A Picture Worth 10,000 Words
by snowbird 17 Replies latest social current
-
-
White Dove
Fascinating and horrid. As a white chick in a traditionally Black college from 2004-2008, I studied Af/Am literature, history, and sociology as part of my core classes for the sociology major. What an eye opener! Most of the reading I had to do was quite interesting, but it also devastated me over and over, again. It ripped my heart out. The older Black people said time and again that the younger generations don't appreciate what prejudice REALLY means. They simply don't understand as does the generation that actually lived through the Civil Rights Movement. Prejudice nowadays is very small potatoes compared to what it used to be. Still, there is a ways to go, but there is absolutely no comparison to the way it was.
-
snowbird
White chick.
LOL.
Thanks for those observations, WD.
There's something about that photo that clutches at the heart.
Syl
-
not a captive
Syl,
Far more tragic than the rags on their bodies is the deep anxiety on these little boys' faces.
I am always filled with disgust when I hear slavery dismissed with this: Well, but they were fed, clothed and sheltered--who did that for the poor whites?
For years I wondered what the clergy thought of this situation--what did they say to their church people?
It lead me to years of research and the reading of the slave narratives and interviews that are available. The WPA Ex-slave interviews you have to read between the lines sometimes--the old people in those days, the 1930's--had no reason to trust a white person with a pad and paper to do them any good. So the talk was scant but often very telling anyway.
Some years back I screwed up my courage and emptied my pocket to by a book by the 2nd Episcopal bishop of your great state ,Alabama. His name was Richard Wilmer and he was bishop during the Civil War. Oh, he was like a member of the JW Governing Body to explain away all your concerns about the abuse of black slaves. Smooth as butter. Rancid butter.
"The father has eaten sour grapes ; the children's teeth are set on edge." Jeremiah 31:29 mentions the old proverb to say that it will not be in force with God. He wasn't talking about slavery, but I think how reluctant this country was to allow fair, only FAIR, treatment for thre children of slaves. In fact, reading the hidden events and the open policies that continue to slyly overturn the lives of black people, that verse describes attitudes embedded in our culture in ways so insidious that only the love of God--not even politics--can overthrow.
-
snowbird
Oh, don't get me started!
I've heard of and read about Bishop Wilmer and Bishop Toolen and how they tried to downplay slavery and Jim Crow!
*fanning self*
Enough for now!
Syl
Edit: The WPA Ex-Slave Narratives are telling in that you can easily surmise if the interviewer is White or Black!
LOL.
-
-
snowbird
Look how far we've come!
Syl
-
White Dove
Yes, Sylvia. You guys have come a long way through blood, sweat, and tears and are beautiful!
-
shamus100
Isn't it funny how it seems okay to now turn this hatred on people who choose Islam as a religion?
It seems people project their fears quite easily still. Racism is still alive and well - one just needs to look in the right places. I'm so thankful it's not too much of a problem where I live, although we still have our challenges in other areas - we're not utopia by anymeans.
-
not a captive
Are the pictures we saw a while back from your family? Has that been your family home for a while?
