HI Bigboi: I enjoyed your post on race issues. I decided to make a separate post to you.
I grew up in a complex situation that greatly affected my racial views and brought me to where I am at today. My great grandmother owned slaves, and kept them on as employees after the civil war. She, like a large number of southerners, did not like slavery, but made a deal with her slaves that they would stay with her or leave as they wiahed. I do not justify what she did, but I can say she tried to be as fair as possible given the social situation of her day.
My Grandmother was very bigoted, not in a hateful way, but with great ignorance. She was born in 1887 and raised in Georgia. She grew up with household servants who were all African Americans, and former slaves. She loved them as persons, but viewed them as being in a lower state of evolution.
My dad was an enigma. He was a lot like Archie Bunker from All in the Family TV show. He tried to deny his bigotry, but managed to make fun of all races and ethnicities. He told Italian jokes, Irish Jokes, Polish jokes, along with his other racial biases.
My mother was very much against racial bigotry. A young African American couple saved my mother's live in a dangerous situation when she was a young women. Were it not for that couple, I would not be here today. My mother fought both my father and grandmother to effect better training for me, and it worked.
I grew up wanting racial equality and integration. I attended Catholic school in southern California, where the vast majority of students were Latin Americans, mostly from Mexico. I was often beat up because I was white. I am about 90% British, with a dash of Italian and Irish.
During the Watts Riots in Los Angeles in 1965, I was visiting my sister in west Riverside, a large city about 40 miles east of Los Angeles. When I was wlaking back to the bus station with a friend of mine, several carloads, at least 4 cars, filled with African Americans pulled up and yelled out, 'Whities'! They proceeded to stop and I could see knives and other weapons. I was scared, but I was not offended. I knew that they did not hate me personally, but they were angry at anything that looked white. A Taxi driver saw us, and got my friend and I out of danger. We reported the situation to the Riverside police, and before long, the Californai National Guard were blocking the freeways coming into Riverside.
In my 50 years of life, I can truthfully say that I have not a bigoted bone in my body. I do not feel fear when African Americans come into my neighborhood, nor do I feel uncomfortable when I happen to be in neighborhoods where the majority are African American.
Since retiring from engineering, I have been working in the financial markets and real estate. One of the laws I am required to comply with is fair housing, although I work less in residential and more in commercial aspects of the market. Nevertheless, I get my share of exposure to a large segment of the population.
I can say that 98% of the people I talk to never mention race or make any request for special treatment because of race. They do not mention the racial mix of neighborhoods. This is a good sign, because this means that Anglo-Americans have grown to accept natural integration.
Once in a while, I will get a white couple who will try to suggest that they do not want to live in a racially mixed area. I am quick to spot this, and make it clear to them that I will not cooperate with them. Though very rarely, an African American couple will want to live in a mostly African American area. And, I give them the same line that I give whites, that I will not help them in identifying any neighborhoods by it racial make-up. The law requires this, but I do it because I want to help end the racial tension that has gone on for too long in our country.
One of my greatest heros is Dr. Martin Luther King. IN addition to his famous statement about being free at last, which I have adopted to my JW exit experience, I also much appreciate his famous statement that he longed for the day when people would not judge by the color of ones skin, but by the content of their character. He was a good and wise leader, a true inspiration, and we are fortunate as a society to have had such a courageous and insightful leader. We need more like him among all races in this country.
The USA is rapidly becoming more of a mix of Hispanic, Oriental, and Hindu. Most of my investment customers are Hindu, and they are putting a lot of money into inner cities to help rebiuild areas that have been run down a long time. As the Hispanic population growns, we will see more and more changes to accomodate spanish language and Latin culture. I hope for our sake that we have learend enough from our past to jhave the vision to work with these changes for the better.
Finally, I long for the day when we won't even think about race, that skin color will be just another variety as we would think about the variety in hair or eye color, just part of our diverse society, where individualism and uniqueness enhances and honors differences without any inequality or bigotry.
The USA has a ways to go, but we have come a long way since the 1950s and 1960s. Maybe before I leave this world, we will see most all of Dr. Kings dream become our own dream come true. It is possible IF we all make it work ... and we have the power in our hands to do so, if only we will ...
I enjoyed your post, and am glad that you brought race up as a topic. WHile the JW organization did make progress on this issue, and in someways this is one of the JWs positive features, I think that even they had some racial issues left to improve upon.
My own dream is that when white, black, hispanic, indian, asian, meet on the street we will one day be able to say to anyone 'brother' or 'sister' not because of race, but because of being part of a large family of good and caring humans. - Amazing