re: Experienced Overt Racism\Bigotry Recently (a little long)

quote:

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Are you are saying that you are a 59 year old white man living exclusively in small towns in Alabama and Georgia and that you have never have experienced racism? I’m asking because that ain’t possible. If my interpretation of your missive is correct, what you mean to say is that you only now been on the receiving end of what you perceive as racism.

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Nope...you are wrong.

My elementary school was segregated until third grade (1973), and I graduated from a 50% black high school (only 100 grads) and played football on probably an 60/70% black team. I grew up hearing the "n-word" from relatives and at school, along with "honkey" and other words aimed at whites at school. In high school, we messed with each other among races and yes used these words...but not in a menacing way.

I did learn the hard way that I NEEDED to fight in elementary school (which having an older brother whip my butt had me more than prepared). I came home after integration and told my dad about some new kid was trying to fight me and got in trouble, and my dad threatened to whip my arse if I didn't fight back, becuase bully's don't want to fight; they want a victim. I was a nerdy redneck at an early age and was afraid to get in trouble from my very intimidating father. This kid and I fought probably ten times over the next two years with him starting each and every one and him being the one who got in trouble. That guy didn't end up going to the same middle school (have no idea why not) and is in prison for murder today.

My elementary school was one block away from my house, and, not until I was an adult, did my parents tell me about the whites that picketed because of integration. So, I heard about it years later and did not see it.

I am aware of many white kids that I knew from church and elementary school that ended up graduated from 99.9% white county high schools - obvious white flight to which they, to this day, don't recognize that was what their parents did, and I did not recognize the racial overtones until I put two-and-two together from pictures posted from my kindergarten close on Facebook.

I was also aware of the black guy who poured gas and lit a white worker at a quick shop two blocks away from my house, which was big in the news with clear racial overtones. There was also much inter-and intra-race fights (including me) in high school, which may have had race overtones, but I don't know that.

There was a white guy from my high school who got into a fight with a white guy from an adjacent all-white high school that was leading to a larger group fight. The other school backed out when our black guys were going to join in, which would have made the numbers involved more equal.

At the end of a game during my freshman year of football when I didn't touch the field, a black senior came up to us all and said buckle up, we are going to fight. If you don't cross the field, you'll get your arse whipped when we get back to the high school. It happened and it got ugly in our favor (after losing the game). When we got back to the high school, the claim was racial comments, that I later confirmed were true when I talked to guys on the other team post-high school.

At my 40th reunion, a guy that graduated with me, was one of our starting running backs, went to college on a football scholarship then to the Army for a career introduced me to his new wife as his "first white friend."

So, yes, what I am saying is that I had never felt or seen overt - "done or shown openly; plainly or readily apparent, not secret or hidden" racism in my life...primarily adult life...until my visit to Minneapolis.