Emmett Till/Sandra Bland or Why I Still Hate the South

[McCamy Taylor]

In 1955, 15 year old Emmett Till from Chicago visited relatives in Mississippi. A white shop owner accused him of flirting with her. In response, the woman's husband and associates kidnapped the boy, beat him, gouged out his eye, shot him and finally disposed of his body in the river. At their trial, they were acquitted. After the acquittal, they bragged about the killing to reporters.

When Till's body was sent back to Chicago for burial, his mother decided on an open casket, so that the world could see what kind of "justice" the American South delivered to a boy for the "crime" of flirting with a white woman.


Sixty years later, in 2015, Sandra Bland, also from Illinois was driving through Texas when she was pulled over and issued a ticket for failing to signal a lane change. When she refused to put out her cigarette, she was ordered from her car, thrown to the ground, threatened with a taser and arrested. While in jail, she died from asphyxiation---for the "crimes" of failing to signal a lane change and smoking a cigarette in her own car.

I have lived in the South all my life. I have seen some things change and too many other things that have not changed enough. Getting rid of the Confederate Flag will not even begin to fix what is wrong with this region of the country. Yes, there are pockets of sanity in the South, mostly urban areas. But there are also pockets of racist insanity--like Waller County, where Ms. Bland died, Waller County which has repeated attempted to deprive the mostly Black students of Prairie View A&M University of their right to vote.

“I dont hate it he thought, panting in the cold air, the iron New England dark; I dont. I dont! I dont hate it! I dont hate it!”
― William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom!

[Warpy]

1. I can't say I hate them but I don't want to live there again.

They do need to do a lot of housecleaning and clean the Klanners out of the police forces, but you can say that about the rest of the country, as well. The south isn't the only place black folks are stopped on bullshit traffic stops and then railroaded with planted drugs or worse.

[Jamastiene]

2. K&R

I wish I had more to offer than a measly hug, but it's all I have.

[mucifer]

3. I hate to say it, but Chicago isn't so great on these issues either.

Police commander jon burge for decades tortured blacks into false confessions. Many ended up on death row. He spent less than 5 years in jail. Segregation is pretty bad in Chicago. People still fear the police. More recently after a police shooting the police got the video from a burger king security camera and doctored the tape
http://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/laquan-mcdonald-investigation-305105631.html

[Katashi_itto]

4. I live in New Orleans, the city is great. The rest of the state is a 3rd world hellhole.

[CurtEastPoint]

5. Ditto Atlanta vs. the rest of GA.

[Katashi_itto]

9. It's a pattern

[XemaSab]

6. Stuff like that goes on in Northern California

Happens everywhere.

[tblue]

7. I could never live there, I'm afraid to go there

but you are a ray of light that gives me hope.

[BigDemVoter]

8. I moved back to the South from the Bay Area.

I made it exactly three years and could tolerate it no more. The final straw was Arkansas's attempt to ban ANTI-DISCRIMINATION that was not already on the books. Yeah, this doesn't happen outside the South, and I can say it because I grew up down there, and I know EXACTLY what it's like!

I'm delighted to be back on the West Coast, FAR away from all that bullshit. Is there bullshit here? Yep. But it's nothing like what I experienced in the South.