Tennessee rn

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[greatauntoftriplets]

1. Saw one of those when I was a kid and my family vacationed in the Smokey Mountains.

Things like that didn't exist in Chicago. I was outraged, thought it was the worst thing I'd ever seen. All these years later, I can still see that rural Tennessee gas station.

I still regret being too young to be a freedom rider.

[blm]

2. I had zero awareness back then in Cleveland suburbs.

Only knew what I learned in school and church.

Finally, in 9th grade my Catholic high school had a group of liberal nuns who started opening our eyes.

[greatauntoftriplets]

4. As another Catholic grade and high school kid...

I can't recall learning anything at grade school. The parish pastor was very old and conservative. He disapproved of my parents because they only had two kids. Another pregnancy probably would have killed my mother, but that's another topic. My high school nuns were more liberal, but much of that was based on Vietnam. The school closed about 10 years ago, but the mother house is still there. Those nuns still demonstrate! Some are in wheelchairs or on walkers, but they're out there.

A great-aunt and uncle lived on the south side of Chicago; we were far north. When we'd go to visit them, my father would detour to show us how people lived down there. It was horrifying and eye opening. It was like a different world from where we lived, and my heart ached at how some people had to live.

[bigtree]

5. one thing I learned in my lifetime Northeast

Last edited Fri Apr 7, 2023, 11:00 AM - Edit history (1)

...is that these attitudes or discriminations aren't restricted to borders.

I was a child of the civil rights era in D.C. at the time of MLK's assassination, which imprinted an image of burnt-out rows of businesses and smoldering brick and broken glass of my time growing up in the city. It went from working-class to dangerous ghetto in what seemed like a flash.

Then we moved to the suburbs and it was all ordered greenery and muffled animosity. But you could hear and see the racism if you happened to be black, as most of it was undercover a veneer of togetherness, in whispered slurs, ostracism, and exclusion from things necessary for survival and prospernousness like housing, employment, protection.

We had more than our share of rebel flags and other racist vulgarity. Most of it wasn't overt, but the effect could be just as devastating as open racism that mars other more volatile communities.

My parents talked about one of my childhood and adult refuges, Sugarloaf Mountain, nearby, which didn't allow interracial couples to hike their trails until the 60's. A damn mountain. I laugh it off every time I visit. I can't even imagine tolerating that, but I am a child of the movement. My father was Director of Civil Rights at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. My mother a descendant of both a slave owner and a slave he took as his wife.

I can honestly say my life and family has been a tableau of that struggle and promise.

Link to tweet

[Laffy Kat]

3. I'm originally from Memphis, was born in '57.

I remember separate drinking fountains, waiting rooms, etc. I also remember telling my sons about it and they didn't believe me. I moved away in 1980 and have only returned about half a dozen times. Looks like I'll never return now. I don't want to spend a penny there. Colorado isn't perfect, but it sure as hell beats Tennessee...and Florida...and Texas.