during your "King Coon" expose of american racism and the insidious, sly nature of it in your experience with it as a youth. Reminded me well of my HS years and an Army experience. I had a racist in my first training company that continually referred, to me especially, but all as "that nigger" or "those niggers". No one said anything for fear of being punished. One day outside the dayroom, I was walking by him and his cronies and he said, "there goes that nigger", I was just fed up went over and hit him so hard, I broke his jaw, knocked out two teeth and did a little more damage to his eye socket and put him on sick call. Found out, when his parents came down to see what happened to their precious, he was from Grosse Pointe, Michigan. A well off white suburb of Detroit.
The company drill Sergeant and Corporal kept me out of sight and I never got in trouble for knocking him back to reality. The only reference ever made to my conduct was when, in private, the corporal asked me, "what did you hit him with"? I said, "my fist". He said, "okay enough, I don't want to hear anymore" and he walked out the room. The guy I hit, his friend apologized for being a crony to that one about a week later. Had no more trouble with anyone.
Your OP of those days is a mighty powerful reflection of the truth in growing up a POC in America and living in it. Now were all the way up to 2015, 47 years later from your experience, 48 years from mine and not much has changed, systemically or institutionally, really. In fact and deed, it is I feel and as I continually state here, racial relations are devolving back to that time of which you spoke and we lived through.
Thank you for a reminder of the continuity and action(s) of racial bigotry and hate in this society and culture.
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