MLK Weekend

[Rudyjohn]

One of the reasons I like my neighborhood is that it is mixed. On MLK day afternoon, I was in the kitchen in the back of the house and had the window open...I heard the racket of kids playing and got mildly annoyed. So, I looked out the window and saw a group of white kids and black kids playing basketball together. I tabled my temptation to get mad at the noisy kids and instead recognized what a silent small victory it was.

Thanks for noticing the small victory. :clap_1:
However, today I witnessed racism still at it's ugliest in the so-called progressive midwest, and I am so mad at myself for not doing more.

In our subdivision we have a mailbox located at a 4-way stop that is never busy, just subdivision traffic. The mailbox is used continuously thruout the day and everyone patiently waits for the car that is temporarily stopped for the 30 seconds it takes to run over and deposit their letter or you just slowly drive around them.

Well today, I was at the intersection and watched a young college-age black girl pull her car over to the curb, jump out and run over to drop in her letter. I watched in horror, as a minivan with a man and a woman pull up to her rear bumper at a very fast rate of speed, come to a screeching halt (at the curb too, I might add), blast the horn and gesticulate wildly for her to move out of the way. All this as she was running to get back in her car. I was mortified. I pulled thru the intersection and was parallel with the van but positioned in the opposite direction. I motioned for him to roll down his window. He did and I said "Come on, she's using the mailbox for god's sake!!!" (I really wanted to use some profanity but I refrained) He yelled back at me, like an a$$hole, and said "She's blocking the road!" I yelled back that she wasn't, etc., but didn't pursue it because I knew he was a HUGE A_ _ HOLE JERK. I haven't been able to get this whole scenario out of my head since.

But the future hope is in our children's generation. We have to continue to be a huge influence on our youth and to educate them to play a role in eradicating bigotry & intolerance ~

 

[Smiling JOe]

Thanks for noticing the small victory. :clap_1:
However, today I witnessed racism still at it's ugliest in the so-called progressive midwest, and I am so mad at myself for not doing more.

In our subdivision we have a mailbox located at a 4-way stop that is never busy, just subdivision traffic. The mailbox is used continuously thruout the day and everyone patiently waits for the car that is temporarily stopped for the 30 seconds it takes to run over and deposit their letter or you just slowly drive around them.

Well today, I was at the intersection and watched a young college-age black girl pull her car over to the curb, jump out and run over to drop in her letter. I watched in horror, as a minivan with a man and a woman pull up to her rear bumper at a very fast rate of speed, come to a screeching halt (at the curb too, I might add), blast the horn and gesticulate wildly for her to move out of the way. All this as she was running to get back in her car. I was mortified. I pulled thru the intersection and was parallel with the van but positioned in the opposite direction. I motioned for him to roll down his window. He did and I said "Come on, she's using the mailbox for god's sake!!!" (I really wanted to use some profanity but I refrained) He yelled back at me, like an a$$hole, and said "She's blocking the road!" I yelled back that she wasn't, etc., but didn't pursue it because I knew he was a HUGE A_ _ HOLE JERK. I haven't been able to get this whole scenario out of my head since.

But the future hope is in our children's generation. We have to continue to be a huge influence on our youth and to educate them to play a role in eradicating bigotry & intolerance ~

I believe I missed the racism part in your story. Just sounds like an angry driver. Is there more that you are not telling us?

 

[Mermaid]

I believe I missed the racism part in your story. Just sounds like an angry driver. Is there more that you are not telling us?

My opinion too. There are jackass impatient drivers everywhere, and this one probably wasn't from the neighborhood and not used to the protocol. I bet it was simply one car stopped on the road that he didn't expect to see there and it annoyed him. Nothing to do with racism, only road rage.

 

[Rudyjohn]

My opinion too. There are jackass impatient drivers everywhere, and this one probably wasn't from the neighborhood and not used to the protocol. I bet it was simply one car stopped on the road that he didn't expect to see there and it annoyed him. Nothing to do with racism, only road rage.

I hope so. That viewpoint does make me feel just a little bit better, but not much. And it's not so much racism (even tho I actually thought that's what it was all about) but the intolerant and impatient a-holes.

 

[Miss Kitty]

Never mind.

 

[organicmama]

Racism is usually the ones who claim they aren't even prejudiced, but say things like, "If God wanted us to all be together, he'd have made us all the same color!"

That's a quote from my mother. :rofl: We had arguments about why multiracial children shouldn't be brought into this world. She didn't even tell her sister, a retired Director of Institutional Research for Georgia State University, that I was married and had children. My once close aunt, who took me to Europe in high school and college, stopped talking to me a long time ago because she doesn't believe in race mixing. When she found out I was married and had a child, she hung up on me. I wonder how the heck they explained themselves out of that one.

Plus, long, long ago, my dad said he was afraid I'd have a black man for a boss and he'd take advantage of me. What's more racist than that? We were walking through farm land near Lake Oconee in Georgia... I began shouting all kinds of profanity (that I never thought I'd say to my dad ) and all he was worried about was whether or not someone heard me... who the cows and horses????

But, alas, they claim to love my children.... however seeds of "Yeah, whatever!" still hang in my mind because if they get a whiff of any lack of marital bliss (perfectly normal stuff), they are ready to go and it becomes a black/white issue. (Of course one of my brothers' porn obsession isn't a character flaw and it's not based on race, but that's another story. They can just sweep that one under the rug, of course.)

But my 1/2 Panamanian sister in law (not married to the retard mentioned above) passes for white, partially because her maiden name was Limbaugh and because she's light skinned. My aunt absolutely loves her!

I am adopted and have had a "Thank God I'm Not Blood Related to These Crazy People" list for a long time. These items are on it. If it wasn't for my unusual family, it'd be my environmentalist, hippy tendencies. There's always been something that irritated them about me, as if I am still a rebel child at 34 years old.

Truly, it doesn't matter what anyone thinks, as long as they don't disrespect my little family. We have friends & family from all walks of life and just as we don't force our way of life on them, we accept that most people are not like us. People have a right to their own opinions. As long as our loved ones can sit back and laugh at the world's absurdities, it's all good.

Please know that I am laughing as I type this. I have learned over the years not to let their craziness into my life any more than that. It's also why I love it down here... I am 70 miles from my birth family in Pensacola and Baldwin County, AL. :clap_1:

 

[Smiling JOe]

Organicmama, you and your immediate family are always welcome at my dinner table. ;-)

 

[organicmama]

Thanks, we know that! Y'all are so wonderful!

 

[steele mama]

Sounded great SM! What's your secret to staying to slim and trim? I haven't eaten out in more that a week because I don't want to be tempted! I know, I'm weak!

Well, I certainly don't know about the slim and trim but my kids joke about us ALWAYS sharing food. We go out to eat and I say "one salad should be fine. We can share it." We definitely share entres! I could never eat a whole one at Borago. I did eat the whole waffle at the RB though and it was soooo good and crunchy on the edges! AND I had Miss Kitty's Arugla salad at Borago. It was gone so fast Courtney our sweet server said, "You didn't like your salad?" I didn't even offer to share.

 

[Teresa]

just read through this thread and its all very interesting. I think that holidays are just that - a time to get away and go enjoy our time off work, like MLK holiday, and hopefully on that day we can reflect on the meaning of the holiday itself.

I think that a racist is someone who talks about Dr. King's "morals" as if his personal decisions have anything to do with his "dream" for african americans and all people of the world.