Were Blacks Treated Differently Than Whites In Your Congregation? (page 4)

mrsjones5

Moved from a majority black congregation (Menlo Park Ca) to a majority white congregation (Belmont Ca) in 1979. Didn't noticed being treated any different other than an off-colored remark every once in a while. My mother was talking to a sister at our new cong. about us kids making new friends at the hall (I really wasn't interested, my sister didn't care, and miraculously my brother hardly ever went to hall) and this sister turned to my sister and I and said with a smug look on her face "Well, maybe they're not used to not being around their own kind". I kid you not.

OnTheWayOut

I was in a congregation that had a large group of foreign-language members that were white. Besides them, all the white people were related to each other except for one sister (married to a Mexican) and me (married to an African American). The vast majority were black. A congregation I came from was vastly white, but I never really noticed a problem there.

One funny thing. The black congregation had no sisters with braided hair or locks or short afros. Then the C.O. (also black) sent an elder and his family to our congregation. The new black elder's wife had braids. Suddenly, it was okay to have braids. Gradually, you saw more and more sisters with braids or locks.

I have no idea where their self-imposed rule came from. I will say that our mostly black congregation was in a mostly white neighborhood, so that might be a reason.

wasblind

So mrs. Jones, How did your family adapt to the earthling at that cong

OTWO, I wore a fro in the seventies, it was barber shop sharpe , and after I saw a mag wit the actress

Pam greer, I wanted the biggest , baddest fro around, so I asked my mom

to get me a wig called the Apollo, guess what she said, When the kingdom come

In worldly terms that meant one thing, not in this lifetime

mrsjones5

We did fine. I didn't hook up as friends with the stuck up and mean spirited elder's daughter that my mother was pushing me towards (I have mentioned before that I abhor being steered towards people my mother thinks I should be friends with). There was a pretty cool and quirky group of kids at that hall, many of whom aren't jws now.

ShirleyW

THis reminds of a story my mother told me that happened way back when she was newly baptized, late 50's, she and the CO's wife were going door to door in our then neighborhood of Sugar Hill, which is a part of Harlem.

I guess the CO's wife wasn't feeling to comfortable with the neighborhood and said to my mother "you know my husband worries about me when I'm not with him in certain parts of town" (or words to that effect) and my mother knew exactly what she was referring to and said " my husband worries about me too when I'm in certain neighborhoods alone also" !!

blondie

1) the black jws, whites married to blacks, biracial children and their white mothers were invited to an annual camping trip: no white couples, white single sisters with white children, no exceptions and it was only by invitation. I remember a new black sister in the congregation asked me if I was going and when I told her I was not invited, a light dawned in her eyes, no whites without black family connections had been invited.

2) One book study was conducted by the only black elder, despite being assigned to other groups, all the black jws would go to that group, 40 people. The PO finally stopped posting the book study assignment list on the information board.

3) Socially things would break down by race except for one brave older black sister who would have others over regardless to race. One black family had been invited to a meal where we and another family had been also by this sister. When the black family walked in and saw who else was there, the wife suddenly took ill and had to go home immediately. The older sister was embarrassed but was a good host for the rest of the evening.

So a few individual black jws and white jws were fine but the overall atmosphere was not friendly. But then white jws are not that friendly but to their special few friends and perhaps polite to the others in the congregation.

I was in 2 congregations where once a year a special talk was given at the service meeting about lighter blacks treating darker black jws coolly. That was new to me but it was repeated once a year by a black elder. So I realize that prejudice can be skillfully hidden and that unfriendliness between jws does not have to be based on scriptural things.

wasblind

Yes Blondie, that is a problem within the black community sad to say

even the producer Spike Lee made a film touchin' on the problem

called School Daze

mrsjones5

Even within black families, sad to say

designs

Alonzo Hawkings was the lone black Circuit Overseer, circa late 70s. He was cheered in the predominately black congrergations and treated so bad in the well-to-do predominately white congregations.

bottleofwater

I think it's hard to answer the question as people today are more accepting of differences.

You would have to compare the racial connections in the KH to the way the rest of society acts in terms of race.

I don't see blacks being treated differently than whites because 1) in other places this more or less doesn't happen (at a place of employment I've usually become good friends with people regardless of race or skin color) 2) the religion can become a binding factor... basically we're in this together, but if you weren't in the religion I would look down at you

Were Blacks Treated Differently Than Whites In Your Congregation?

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