I Need Some Help With A Definition Of A Word...

[CitizenLeft]

34. thank you ChiciB1 for your thoughtful reply

I've wondered over the years why I didn't become resentful of the treatment I received from my own people. I can't answer that, except that my mother must've buffered it in some way, though I don't remember how. I do know where the seed of the treatment came from. Later in life I met a number of teens or young women who reveled in the lightness of their skin at the expense of other African-Americans who had browner skin - and it was repulsive. They weren't all gracious like Melissa Harris-Perry. The snobbery made me sick to my stomach, and I came to see that I had suffered for their nastiness towards my darker-skinned sisters.

Just before the 4th grade, our school burned down, and a group of us black kids were "bussed" to an all white school closer to downtown (we actually caught the metro bus), and let me tell you, any black kids who had harassed me for being light-skinned quickly dropped that crap. Suddenly I, who apparently had been the "cracker" enemy, was completely accepted because I was being called "n-----" too, right alongside them. We were spit on and pushed and shoved in EXACTLY the same fashion that they had pushed and shoved me. The only reason why this didn't become a victim thing is because we were tough kids - and by then so was I, LOL - and when the white teachers were not looking - the white teachers who did nothing to stop any of this - we spit right back in their faces and kicked them right back on the sly. We were not afraid of them. Peace came only when the mother of the leader of this racist core of bullies put a stop to it by inviting a group of us over for lunch at her house. Apparently she dropped the hammer on her daughter's head, and when that girl stopped the spitting and racial slur-calling, the others reluctantly followed. Whoever that woman was in life, I've always silently tipped my hat to her for setting at least one wannabe racist straight - and for dousing water on a powder keg.

Blah blah. All of that is in the past. While there is obviously still racism and what I call Ugliness of the Soul still going on, and more blatantly than we've seen in decades, I still have great hope. Just look at the photos of the protestors reacting to Trayvon Martin's death and the trial verdict. Look at how many white faces and arms and hands there are. And brown and Asian faces, too. Many of them are young, yes, but there are older folks too. I've lived a long time, and I've NEVER seen such unabashed solidarity, countrywide. Not quiet shy white voices, but LOUD and INSISTENT. Honestly, it makes me cry. It is heartening and hopeful to see so many people instinctively repulsed by Zimmerman, it's unprecedented. We have a long way to go, but knowing that this is a majority sentiment, and not just black voices demanding justice, it gladdens my heart.

Oh yeah... and the treatment of Rachel Jeantel? DISGUSTING beyond words.