'Longing for the Good Old Days (that never were)' [View all]

[Number23]

An oldie, but all too relevant. Especially lately.

'Longing for the Good Old Days (that never were)'
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/01/05/287575/-Longing-for-the-Good-Old-Days-that-never-were#

About once a month, I get some e-mail chain letter that carries on about how great Americans and America was in the 1950, and how, in comparison, we're all crap now. Mostly, they're the whining of conservatives about how the world isn't the way they imagined it was when they were kids. I delight in replying and proving the lie to the e-mail, point by point. Today, I turned the fun up another notch and made a preemptive strike. What follows is a fictional conversation with my grandparents that tries to set the record straight. The Good Old Days never were....

Grandpa and Grandma sat on the front porch swing, sipping lemonade. I sat on the steps, leaned against the porch rail, and looked up at the stars in the summer sky. "Tell me," I said softly, sweetly, "about the good old days."

There was a moment of silence when Grandma and Grandpa looked at each other and smiled -- then the moment was shattered by his guffaws and her roar of laughter. They held their sides and laughed until tears ran down their cheeks and they gasped for air.

..."Things weren't so hot if you weren't white, either." Grandpa's expression turned sad. He gazed into the night a while, shook his head, and continued: "In the 1950s, racism was deeply institutionalized. Half our black families lived below the poverty line; migrant workers suffered appalling working and living conditions; people of color were not permitted to take part in the American dream. In lots of places, there were public schools, public libraries, churches, public beaches, public parks and pools, clubs, business organizations, diners, toilets, drinking fountains -- you name it -- that simply were off-limits to anyone who wasn't white.

"There were whole communities that were off limits. I remember that, in 1957, there were 10,000 Blacks working at the Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan, but not one could live in Dearborn itself.

Even now in 2013, things STILL ain't that hot for black people. Our wages still trail EVERYBODY else's, prison sentencing discrepancies still exist, we were the victims of the sub-prime mortgage fiasco more than any others, we are the victims of hate crimes more than any other group, and we have a Supreme Court that seems to be all too interested in rolling back some desperately hard fought battles.

But as bad as things are now, I'll be DAMNED if I will join in the loud pining for the 1950's, 60's or any period before now. We've all gritted our teeth and tried to smile at the small group of people of a certain age that pine loudly and openly of the "Good Old Days" of a bygone era. But lately, the pining has gotten even louder, more shrill, and more willfully, BLINDLY ignorant of the history of so many of this country's citizens. And it has worked my last nerve.