When I was a little boy Eisenhower was president and life was simple then. As a youngster I realized I was a second class citizen in my own land, the land of my father. I knew that I was welcome by some and tolerated by other, hated by a few. The color of my skin was the determining factor that set me apart, my history would not be accepted by others. The history that was taught in school had nothing to do with my history and nothing positive was told about that story. If you’re white your right, black get back and brown stick around was a saying that I was all to familiar. Rev. Joseph Lowery benediction at Obama’s swearing in ceremony brought that to mind.
Although too young to understand the hatred my race engendered I couldn’t help but understand that it was aimed at people like me. From our neighbor who grew roses to the disdain of the little red head who lived across the street who sent me home from her birthday party. I knew that I wasn’t welcomed just anywhere and learned I had to be careful to approach certain kinds of people. My cousin and I walked from the park our families were having a picnic to the swimming pool up the road. We weren’t allowed in that pool because of our skin color but we could stand at the fence and watch what we were missing. Or the excitement of riding the bus for the first time on my own and my mother looking worried and asking the bus driver if I could ride in front so I’d know when to get off.
Fast forward to my adulthood and a christmas party I attended with some friends. Someone should have told the hostess I was a guest of my friends because she confronted me in the kitchen and looked at me as though I had wander in off the street and wasn’t welcome. So much for southern hospitality, I have a much different view. This was brought to mind by the outrage generated by Jeremiah Wright in the recent election. Dr. Wright is a well educated man and served his country well. He was on the medical team who cared for President Johnson after his heart surgery. Jeremiah Wright has a right to his opinion, by his service to this country he has earned that right.
The experience of Dr. Wright and me for that matter did not have the experience of the "average" American born in this country in the 1940's. We and many millions of others did not experience the American Dream as others. We came from the same cloth that spawned Martin Luther King and others in the struggle for equal rights. The experience of that other American, the dream of the big house and the white picket fence and the well kept yard was not our dream or our reality. We had to fight for what was right and what was just, we had to struggle for those rights every day of our live and I can’t blame Dr. Wright for being bitter or for being misquoted. President Obama explained it best when he placed his views in a historic and sociological context. It was the times they were for people of color, that was the reality of the day and we must not look the other way but face them squarely and admit the truth of his statements no matter how unpleasant or harsh they are.
But we must face the reality that the time are a changing, generations of today aren’t swept up in the bitterness of the past. The young don’t know or care for the times of the past and the bitterness some people hold on to. I was raised as a different creature and I grew up with equals where I was judged by the content of my mind not just the color of my skin. Though make no mistake skin color was important to some but they couldn’t overlook my mind or my soul. Once while riding the streetcar to work I spotted a lady that I knew and said hello in passing. She came over to sit by me and blurted out that looking at me one wouldn’t think that I could even speak English. Never but never judge a book by it’s cover!
2 comments:
Well said Michael!
One of the very few good things about the U.K. nowadays is that it is truly multicultural. Skin colour doesn't matter, except to a very few old folks who still carry the old prejudices. A a nation, in that respect I think we've grown more than most.
That said - we have a long way to go before we have a black prime minster. Mixed race is more likely.
Having been married to an African American for 24 years, I did not think Obama could be elected in this country. It will be three years ago this spring that my husband was dying in a nursing home. Even though he was highly educated and had been an on-air TV celebrity, the white women at the nursing home said they were afraid of him. I was told I would have to move him somewhere else.
I found another home and scheduled an ambulance to come and move him on a day in early May. He died at 7 that morning. Perhaps he just didn't want to be subjected to one more senseless act of racism.
Two and a half years later, I watched election night coverage and found the words absolutely stunning: Obama Elected President.
No one should be unduly encouraged. Obama wasn't elected because he was black. He was elected in spite of it. I can't believe my husband wouldn't still scare the white ladies at the home if he were alive.
As you know, Michael, one never gets over the hurt. The owner of the nursing home would have made me move a black man on his dying day because white women were scared of black men! I will never be able to forget that or to not feel my blood pressure rise when I think of it.
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