So fine! The racist rail passenger and the elderly black conductor who kept his cool

[classof56]

62. I am 74 and while I was raised in the Pacific Northwest, my parents were raised in the south

(Oklahoma and Texas--Think Grapes of Wrath). Anyway, they were racist and didn't hold back on the rhetoric. My Mom used to say I couldn't "understand unless I was raised in the South". Wow... I clearly recall my first-hand exposure to blatant racism in 1950 when I visited my grandparents in Texas. Colored restrooms, colored water fountains, only coloreds sat in the back of the bus--the whole ball o' wax. While I hadn't considered myself a racist, that experience alone would have changed my attitude. I loved my parents, fine Christian souls they were, and took care of them in their later years, but had to set aside my reactions to their racist mindset. Just grateful it did not inculcate me and I can say I'm not a racist, though how one would prove that remains unclear. By words and actions, I suppose. It pains me that it is still so deep-rooted in our nation's psyche.