
Jun 2020

As if it is perfectly acceptable and normal.
I was so shaken by that experience. And I am quite sure the woman who said those toxic things to me never gave it a moment's thought afterward. Which makes it even scarier.

 

Hoyt

(54,770 posts)
8. Don't go to those places anymore, but there are parts of South where
Sat Jun 6, 2020, 10:57 PM
Jun 2020

if you encounter a rube, and they find out you are from a big city, you can bet within a minute or two they’ll be talking about Blacks, using the language in you encountered.

I would usually stand there looking at these pitiful, ignorant imbreds biting my tongue to keep from laughing in their faces. They just can’t believe everyone doesn’t feel the same way.

Tonight, I blasted a guy who I went to high school with. He’s a damn physician, of all things, and can’t understand why I don’t like trump and Racist GOPers.

He posted some meme about why do “liberals” blame trump for decades of racism, etc. I posted because he symbolizes racism, greed, and almost everything else wrong with this country. He lives in South Georgia and I’ll get chastised by all his religious, racist friends. Screw em.

Take care.

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