sundowner towns
i am a 65 year old white man who grew up in the south. before i was 20 i had been in florida, alabama, mississippi, texas, louisiana, arkansas, oklahoma and georgia. i saw "colored" water fountains and swimming pools. i was there when black people could not enter certain stores nor eat at restuarants where white folk ate. i rode the bus and sat in the front and the black people had to sit in the back. i saw the shacks that a huge percentage of the black population of the delta states lived in, plywood and tarpaper with no glass in the windows and no door in the frame. i saw many a town in every one of those states that had a billboard outside of town that showed the sunset in very pretty colors and the words, "this is a sundowner town." what that meant was that any black person caught on the streets after the sun went down would be hanged. i saw all that and more.
i was at little rock on the day those 9 little black girls were escorted by national guard troops into central high school. i came over from subiaco monestary with 3 other students to protest for the girls. we were threaten with death for espousing the the idea of all being equal under God. that was 1957.
the sundowner towns i saw up until the early to maybe mid 60's all through the south. the klu klux klan was still active and visible in the south into the sixties as well.
as a white person who believed then and believes now in racial equality i was pissed. i was pissed for the black person. i cannot imagine how pissed i would have been had i been black.
can you imagine seeing a friend of yours or a relative of yours or even your son be beaten and then hanged just because he was a certain color? can you imagine how you would feel if you were a black man or black woman in the south in the 20th century and you had to step off the sidewalk if a white person was coming towards you and if you didn't step off you were beaten?
ANY BLACK PERSON 55 OR OLDER WHO LIVED IN THE SOUTH HAS SEEN AND FELT ALL OF THE ABOVE.
i can understand rev. wright's anger.
however, one of the foundations of christianity is forgiveness. turning the other cheek. loving your enemies. if rev. wright is going to call himself "christian" then he must learn to forgive the white people for being such assholes. and he must teach his congregation the same. to do otherwise, to still bear ill will towards a whole race of people for the sins of some then, in my opinion, that is not christian.
to forgive, as dr. martin luther king, jr. did, to answer anger and hate and violence with love and prayer and forgiveness is christianity in not only word but in practice.
white people must understand just how fucking bad it was and is, right here in our country in the south from the end of the civil war to, let us say, the late 1960's, for any black living there. they really did mutilate and hang black people in our country in the 20th fucking century! if you can understand that, you can understand the anger that could fester and grow in the soul. if you can't, you have no empathy. you do not know how to put yourself in the other person't position. to see it from his point of view.
anger, though, will not solve anything. hatred ain't going to do any of us any good. none of us benefit from anger.
we are all in this together, we cannot hate each other. we have to learn to get along. what kind of fucking idiots are we anyway?
i don't like the way, overall, that senator obama has handled this. i will say, though, that the white press is using a double standard in this case. the republicans cuddle up to pat robinson and, before his death, jerry falwell. both of those men said the united states DESERVED 9-11 because we allowed homosexuality in our country! why haven't the same voices called out to the republicans to publically renounce pat robinson?
if he heard racist and anger and unforgiveness from rev. wright and did not speak up then senator obama, did, in a way, condone them. or was afraid to stand up for principle. i think he has some more explaining to do.
it was a good speech. i want to hear some more.
i will write more on this some other time. am in atlantic city, it is cold. it is perfect in vegas. 79
i was in the poconos this past weekend. that is about all i can say on it.
i was at little rock on the day those 9 little black girls were escorted by national guard troops into central high school. i came over from subiaco monestary with 3 other students to protest for the girls. we were threaten with death for espousing the the idea of all being equal under God. that was 1957.
the sundowner towns i saw up until the early to maybe mid 60's all through the south. the klu klux klan was still active and visible in the south into the sixties as well.
as a white person who believed then and believes now in racial equality i was pissed. i was pissed for the black person. i cannot imagine how pissed i would have been had i been black.
can you imagine seeing a friend of yours or a relative of yours or even your son be beaten and then hanged just because he was a certain color? can you imagine how you would feel if you were a black man or black woman in the south in the 20th century and you had to step off the sidewalk if a white person was coming towards you and if you didn't step off you were beaten?
ANY BLACK PERSON 55 OR OLDER WHO LIVED IN THE SOUTH HAS SEEN AND FELT ALL OF THE ABOVE.
i can understand rev. wright's anger.
however, one of the foundations of christianity is forgiveness. turning the other cheek. loving your enemies. if rev. wright is going to call himself "christian" then he must learn to forgive the white people for being such assholes. and he must teach his congregation the same. to do otherwise, to still bear ill will towards a whole race of people for the sins of some then, in my opinion, that is not christian.
to forgive, as dr. martin luther king, jr. did, to answer anger and hate and violence with love and prayer and forgiveness is christianity in not only word but in practice.
white people must understand just how fucking bad it was and is, right here in our country in the south from the end of the civil war to, let us say, the late 1960's, for any black living there. they really did mutilate and hang black people in our country in the 20th fucking century! if you can understand that, you can understand the anger that could fester and grow in the soul. if you can't, you have no empathy. you do not know how to put yourself in the other person't position. to see it from his point of view.
anger, though, will not solve anything. hatred ain't going to do any of us any good. none of us benefit from anger.
we are all in this together, we cannot hate each other. we have to learn to get along. what kind of fucking idiots are we anyway?
i don't like the way, overall, that senator obama has handled this. i will say, though, that the white press is using a double standard in this case. the republicans cuddle up to pat robinson and, before his death, jerry falwell. both of those men said the united states DESERVED 9-11 because we allowed homosexuality in our country! why haven't the same voices called out to the republicans to publically renounce pat robinson?
if he heard racist and anger and unforgiveness from rev. wright and did not speak up then senator obama, did, in a way, condone them. or was afraid to stand up for principle. i think he has some more explaining to do.
it was a good speech. i want to hear some more.
i will write more on this some other time. am in atlantic city, it is cold. it is perfect in vegas. 79
i was in the poconos this past weekend. that is about all i can say on it.
posted by Ron Shock | 8:21 PM
3 Comments:
I have heard plenty of (well-deserved) criticism of politicians who cozied up to Faldwell and Robertson.
I don't know how common Rev, Wright's angry, racist sermons were. I have a hard time believing that they were so uncommon that Obama wasn't aware of them until now.
My dad was in the Air force and I was exposed to every race and creed on the planet my entire life. Living in Waco in 1968, I was completely confused as to why my friend’s parents were so upset that a black family moved in across the street from us. It was my first exposure to racism and I didn't like it.
I listened to Obama’s speech and thought this is something special. He talked about the issue of bigotry from all sides, not condoning it but explaining. He is probably one of the few people qualified to do that being a half black raised in a white world. He also refused to disown his friend because it would have been politically the proper thing to do, in my book that is a huge plus.
Obama is the only candidate in this race that seems to have a lick of sense. He's intelligent, articulate and though I don't agree with some of what he thinks he seems like the type of person that can be swayed by reality.
The one thing we need in our next president is someone who can think, man that was a dumb idea and be willing to change it, you aren’t going to get that with McCain or Clinton.
When I watch the whole or more of the sermon, it makes a lot of sense what he is saying and I can relate and understande.
The media may have taken some things out of context. Invest some time watching his videos. they are not so much racist as they are informative. They can sometimes serve as a reminder that this nation of ours does not always do the right thing. It has more to do with who is in control of the government, like now for instance with Bush.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvMbeVQj6Lw
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